Two Big Chunks of Anime Eye Candy: Appleseed & Sky Blue

Fred Patten compares and contrasts two new theatrical releases from Asia -- Japan’s Appleseed and South Korea’s Sky Blue.

By Fred Patten | Friday, January 14, 2005 at 12:00 am

Posted In | Magazines: AnimationWorld | Columns: Anime

The recent releases of features Sky Blue (left) and Appleseed should excite anime fans. All Sky Blue images © Maxmedia; all Appleseed images distributed by Geneon Ent. (USA) Inc.

The frequency of American theatrical releases for anime features is beginning to pick up speed. This is good. Unfortunately, they are all still limited releases so far. The failure of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away to attract a big box office after its 2002 Oscar for best animated feature, despite Disney’s release of it in 750 theaters, has been discouraging. But the popularity of anime is steadily growing through its exposure on TV and the video market, so there is hope that its theatrical b.o. will continue to climb even if only in the art-theater market. After all, any new anime theatrical release could become the next Akira, couldn’t it?

Two new features have just appeared less than a month apart. On December 31, Maxmedia/Endgame released the July 2003 Korean feature Sky Blue. (Purists may object, but the term “anime” is evolving to encompass animation produced by any east Asian nation, not just Japan.) On Jan. 14, Geneon Entertainment released the April 2004 Japanese feature Appleseed.

Both features seem designed for the anime cult core market. They are futuristic action-packed sci-fi dramas showcasing the latest spectacular cutting-edge animation technology.

In fact, the publicity of both seems more like a promotion of their studio’s cinematographic breakthroughs than of their movie. Sky Blue’s presskit states: “Sky Blue took more than seven years to complete, and employed many hundreds of Korea’s leading animation artists and technicians in its production. The result is a unique composite of elements -- live-action miniatures and atmospheric elements shot on Panavision’s 24p HDW-F900 camera, immersive 3D CGI backgrounds, and traditional 2D character animations -- layered many dozens of times in each frame of HD digital film. Sky Blue achieves a technical vision never before realized and achieved at a fraction of the budget usually engaged for CGI animation features. It is seen widely as a technical hallmark of a maturing Korean animation industry set to compete with the world’s other leading animation nations.” The presskit devotes five pages to describing the production techniques and only two pages to the story synopsis and characters.

Similarly, Appleseed’s publicity trumpets: “A Cyberpunk-Thriller Film That Elevates The Future of Animation to the Next Level. Life-like, Yet Animated: Full 3D-CG Technology Using Traditional Anime Character Design. Use of advanced technology to create a visually stunning new style of animation. The film features a groundbreaking style known as “3D Live Anime” a blend of motion-capture technology and 3D computer animation, which is further enhanced by the new generation of “toon-shading” programs, which renders 3D CGI into 2D cel-style images. The film is a huge leap forward in technical and visual terms, far exceeding the previous benchmark for computer animation from Japan, set by Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.”

Too bad neither gave as much attention to their stories. But then, that is consistent with most features from “the world’s other leading animation nations,” isn’t it?

Sky Blue is my favorite of these two. It is especially impressive considering that it was started from scratch in just about every respect. To create a theatrical feature of this quality was a lifelong dream project for Korean director Moon Sang Kim. Kim has produced more than 200 South Korean television commercials since 1988, and has won numerous awards starting with the first prize of the Korean Broadcasting Award in that year. After trying for some time to advance to more than TV commercials, Kim co-founded (with his wife Kay Hwang, a Sky Blue co-producer) his own animation studio, Tin House Co., Ltd., in Seoul in 1996. Sky Blue is Tin House’s first production of any kind besides TV commercials, according to co-producer Sunmin Park; but Kim’s long-range goal has always been the creation of a theatrical feature. He used Tin House’s commercial projects to build up his staff, equipment and expertise, and to make contacts.

Printer-friendly version

Comments

Wonderful Days is rather beautiful and quite brilliant on a lot of levels. I am a professional artist, writer, and filmmaker. I do not speak as a critic but rather as a creator. It is alarmingly sad that American theatrical animation has mostly limited itself to talking and singing animals who tell wise cracks and move like their motions are still being based on film footage of "real people". The asian theatrical animation markets seem to have the guts and vision to tell any kind of story, in any kind of genre. And they are also not afraid to come up with their own visual vocabulary, and not merely be derivative of live-action cinema (like Disney, and Warner Bros.) As for stories, well, who else is even trying to tell stories outside of asian animation. Shreck? Lion King? Get real. Musical numbers, and sight gags hardly constitute the epitome of narrative storytelling. Asian animation is so diverse in the range of human experience they depict that it's easy to be spoiled and pick and choose what works and doesn't work. But let's not forget, American animation has yet to even try to do a straight action film, yet alone depict violence in an adult way. So before we start dubbing films like Appleseed and Wonderful Days as narrative failures "typical of the asian market" we need to dubb the entire U.S. movie animation market as a failure for not even attempting to construct meaningful narratives around all the diverse experiences humanity provides. Mr Patten seems to speak with disdain when he sarcastically refers to Japan and Korea as, "the worlds other leading nations in animation". He even refers to their mainstream offerings as , "not yet ready for general audiences" . Such geocentrism reeks of patriotic jealousy and chauvinism. The truth is, the theatrical animation of Japan and Korea already has a gneral audience in their own nations and abroad. They don't need U.S. audiences to survive, or U.S. critical approval to be validated. When their movies visits our shores it represents a chance for America to be included in the "general audience". An audience we have excluded ourselves from by producing idiosynchratically generic and alienating work. Moreover, we have removed ourselves from the "general" market of animation. Sorry, the cgi catalogs of Pixar and Dreamworks doesn't count and no one besides animators in L.A. really considers that stuff to be animation any way. Also, the cgi family genre has lately been performing negligibly overseas. Until U.S. theatrical animation can even try to make a wide realease "narrative failure" like Appleseed, American animation will remain as irrelevant as it has recently become. Oh, and as for Mr Patten's remark about the implausible depiction of the unilateral bigotry shown in Appleseed. Well, let's just say that for a few hundred years our nation's military was pretty unanimous in their bigotry against the native americans (or maybe their wholesale slaughter was the result of second guessing and tolerance). Any depiction of bigotry as a form of unreasonable insanity is okay in my book. There is no rationale for it. Attempts should not be made to portray racist acts with (as Mr Patten put it) "justification". There is no justification for it. That's why it's unjust. That's why it's evil. Here's hoping that in this amazing country that, "The Incredibles" isn't as good as it gets. If so, I'll just do what the rest of the world is doing. I'll go watch some anime.

Reply to this Comment

Omar Lewis (not verified) | Sun, 12/25/2005 - 01:00 | Permalink

Hi, this is a reply to Justin Vanpelt. Yes, I enjoy the light comedy of American 2D cartoon films as well, but that's about all they offer, very light stuff. Just because it's sometime hard to understand animes from a western perspective, after all, they often rely on their audiences' awareness of traditional folklore and Shintoism (the same way Disney product relies on their audiences' vast knowledge of celebrities and TV). Yes, films like Akira can seem impenetrable in their complex plots, but at least they're not just tired rehashings of blueprint storylines used again and again on American sitcoms and family films alike. And the animation, come off it, the films you described can't hold a candle to stuff produced a decade even a decade ago in Japan (and I'm not including Pixar and other 3D stuff here). Maybe try watching something easier to understand like Tokyo Godfathers or Grave Of The Fireflies, they're both very warm and easy to follow, but much more subtle and clever than any of those films you mentioned.

Reply to this Comment

Sam Needham (not verified) | Wed, 02/02/2005 - 01:00 | Permalink

Wonderful Days was the greatest Anime to ever be released, apart from Ghost in The Shell and Innocence. I have watched these and many hundreds more Anime, and I have to say that to the extent of my knowledge Wonderful Days is the most moving movie ever created by man. The story isn't the main driving force of the movie as it is mostly a remake of Romeo and Juliet however the Music and Cinematic’s that constantly mixed all mediums, combining 2D, 3D, and Models to bring this excellent piece of artwork. I encourage anybody that hasn't seen the movie to go out and buy it. If your having any doubts: just watch the trailer http://kennoshi.org/wd/eng_teaser_trailer_high.wmv

Reply to this Comment

Nick Jonsson (not verified) | Fri, 01/21/2005 - 01:00 | Permalink

"Too bad neither gave as much attention to their stories. But then, that is consistent with most features from “the world’s other leading animation nations,” isn’t it? " I whole heartily agree Mr. Patten. Appleseed's story can't compare to the craftsmanship of superior American storytelling. Home on the Range has a spectacular story that rivals the best of Japanese animation. That Cowboy Bebop stuff can’t hold a candle to talking Cows against a Yodeling villain. Let’s not forget the witty and charming story of Road to El Dorado. A fun and fancy free adventure of two men in the jungle can beat out anything that japanimation dish out.