Studio Orange responds to criticism surrounding CGI anime at Anime NYC

During my time at Anime NYC I saw a lot of cosplayers and prints of Vash the Stampede that were inspired by one of the shows he appeared in, Trigun stampede — but the work of the show’s creator, Studio Orange, has not always been popular.

Since its founding 20 years ago, Studio Orange has carved out a niche for digital animation at a time when CGI in anime is not always popular. Of course, digital techniques are becoming increasingly common in the anime industry — even the latest Hayao Miyazaki film, The boy and the heron, uses digital animation techniques — but many fans criticize CG animation for ruining the look of certain shows. Regardless of the criticism, Orange continues to develop new shows and technologies that use digital animation in popular shows like Stampede.

During a panel at Anime NYC, Orange producers Daigo Ikeda and Yoshihiro Watanabe spoke about the studio’s history of CG animation. The two producers shared information about new technology the company is using to create anime, but also responded to criticism and skepticism from fans about the studio’s choice to embrace digital animation.

Orange uses a variety of digital tools that help it combine hand-drawn 2D animation with computer-generated techniques. During the panel, the producers showed off face-tracking software that helped them animate facial expressions in Animals, as well as a tool the studio currently uses to automatically generate mouth animations in LeviathanThe producers also said that they used Unreal Engine to render backgrounds in the IDOLiSH 7 LIVE 4bit OUTSIDE THE PERIOD film.

While many viewers can now distinguish between “good” and “bad” CG, anime fans have long criticized the use of digital tools in animation. Some fans feel that this type of animation can ruin the art style of a show or film and that it does not look good when combined with other forms of animation. Manga is a 2D art form and some fans expect a show to mimic the comic book art style of a show. However, this is not the goal of Orange. Here’s what the producers had to say about criticism of CG animation and concerns that the TV adaptation of Animals couldn’t honor the source manga because of the 3D CGI look.

“The original design is really important with characters,” Ikeda said, via a translation from Watanabe. “Imitating the art style is not the goal, but imitating the behavior as animation is the main goal. So, based on that main goal, we redesign the appearance of the characters to best describe the uniqueness of the character.”

In the United States, CG animation has played a major role in the animation industry, through renowned CG-based film studios such as Pixar. When asked if and how American studios such as Pixar influence their work, the Orange producers said that not everything is the same, as the animation methods are different, but that Pixar “definitely” influences their work.

“Orange is not just trying to copy existing methods, but also trying to interpret and create our own methods. So depending on what influence, things are changed,” Ikeda said. “In terms of motivation, our CEO, (Eiji) Inomoto, was strongly influenced by Toy Story to approach CG animation, so a lot of influence comes from the beginning.”

Overall, the audience seemed eager to learn more about the ways digital tools can help the animation process. In Orange’s early days, other studios would outsource the animation of mech scenes to them. But soon, the studio will be able to do that on a large scale for its own project. Leviathancoming to Netflix in 2025, features a nature-versus-machine concept that will see the team animating a bunch of cool robots. So while the studio’s animation style won’t be to everyone’s taste, it’s certainly won over some fans.