Japanese Animation and New Media
Week Nine: Chapter Fifteen: Full Limited Animation
We have already discussed what happens at the level of compositing in Nadia — flat compositing and sliding layers generate a sense of relative movement, multiple frames of reference, disorientation, and enclosure. When we look at hyper-limited animation of characters, we see the emergence of ‘inaction,’ in which mood, emotion, and affect take precedence over action.
This scene of the ‘boys’ — Sanson, Hanson, and Jean — brushing their teeth and discussing their troubles with women is a good example of Anno’s hyper-limited animation at the level of character animation.
First, the scene is funny because the guys are brushing their teeth in perfect synchrony. This gesture downplays the distinctiveness or individuality of each character, highlighting at the same time the mechanistic production of movement. Their movement is, if you will, robotic. And we get a sense of the action (brushing) controlling the character rather than the character controlling the action. It is habit, routine, involuntary action. But this sense of a ‘moving’ that is autonomous of the character, which takes over the character, follows from the hyper-limited techniques.
Second, this sense of involuntary movement comes from the use of the cel bank, which is palpable here. Cel banks are pieces of the character that can be assembled in different ways depending on the scene. For instance, there are a series of arms and legs and heads for Jean, with different positions and expressions, that can be assembled as the animator wishes. To stretch the point into the bioengineering themes common to Nadia and Evangelion, the character is ‘recombinant.’ There is a standing reserve of elements, and movement comes to the character from without. Character movement is rather mechanistic or puppet-like. Someone is pulling the strings. Someone or something is recombining bits and pieces of humans. In this respect, the boundary between mecha and human is becoming blurred.
Third, while we don’t see it in this scene, if you recall the scene of Sanson and Marie in the boxcar in which he lifts a huge boulder over his head, the character form can be deformed fairly dramatically. Our angle on Sanson shifts, but even more importantly, the lines and surfaces of his body suddenly look angular and planar — as if he is becoming mecha. Anime doesn’t generally do the goofy loony tunes sort of deformations (squash and stretch). It tends toward a more controlled angular or planar deformation. But, if we don’t see such deformations in Miyazaki, it is because he wants the sense of a natural integral body that has nothing in common with mecha.
Fourth, this scene is funny because as the guys brush their teeth and compare girl troubles, an image of the girl in question flashes rapidly on the screen. This too is something that wouldn’t happen in Miyazaki, especially not in such a rapid form. The girl image flashes so rapidly that it feels involuntary. It isn’t a deep recollection or flashback. As such, because it is so involuntary, it doesn’t feel so much like a personalized emotion as a behavioral response. In addition, the image is one that we’ve already seen, and the animators are simply remixing elements.
Fifth, each guy has his ‘girl image flash,’ the scene introduces a ‘match-on-involuntary-response.’ Which is to say, the guys are mechanically going through the same motions, but they are also going through the same emotional-behavioral responses. At the level of interactions between characters, the series plays this tendency to the hilt. Each little romance is a variation on each other little romance.
Sixth, this scene nicely demonstrates collage over montage. Generally, there is not much editing in animation because it doesn’t make sense to spend money to draw scenes and then cut them. So animation tends to build editing into the production at the level of storyboards and pencils. But it is possible to remix or re-collate elements, not only at the level of character bits (cel bank) but also at the level of larger images. While such techniques can be considered a form of montage (editing footage), the logic is closer to collage and remix.
Seventh, with limited animation, voice-overs and voice actors become very important. Often the continuity of a scene is given primarily at the level of voice. Even as characters and images are remixed, the voice-overs provide a sense of continuity. At the same time, voice tends not to be linked strictly with a body. We often have the voice without seeing the body that it belongs to. As such, voice is becoming another semi-autonomous layer. Whereas Miyazaki animations impart a greater sense of an organic connection between voice and body, limited animations tend to give the voice and thus the voice actor a greater degree of autonomy. It is not surprising then that anime voice actors (especially voice actresses who are also idols or idol singers) are frequently stars in their own right, often with as much presence as animators or writers or directors. Again, we have an ‘otaku world’ of disassembly and reassembly of elements. So the anime world includes soundtracks, photo albums of idol singers, and idol singer performances.
