Why Beastars Animation is So Good | Review
Studio Orange delivers another amazing anime with good 3D CGI animation with Beastars. Just like with Land of the Lustrous (2017), another anime studio Orange adapted, CGI animation is used as a conscious artistic choice instead of a cheap alternative and it works.
The Beastars manga was written and illustrated by Paru Itagaki. The eye-catching rough art and chaotic paneling from Itagaki made it a challenge for any studio to try to adapt it. Studio Orange decided to be bold and adapt the manga. The staff even decided to reinterpret it and translated it into 3DCG. The result is great animation and a breathe of fresh air.
3 Reasons Why The Animation in Beastars is So Good is Because Of The:
1. 3D Face Expressions
2. Unique Character Designs
3. Great Directing
But first, lets talk about studio Orange and why 3D animation has been unpopular among the anime community.
Background of Beastar Animation Studio
Studio Orange is a studio found by CG animator Eiji Inomoto. Eiji started as a CG animator in the early 1990s and worked as a CG director for many projects. His works include Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002), Code: Breaker(2012), Kantai Collection (2015), and Majestic Prince: Wings to the Future (2016).
Eiji took the team he was working on Majestic Prince: Wings to the Future (2016) and decided to do something new and produce one of the most interesting CG anime in recent memory, Land of the Lustrous (2017).
Studio Orange’s Land of the Lustrous (2017) was one of the most interesting titles of 2017. It was a huge critical success and may be looked at as a game changer in the future. This is not only because of it’s technical merits but because of it’s impact regarding the anime communities attitude towards 3DCG anime.
Adapting a unique manga like Land of the Lustrous (2017) was no easy feat. The staff at studio Orange had to carefully animate the character’s gem hair as well as make the character’s 2D face attach to a 3D body and make it all match up with amazing background visuals.
Eiji Inomoto is a veteran but had to live through an era where any 3D elements that the audience could notice were seen as unpleasant. Eiji Inomoto perfected CG animation by experimenting and eventually found success in his earlier works where he would cut a certain amount of frames to make the CG elements work.
The staff at Orange continued to raise the bar for digital animation with Beastars and their visual choices are as fascinating as the story itself.
The director Shinichi Matsumi, who was part of the core team in Land of the Lustrous (2017), is the director of Beastars.
Why CGI and 3D Animation Isn’t Very Popular
One of the reasons why CGI and 3D animation isn’t very popular is because it doesn’t truly capture the look or essense of traditional animation. This is the reason why most animators and studios don’t try to fully incorporate it in their works.
One of the only recent anime besides Land of the Lustrous (2017) to pull off 3D animation so well is Hi Score Girl (2019).
Certain scenes with 3D visuals may look good but most of the time it looks unnatural. One good reason why 3D visuals don’t have the same impact is because most Japanese artists (unlike Western artists) only specialize in drawing 2D characters. So the conversion process to 3D makes the result look wonky.
Furthermore, there is alot of terrible 3D animation in anime that soured expectations in the anime community. So when the anime community sees anything that has to do with 3D animation, they are turned off.
The CG in Beastars can turn off viewers at first but the art style will grow on most. Beastars introduces a wide range of motions.
Studio Orange does something unique. For example, Beastars adjust it’s frame rate depending on the motion. For example, if the background is panning, the frame rate are ‘ones‘, which essentially means every frame is unique. This allows for smoother animation. Most of Beastars takes place on ‘twos’, which is every second frame or 12fps. This is what most 2D anime use. However, Beastars occasionally switches to threes, which is 8fps. This is makes it great for deliberate or slow motion shots. What’s great is the animators are able to skillfully do this at the same time. For example, in some scenes where Legosi walks, he is moving on threes while the background is moving at ones.
Beastars 3D Face Expressions
Alot went into creating the face expressions of the characters in Beastars.
Many of the scenes that show the characters emotions would be difficult to animate in 2D but expressions are portrayed so well.
Nao Ootsu, who worked on the faces in Land of the Lustrous (2017), was the character designer in Beastars. He drew the 2D designs and expressions in the beginning phase of the production. This made the process of animating more efficient and easier and gave other animators a clear vision of how the characters were meant to express emotion.
After the 2D designs and expressions of the faces were drawn, the Beastars animation team, led by Ootsu, decided to implement facial motion capture. This allowed them to enact the dialogue between the characters and that was used to make the 3D faces of the animals fit the various facial expressions. The animators then go over that to capture and keep the raw human emotion.
Beastar Characters Have a Unique Design
The characters in Beastars are humanoids. Every animal looks distinct and different. The art department at studio Orange paid attention to the smallest detail.
One thing that particularly stands out in Beastars is the fur of each character.
The fur in Beastars is an artistic and technical achievement. Character designer Ootsu used his dog as reference for Legosi’s fur. Normally in 3D anime, when you light toon shaded characters, you end up with these blocks of color to determine where the light is directly hitting. In Beastars, each character has a different amount of fur. This means the shadows change for every character, which is hard and time consuming to get right. The animators were able to do a good job animating Ootsu’s 2d design.
Orange used a plugin called Hair Farm for detailed fur shots and another plugin called Tyflow, a particle simulator that can manage the movement of a huge amount of different objects, or in this case, strands of fur.
Furthermore, the free range of motions that come with 3D character models gives way to the usage of subtle body language that sells the audience on these already well designed characters.
3D anime emulates the style of 2D anime while taking advantage of the technology that allows them to go further. Ootsu’s character designs were used in the modelling process and the shadowing and expression tests as well.
Beastars Has Great Direction
Beastars was beautifully directed and that helped the animation stand out.
The director of Beastars is Matsumi Shinichi who worked on Land of the Lustrous (2017). Shinichi takes a minimalist approach when it comes to directing, letting the material take the lead. For example, there is very little music or sound effects during scenes.
One of the cool things about Beastars is how the creative storyboarding turns the dialogue into split screen moments. It was a unique way to display the tension between the characters.
Shinichi was able to get surreal closeups of characters like Legosi when he gets bloodthirsty. You can see the visionary direction.
The 3D backgrounds also allow for some stunningly dynamic and creative camera movements during intense moments. The backgrounds and environments that are brimming with gorgeous art direction. For example, the blood-red moon and the indigo sky look amazing.
The level of detail is impressive. For example, the way Legosi slouches when he walks just like a teenaged boy with self-esteem issues, or the way Bill arches an eyebrow when he senses something isn’t right. The studio Orange staff clearly understand that the small stuff really matters when setting the mood.
One of the best scenes was the hotel scene with Haru and Legosi. Using the love hotel mirrors as a reflection to the first time Haru and Legosi met was beautiful and stunning.
Conclusions
Studio Orange is a studio that constantly tries to challenge themselves. Regardless of whether they succeed or not, they take on demanding projects and still deliver. First with Land of the Lustrous (2017) and then with Beastars.
The animation in Beastars stands out because of the 3D face expressions, the unique character designs, and gret directing.
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