ONE - The Successful Manga Artist

ONE is the pen name used by a Japanese Manga artist famous for his series 'One Punch Man', which he originally released as a webcomic in 2009. Despite the poor illustration it had received millions of hits by 2012 for it's unusual storyline. This caught the attention of another manga artist called Yusuke Murata who contacted ONE and offered to redraw the webcomic for the manga website 'Young Jump Web Comics', first chapter published on 14 June 2012. Announcements for the anime adaptation being made by the popular 'Studio Madhouse' were released on 10 March 2015. The first season was aired on 5 October 2015.

Webcomic, redrawn Manga and Anime comparisons of One Punch Man

One Punch Man Opening:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atxYe-nOa9w

As shown above, 'One Punch Man' progressed from a poorly drawn webcomic to the amazing animation of Studio Madhouse in just 6 years. This is a huge jump from where ONE started but he hasn't stopped there.

Mob Psycho 100 manga cover

ONE also created another webcomic called 'Mob Psycho 100' which he published on 18 April 2012. This was also adapted to anime by another popular studio called 'Studio Bones' and aired on 12 July 2016. ONE's popularity shows as in just 4 years another one of his stories goes from manga to an even more amazingly animated series.

Mob Psycho 100 Opening:

Amazing charcoal animation done by Studio Bones, Mob Psycho Ending:

Effective Presentations

Presentations must communicate meaningful information for sharing ideas, thoughts, concepts, progress and/or the result of a project to an audience (your peers and tutors). This gives you a chance to receive constructive feedback in order to consider and/or improve.

Considering your audience you should assume they know nothing about your work. Therefore, you need to inform and explain to them about every detail of what you are doing.

The presentation must not be about yourself and not be stressful if you are prepared. Know what you are talking about and keep it simple. Don't use clip art as it suggests you are lazy or rushed. Use other imagery to illustate your point when it is needed and never use too much text. Slides should be readable from a distance (8ft rule).

Show that you are enthusiastic, persuasive and expressive. If you made a mistake don't fret over it, overcome it and correct yourself. Prepare yourself a script so that you have an idea of what you want to inform your audience about and prepare your presentation (NOT AT THE LAST MINUTE).

Finally, make sure to arrive early to set up and be ready to present so that your audience isn't left waiting for you.

Understanding Copyright

Copyright - gives the owner, creator or author the rights to control how their content is used.

Such content include films, games, animations, music, computer apps, stories, scripts, lyrics, literary and drawings.
Basically things created as a result of a person's, your own or collaborative effort can be copyrighted so that no one else who wasn't involved gets credit or profits from it.

Things such as copying, adapting, distributing and public transmission without persmission from the content creator is a breach of copyright.

The only case where content belongs to another party other then the creator is when it is sold to said party. However, buying a single copy of something like a game or music CD doesn't mean you own the copyright.

Copyright does have a certain time limit depending on the content:

- Literary, artistic and photographic work: Life of creator + 70 years

- Sound recordings: 70 years

Permission is granted through contacting the owner or organisation who represents them. This is not always necessary unless it's for commercial purposes. Non-commercial, educational, research, private study and teaching is fine.

Claiming copyright can be achieved by:

- Ensuring your work is properly marked: displaying a copyright notice shows your awareness for copyright and infringements of your work.

- Register your work: evidence may be needed to help prove your claim to copyright. Copyright Registration Services can be used to provide proof with a verifiable date and content  of your work.

- Keep or register supporting evidence: proof of evolution of ideas such as early drafts and sketches over a period of time. Posting it to yourself with dated stamp intact will prove it's existance at a certain point in time.

- Contact the person: if your work is being copyrighted contact the person to get to the bottom of the situation.

One Piece

'One Piece' is a Japanese animated series originally created by Eiichiro Oda (manga writer and illustrator)  and animated by Toei Animation. The series released in 1999 and is still making episodes till this day.

There are many things I enjoy about the series. The story is very unique and inspirational using following your dreams no matter what as the main plot device ("If I die trying at least I TRIED" - Monkey D. Luffy). Concept of the powers such as the Devil Fruits (mysterious fruits that grant a person great power once eaten, however the person loses ability to swim) are very imaginative. This provides the author almost endless possiblities of how many of these fruits exist. Also, the consequence is very risky since for the majority of the time characters who possess Devil Fruit powers travel mostly by water. Finally the art style is what makes it unique compared to most anime which uses similar art styles. Though elements of "anime art style" exist it's mixed in with a very western cartoony style such as bizarre features or facial proportions.

Franky has a triple chin and giant torso with giant arms.

Usopp has an extremely long pointy nose.

Brook, even though he is just bones, has a jaw that stretches out unnaturally when he yells.

Many females in the series may have a similar sexy body proportions, but that doesn't mean all female character look similar:

Miss Monday

Kokoro

Giolla

Examples of the wacky cartoonistic exaggerated facial expressions featured in One Piece:

Considering how the long the series is, the quality of animation the studio usually produces is not the best. There is slight inconsistency as there are moments in the series where episodes are better animated than previous or subsequent episodes. Animations like the recent One Piece films show great animation. Over all I enjoy the series for it's designs and story.

Some well animated scenes:

Smoker vs Vergo

One Piece Film Z,  Zoro vs Ain

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis (Rage of Bahamut: Genesis)

'Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis' is a Japanese animation released on the 6th October 2014, created by Studio MAPPA and directed by Keiichi Sato. The characters are based on a card game so the studio had to create a script as well as animate for the series.

Favaro, "eyes of a liar"

I really like the main protagonist Favaro. He has a very comical personality with a very unusual appearance (big ginger afro). Also, he appears not to be very likeable at first as he is cunning and a liar. This changes through the series as he becomes more heroic or at the least shows how heroic he can be. Most of all he isn't portrayed with amazing power or gains any special powers. Throughout the whole series he depends on his skills with weapons and tools together with his intelligence to defeat or outsmart superior foes (i.e. demons). In fact, the most powerful good characters in the series are females (Amira and Jeanne D'Arc).

Amira

Jeanne D'Arc

Trailer released 2016 for a season 2, 'Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin soul':

Prince of Egypt

The Prince of Egypt is an American animated film based on the story of the Book of Exodus. Released in 18th December 1998 by DreamWorks Pictures, directed by Simon Wells, Brenda Chapman and Steve Hickner. Traditional and CGI animation was used to create the eye catching animation.

DreamWorks does well to show great detail:

However, it made me question the methods that God used to free the hebrews, that God would make other lives suffer in order to help his people. It's almost like a sense of revenge. Since the Hebrews suffered God will make the Pharaoh Rameses and his people suffer, even taking the lives of every first born child. With all the power God has he resorts to making them suffer. However, I feel that there are suggestions that it's bad for God to do this in some way. There is a scene where Moses starts crying after seeing Rameses carrying his dead son. It's clear that he didn't want it to come to this and he feels regret for causing suffering to someone he called brother and the people he thought to be his own.

Studio Trigger

Studio Trigger is a Japanese animation studio founded in August 2011 by Hiroyuki Imaishi and Masahiko Ohtsuk, former employees of Gainax.

Little Witch Academia                                                                           Kiznaiver         .

Animations by them which I am familiar with are 'Little Witch Academia' and 'Kiznaiver'. Little Witch Academia shows the comical, colourful and cartoony approach Trigger typically goes for, amazingly drawn animations with a sort of Looney Tune like style. Kiznaiver goes towards a more serious approach but still has elements of comedy and colour.

Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade

Kiznaiver

Little Witch Academia Trailer:

Kiznaiver Trailer:

Other animations include 'Kill la Kill' which Trigger is well known for.

Realism

Junketsu no Maria (Maria the Virgin Witch)

One of the most important aspects of creating a high quality animation is making it feel realistic. If an animation makes the viewer feel like they are seeing another world then it has succeeded in its realism.

The quality of the designs of characters and scenery isn't necessarily the main factors in making an animation realistic. Designs can be average or very simple but so long as the movements of the characters are realisctic nothing else matters.

Animations made by studios like Studio Ghibli are a good example. The design of normal human characters may seem rather simplistic but it succeeds at creating a realistic world. Tiny details such as putting on shoes would be animate simply by most studios. However, in the film Spirited Away when the main girl character Chihiro puts her shoes on she doesn't simply slip them on. Hayao Miyuzaki (writer and director) makes sure that Chihiro puts them on like an actual little girl, i.e. she adjusts them so that they are comfy on her feet before running off.

This is shown at 5:36 on the following video:

 As shown in the very first image, Junketsu no Maria (Maria the Virgin Witch) presents a very realistic and authentic depiction of medieval warfare (specifically The Hundred Years' War). Besides an element of magic the weapons used, armour and clothing worn in the series are what you'd expect from that era and are used appropriately. The witch shown in the first image looks out of place because she is out of place. Not only the way she is dressed and her magic but how she tries to end the war which, in those days, no one would understand why you would do that.

Junketsu no Maria, battle scene depiction of The Hundred Years' War

Junketsu no Maria does well not to go towards unrealistic fantasy. The image to the left below, Guts the Black Swordsman, shows an example of an unrealistic weapon. Even if the character was able to pick up such a huge sword such a weapon would be incredible unbalanced and impossible to wield. The image to the right shows what is realistic and possible. The size of the sword shows it should have a reasonable amount of weight (light enough to wield but heavy enough to counter and attack enemies), it's not bulky and components like the guard isn't oversized but is still enough to provide protection. The knight is even shown to be fully protected with armour which is preferable. Guts however has gaps unprotected by armour like his head and especially his right arm which should be an obvious target for enemies. He has already lost his left arm so he should be more protective of his other arm!

Here is a video which explains fully how Junketsu no Maria shows realism with weapons, armour and fighting:



Weight is also an important factor to show realism so that it is believable.

Hair blows easily in air to show it is almost weightless.

Dress isn't completeley weightless so it sways gently.

The following video shows how important weight is within action sequences in the anime series Grimgar to make it feel real. It even shows emotional weight, like a heavy burden e.g. death of a loved one. The characters and background designs portray a very detailed world along with a storyline that has greater thematic depth than other anime, again increasing the realism. The very first fight scenes isn't portrayed as simply good versus evil but kill or be killed. They depict this by showing the humanity of the enemy (Goblin) in his struggle to survive just as much as the main characters, who show the weight of grief at the reality of killing another intelligent creature.

Studio Mappa

Studio MAPPA (Maruyama Animation Produce Project Association) was established as a Japanese animation studio on 14th June 2011 by Masao Maruyama, the founder and former producer of Madhouse.

Animations I am familiar with them producing are Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis (Rage of Bahamut Genesis) and Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance) which show great animation as well as a compelling story. As far as I know both series don't have a manga (Japanese Comic) to work from so the stories of these had to be improvised by the studio. Shingeki no Bahamut is based of a card game, but still there isn't much of a story to base the series on. This is impressive as the studio not only demonstrates great animation skills but possesses good script writing skills.

Shingeki no Bahamut (left) and Zankyou no Terror (right)

Other works of theirs include the Garo series, Hajime no Ippo: Rising (Fighting Spirit: Rising), Punch Line, Ushio to Tora (Ushio and Tora) Yuri on Ice etc.

They make use of drawn and CG animation with brilliant quality:

Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis

Garo The Animation

Cat Shit One - The Animated Series

As shown above there is just something about this animation that instantly catches your attention. Based on the comic by Motofumi Kobayashi, Anima Inc. has produced an animated series directed by Kazuya Sasahara.

At first glance, and considering the title, I thought this was going to be a joke. However, after watching the short animated film it turned out to be very interesting. Given that the situation is similar to many military series or films but it still proves to be unique due to the characters all being animals. It gives an idea of how animals would move if they were like humans, i.e. they have anthropomorphised. As shown in the gif above the two main rabbit characters cover each others' backs just as normal human soilders would do. They appear to have opposable thumbs as well.

I like the way in which differen animal species are used to represent different races, since humans don't exist in this world. The characters are animals native to their corresponding country, hence the two soilders and one of the hostages are Rabbits since they are American. The terrorists and one of the hostages are Camels since they are Arabian (one humped Camels aka dromedaries). It does well not to show that all Camel characters are bad as one is held hostage by fellow Camels, whom the two Rabbits rescue. There is something about it that is slightly out of place because Rabbits are normaly shown as cute and cuddly creatures, whereas here they are depicted as deadly soilders which catches your attention.

 The animation still holds some realism despite the concept. For example, the captain of the team, Packy, warns his partner, Botasky, that his gun has too many attachments on it which will make it heavier for him to carry around. Botasky expresses that he wants the attachments because it looks cool, proving that he is using them more for aesthetic purposes rather than tactical purposes. Packy demonstrates this when he takes a moment to put a silencer on his pistol and then it is suggested he takes it off as we see him later on using his pistol without the silencer. He uses the silencer only when he needs to since he has explained that attachments make a gun heavier to carry around.

There is no other purpose of the title of Cat Shit One other than it is the squad name of the two Rabbit characters.

Studio Ghibli

PONYO

CASTLE IN THE SKY

Studio Ghibli have made many of my favourite animated films with their compelling stories and well animated in detail sequences. When I talk about "in detail" I don't just mean how well drawn the animations are but the animator's attention to detail. For example, in a scene from 'Spirited Away' where Chihiro puts her shoes back on, she doesn't simply just slip them on but actually takes time to adjust them so that they are comfortable, just like any real person would do. Ghibli don't just make their films look amazing but make them feel real.

The studio also has very unique and charming character designs that are easily distinguished from other animations of the same "genre" of art (anime). They have a certain realism to the proportions but are very simplistic so the designs can appeal to a range of audiences.

PRINCESS MONONOKE

For a compelling story and interesting character designs I'd say Princess Mononoke is my favourite. The design of the clothing for characters like Prince Ashitaka and Princess Mononoke intrigued me. Even the design of the giant animals which appear and the Forest Spirit forms (i.e. daytime and "Nightwalker" form). I also like the story concepts concerning the destructive force of humanity and how it effects animals and the environment. In this story humans even threaten the gods of the world described, expanding on how deadly humans can be.

RWBY

RWBY is a CGI animated anime styled American series created by Monty Oum (June 22 1981 - February 1 2015) with Roosterteeth.  The series entails the story of a four colour coordinated team of females, each called Ruby Rose (the leader), Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long (Ruby's older sister) hence the title RWBY. Each character has their own unique personality according to their backgrounds and can be represented by their assigned colour. What I really enjoy about this animation is not just the character designs but how well designed the weapons are within the series.

Ruby Rose is the youngest of the group as her appearance shows i.e. she is smaller. This goes well with her personality as she is energetic and childish. However she is deadly in combat against the Grim (monsters within the series) as shown she wields a giant scythe. I love the design Monty created for the scythe as the blade is also animated to collapse so that it isn't in the way for her to use it as a sniper rifle. The recoil is also powerful enough to propel her through the air or to help her launch herself into a lighting speed sprint (which is her special ability, also known as semblance within the series). This is a trait I adore about the weapons, they are more than just one type of weapon or have more than one use and it's very creative the weapons Monty has combined.

RWBY Red Trailer:

Weiss Schnee belongs to a rich company within the series and as a result she tends to show she has a big ego and desires to be perfect. She can also be quite cold hearted to people which is a visual representation of the colour she is assigned. Hence she has been nicknamed Ice Queen. Her weapon suits her personality and fighting style, i.e. elegant, as she wields a fencing sword. However, it's more then just a sword as the sword's hilt contains a cylinder which contains different types of Dust (an energy source within the series used to created magic like attacks) and rotates to change to different types of Dust to perform different types of attacks. She uses her sword almost like a magic wand and especially looks like one since it's long and slender.

RWBY White Trailer:

Blake Belladonna is almost like the ninja of the group as she is the most stealthy of the group. Out of all the characters Blake is my favourite as majority of the time she has a serious and strong personality plus the colours she is assigned (Black being her primary colour). She is also the most secretive of the group. However, what I most like about her is her weapon as it's the most combined weapon of them all. As shown it's not just a sword, she can unsheathe the bladed sheath on top of her actual sword to change to dual wielding, on her primary sword the hilt is also a pistol and when the blade collapses she can use the ribbon dangling from the handle to swing the bladed pistol hilt around like a chain whip using the recoil from the pistol for momentum. For me this is one of the most creative weapon.

RWBY Black Trailer:

Yang Xiao Long is more like the muscle of the group as she prefers a more direct approach in combat and uses her fists. Plus she has proven to have a very durable body surviving even falling long enough to reach terminal velocity. She can be very headstrong and brutish yet appears very beautiful with long flowing blond hair and shows more skin then the rest of the girls. Her weapons suit her very well as they are like gauntlets which she uses like boxing gloves. They also work like cannons using kinetic energy to produce powerful hits and explosions with every hit as well as able to fire projectiles several metres away. She even uses the explosions as propelling force to help her move faster and jump higher.

RWBY Yellow Trailer:




There are several combined weapons within this series I love the creativeness of. One other weapon I like from the series is the character Sun Wukong's staff which seperates into two nunchucks and each handle of each nunchuck is also a pistol.

As shown above RWBY also shows great CG animated fight sequences. This also shows in the trailers I have provided videos of in this blog.