Daily Archives: May 8, 2025

The 1839 scroll “Six Jewel River” by Sakai Ōho has a lot in common with the style and mood of anime. You can see similarities in the way the artist uses clean, delicate lines to define the figures and nature kind of like how anime relies on strong line work to highlight characters and movement. The scroll also has a peaceful, emotional vibe, using nature scenes like flowing rivers and seasonal plants to set a reflective tone. That’s something anime often does too, especially in slower-paced or romantic scenes. The soft, natural colors (like blues, greens, and earth tones) are also very common in alot of anime backgrounds, which tend to be gentle and atmospheric rather than super bright.

The Private Shufu series uses humor to engage new soldiers by illustrating the mistakes a clumsy soldier might make and what not to do, followed by sarcastic narration that points out those mistakes. In this short film, Private Snafu neglected all his machinery and he edns up captured by a Nazi. The animators use exaggerated drawings of the weapons failing for comedic effect while narrators joke about them to make the lesson easier to understand.

It’s most likely his series also aimed to encourage people to join the army, displaying the environment of the military in a light-hearted and comedic tone, leaving out the realities of war and the damage it did to many people.

“Princess Mononoke” (1997) stands as Studio Ghibli’s deepest story on humanity vs nature and conflict resolution. Nature is symbolized through the characters, San, the wolf-raised Princess Mononoke who embodies the wild and love for nature. There are Forest Spirit/Night Walker, the mysterious kodama spirits, and the god-like animal tribes led by Moro the wolf goddess and Okkoto the boar god. “These supernatural beings showcase nature’s power, wisdom, and vulnerability while emphasizing its mysterious essence beyond human comprehension” according to google. As tenstions rise between Irontown’s residents and the forest guardians, Miyazaki decides to fight. Though the Forest Spirit is decapitated and ancient gods perish, the final scenes show Ashitaka and San respect and acknowledging their separate but connected worlds while kodama spirits return to the healing forest. This lowkey bummer ending suggests not victory for either side but the possibility of uneasy coexistence, humanity-nature relationship requires ongoing negotiation rather than absolute solutions.

Disney and other major studios began closing their 2D animation divisions in the late 1990s and early 2000s largely due to shifting audience tastes and the success of 3D animation. The turning point came with Pixar’s Toy Story (1995), the first fully computer-animated feature film, which was both a critical and commercial success. Following, 3D films like Shrek (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003) dominated box offices, while traditionally animated films like Treasure Planet (2002) and Home on the Range (2004) were box-offices bombs. Studios saw 3D as more modern, cost-effective in the long term, and easier to market to global audiences and and audiences made it clear that that is what they wanted to see. From a business perspective, the move made sense at the time. 3D films were consistently more profitable and perceived as cutting-edge. But from an artistic and cultural standpoint, many argue it was a loss. The closure of 2D departments meant fewer opportunities for hand-drawn animators and a narrowing of visual storytelling styles. It also sent the message that traditional animation was “obsolete,” which discouraged its growth in mainstream cinema, but it really hard to gauge what casual audiences really want to see Despite this, 2D animation has not died it still used heavily behind the scenes at Disney, with storyboard and concept art, Japan has remained a global leader in 2D animation through anime and indie and international films like Klaus and Wolfwalkers use hand-drawn techniques with modern tools to stunning effect.