Sakuga

[sev]

作画 MAD - Sakuga: The Art of Animation

"Sakuga" is a term that is used to describe strategic use of very good animation in anime. This is often used sparingly, and to emphasize powerful or important scenes. It is usually a very noticeable contrast to the frequent use of limited, inexpensive animation that is common due to Japanese budgets. This isn't a uniquely Eastern thing (see: Animation Bump), but due to the high amount of Japanese animation produced every year, it's something we see a lot more often these days in anime. Many people are a fan of this in particular, and like to pick out the high quality work in Eastern animation, spreading the word on the individual animators that put so much hard work into their craft.


i got into sakuga quite a bit in 2012 and it was really motivating for me, so i wanted to make a thread about it. tl;dr: share your well animated anime videos and gifs

【MAD】 One Piece Movie 6 (Sakuga)
Yutaka Nakamura MAD
You Yoshinari Homage to Tezuka
Hiroyuki Imaishi MAD
Ryo Chimo Noein Animation Process [Genga]

a lot of good stuff isn't on youtube but can be found here: http://www.catsuka.com/player/categorie/sakuga

[zwimmy]

Takeshi Koike is the man

Party 7 Opening

[rtil]

in the same way that censorship forces animators to be creative, so does limited budgets. that and also the hard work and soul they pour in to this. they take it a lot more seriously than the west does. it's great to see these animators really dedicated to their craft and do the best they can no matter what.

[valiums]

Sakuga feels so good to look at.

[ExBerian]

I can't find a clip of it on youtube, but in Toonamis' IGPX in the scenes where they are training in the dojo you could tell that the animators put their heart into it. It looked as if each frame was completely redrawn when you see the characters move, and you could even see some sketch lines left behind on the characters outline.

[rtil]

igpx had an awful fate. toonami can't even re-air it because CN wrote it off.

[Sheepy]

My first time seeing Soul Eater tonight since Toonami aired it and the first episode, as general rule of anime, had some of the best animation I had ever seen in a while.

[zwimmy]

Redline is my favorite movie.

[Roymaster]

Kinda related


missilesss

[sev]

oh nice, i've never heard of the itano circus before now but that's awesome fx animation

若林厚史 (Atsushi Wakabayashi) MAD
Atsushi Wakabayashi

[nessie]

Paprika Parade (Montage)

I haven't seen many animes, but I thought paprika had some pretty amazing scenes

[zwimmy]

Satoshi Kon was a genius. I really hope they're able to finish his last movie someday.

[cipher]

Always thought this had some sick animation. Minor spoilers I guess though if you haven't seen Noein, but worth watching for sure

Noein - Karasu vs Fukurou
(best quality I could find)

[sev]

i think that noein thing is my favorite work Ryo Timo's ever done.

りょーちもＡＭＶ

[nessie]

DyE - Fantasy - Official Video

this music video had some pretty amazing parts in it

[zwimmy]

this music video had some pretty amazing parts in it

NOT ANIME

[sev]

that one's from France i believe, but yeah it looks amazing. there are a lot of badass French animators.

fun fact: i didn't want to confuse people by mentioning this in the OP, but Sakuga generally just means "animation", or "key animation", similarly to how japanese cartoons are "anime" and japanese comics are "manga". an animation director in japan is also called a sakuga kantoku, or sakkan.

[Shibari]

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha - Kou Yoshinari scene

[rtil]

that was well animated, but strange to see so much movement at a dinner scene. felt a little overdone. but it was very fluid

in minami-ke okaeri (season 3), episode 12 has noticeably better animation than any other episode in the series. im not sure if there was a guest animation director on it or not, i can't figure it out. but it's worth watching at last the first few minutes. this is a slice of life though so the animation is not action. but there are lots of subtle movements and good drawings and scene direction.
Minami-ke Okaeri - 12 [Ayako]

[Kött]

インフェルノコップ「地獄の刑事はやってくる」 EPISODE 01"The Badge from Hell"