The author has been a Japanese anime fan since childhood, and although he is now in a foreign country, he has to take a look at every comic show, and he can feel the strong appeal of Japanese anime culture in the vast regional youth group (of course, he often hits the otaku uncle who has a beard, a walking figure, and a honey smile on his face is La hhh~).
This time, I will use the "Lupin III" series to discuss the changes in the aesthetic trend of Japanese animation with the otaku. The reason for picking it is very simple, one is that the time span is long enough, the comic series began in 1967, as of last year 2017 is the 50th anniversary; the second is the high degree of creative freedom, as the first adult fan of japanese comics (you know ~), the Lupin series has been very open since the beginning, seeing the blood dew point is commonplace, plus the protagonist himself also has three views of the suspicion of injustice, the artistic experiment color is very strong; the third point is that the creator changes very frequently, and all the big bulls are responsible for directing and supervising this work. Coupled with the emphasis on the personal style of the painters in Japanese animation itself, this game has a strong comparative reference in various development periods.
Since "Lupin III" is really a prolific series, there are dozens of TV theater adaptations plus dozens of them, so here I have selected several more representative works in the order of the timeline, and discussed with you the interpretation of the visual effects and artistic aesthetics of Japanese animation at that time in these works.
60s and 70s: Relaxed and romantic under the beautiful wind
Miyazaki's 1979 lupin III: The City of Cariostro (this is actually Daddy's debut...). It can be seen as a summary of this period. Japanese animation was still heavily influenced by the American style during the reboot stage after World War II, and the overall style was rough and simple. Lupin III: Cariostro City also reflects the basic creative characteristics of this period, with simple lines outlining the characters, while the overall style is realistic. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the small workshop model of Japanese animation production, in order to save costs, the work uses a large number of still shots, the picture is also very rough, and the audiovisual language of this period is also biased towards immaturity, and the plot setting of the work is very simple (the clichéd hero saves the United States setting). However, due to the novel theme and the courage to try new creative methods, which clearly reflects the relaxed and romantic adventurous spirit of the Lupin series, the overall quality of the works is still satisfactory. In addition, the deliberately compressed depth of field in the picture, the smooth natural sense and rich comedic plot performance presented in the Lupin and money-shaped chase scenes in the opening robbery of the bank bridge section all reflect the strong personal artistic style of Gong Lao, because Ghibli was not yet established at that time, so this work is rarely mentioned in Gong's works, and it is recommended that palace fans relive a wave of it on a whim
1980s: Transitional style highlighted
Influenced by a generation of animation masters, Izusaki (Burning Incense Worship~), by the 1980s, Japanese animation had gradually developed and popularized the local style of image style and lens language. In the three TV special editions of this period, "Lupin III: The Golden Legend of Babylon", "Lupin III: The Conspiracy of the Wind Demon Family", and "Lupin III: Bye to the Goddess of Liberty Crisis", the treatment of camera movement and shadow can be described as exemplary. It is said that the "outlet" master (this name is really drama, hhh~) was inspired by the "Runaway Knight", and the locomotive chase scenes that appear in these three works are indeed a bit similar to this old film in terms of camera processing. As can be seen from the promotional poster of "Lupin III: Worship the Goddess of Liberty Crisis" in 1989, the focus and focus of the introduction of film lenses make the Japanese manga that adheres to the tradition of 2D hand-drawn painting really more three-dimensional in visual transmission. In order to convey the delicate emotional changes of the characters in the plot, the work also adopts a strong dynamic and static contrast technique, and the strong tension generated by the close-up of the action format in a flash also helps to enhance the drama of the plot. In addition, the three-time panning, picture splitting, wax paper shadows, and incident light effects that were later broken also became popular during this period. Japanese animation during this period had already shown a distinct style of its own, and parted ways with the Declining American Animation of the time.
1990s: Change in the midst of a crisis
After the heisei economic bubble burst in the 1990s, the salaries of Japanese painters reached the lowest level in history, and take a closer look at these three representative works of the 90s - "Lupin III: Russian Love" released in 1992, "Lupin III: DEAD OR ALIVE" in 1995 and "Lupin III: Die" in 1996! Nostradamus will find that painting collapses occur from time to time, and the quality of the presentation is high and low, and it is very unstable. The crisis forced animation studios to innovate to control the overall amount of information in their work, including the addition of many portrayals of the world, especially criticism and reflection on social reality and politics (the fall of the Soviet Union, the spread of cults in the millennium). And the large number of still images used in the work in order to control the cost are also enhanced and emphasized by repeated "Three Panning" (three shakes), of course, this is also the groove point that is held by the majority of Lupin fans...
Directed in 1995 by original author Monkey Punch Kato Kazuhiko, it is known as "the closest to the original style of the theater version" (hmmm, the scale is also the welfare version ~) - "Lupin III: DEAD OR ALIVE" can be seen that at this time, the skill of hand-drawn action storyboarding has reached its peak, and the overall plot rhythm of the 97-minute theatrical version is very skillful, and the pattern of creating laughter by audiovisual language rather than lines has been basically established. In addition, the overall painting style of the work also began to turn to aesthetic beauty, the facial contours of the main characters were clearer, and the facial features, especially the eyes, were particularly evocative (Lupin was still like a monkey, and the appearance of the second son and the five right guards was raised to a higher level?). As for Daisuke, crying fainted in the toilet... ), and the signature's warm, sour and somewhat sarcastic "Lupin"-style ending reversal is basically fixed.
Early New Century: Dilemma Nostalgia
The post-New Century Lupin series can be said to be the epitome of the entire Japanese animation - high production, market orientation and serious homogenization. Although the improvement of picture quality and the optimization of the production process have made the overall quality of Lupin TV and theatrical version after 2000 still good, it is still difficult to get rid of the drawbacks of homogenization with some minor adjustments in the local area. While some creators are acutely aware of this, using too much force is counterproductive. For example, the 40th anniversary edition of "Lupin III: Green VS Red", launched in 2008, the overall narrative structure and even the art style almost subverted the previous series, and the relaxed and bright painting style became gloomy and melancholy, creating an extremely depressing and sad atmosphere. Although the producer said that this is a sentimental work for the old Lupin fans, the work reflects the deliberate ambiguity and skepticism of the identity positioning of the protagonist Lupin III - this excessive deconstruction tendency is indeed quite controversial among the majority of fans.
The same problem also appeared in the TV version of "Lupin III: The Woman Named Feng Fujiko" launched in 2012, the rough texture of the picture with retro mood and the erotic close-up of the Fujiko (blood spraying ah ~), so that the old fans can not help but recall the classic Lupin series of the 1970s and 80s, but this rather deliberate nostalgia also destroyed the Decades of Lupin spirit, hippie cynicism and jazz soundtrack flirty romance became dark and cold, Fujiko is no longer the mysterious and charming bad girl, More like a dusty snake and scorpion beauty. The lively atmosphere that the work has been adhering to has cooled down sharply and solidified, and the sense of art is full, but seeing the bad smile of Lupin, who has always been hippie and smiling in the close-up, brings a touch of cruelty and coldness, in addition to a hint of discomfort, there is also some embarrassment, everything is there, but it is not Lupin.
As for 2009's "Lupin III vs Detective Conan"... Uh, Dragon Set Carnival? Typical market-oriented routines, after a variety of people set up hard to put together, Lupin's feelings and Conan's reasoning have not been able to show in place, well, very warm and healing, but also publicized a handful of environmental protection, gimmicks earned a lot, but the evaluation can not be very high haha.
Present: Reflection Try
2017 is the 50th anniversary of Lupin, directed by Ken Koike, the theatrical version of "Lupin III: Blood Smoke of Ishikawa Goemon" (Douban score 8.4) can be regarded as a masterpiece, from the picture, soundtrack to voice actors are trying to keep up with the predecessors, although the public evaluation seems to be inferior to the previous biography of the 2014 "Lupin III: The Tombstone of The Dimensional Daisuke" (Douban score 8.7, also directed by Koike Ken), but has always been in the Lupin series of people with few harsh words, single drama, The cute five right doormen sing a rather stunning one-man show in this movie, the field path is alone against the gangsters, the light rain wields the knife to move the flesh and blood, the image of the weak and depressed ronin warrior and the axe-wielding villain - the rugged and bold Uncle Sam's two encounters are tense, the hair is trembling, but the rhythm at the end of the film is soothing and calm, returning to relief, with a sense of the completeness of the Oriental Buddhist culture. This is very different from the image of The Tough Guy in "Lupin III: The Tombstone of The Dimensional Daisuke", but both have reached a fairly satisfactory level in the presentation of violent aesthetics, which can be regarded as a model for the industry's successful attempts to deal with the homogenization dilemma in recent years. Although the direction is not clear, it can be seen that the Lupin series is more or less moving closer to the aesthetics of Cult films, the pace is short and fast, the image is de-symbolized, the type is more and more unfixed, and various elements are mixed and matched, reflecting a certain anti-market orientation and returning to emphasize the personal style of the author of the Japanese animation tradition. In the TV version of Part5 just released this year, you can also glimpse the emotional tone of the work with some slight adjustments, the old-fashioned hero to save the United States has become rich and complex, the new heroine is obviously more independent and capable than the previous "Bang Girl", a variety of tribute shots wrapped under a new social form composed of social media, the digestion and criticality contained in this TV version have been significantly improved compared to a few years ago, the author turned over the Douban frightened, the rating of 9.1 ... It's really a bit weak-minded, haha~
Finally, to sum up, although in recent years, from time to time, some industry bulls have jumped out to publish the "pill" theory of Japanese comics, but the author feels that it is not so pessimistic after whether it is from the inner emotions or rational analysis. It is true that the first few young novel manga series have really pulled Down Japanese animation by more than one grade (after all, not everyone can hatch "Lianggong"), and the Japanese animation market is too mature and invisibly narrows the audience of the industry. However, judging from the evolution of the "Lupin III" series, there have been large and small development bottlenecks and crises in the past few decades, and the producers can always coordinate the audience and stakeholders to make adjustments to meet the challenges. The classic remakes and continued trends that have appeared in recent years may not necessarily prove that the Innovation of the Japanese animation industry is weak and there is no successor, at least at present, we can still see the reflection and attempts carried out within the industry, so we still wish Japanese animation to find a way out as soon as possible, and the fans of "Lupin III" are still chasing Lupin to the end of the world like a money-shaped father