The difference between Chinese animation and Japanese animation

In fact, our country and Japan's starting line is the same, if you have seen the 50's our country cast a representative animated film called "Monkey King" will know, and "Monkey King" contemporaneous Japanese animated film representative of the "White Snake", no matter from the drawing style and skills, we are better than Japan's!!!! But why has the gap between us widened since the 60s? Of course, my personal opinion is that this does not exclude the political factors, in those turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution, it is impossible to have a very good animated films, (there are no movies, let alone animated films, just imagine, we now see in the cctv-6 inside the old movie there are a few of the Cultural Revolution was made at the time of the "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", "the shining red star" outside of the very few), most of the war films cast in the 50's.! ) What happened to the Japanese animation industry in the 1960s, when Japan was in the midst of a period of economic development, when the political and economic situation was developing at a rapid pace, and when the people's need for material culture was very strong, as it was in the 1980s? In this historical background, Japan's animation industry developed rapidly, and a large number of animation masters appeared, including Osamu Tezuka as the representative of the masters, who created a unique Japanese manga style! And trained a large number of animation practitioners, today we see Miyazaki Jun, Takada Kaoru, etc. can be seen in Tezuka's shadow!!!!

Can not politely say, the 60s to 80s this 20 years is our animation development stagnation period, can imagine why our current animation why there is such a big gap, there is no way to the objective reasons, if only this kind of because of political reasons caused us to lag behind, we do not have anything to complain about, after all, animation is only a spiritual aspect of life. Economic regression 20 years we are no longer sad, and reform and opening up to catch up!!!! Animation backward and what is there to complain, sad?

But is there really only a political reason? The answer is not necessarily ！！！！ Think about the mid-80s, some of our animation factory out of a number of black cat sheriff and other storytelling, but also interesting, and art is also quite good animation, can be said to be the revival of our animation, but later in the decade of the 90s out of what? Arguably ------- nothing!!!

Why? As Phantom Pale Wolf said above, our animation industry has a problem with the positioning, why does it have to be set at 5-10 years old?

We are adults and we love watching cartoons!!! Watching cartoons doesn't mean being childish. And Japan and the United States cartoon positioning, although also mainly children, but also take into account the level of appreciation of adults, Miyazaki Jun's Ghibli studio produces cartoons domestic children have seen a few of them? Most of the audience are us adults!!!!

And China is actually not a lack of animation producers, but because there is no reasonable and effective use of them, and so they lost to Japan or the United States of America in China's animation department to go, what is the situation I'm not too clear, as if from a report that Shenzhen has a large number of our country's outstanding young cartoonists in the Japanese company drawing! They draw cartoons under the name of Japan and then hit China ！！！！ Pathetic ah ！！！！ Why not organize and use them?

Why can't we have studios like Jibli Japan? It may have something to do with the economic environment and people's consciousness. How sad ah ！！！！

This year can be called the year of comics, domestic comics heavy Shanghai, Guangzhou Comic Show constantly, this year's largest comic show, but also the development of the new cartoon 15 years for the first time organized by the large-scale comic show "Sino-Japanese Youth Comics Exchange Exhibition" is about to be carried out during the National Day (10.1-10.7) in the Capital Library in Beijing. Japanese comics in Asia and even the world enjoys a good reputation, has formed a huge and mature industrial chain mechanism, every year to Japan to create huge profits to make it become Japan's mainstream industry. However, most of the Japanese comics read by Chinese readers, who are said to be the largest consumers of Japanese comics, are also pirated. Chinese readers know and love Japanese comics in piracy, while Chinese original comics are struggling to move forward in the double cracks of the industrial mechanism and piracy extrusion, and no one wants to give up due to the huge creative resources, market potential and audience resources, so the process of China's comics industry has become the most concerned topic for comics people and comics readers. Therefore, the industrialization process of Chinese comics has become the most concerned topic for comics people and readers. For this reason, the reporter interviewed the main planner of this exhibition, comic book author Liang.

Zhang: Japanese comics are very famous in the world, how is the actual development?

Ryou: Japan's manga market is very big and formed very early, and their first batch of manga readers are now in their 60s and 70s. This kind of reading interest has been retained, is a situation of all the people read comics, Japanese cartoonist is the highest income of the whole of Japan taxpayers, in Japan is usually considered the richest well-known pop singer is still ranked after the cartoonist.

Chang: Why is that?

Ryou: This is because the Japanese manga industry is fully industrialized, with a very mature industrial chain and commercial market. In Japan, a new set of manga created, will first be serialized in magazines, the response is good immediately will be released in a single book, and then will be adapted into an animated film, in the case of good ratings, linked to the peripheral products, such as manga portrait patch, phone cards, cups, toys, and so on. Immediately after that, there will be advertisements using these manga characters. Not only that, when the next new manga is not yet released, this manga will also be made into OVA (Original Manga Artist's Movie or CD-ROM) and DRAMA-CD (Drama-CD) to supplement the gap in the market during this period, and these two kinds of follow-on products will also have a very good market due to the relatively low cost and convenient format. The two follow-up products will also have a good market due to their relatively low cost and convenient formats. In addition, there will be video game versions, animated films, and the revenue from the above series will be shared into the industry chain.

Zhang: In your opinion, what is the gap between domestic comics and Japanese comics?

Ryou: The biggest gap does not lie in technology, but in the fact that domestic comics are not industrialized and marketed, and there is no reasonable industrial chain, which makes the market operation quite difficult. For example, many domestic comic magazines do not have direct operating rights, a good set of comics if a single book involves a book number, a set of cartoons sometimes even a few book numbers; out of the animated film approval is cross-industry, due to the direction of the profit is not the same, so that the approval of the extremely complex and lengthy, which is as a cartoon comics as a product quality can not afford, not to mention the production of animated films, OVA and DRAMA -CD. This mechanism, the domestic cartoon magazine is largely confined.

Zhang: In fact, the cartoonist made the idol star than the real star also has more stable commercial returns, such as the star packaged, and may be due to the "retreat", "break the contract", "change of heart" and other dangers to recover profits. "

These are the most important things that you can do for your business, and they are the most important things that you can do for your business, and they are the most important things that you can do for your business. Like the famous Japanese manga artists Akira Toriyama's "Seven Dragon Balls," Yoshihiro Tomi's "Yu Yu Hakusho" and Naoko Takeuchi's "American Girl Warrior," not only do their works derive huge commercial profits by mature marketization, but the authors have become one of the richest people in all of Japan.

Chang: But some people have reported that there are still a lot of bad comics in Japan that are bringing a lot of negative influence to young readers in China?

Ryou: The emergence of this phenomenon is entirely the result of profit-oriented and irresponsible book pirates. In Japan, manga has a strict restriction level, categorized by age, gender orientation, divided into very fine, but also divided into 12 years of age, 18 to 20 years old, adults and other reading restrictions, in the bookstore must be placed in different areas, with special supervision. Because Japanese manga is not like domestic manga, the subject matter is still limited to satire, humor or some shallow children's stories, their manga creation involves very profound themes, for example, the famous Japanese manga artist Tomoko Satonaka, who visited with the exhibition this time, is based on the work of the famous book "The Red and the Black". Domestic pirates not only don't care about the level of restriction, but also specialize in publishing some unsuitable reading materials as children's books, which is very irresponsible for the growth of Chinese youth.

Zhang: Can you comment on the gap between Chinese and Japanese manga authors from a technical point of view?

Ryou: At the highest level, the technology of Japanese comics is not out of reach. There are a lot of great cartoon authors in China, for example, Yao Feila of "Beijing Cartoon" used to be a computer scientist at the University of Wuhan, and now a lot of cartoon readers idolize him, which is almost the same as the feeling of some singer's fans.

Zhang: But is the whole team of these writers still unformed, why is that?

Liang: in fact, the team is still there, the lineup is not small, because the degree of industrialization is too low, so that the people who do this line of work to be a lot of choices first, for example, when the comic book writer can only have a monthly income of 3,000 yuan, go to a good advertising agency will be 8,000-10,000 yuan; in the competition for talent, at present, can stay, a group of people who do it with a Passion to do, they have a lot of unpaid input, such as a patriotic passion, do not want the Chinese market only Japanese comics exist. As a matter of fact, the development of the domestic original comic market to today is almost due to the existence of these people. But passion can't be a meal.

Zhang: this "Sino-Japanese Youth Cartoon Exchange Exhibition" is said to have 1,100 Japanese cartoons, 600 Chinese cartoons, but also arranged flash animation movie appreciation, cartoon character parody theater, Chinese and Japanese cartoon masters signing, cartoon awards, clubs to exchange, cartoon lectures, and a number of other activities, the advancement of cartoon comics in the country will have a great impact, right?

Ryou: This "Sino-Japanese Youth Cartoon Exchange Exhibition" may have a greater direct impact on the northern cartoon, and only after several sessions continue will it have a greater impact on the hottest domestic cartoon cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. Now look at the Shanghai cartoon industrialization process is faster, their "Cartoon King" magazine has an independent operating rights. This exhibition can be said to be an attempt to activate the silent comic market in Beijing, because such a large-scale exhibition is like a symbol of the industry, which will bring in a lot of commercial input. Although there will be many deaths and injuries in the initial investment, it will definitely be beneficial to the promotion of the comics industry. Because Beijing is the center of politics and culture, it should be the only starting city for the comics industry to make huge changes.

Zhang: I hope it's a good result.

People have commented on the gap between Chinese and Japanese animation in a variety of ways: talent, technology, money. And so on. To name a few.

In fact, Chinese and Japanese animation, I think there is no comparison. New China has been established for 50 years.

How many animations can be put on the stage? A "Black Cat Sheriff", a "Huluan Wa" and a "Big Trouble in Heaven" are all we have to show for the animation business. Do you think we can say we have our own animation because of these few animations (and all of them are more than 10 years old)? That our animation is no worse than Japan's? Or even better than them? Isn't that a joke?

If we really want to look for gaps, and hope that this will lead to some realization, so as to develop, I think the reason why Japanese animation is better than China's is very simple:

They are treating animation as a real business, an industry to do! Whereas China's attitude towards animation is still just a tool to educate young children!

It's that simple! If we don't turn around the concept, even if the economy is more advanced in the future, the animation will still be at the same level as it is now, with a little more detail at most!

An analogy, this is like, you put relief money to a poor rural areas, no concept of wealth farmers, is to open a general meeting, everyone divided the money; and economic minded villagers will be discussed together, if the use of this money to earn more money, until on the road to prosperity. Here is a problem of perception.

The fact is that in current China, it's still at that stage where the peasants share the relief money. No one, (maybe some), intends to make animation a career. Take a look at the CCTV's plan to produce a thousand episodes of animation not too long ago. It's just a waste of money and effort. It's just a waste of money and effort!!!!

In fact, we still haven't seen any change in our mainstream society (by the authorities). It's like the endless cartoons on CCTV with big heads and big eyes!

So the biggest problem with animation in China is not money, (you can make high quality animation with little money), nor talent (there are a lot of good animation talents in China), but a concept. Our authorities, the attitude towards animation problem, directly restricts the development of animation. This is reflected in the way we think about animation, and in the way we write animation scripts, which are directly related to it.

If the mainstream authorities can't change, then Chinese people who really want to make some real animation will have no way to start. (I heard that a 10-minute animation called "TALK" by a Shenzhener won first prize at the first Independent Film Festival in Beijing recently. (I heard that a 10-minute animation called "TALK" by a Shenzhen-based artist won the prize at the first Independent Film Festival in Beijing recently. That animation is said to be a true reflection of the current level of animation development in China. And that's exactly what our authorities are willing to do. The so-called "ideological gatekeepers"!

I'd like to talk about the aftermath of the making of Jun Miyazaki's latest film, Chihiro, which I saw. Leaving aside Ghibli's meticulous and rigorous work style, I was y affected by one of Jun Miyazaki's lines in it: He said, "I made this movie for those who are going to be 10 years old, or are now 10 years old, or have already been 10 years old. I hope everyone can remember that time (something to that effect). Is his animation meant to teach children to study hard and be good every day? Not really. His animation is more of a memory, a narrative. A depiction of a beautiful, innocent time. Good animation, moving people is inadvertently 。。。。 Then in this kind of moving, we can also learn what is really what we need 。。。。。。

Finally, I would like to say a very, very early saw a long time ago, the only domestic animation I like: "Tadpole looking for mother". A little ink animation with strong Chinese characteristics. It's very short, but very meaningful. It's very Chinese! ~ A hundred times better than the current domestic animation!

I wonder if we could have stuck with this Chinese landscape style of animation. If we could stick to this Chinese landscape style of animation, wouldn't we have an animation with a unique Chinese style? Imagine if the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, such a subject matter, with such a style interpretation, is not more flavor that? Maybe this is just a hypothesis, we see more domestic animation, more pseudo-Japanese style. Nothing.

According to the survey data released by the Japanese authorities, in 2004, Japan's domestic movie theaters screened about 81 anime films, Japan's television stations broadcast more than 80 episodes of anime programs per week, a year to broadcast the program of anime works close to 4,000 episodes. Manga books account for 40 percent of all publications in Japan, with an average of 25 manga one-shots coming out every day.

According to Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, sales of Japanese cartoons in the U.S. amounted to 4.36 billion U.S. dollars in 2002, more than three times the value of U.S. imports of Japanese steel products. And last year, the total revenue of China's animation industry was just 10 billion yuan? A significant portion of that was processing fees paid by foreigners.

According to China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television requirements, domestic animated films broadcast on television should account for 60% of the total number of animated films broadcast, in fact, in 2004, China's domestic production of animated films in the total amount of only 29,000 minutes, the market needs to be in the 268,000 minutes, the television station animated film resources are seriously insufficient; 2005 is the animation industry to further development of the spring, but there are only a few animated The channel almost all have a film shortage, an animated film is played over and over again, signaling that China's animation is not yet self-sufficient.

As we all know, the gap between Chinese and Japanese animation is very obvious, and I won't tell you how obvious it is, because it's sad. But why is there such a gap between Chinese and Japanese anime? This is a question that is worth discussing.

Some people think that the gap between Chinese and Japanese animation is caused by the late start of Chinese comics, it is true that Chinese comics do enter the commercialization of a lot later than Japan, but this is not where the problem lies, China's soccer started early, China's table tennis did not start early; there are also people who think that the gap between Chinese and Japanese animation is due to the problem of the drawings of the Chinese cartoonists, which is not the problem lies! --The drawing style of "Wanderings of San Mao" is by no means like that of Japanese cartoon comics, but it is indeed a classic cartoon. Personally, I think the gap between Chinese and Japanese cartoons is due to the problem of Chinese cartoonists' knowledge and attitude towards cartoons, which has always been considered to be read by 4-8 year olds, so look at all the Chinese cartoons we have on the market: Blue Cat Naughty 3000 Questions, Odd City, Big Headed Son Little Headed Dad, Panda Jing Jing, and Feng Shen Bang, Grey Bean (I think that's the name) and a few others that I'm too lazy to remember the names of, all of which, with no exceptions, are aimed at 4-8 year olds! Even more telling is the introduction of New Evangelion, which I didn't want to mention, but I have to! This is the biggest failure of foreign manga imported from China! Not only is the tone and characterization of the dubbed characters out of sync with the original, but the lines and plot of the original have been adapted in vain, all because those people have made EVA a cartoon for teenagers only. Therefore, the original work on life, on the existence of the self, on the deep thinking between people avoided to talk about, only to put EVA in the battle of a lot of out of the frame. Then look at the Chinese cartoonist Yan Kai's "Snow Coconut" which can be said to be a successful masterpiece of Chinese cartooning, although some people think that Yan Kai's drawing style is extremely similar to Japanese cartoons and has no Chinese characteristics, but I have to ask, what is China's own characteristics? Character is a very abstract and even impractical thing. There is a difference between being different for the sake of being different and being liked for being different. Nowadays, what else are the fans of Chinese comics but children, and nowadays, Chinese animation writers are still complacent about the fact that children in other countries like them, which is a shame. Another thing that affects Chinese animation is the attitude of Chinese animation producers towards animation production. China's comics are not bad, but China's animation production is very obvious. China's current animation also has inconsistent size ratio between near and far (such as "Blue Cat Naughty 3000 Questions"), inconsistent colors and even overflowing borders (such as "Grey Bean Child") and other low-level errors, which can easily be found in the production process. When I first watched "Duck Detective", a collaboration between my country and Canada, although I immediately recognized it as a Chinese production from the style of the drawing (the aforementioned Chinese characteristics were quite effective), there was not a single similar fault in the entire film, and I even dared to say that it was a very good animation, and so I wondered if it was a domestic animation, but the name of the foreigner in the supervising production seemed to give me an answer. What does the success of Pauline Lamp say if it's not supervised by a foreign friend? China is capable of producing good games, but it just depends on the work ethic of the producers.

Speaking of Japanese anime, I'll spare you the details, as you probably know more about it than I do. What I'm going to talk about is the Japanese knowledge and attitude towards anime. Japan has specialized voice actors for animation - we have them too, but very few; Japan has studios that specialize in producing anime - we have them too, but not as large or staffed as Japan (funding is a serious problem); there are many cartoonists in Japan, and many children also volunteer to be a cartoonist, Japan has a complete anime operation system - we also .......

Overall, the gap between China and Japan's animation is obvious, leaving aside this and that external reasons, the gap between China and Japan's animation is the gap between the understanding of the animation, attitude, think about it we are still watching the animation will not affect the study of the debate, and how can we make our animation development?