Highlights
- Pluto’s behind-the-scenes video reveals that the heavy use of special effects in the animation can sometimes cover up and obscure the original artwork.
- Some viewers appreciate the unique and ambitious visual style of the adaptation, while others find the blending of 2D and 3D animation off-putting.
- The intense use of CGI effects, while stylistically interesting, can be messy and less impactful in conveying crucial information to the audience, potentially detracting from the overall viewing experience.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Pluto, now streaming on Netflix.
A behind-the-scenes look is implicitly special; an opportunity to see the craft behind the art, thereby allowing some to deepen their engagement with – and appreciation of – the work. In the case of Netflix’s Pluto, however, a recent feature interviewing the crew behind the series might have had the opposite effect concerning the visual effects and their effect on the animation.
Based on the manga by Naoki Urasawa in collaboration with Osamu Tezuka, the Netflix Original Series Pluto is a bold take on the classic Astro Boy story, “The Greatest Robot on Earth.” It takes the original concept and turns it into a mature tech-noir detective thriller with anti-war themes, following an investigation into the murder of the strongest robots in the world.
An Adaptation Years in the Making
On November 30, the official Netflix Anime YouTube channel released “Behind the Creation of PLUTO | MAKINGFLIX,” a 16-minute interview with just a few of the show’s creators. The four staff members interviewed were executive producer Masao Maruyama, character designer Shigeru Fujita, CGI director Takahiro Miyata, and director of photography Mitsuhiro Sato.
While not as in-depth as an hour-long documentary into the production might have been, the first half of the feature is quite interesting to watch. Maruyama speaks to the trouble with adapting Pluto, given the length of the manga and the detail therein, which set a high standard for the visuals, hence such a long development time.
Given Maruyama’s connection to Astro Boy, his relationship with Urasawa, and his involvement in the author’s past adaptations, he felt protective of the opportunity to finally see Pluto animated. Added to his reputation as the founder of two of the biggest anime studios of all time – Madhouse and MAPPA – it was only a matter of time before it saw the light of day.
Regardless of one’s opinion of Maruyama in light of his later career, it’s admittedly heartwarming to hear him talk about whether he’d live to see the anime come out and to know that he saw it through. Next, Fujita – who also served as chief animation director – took the spotlight to discuss the character designs and the difficulty of replicating the manga’s art.
There’s a growing concern as of late among Sakuga enthusiasts about animation techniques that used to be commonplace but are no longer being passed down to the newer generations. Not only do the popular styles of a medium change with time, but the production methods shift as well. Sakuga Blog discusses this in-depth here. Pluto‘s artwork feels like a blast from the past because its beautiful characters are designed in ways most anime characters nowadays are not.
So far, so good. Fujita’s section alone is worth watching the video, to get an idea of the care put into the tiniest details of the designs. Unfortunately, the next section discusses the use of special effects, which on its own would not be a big deal at all were it not for specific ways in which it pulls back the curtain.
Art Beneath Artifice
Even as early as the first teasers for the anime, some in the community were skeptical about the visual style of the adaptation. A lot of it seemed to come down to personal taste and a general apprehension toward CGI in anime, but there were some fairly ambitious effects on display. For some, they looked cool and different, but to others, the color design and the blending of 2D and 3D created visuals that looked off.
What Miyata’s segment of the video reveals is that Pluto‘s special effects didn’t just “enhance” the animation; they covered it up.
Nowadays, 3D is commonplace in anime, from the work of Ufotable to Studio Orange. Additionally, when clear lines are drawn between what is and isn’t CGI in a production, that consistency makes it much easier for audiences to accept such elements. With Ufotable in particular, CGI can be an enhancement to the pre-existing animation beneath the effects.
The operative word is “enhancement,” but what Takahiro Miyata’s segment of the video reveals is that Pluto‘s special effects didn’t just “enhance” the animation; they covered it up. At one point, Miyata discusses legendary animator Shinya Ohira and shows some of their key animation, before showing the work being progressively covered up to the point that it is incomprehensible.
Following this, the video shows a side-by-side of a cut from the first episode, both before and after effects are added, showing North #2 dispatching enemy robots in a flashback. Those who binged the show before watching this feature would be forgiven for instinctively thinking “I don’t remember seeing that shot.”
Sure enough, by the time that thought passes, layer upon layer of special effects have been added, utterly covering up any discernible affectation on the part of the animators. The smoke and explosion effects are replaced with CGI smoke. On its own, this is a stylistic choice that not everyone will vibe with, but what’s worse is that the opponents being killed are nigh invisible through the thick of it all.
Even as a creative choice, this becomes a lot harder to defend when the information being conveyed to the audience is crucially less than what it could have been. It ends up leaving a mark not only on the scenes shown in the feature but on other scenes with such intense CGI components upon rewatching.
The special effects can be plain messy, such as the storm that appears whenever Pluto strikes at the characters. Initially, the blurry windswept effect seen in the teaser had a striking quality to it because of how unique it was. In practice, though, the persistent flashing and lack of a concrete form, while aptly mysterious, can be an eyesore after enough time has passed. It just doesn’t look all that interesting and robs major confrontations of the thrill and suspense they might have had.
Naturally, the decision to use such heavy 3D effects will hit differently for each viewer. It isn’t as though animators like Shinya Ohira don’t get opportunities to display their talents free of obfuscation, something especially true of the series’ end. With that said, it’s saddening to think of how much else was covered up in favor of effects that won’t age nearly as well and that make the action less impactful in the process.
None of this is a condemnation of Pluto, which has been deservedly praised by critics and audiences alike as a faithful adaptation of a captivating and often emotional story. Rather, this feature goes to show how, for all the importance placed on getting this adaptation right, one of its key shortcomings lies in its unwillingness to scale things back. It’s best to let the animator’s work speak for itself, rather than augment it in service of some arbitrary goal of being “more exciting.”
Source: Sakuga Blog
Leave a Reply