Ask Anime Question of the Week:
The changes may not be so obvious if your perspective is just a few years but I've been watching anime for decades now. From shows that span 24-26 episodes now reduced to 12 episodes per season, to news about several of the old animators and production now outsourced outside Japan, to the emergence of competitive Donghua (Chinese animation titles) shows, anime has already gone mainstream but is still evolving in front of our eyes. It's no longer something that gets labelled as a "cartoon" by the old generation as patrons of the industry become the old generation that grew up with the industry. What's the future of this industry going to be in the next decade for you?
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some months ago I saw Kengan Ashura with its animation style very notable in the computer aspect, in the movie with Baki there were visual changes, then what I notice is a great experiment with a tendency to implement more and more that digital structure.... just not yet convinced but that is there on the table and could be a gradual change in the times that are being incorporated into new anime.
In my case I prefer more the traditional structure as seen in Demon Slayer, that I consider is the best combination in digital help with layers and keeping a traditional animation visual that I consider is a vital feature of Anime.
Digital models have the advantage that you make a character once, and then you have a much easier time improving it, adding blood elements, broken bones. With drawings, this has always been a problem, even in cinema films.
Art requires work, I know that with this method the times improve but there is still much to improve, I hope they achieve it and that the experience is the same as when I see animated and thus not perceive rejection when viewing the computerized images even so visually rustic
There has been a lot of changes in anime as years passed by... from the art style, animation style, number of episodes, and so on. I have been vocal about liking the late 90s to early 2000s style, but I don't really mind the changes. The future of anime is kind of troubling tbh since the industry isn't very good to the artists and/or animators. It's stressful and they're not well-paid... but I do hope they'd continue to exist and the way they're treated would be better.
Anyway, I suppose there would be more anime adaptation from Korean manhwa/webtoon and Chinese manhua. The art and animation style would be changed as well because the industry is experimenting on CGI like what they did for Slam Dunk movie. (Not a lot of people enjoyed the change, though.)
Whatever the changes may be, I still see myself watching it... if I don't like the new ones, I'd simply rewatch the ones I like... as I always do. haha
There is no perfect system, someone always has to be a victim + if someone has it better, someone has to have it worse. In my lifetime there was a period when animators earned an equal rate, and previously talented ones got better. But they also got a more difficult task.
AI, on the other hand, will only take the simplest jobs, such as buildings, tiles, objects on the 3rd and further planes. Animators and cartoonists who were either just starting out or were untalented. The same in games and movies. AI will not be even partially creative like humans for a long time.
It's sad that AI is taking some artists' jobs away. Some artists specialize in backgrounds, and they're amazing at what they do.
It's true that it's sad, but it's always been that way. And it's also a matter of perspective - who pays attention to what's in the background? I'm guessing that for most people it doesn't matter at all, at least not as long as it's not a big-budget movie/animated series. I've never seen a discussion about it, reviews and movies cover it in 2 max 4 sentences. There will be "a few people" in the world who will care, and most people won't even notice the change.
Well you've got a point... It does make production faster, but I also do art (although just as a hobby)... But I can understand the effort they put on their works... On the bright side, maybe through AI, the artists wouldn't be too stressed especially with deadlines... And the art would be more consistent compared to outsourcing artists or animators, just like what happened in Haikyuu S4... Some art and animation style were laughable. XD
I also do art (writing, not drawing :P), so I understand. Nevertheless, game creators, animators (I saw an interview with some guy who makes anime) agree that AI won't replace them in the workplace for a long time. At most, the least needed employees will leave, and a few "slightly more useful" ones will leave. There's nothing you can do about it. I mean, you can sit down and start crying, but it's better to learn something new.
Welp... that's just how the world changes. XD
I have some years now watching anime, and I have experienced some changes in the animation style and the implementation of new technologies as CGI.
For the future, I think they will continue implementing CGI and changing the animation style, like Toei did for the Broly and Super Hero movies.
Also, as @tegoshei said, I really hope the conditions for the animators and writers in the industry gets better in the future, because without writers and animators there wouldn't be an anime industry at all.
I think the rise of CGIs will be more prominent. A lot of anime lately has been using that, but honestly, I like the older style of animation. Yes, their movements were much more fluid, but I dunno, I still like the older one better. Also, I noticed how the storylines of mostly newer anime became simpler and straightforward. Before anime plots usually came with a lot of subplots and lore, but nowadays they usually keep their plot straight to the point which I think they did because the newer generation has a lesser attention span. I think in the future they'll use that more to cater to the younger generation's preference.
Also, I noticed that recently it's not only mangas that get animated. Manhwas and manhuas I never expected would get animated now get an adaptation (ahhhhh Beginning after the End), and I guess that's the only change I've truly liked so far, and 'of course those adaptations were only the beginning because I think in years to come, there'll be more of them that will be adapted (hopefully Legend of the Northern Blade will also get animated soon >v< hehe).
When it comes to changes, I bet that cutting out unnecessary plots, characters, scenes will become an increasingly popular procedure. This has been happening for a long time, but people are increasingly pushing for it. We have less and less time, American rules are increasingly coming into play (I don't know how to put it... So in other words - they give money, so they demand), we as viewers want them ourselves, which can be seen in every aspect of art. We prefer series with 8-10 episodes, books are getting shorter, stories are increasingly focused on showing specific elements, films are increasingly more easily available in conditions convenient for us.
A practical example of such changes - side stories (serving character development, constituting an introduction to the story or something like that) in Netflix anime are increasingly disappearing. If possible, they adapt it or transfer its essence to another scene, and if not, they simply cut it out as unnecessary. This is clearly visible in the end credits - there used to be a lot more voice actors, now there are fewer of them. Likewise, there are fewer cartoonists/people doing simple tasks. Why? Because their job has been taken over by AI.
When it comes to anime changes, you can understand it if you watch anime well. There are many differences between current anime and previous anime. High quality animation is used in current anime, but previous anime did not have so much details and high quality animation. If you watch anime from previous times, you will understand that they look a little old-fashioned and the animation is not so good. But if you watch current anime, you will understand how much details and high quality animation have been used here. I think that as the days go by, the animation will get better and our interest in anime will increase. If the animation or theme of an anime is bad, you will not like to watch it. So, as more anime comes out, they focus more on their animation, their theme in their story so that people are interested in watching. So we hope that in the coming days, the anime will be better and the theme of their story will be better, they will be able to create more high quality animation.
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fearthink future of anime is depressing with inevitable triumph of mediocrity. In recent anime shows there is apparent regress and decline of quality, with firmly established trend to target unsophisticated, immature viewers.The more recent is the anime show the more likely it is to be inferior in regards to story, storytelling, intellectual sophistication, dialogues, artwork, emotional depth, etc., with prevalence of style over story. Cultural indoctrination becomes worse. Cheap tricks like easy-to-animate faceless characters (e.g. "Goblin Slayer", "Demon Slayer") became common. Soul-less AI-assisted animation becomes more and more prevalent. And undeserved popularity of cheap imitations (e.g. "Solo Leveling" that is nowhere near quality of predecessors exploring idea of life is a computer game) and otherwise shallow (melo-)dramas send unequivocal signal to anime-makers who aim to replicate box office success: dubmer is better. :(