Comparison of Western and Eastern Animation Industry

The word ‘animation’ is not one a lot of us are unfamiliar with. Most of us have heard the word from someone or read about it somewhere. A lot of people from my generation have grown up watching cartoons like ‘Swat Kats’, ‘Recess’, ‘Scooby Doo’, ‘Pokemon’, ‘Digimon’, ‘Dragon Ball’, ‘The Flintstones’ and many more. Some of these stories were set in our then present world, some were set in a different magical world and some were straight up bizarre. However, that didn’t stop us from watching these shows which were not just entertaining but also tried to teach us something. It could have been something as simple as eating spinach to get powerful to something which is a global concern like global warming and environment pollution. In very simple words, for a lot of people, these animations were an important part of their childhood.

That being said, one of the things that we didn’t know about these animations was the fact that some of them were made in the west (mostly America) and the others were made in the east (by Japan and Korea). Both of these industries have their own styles when it comes to animation. We all are aware that it was Walt Disney who made the first animated feature length film and in a way revolutionized the animation industry, influencing many who came after him, including a lot of people in the eastern part of the world as well. However, in the more recent times, the Eastern industry has also been able to come up with stories that have influenced a lot of people all over the world. Keeping this in mind, are the two industries the same? What are the differences between these two industries?

One of the major differences between the two industries is the way they approach animation. The process of animation is a complex one and there are two major components that play a key role in the production of any animation, time and money. These two components directly affect the quality of the animation and as a result, one cannot simply afford to cross the deadline and budget set for the production beforehand as the numbers involved are pretty big (we’re talking millions of dollars here).

On one hand, the Western industry can afford to spend millions of dollars on a single feature film as they have a much larger target audience due to its popularity. The Eastern industry on the other hand has been considered to be a niche for a long time with their main target audience being people based in Japan followed by Korea and America. As a result, they can’t really afford to spend the same amount of money on their animated TV series or on a single movie. One of the main reasons why Eastern animation has been considered a niche for the past few decades is because of the content they produce. In a lot of Eastern animated shows and movies, the main plot would either be set in medieval Japan or would have a lot of cultural references to their own culture. Due to this, a lot of Western audience witnesses a certain level of disconnect with the characters and the story as they are not familiar with the Japanese culture. As a result, there have been few shows and movies in the past that were able to make it to the Western TV channels and theatres and have people appreciate it.

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Due to the time and money constraints that both the industries face, they either decide to put emphasis on smooth and fluid movement or dramatic sequences full of emotion. Out of these two options, the Western industry prefers the former, i.e., they focus on smooth and fluid movements by keeping their character designs as well as their movements very simple. This gives the overall animation a more realistic feeling instead of making it seem too surreal. Some examples of this would be shows like ‘The Flintstones’, ‘The Jetsons’, ‘Richie Rich’, ‘Looney Tunes’, etc. However, one often ends up criticizing the fact that the characters as well as the art style are way too simple. The Eastern industry on the other hand prefers dramatic sequences with dynamic camera angles. Contrary to the west that have been their biggest influence, the east tends to focus on complex character design, as well as detailed backgrounds, that look visually appealing to the viewer, keeping them from noticing the less fluid movement. As the industry works on 2s, i.e., 12 frames per second or even 8 in some cases, they try their best to get the best results from limited animation. Examples in this case include series like ‘Naruto’, ‘Bleach’, ‘Pokemon’, ‘Dragon Ball Super’, etc. Due to this limited animation, viewers who are not used to this style of animation often end up criticizing it; some even say that these animations look more like a slideshow of images than animation.

One often ends up questioning what other differences exist between the two industries in terms of technicality and the animation process they follow. Although one can notice a general workflow behind any animation, i.e., script> storyboard> character design> layouts> animation> compositing> editing> final animation, there is more to it than meets the eye as there are various other steps in the process that differentiate how the two industries work.

Starting with content, a lot of the Eastern animations are based on stories that already exist in the market in the form of manga (Japanese comic), visual novel, light novel and webtoon manga. Animation studios and production houses select material based on its popularity and its compatibility with the studio’s past works. This is done in order to have some kind of proof for the market success of the animation before it even goes into production. Also, it’s very common for the animation studio to make some changes to the story plot and to the characters before going ahead with the production. Also, the character designs for such productions are often showed to the original author of the novel/ manga for approval. On the contrary, the Western industry usually works with original concepts and ideas rather than working with adaptations of already existing materials. Usually, how things work in the Western studios is that anyone can pitch his/ her idea for an animation to the rest of the staff. The important thing here is to make everyone believe in the idea and see the possibilities in it. Once the idea is approved by the staff and the director, it is developed to a plot and followed by the main story. In order to develop the plot, several versions of the plot are developed in order to explore more possibilities and find the right balance of emotions and the impact the story is going to have on the viewer. Due to this process, the story goes through a lot of iterations in the initial stage (some go through a complete change in the story even in the latter storyboard phase). Also, in some cases where the animation is based on a source material like a comic, the studio usually produces their own version of the plot instead of remaining true to the source material.

The two approaches to the story of the animation are completely different from each, which also indicates a difference in the decision-making process between the two industries. On one hand, where the Western studios believe in collective effort from the very start wherein the staff discusses and keeps on exploring new possibilities with the characters and the story, working on a number of iterations before the final version of the story. Whereas on the other hand, studios and production houses in the east don’t necessarily spend the same amount of time on the story itself as most of their animations are based on source material that already exists. Further, rather than working as a group to figure out the right balance of emotions in the story, they usually work as a team to bring the director’s creative vision come to life.

Moving onto their approach towards the field of animation, while the Western industry has mostly moved on from 2D series, now producing more 3D animated feature films, the east still prefers to work with 2D animation over 3D. There are various reasons why the east still works with 2d animation, with the primary reason being their belief system. A lot of senior animators in Japan see 3D animation as a replacement for 2D animation. Further, some of them even see computers and the advancement in technology as a human replacement. They believe that the expressions and the overall feel that is achieved from the hand drawn process cannot be achieved through digital animation or CGI (computer generated images). Also, they think of hand drawn animation techniques as a tradition that has been passed down through generations and should be preserved. As a result, they see CG techniques and digital animation as a threat to traditional hand drawn animation and therefore, try to avoid it as much as possible. However, that thinking has started to change as more and more studios have been using CG as well as digital animation for quite some time now. As for the west, the approach to animation changed with the success of toy story in 1995. Being the first ever movie that was fully computer animated, it brought a change in the western animation industry, demonstrating what one could accomplish with 3D animation. Following this, more and more studios started to experiment with 3D animation, which has led the industry to a stage where they focus mostly on 3D animation projects.