Studio Orange addresses the gripes about CG use in anime

During my time at Anime NYC, I saw plenty of Vash the Stampede cosplayers and prints inspired by one of the shows he appears in, Trigun Stampede — but the work of the shows’ creator, Studio Orange, hasn’t always been popular. 

Since its founding 20 years ago, Studio Orange has carved out a niche for digital animation during a time when CGI in anime isn’t always popular. Sure, digital techniques are becoming more and more prevalent across the anime industry — even the latest Hayao Miyazaki film, The Boy and the Heron, uses digital animation techniques — but many fans criticize CG animation for ruining the look of certain series. Regardless of the criticisms, Orange continues to develop new shows and technologies that use digital animation in popular shows like Stampede.

During a panel at Anime NYC, Orange producers Daigo Ikeda and Yoshihiro Watanabe spoke about the history of CG animation at the studio. The two producers shared information about new technology the company is using to make anime, but also responded to fan criticism and skepticism around the studio’s choice to embrace digital animation. 

Orange uses a variety of digital tools that help it marry hand-drawn 2D animation with computer-generated techniques. During the panel, the producers showed software that tracks faces and helped them animate expressions in Beastars, as well as a tool the studio is currently using to automatically generate mouth animations in Leviathan. The producers also said they’ve used Unreal Engine to render backgrounds in the IDOLiSH 7 LIVE 4bit BEYOND THE PERiOD movie. 

While many viewers can now distinguish between “good” and “bad” CG, anime fans have long criticized the use of digital tools in animation. Some fans feel this kind of animation can ruin the art style of a show or movie, and that it doesn’t look good when combined with other forms of animation. Manga is a 2D art form, and some fans expect a show to recreate a series’ comics art style. However, this isn’t the goal for Orange. Here’s what the producers said about criticism of CG animation, and concerns that the TV adaptation of Beastars could not honor the source manga because of its 3D CGI look.

“The original design is really important in characters,” Ikeda said, via a translation done by Watanabe. “Replicating the art style is not the objective, but to replicate the behaviors as animation is the prime goal. So, based on that prime goal, we redesign the look of the characters to basically best describe the uniqueness of the character.”

In the United States, CG animation has played a large role in the animation industry, via renowned CG-based film studios like Pixar. When asked if and how American studios like Pixar influence their work, the Orange producers said that not everything is the same, because the methods of animation are different, but that Pixar “definitely” influences their work. 

“Orange is not just trying to replicate existing methods, but trying to interpret and create our own as well. So depending on which influence, things are being changed around,” Ikeda said. “Motivation-wise, our CEO, [Eiji] Inomoto, was heavily influenced by Toy Story to try and approach CG animation, so a lot of influence comes straight up from the start.” 

Overall, the crowd seemed excited to learn more about the ways digital tools can assist in the animation process. In Orange’s early days, other studios would outsource animation of mech scenes to them. But soon, the studio will get to do that for its own project, in a big way. Leviathan, coming to Netflix in 2025, has a nature-versus-machine concept where the team will animate plenty of cool robots. So while the studio’s animation style isn’t to everyone’s taste, it’s at least won over some fans.