Its been a while huh, well university can be quite taxing so a dudes gotta prioritize work over anything else (he says as he sips tea while watching anime instead of actual work). Nevertheless lets get on with todays subject. So like a lot of people i was somewhat surprised at Studio Pierrot being assigned to work on Book 2 of Korra when Lesean Thomas first tweeted about it. It was more of an optimistic surprise than anything. If any studio should be chosen, they would be more than qualified with their vast experience in the action fantasy genre with Naruto, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho just to name a few. As the week went on as we waited for the new episodes every single trailer was fantastic and every piece of footage shows was gorgeous. We saw epic bending battles, glimpse of the past and an inkling of an idea of what this season would involve. Now 6 episodes in that enthusiasm had largely dissipated for a lot of people until we saw the Avatar Wan special. The special was some fine television and one can't help but want more of that style of avatar story than what we've had up to this point. But what was it about episodes 1-6 of book 2 that we found so weird. The feel of these episodes is very different form the Wan Special and even all of book 1 in general. I'll be getting into specifics as to what i though of the change in studio below but for now enjoy this video.
You might have noticed that the video included scenes form The Legend of Korra credited to a fellow by the name of Masahiro Sato. Sato is a Production I.G. animator that works with Pierrot, Bones and P.A. Works occasionally. He also does quite a bit of art direction and background work which is interesting. Anyway, Sato's work has been the shining light in the pool of decent to bad work produced by Pierrot in their Korra work. His work on Book 2 episode 1 alone was quite a step up in terms of fluidity and style from even what we saw in Book 1. He is of comparable skill to one of Studio Mir's best and brightest, In Seung Choi. In Seung Choi is the man who animated the excellent opening of Legend of Korra which shows the kind of talent he has.
So back to Sato, he has a very recognisable style for the most part as he tends to animate smoke and the posture of his characters very similarly. His effects animation like the fire and water are also distinct but when it comes to his debris effects its more uniform to how most animators that have worked at Bones animate debris. Of all the animators that worked on Pierrot's half of Book 2 he was the most consistently good. There were 2 others whose scenes stood out but that was about it. The rest of the animation was stiff and uninteresting especially during dialogue scenes which was really disappointing. I was expecting more consistency since they were doing half the season and i was expecting Pierrot to put their best guys on it seeing as they would have likely been given a bigger budget than an average anime episode. Sadly after "Rebel Spirit" the episodes were inconsistent with episode 5 being the worst for that. The majority of the episode was stiff and had inconsistent character art and the action early on was strangely slow with bad timing. Only in the last few minutes when the sequence Masahiro Sato was AD and KA on along with another guy whose name we may never know did the animation become fluid and dynamic. The chase across the water sequence was a very interesting scene to watch with the few diffrent ways the water was animated by the 2 animators. One had the water move in sort of small blocks while one had the water move according to how the character moved so Satos animation basically had the water be more reactive than the other guys animation but both made it look good nevertheless. You can see this scene is my MAD from the youtube link under the video. Episode 2 had an amazing sequence by an unknown artist that caused quite a bit of controversy on that forum that shall remain nameless. The scene was also mentioned on podcasts as "the chicken-arms scene" and while i see where they are coming from, i can't agree with their views as that same podcast showed no actual knowledge of what good animation is as they dismissed the animation in Rebel Spirit calling the effects wierd and such. I personally adore the scene even though korra is off-model because i love the fluidity with which she moves as she tries to ... i guess spirit bend the dark spirit? I also love the way the effects animation looks in the sequences as it's fluid, detailed and unique. This is as off-model as she is ever animated in the Pierrot half so its not so bad but it was amusing seeing people over react. The scene was just so beautifully complex as a whole as the gang are ambushed by a multitude of spirits. That scene sadly though is the only scene that's well animated in episode 2 as the rest is pretty decent but nothing special.
Episode 3 had a neat little sequence near the end when Korra is stopping some southerners from kidnapping Unalaq with some interesting ice effects but that was about it for that episode. Episode 4 had the prison fight which was animated by Sato as well and it was a tad jarring seeing the animation transition from one animator who was decent to Sato's good work then back to decent again. I guess he just did that short cut then. This you can see in the above youtube link as well. Episode 6 didn't have any standout sequences for me as while the animation was smooth, it lacked the dynamism that Korra action sequences usually have, even the Pierrot ones. Then episode 9 (which was Pierrot's last episode) was a pretty good one. It saw a few nice scenes with Unalaq trying to unlock the northers spirit portal and the return of the unknown animator that collaborated with sato on the water sequences in episode 5 who animated Korra cleansing the dark spirit bats very well. Looking at his work, he most likely animated the water chase up until korra rises from the water then its all Sato's work. The episode overall was the most consistent Pierrot episode and had the best character art overall. It was a very good episode.
Which is where my disappointment comes in. The last episode they did was good and i had wished they could have had that kind of consistency for all their episodes. I was so glad to hear they were working on Korra when it was first announced but now that we've seen what they brought to the table, i don't really feel like they worked as hard as they should have given how high profile a show like Korra is. They put more effort into their own productions than one that could potentially raise their profile like Korra. They didn't even assemble their best talent to work on the show. The most talented guys are the ones who worked on the sequences i mentioned and the animation directors Tsuguyuki Kubo and Masahiko Komino. Kubo worked on such productions as the old animated Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and Komino is now the character designer on the next season of the Jojos anime, Stardust Crusaders. The episode Kubo was AD for which was #1 had Satos more impressive work and Kimonos episode had Sato's short but sweet prison fight sequence as well as the quite good Tonraq rescue sequence that was directed very well. The thing is you can't help but notice that Studio Mir put all their talents all over the first season and in their half of book 2 so you can really tell when one of them is slightly half-assing it. I think maybe Pierrot needs to start grooming their next batch of talents rather than hire i few good freelancers because it's not like they have that many shows to work on anyway. They had the Rock Lee show which surely drained resources, Letter bee then lastly Naruto but they were only also working on the Naruto related stuff when they would have been working on Korra so its not like that much of the talent was elsewhere. I'm not as knowledgeable as others on Pierrot but just from watching how inconsistent they are with even their short shows one wouldn't have chosen them for Korra in the first place. They are good enough but not anywhere near as good as they were in their glory days. Most of the talent from back then have started doing more freelance work but still come back every now and again. Their big talents they have busy with Naruto related stuff and movies so i doubt they had enough of them to spare for Korra which was unfortunate as they could have rounded out the staff nicely along with freelancers like Sato.
The message to take away from this is one most anime fans are well aware of. Pierrot is a very inconsistent studio. The reason they were likely chosen was probably because while they aren't the best studio out there, they are still better than a lot of korean studios as Mir is the exception to that rule it seems so they probably just went with them. Them being dropped after half the season is probably down to that inconsistency as with the money being spent on Korra i doubt the creators thought they got their moneys worth with what Pierrot produced overall. Short instances of brilliance aren't worth large stretches of average to bad animation. Thats it for now then guys. I've got some end of year lists planned that'll be posted soon so look forward to that.
For whatever reason my own video will not allow itself to be embedded here so heres another mad to view. The link for my video is below the one you can actually watch from here. Sorry for the inconvenience.
You might have noticed that the video included scenes form The Legend of Korra credited to a fellow by the name of Masahiro Sato. Sato is a Production I.G. animator that works with Pierrot, Bones and P.A. Works occasionally. He also does quite a bit of art direction and background work which is interesting. Anyway, Sato's work has been the shining light in the pool of decent to bad work produced by Pierrot in their Korra work. His work on Book 2 episode 1 alone was quite a step up in terms of fluidity and style from even what we saw in Book 1. He is of comparable skill to one of Studio Mir's best and brightest, In Seung Choi. In Seung Choi is the man who animated the excellent opening of Legend of Korra which shows the kind of talent he has.
In Seung Choi's animation in the opening.
So back to Sato, he has a very recognisable style for the most part as he tends to animate smoke and the posture of his characters very similarly. His effects animation like the fire and water are also distinct but when it comes to his debris effects its more uniform to how most animators that have worked at Bones animate debris. Of all the animators that worked on Pierrot's half of Book 2 he was the most consistently good. There were 2 others whose scenes stood out but that was about it. The rest of the animation was stiff and uninteresting especially during dialogue scenes which was really disappointing. I was expecting more consistency since they were doing half the season and i was expecting Pierrot to put their best guys on it seeing as they would have likely been given a bigger budget than an average anime episode. Sadly after "Rebel Spirit" the episodes were inconsistent with episode 5 being the worst for that. The majority of the episode was stiff and had inconsistent character art and the action early on was strangely slow with bad timing. Only in the last few minutes when the sequence Masahiro Sato was AD and KA on along with another guy whose name we may never know did the animation become fluid and dynamic. The chase across the water sequence was a very interesting scene to watch with the few diffrent ways the water was animated by the 2 animators. One had the water move in sort of small blocks while one had the water move according to how the character moved so Satos animation basically had the water be more reactive than the other guys animation but both made it look good nevertheless. You can see this scene is my MAD from the youtube link under the video. Episode 2 had an amazing sequence by an unknown artist that caused quite a bit of controversy on that forum that shall remain nameless. The scene was also mentioned on podcasts as "the chicken-arms scene" and while i see where they are coming from, i can't agree with their views as that same podcast showed no actual knowledge of what good animation is as they dismissed the animation in Rebel Spirit calling the effects wierd and such. I personally adore the scene even though korra is off-model because i love the fluidity with which she moves as she tries to ... i guess spirit bend the dark spirit? I also love the way the effects animation looks in the sequences as it's fluid, detailed and unique. This is as off-model as she is ever animated in the Pierrot half so its not so bad but it was amusing seeing people over react. The scene was just so beautifully complex as a whole as the gang are ambushed by a multitude of spirits. That scene sadly though is the only scene that's well animated in episode 2 as the rest is pretty decent but nothing special.
Fantastic episode 2 action scene by unknown animator.
Episode 3 had a neat little sequence near the end when Korra is stopping some southerners from kidnapping Unalaq with some interesting ice effects but that was about it for that episode. Episode 4 had the prison fight which was animated by Sato as well and it was a tad jarring seeing the animation transition from one animator who was decent to Sato's good work then back to decent again. I guess he just did that short cut then. This you can see in the above youtube link as well. Episode 6 didn't have any standout sequences for me as while the animation was smooth, it lacked the dynamism that Korra action sequences usually have, even the Pierrot ones. Then episode 9 (which was Pierrot's last episode) was a pretty good one. It saw a few nice scenes with Unalaq trying to unlock the northers spirit portal and the return of the unknown animator that collaborated with sato on the water sequences in episode 5 who animated Korra cleansing the dark spirit bats very well. Looking at his work, he most likely animated the water chase up until korra rises from the water then its all Sato's work. The episode overall was the most consistent Pierrot episode and had the best character art overall. It was a very good episode.
Episode 9 scene from unknown animator.
The message to take away from this is one most anime fans are well aware of. Pierrot is a very inconsistent studio. The reason they were likely chosen was probably because while they aren't the best studio out there, they are still better than a lot of korean studios as Mir is the exception to that rule it seems so they probably just went with them. Them being dropped after half the season is probably down to that inconsistency as with the money being spent on Korra i doubt the creators thought they got their moneys worth with what Pierrot produced overall. Short instances of brilliance aren't worth large stretches of average to bad animation. Thats it for now then guys. I've got some end of year lists planned that'll be posted soon so look forward to that.
No comments:
Post a Comment