the medium.

In this video, I want to look at the new generation of animators in Japan and the revolutionary

tools they're using to change the medium once again.

I'm going to look at how studios went from just getting to grips with digital animation

in the early 2000s to studios funding projects based on the skills of a fresh generation

of animators.

A good place to start would be at the beginning of the 00s with an individual who is now one

of the biggest names in the medium, but was at this time only a little known name working

for a video game company.

Makoto Shinkai found himself without a job in 2002 and took up the mammoth task of single-handedly

creating his own anime using commercial software like Photoshop and After Effects.

After 7 months of production, Voices of a Distant Star was released and set a new bar

for what could be done in the industry.

It gathered so much media attention that a professional dub was funded and the movie

was given an official release.

Shinkai had completely changed the perception of what was required to enter the anime industry

and inspired a whole generation of independent animators.

Voices of a Distant Star was just as good, if not better than a lot of TV anime coming

out at the time and it sent ripples throughout the industry.

In his book: Anime: A history, Jonathan Clements likens Shinkai's impact to Gainax's Daicon

4 animation in the early 80s.

This is a good comparison as they both broke industry standards and revolutionised certain

techniques at the foot of new eras in the medium.

And they both succeeded not because of financial funding or studio size but i revolutionary

sense of passion for anime.

This of course is infinitely more significant as it led to a very fruitful career for Shinkai,

he went on to create a handful of fully realised projects, including the recent, ever successful

Your Name.

And that is what's important.

Before, animators would have to either go to some form of animation school or go through

a studio's training programme before they even given in-between work, slogging away

for years to step-by-step make it to the position they wanted.

Shinkai was one of the early cases of people revising this process.

Ryousuke Sawa, an animator, who came from a similar video game background to Shinkai

was another very important figure in this movement.

Ryo-timo as he's commonly known was one of the first in a generation of Web-gen animators.

These are animators who have entered the industry after the advent of the internet and who have

used the internet to break into the industry.

Osamu Kobayashi first scouted Ryo-timo for the series Beck in 2004.

Without any experience in the industry, he was thrown into a Key Animator role.

This was an unprecedented move and a huge risk for Kobayashi.

Although Ryo-timo's portfolio was strong, there was no guarantee he could perform outside

his specific style, or adapt to the anime working environment.

Thankfully, he performed magnificently and was kept on for the rest of the series.

This is, similar to Shinkai, a landmark change in the industry.

Ryo-timo had paved the way for the new generation of animators, and he would be the first of

many of his kind.

Hiring these kinds of animators is risky but if successful, produce some of the most interesting

animation cuts.

Unique creators like this are able to perform highly in unconventional techniques and whole

styles have been birthed from these rouge animators.

From now on a whole new sector of the market is born, let's look at how it evolved.

With new animators came new animation tools.

We discussed in the last video that anime had turned into a digital medium, but even

with all the aid of computers, the majority of the industry still use pencil and paper

for the fundamentals of their craft.

But the wave of web-gen animators have brought their own tools.

The most popular being Flash, an off-the-shelf animation program.

Now there are some misconceptions when talking about Flash animation in anime.

It's a very popular technique in the current industry but the software isn't actually

used to animate anything.

Animators use flash today much like how Animators on Akira used the Quick Action Recorder back

in 1988.

They draw out each frame in flash and preview the movement of each scene to make sure it

all flows correctly, but will then export them out and composite the animation in the

traditional way.

Much like in Akira, this is a time-saving technique that just slightly bends the traditional

animation process.

Although some creators have taken this innovation to the next level.

Masaaki Yuasa and his studio Science SARU have used flash as an actual animation tool.

Using the automatic in-between animation to create funky and unique movement that couldn't

be achieved with pencil and paper.

Yuasa used it on his series Ping Pong and SARU's recent movie Lu over the Wall that

showcased some of the most interesting and elegant animated sequences i've ever seen.

This is really smart and efficient, a perfect example of the web-gen attitude.

But lets look into how web-gen animators went from industry rarities to a well accepted

career path.

The evolution of web-gen animators really coincides with specific projects.

Shows or movies were the people in charge actively seeked out unconventional talent

and gave them the creative control needed to push their abilities.

When an animator has to stick too closely to a storyboard or specific style, they can

lose their personal signature and end up fitting in with everyone else.

It takes directors or producers to break the mold and allow them to develop.

One of the early and very important examples of a project like this was the anime adaptation

of Tetsuwan Birdy in 2008.

This is important for two reasons, one is that it gave Ryo-timo a considerable amount

of screentime to showcase his growing skill on a large platform, and it can be seen as

part of a stylistic turning point in anime.

Around this time, the medium was changing quite significantly.

And there's no doubt that the introduction of web-gen animators contributed to this.

His work here still has a long way to come but it's certainly distinct and stands out

as different from the standard animation of the show.

Ryo-timo has this style were he really puts focus on the key frames, almost having each

little moment of action appear in slow motion throughout the scene to highlight the key

poses.

This gives off an enormous sense of style and adds a lot of weight to the action in

the cuts.

He also quite fantastically moves the camera, almost at all times even if it's just subtle

camera wobble.

Ryo-timo's contributions were extremely valuable, and he was offering a skill set

that might not have developed had he gone through the usual education process.

Tetsuwan Birdy is certainly important but the real landmark project was in 2013 with

Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta.

This was a new adaptation of the franchise by Tatsunoko Productions, who, after decades

and decades of production were now in the business of bringing to life more unique and

interesting projects.

Looking at this decade in comparison to the studio's other decades shows a real interest

in creating experimental works and hiring unconventional staff.

A move than I think is overlooked by a lot of anime fans when talking about the studio.

More importantly, Ryo-timo was given the incredibly daunting task of taking on the roles of director,

chief animation director and even doing storyboard and character design work.

It became his project.

This was a mammoth task for Ryo-timo having only been in the industry a single decade.

And he didn't plan on cutting any corners.

He brought in a myriad of young, contemporary staff to work on the show and sprinkled them

throughout every episode.

I can only image what the studio looked like during production.

The amount of variety and the sheer size of its staff would normally be frowned upon.

It's a huge case of too many chefs spoil the broth, except the chefs end up creating

a rather tasty broth.

What I liked about the animation of the show was how varied it was.

It wasn't only action scenes or specific cuts, there were moments of impressive animation

in every corner of the show.

I specifically liked the cuts from Ryu Nakayama who specializes in energetic character animation.

He uses perspective brilliantly and has a real skill for animating non-human elements.

Sprinkling unique pieces of animation like Nakayama's throughout the series adds such

a personal touch to the show.

You really get the sense that this production was something different and new.

Although this was just a single tv series, it became an immensely important project,

paving the way for countless similar ventures in the future.

Ryo-timo's work here was so unique and changed the way people approached the anime industry,

the era of web-gen animators was now in full swing.

Recognising the appeal and artistic success of Yozakura Quartet, Space Dandy was released

a year later in 2014.

It shared the same idea of giving a platform to lots of different creators but had a much

more established foundation, with Shinichiro Watanabe came in as the general director.

Space Dandy attracted industry individuals from every stylistic corner, with lifetime

veterans to up and coming talent.

It was almost a celebration of the modern anime industry with every episode offering

something new and impressive.

And that's how it worked.

People were given a basic conceptual foundation to start with but had complete creative control

to take their episodes wherever they wanted.

Everything from the gorgeous expressionist animation of Shinya Ohira & Masaaki Yuasa

to Yutaka Nakamura's mesmerizing character animation to Yoshimichi Kameda's explosive

action animation.

Space Dandy has it all, there's never a dull moment.

And the series distinguished itself from the norm further by premiering its episodes in

America a few hours before they were shown in Japan.

With a full english dub, Space Dandy was one of the first anime shows to really acknowledge

this massive online overseas market.

Which makes it a real landmark for modern digital anime.

It was not only acknowledging that these markets exist but completely embracing them.

It was traditional in many aspects of its production but completely contemporary with

how it presented itself.

I think the legacy and success Space Dandy has left behind will be massively influential

in where the industry goes in the future.

It both pays respect to the medium's classic and looks forward to the future, it's a

milestone in the modern era of anime.

You could say that these last few projects have completely changed the way anime production

works.

We have shows every year now utilizing new and exciting staff and presenting their projects

in innovating ways.

A few years prior, in 2009, a manga artist named One began publishing a web comic named

One Punch Man.

Despite it's home-made aesthetic, the webcomic garnered a massive amount of attention and

in 2012 he was approached by Yusuke Murata with an offer to redraw his webcomic and publish

it in a popular magazine.

After continued popularity an anime was put into production.

And a very special production it would be.

With now legendary animators such as Yoshimichi Kameda and Hidehiko Sawada working on the

show, it quickly captured the community with breathtaking animation cuts.

In a time where the majority of TV anime productions are scarcely animated and corner cutting,

One Punch Man was a surprise to most viewers, something they might have never even seen

before.

And because of this, it pushed a really important message.

The complexity of One Punch Man's production wasn't down to a budget or staff size but

down to the passion of the people who worked on it.

It changed a lot of viewer perceptions about anime production and gave everyone a real

appreciation for the most important variable in a production: passion.

And with the industry's celebration of unique talent with projects like One Punch Man and

Space Dandy has come a celebration from the community as well.

Celebrating the intricacies and stylistic scope of animation has become a popular topic,

with many fans adopting the term Sakuga.

Now Sakuga is a term that just means animation in Japan, but, like terms such as Moe and

Otaku, it's gained additional connotations.

We now refer to Sakuga as a term of endearment for specific cuts of animation.

Almost to say Sakuga refers to good animation rather than just animation in general.

And this has formed a whole corner of the community who enjoy studying and celebrating

the exemplary animation coming out of the medium.

Animators like Kameda and Ryo-timo have gained legendary status among fans and have actually

become an commercial draws for projects themselves, just like directors or voice actors.

On the back of these pivotal careers and projects, we've seen changes in anime studios aswell,

who are essentially the backbone of the industry.

The way studios function hasn't really changed since Tezuka invented the system back in the

early 60s.

Which has led to a lot of controversy in working conditions and rates of pay as the industry

has scaled up, especially in recent years.

But a number of studios have embraced the new culture.

There have been older studios that have evolved into a modern, digital environment like Shaft