Anime Film Directors Discuss Background Artistry at TIFF | ANN

To begin the talk, Fujitsu explained the history of anime background art. Originally, it was drawn on paper with painting brushes. Towards the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, there was a shift to digital coloring and compositing. The techniques were also affected by the greater exposure of digital cameras and Photoshop in Japanese households, allowing background artists to more precisely capture real-life landscapes. This in turn influenced anime fans to visit the real-life locales, causing the anime pilgrimage boom. Fujitsu highlighted Makoto Shinkai's works, from Voices of a Distant Star to your name., as tremendously influential in shaping background art techniques due to his strong familiarity with digital processes.

On the other hand, Fujitsu also noted some conflicting ideas about background art from artists he spoke to throughout the years. In 2004, an artist told him of their concerns that digitization would make the textures look too similar to other works, but by 2013, he was hearing that artists were being instructed to make their backgrounds look more photo-like, indicating a shift in artistic tastes and sensibilities. On the other hand, as time has gone on, backgrounds that have a hand-drawn feel to them are becoming more appreciated, perhaps because of their increasing rarity. Now, in the present day, there is a great deal of flexibility in terms of what style can be pursued.

Each film director represented at the talk chose a different form of expression for the background art, which inspired Fujitsu to bring them together for a talk about their approaches