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2009 marked the 13th Anniversary of theMobile Suit Gundamseries, created by the legendary Yoshiyuki Tomino. The director has shaped the mecha anime genre to lengths he doesn’t even acknowledge and refuses to accept his status as an auteur. For this anniversary, he directedRing of Gundam, a 5-minute special short film made with CGI, introducing a completely new artistic style to the world ofGundam.
Despite taking up the challenge of a CGI style, Tomino’s preference and loyalty always remain with hand-drawn animation. He’s true to his word as he speaks about this in an interview detailing how CGI was a huge challenge for him as the industry at the time hadn’t evolved beyond Pixar’s animation.
In Tomino’s classic candid fashion, he also criticized an Imagi Animation Studios film,Astro Boy, that came out in the same year. It had the classic Pixar CGI style, despite being from another studio. The director wanted to use CGI animation in a different way, even if it was a huge challenge for him and the staff at Sunrise.
Yoshiyuki Tomino about using CGI and how it contrasts the 2009Astro Boy
When it comes to criticizing the anime industry,Yoshiyuki Tominodoesn’t even stop to praise himself. Hedoesn’t believe in his own skills as a director, despite creating one of the greatest franchises in anime. He’s also a pioneer of the mecha genre. So if he isn’t even receptive to his own artistry, he isn’t kind to others either.
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His rivalry with Hayao Miyazaki has caused him to be the most critical of the Studio Ghibli director, claiming he evendislikes all of them, except the Oscar-winningThe Boy and The Heron.Despite his rivalry, he doesn’t believe he could surpass Miyazaki.
The challenge of CGI, however, proves otherwise.Ring of Gundammight be 5-minutes long but it had more life in it than most Pixar-esque animations. He talks about the process inan interview with Anime News Network:
I didn’t want to do it like Pixar, or like the 3D characters in current games. I thought there must be another way. I wanted to challenge the drawing of CG characters. I believe that different drawing and design…. But we don’t have staff who can think of such new things. Right now we only have Pixar-like designs and game-like designs, and there’s nobody who is artistic in the true sense. I think the ideal would be to represent hand-drawn anime as is. I’m recalling one really bad example…Astro Boyin 3D. Terrible! I think the original drawings are far superior to the CG characters. If I had a choice between a hand-drawn Mickey Mouse and a CG Mickey Mouse, I’d go with the hand-drawn Mickey Mouse. There must be something in between.
Tomino highlights how CGI would never be his true calling and always prefers hand-drawn animation. He even takes the opportunity to callAstro Boy, the 2009 film with Nicolas Cage and Freddie Highmore, “horrible”, accurate to what everyone thought of it.
Why hand-drawn animation will always prevail
WhileRing of Gundamwas an impressive attempt at CGI animation, there’s no denying Yoshiyuki Tomino excels with hand-drawn animation. This is generally the case in every anime where, even if they blend CGI with it, it’s the hand-drawn style that shines through.
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Perhaps Tomino will never believe he’s a true director and better than every other animator out there but his thoughts on hand-drawn animation were flawlessly said. The beautiful art of the likes of Studio Ghibli or Ufotable couldn’t be achieved with meticulous detail and hard work of hand-drawn animation.
Bidisha Mitra
Articles Published :802
Bidisha is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with over 700 published articles. With over 7 years of writing experience, she’s versatile and adept. When she’s not writing, she’s also a voice actor on the side.Bidisha is currently continuing to learn Japanese and gets more fluent everyday. Her expertise is One Piece, Bungo Stray Dogs, and Haikyuu, but has been watching anime for over a decade. She was previously a Content Writer reviewing the latest Kpop music.
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Mobile Suit GundamPixarYoshiyuki Tomino
