#animation analysis

[swampjawn]

Time to talk an unnecessary amount about floors!

Episode 6 of Dungeon Meshi was produced in collaboration with a smaller studio, Enishiya - and it went way harder than I expected, for being made up of two relatively simple and self contained stories focusing on one character each.

And you can really see how those extra resources meant the animators could give full focus to both halves of the episode. Let's take a look at one piece that stole the show.

The first half was handled primarily by episode director/storyboard artist Keita Nagahara and co-animation director Hirotoshi (or Hiroaki? [1]) Arai. It's actually kinda insane how much of this section can be attributed to these two.

But the real star of the show is the second half, Chilchuck vs the mimic, led by co-animation director Toya Ooshima in his first animation director role for TV anime!

And the biggest aspect that knocked my dang boots off was something that's very consistent with Ooshima's style: background animation!

By animating the backgrounds rather than using painted still images, Ooshima and the team of other similarly skilled animators are able to create these beautiful dynamic camera movements that wouldn't be possible otherwise. Like these cuts by Takeshi Maenami where the camera becomes an expressive part of the scene, zipping forward and backward, and tilting to emphasize the speed of this murderous hermit crab. (Maenami's style is also very recognizable here - snappy timing and quick camera movements)

Or this cut by the incredible Kaito Tomioka which cleverly combines a traditional background for the walls with a fully animated floor. The level of detail in these tiles is just completely insane, and used to great effect with this wide, diagonal angle, and the way the camera tentatively drifts forward before reversing direction, and the tiles blur out as it speeds up.

I don't think I'm the only one caught off guard by how much they full-assed this little side story, but it was a pleasant surprise!

I broke down the entire episode in this video here. A lot of research went into this one, and I think it's the best one of these videos I've made so far, so if you're at all interested in more of this type of analysis in video form, I would really appreciate it if you checked it out, or re-blogged this post! Thanks

[1] It's listed as Hirotoshi on Anime News Network, but Hiroaki on a key frame that Studio Trigger shared on Twitter, so I'm not sure which one is wrong.

[falling-star-cygnus]

i couldn’t resist the pull of a new indie animated cartoon, life is hard and i am but a weak soul

✨Ramshackle✨ by Zeddyzi -> why it’s amazing and why you should watch it :D

she’s a mood fr

No.1: Vinnie is usually the first to panic

while none of trio are 'in charge' -nor should they be- Vinnie does take the lead more often than Skipp or Stone do {these two also tend to look at her before taking action, which is actually adorable} so it's pretty cool to see she's not oblivious to dangerous situations like her archetype tends to lean into -> also Stone's totally contemplating breaking the window to get away from the pageant zombies

No.2: Stone is super protective, despite acting like he's not

but he does it in a way that doesn’t come across as thinking the other two are incapable, it’s more like: you totally could’ve dealt with that, but im right here so you don’t have to

No.3: Skipp isn’t helpless, nor is he treated as such

this is really awesome bc trios typically have that one character that’s really bright and bubbly but that’s also often infantilised by both their peers and the fandom -> Vinnie and Stone are totally confident in his feral capabilities though, and apart from briefly scolding him when it was necessary- they don’t treat Skipp like a child {which is an extremely refreshing change of pace}

No.4: ✨FOUND FAMILY✨

you got the black cat, doberman, and orange cat all in one with these silly guys! + stone's small smile when they fist bump, my heart!

No.5: The black cat is a softie

surprising absolutely no one, Stone has a hard time saying no to his family. that's not to say he can't express a boundary, like how he feels about physical touch, but he does let Vinnie and Skipp cling to him for brief intervals -> he also is already accepting that Maggot's going to be a fixture from as soon as the other two are leaving the alley way

all in all, this pilot does a mind-blowing job of portraying archetypes in a new and refreshing way that doesn't feel forced -> the animation style is beautiful, the characters are multifaceted and complex and it walks the line between silly and badass perfectly

definitely go watch the pilot on youtube!

and if you enjoyed this, let me know if there are other things you want me to analyze or give my thoughts on :D

[foggyworksbutbetter]

something minor i noticed in “the spider within”

so they dropped a new spiderverse short, and after like the 5th watch i noticed smth interesting

you’ll notice the bed, miles, and the spider within are animated on twos (which means theres a new drawing on every other frame) while everything else around him is animated on ones.

some of the broken pieces of the bed so start being animated on ones, assumedly to make it smoother, but miles and the spider within all remain on twos as miles is pushed out of his room.

this was a technique they used during into the spiderverse as well. when miles is learning how to be spiderman, he’s animated on twos while peter is animated on ones to represent the gap in their skill levels and also the difference in their universes. you can also see this technique used on a couple other spiderpeople in that movie. it creates an effect where you can just tell how unnatural their movements look in the world around them—even if you can’t quite pinpoint why—because they aren’t in the right universe. applying that idea to this scene, it shows miles’ disconnect from the world around him, from reality itself. we already know that what he was seeing and doing wasn’t real, since his dad didn’t react to any of the screaming or panicked crawling despite being a very alert person (demonstrated when he jumps at miles opening the door). it’s a very minor but interesting detail that further shows how out of touch with reality miles is as a result of his stress and trauma.

[rockanroller]

"Was Hazbin Hotel Rigged or Hand-Drawn?"

disclaimer: do not, and i repeat, DO NOT, use this post to shit on the animators who worked their asses off on this series.

hand-drawn animation is going to have variation in it and that's part of its charm for a lot of people. it really only goes "badly" when that variation becomes too noticeable (such as being jarringly off-model) or when a character's movement isn't executed well. but if you didn't catch it w/o going through frame-by-frame, it hardly matters.

so, getting into it, ppl have been going back-and-forth on this, and viv herself has said it wasn't rigged.

and i think this is one thing she's right about.

many ppl's assumption of it being rigged was due to a lot of movements being weirdly "stiff" or "clunky" and/or characters moving oddly smooth at other times.

i can say i think it's possible rigs could've been used occasionally, or on some shots, but i also think it's more likely the animators moved their drawings in a way that makes them look rig-like as a result.

meaning in animation programs you can actually grab portions of your drawing like a head or a limb and move it, or even just nudge it ever so slightly, to the point you can make some really smooth in-betweens to the point it looks rigged.

that said, a rig keeps a character uniform and consistent.

for example:

with the exception of bits where the character has to move or be interacted with in a way the rig won't allow, which would either need new additions to the rig or to be hand-drawn over the rig.

but see how Rick's head/face/hair and proportions stay the same?

let's compare that to Charlie's head:

we can see Charlie's features vary slightly, and these aren't shots from different episodes, these are shots that are right next to each other. if you're having trouble seeing a difference here's a breakdown:

again: this is *not* me saying this is a bad thing. this type of variation is inevitable with hand-drawn animation, and to many people it's part of hand-drawn animation's charm. and if you didn't notice it and it didn't bother you while watching, it hardly matters.

everything i'm pointing out here is only to show why i think Hazbin Hotel was hand-drawn (at least by majority or a large percentage) rather than rigged.

other points to this include shifting linework such as here:

you can see the lines get thicker/thinner between these frames such as on the inner portions of her eyes, the curl of hair under her right (our left) eye, or how a section of linework on her hair & face suddenly shows up between both of her outer eye-lashes.

which, again, shifting line-weights aren't uncommon in hand-drawn animation, and can be part of its charm. but in a rig you wouldn't see the linework shifting like this, it would remain uniform.

i also noticed portions where linework ever-so-slightly crosses over itself for either a few frames or multiple, which wouldn't be seen with a rig (unless it was rigged poorly or smth.)

when you go through the episodes frame-by-frame these minor variations become more apparent.

reiterating again, however: none of this is "bad" unless it's noticeable w/o going through frame-by-frame.

animation is not intended to be watched frame-by-frame or hyper-analyzed up-close and personal.

animation is *supposed* to trick the eye and create the illusion of movement, so if it wasn't an error that was noticeable it doesn't matter.

an example of a noticeable "bad" error would be something like when Vaggie completely disappears mid-shot, along with the camera & BG snapping and Charlie's compositing disappearing with her pose shifting slightly (watch the legs) all at the same time.

(this is not two random frames taken out of context, these frames are directly next to each other.)

do not, and i repeat, DO NOT, use this post to shit on the animators who worked their asses off on this series.

all this was just to share an analysis of why i think that at least a large percentage of Hazbin Hotel was hand-drawn.

[ekwolfwriter-blog]

I have said it before, and I will say it a millions times again: the animators were on point with the Southern Raiders episode.

I still want to break more of it down, but from this clip there is a range of emotions that are just chef's kiss perfect! Here is the tweet to follow along: https://twitter.com/zutaramedia/status/1660306841321226241?s=20

But from the scene, we get this beautiful shot:

We get a shocked Zuko that is shocked to hear the comment from Katara and how angry she still is toward him.

Next we get a grimacing Zuko. Wondering why she still is angry at him since everyone has shown the trust and accept him as part of the team. Especially after he saved her and from how she saved him. And also still feeling bad that she is still mad.

And Katara looks off, not really as angry as before - but definitely like she is trying to hold back from crying again. Could be the angle and the lighting but there is some emotions on her face too.

Bonus, Suki looking worried for Zuko and Katara between this scene and looked between them like there was some tension was clearly sensed. Definitely curious as to what caused them to have this dynamic

Next we get a determined Zuko to finally figure out why Katara is mad at him. Definitely reads like "I can't stand her being mad at me. I need to know why so I can make it up to her as she deserves it."

Also, Sokka's face is hilarious!

And finally:

He might look mad, but I would say more determined to understand why she is mad at him at him and understands that he has to talk to her face to face; following her when no one else was getting up or offering. Clearly breaking the mold as no one else ever seemed to follow her when she needed to be alone when mad and not looking into it more. But not our totally crushing on the powerful water bending girl fire boy. He can tell there is more.

And sadly I could not get a picture, but after this, you can so see him walking a distance behind her but clearly making sure to give Katara her space to storm off.

The range of emotions this boy shows all while trying to make things right for Katara and definitely realizing he needs to know directly from her as to why she is so hostile, just amazing! And even the small moment of Katara looking ready to cry before turning and leaving to add more emotions as well! The animators did not waste a moment as they certainly crammed in so much! I love it!

So wish we got the two parter for Southern Raiders. Would have loved to have seen how they would have added more.

Still going to break the whole thing down another day. But for now, hope you all enjoy!

[pancake-breakfast]

After I finished watching Centaurworld, I came up with a handful of essay questions one could apply to the show.

Posting them here for posterity. (They are spoiler-free. Feel free to answer one (or more) if you'd like.)

1. In the last episode, Elk claims he and Horse are the same. What evidence is there to support his claim? What evidence is there to refute it?

2. Do you think the final choice the Woman made at the end was the right one? Why or why not?

3. Discuss the various elements of modern culture and/or society, both good and bad, as reflected by least one of the following centaur groups: Bird-taurs, Centaurs (TM), Mole-taurs, Cat-taurs, Cold-taurs.

4. Use at least three of the characters listed below to discuss ways people try to attain comfortableness. Be sure to address the effectiveness of their technique. Characters: Ched, Comfortable Doug, Elk, Gebbrey, General, Glendale, Horse, Sunfish Merguy, Tree Shamans, Wamawink, Whale Shaman, Zulius

5. How might an adult utilize a show like Centaurworld to discuss one or more of the following topics with an audience under the age of 12? Be sure to reference specific scenes from the show. Topics: Depression, Suicide, Trauma, Loss, Self-Acceptance, Conflict Avoidance, Conflict-Seeking Behavior, Unhealthy Internalization of External Expectations, Boundaries, Recognizing and Respecting the Struggles Others Have While Still Respecting Yourself

Extra Credit: Why are you smudging up your answers with tears?

[thelovelydoggycatmadi]

A "Be With You" (Aphmau) in Depth Analysis/Critique PT.1

DISCLAIMER; just as the title says I am not a professional nor do I claim to be, I'm just a 22 year old artist with a passion for animation and love to give the most genuine criticism I can. This is not an excuse for me or anyone else to attack Jessica/Jesson or the original animators. Any anger that you may pick up on is either not genuine or possibly an oversight in my wording. Enjoy!

To start let's discuss the opening shot;

Other Minor Notes;

The snow isn't falling in the correct direction, technically, the correct way you'd animate this is the snow starting big on the screen, then get smaller implying it's getting farther away, then disappearing into the ground.

To expand on why I made the realistic cut, it would probably make more sense because the implication is Ein just seems to find this "perfectly cut" emerald in the middle of the snow.

This is extremely minor but the snows line-art texture is off, it shouldn't look as round, sculpted and squishy, the line-art should be more bumpy and rough looking.

Other Minor Notes;

The emerald having three light sources while none of them interact with each other makes no real physical sense, not just because it's snowing in the middle a dense forest, this emerald exists on a other plain.

Some may point out that so much animation might be a show of hard work therefore its "good", I'll be blunt and say it's not. More frames and movement doesn't always mean better. Subtle and singular movement works just as well. As the saying goes "work smarter now harder".

Minor Notes:

typically scarring doesn't have it's own line art, scars normally aren't defined enough on the skins to warrant that. Typically they are drawn in a separate color on the color animation file. I will go more in depth on this later.

I typically don't but I believe his you're character’s in a place with harsh lighting its better to experiment with colors you are using.

remember when someone in animation moves if it has something poking out of it that piece will follow, notice how the ears are so high up on the head there almost on the back of it. When they should be on top.

Minor Notes;

the standard fps is 24 for animation, this includes film, most animators by a 2 to 3 rule. Which means a frame will take up two to three ticks in the timeline.

Remember, hair/fabric/fur will move and be "yanked" by the roots when a character head moves, and the movement is dictated by speed and force as which the character moves.

[gear-project]

If you are a Ramlethal Valentine fan, give your opinions on why she walks like this and what's her body language she's showing this exact moment?

First of all, please don't start off with "If you are a fan of XXX" that puts people on the spot. Of course I'm a fan of GG characters, but that alone doesn't mean I have to fixate on some things.

Ramlethal is light on her feet, due to the fact she can fly short distances, so walking is just something she does with purpose and direction.

At the time Xrd was made, Ramlethal was created as an "enemy of Sol Badguy" to confront, so much of her design was intended to convey the idea of an "alien being that still looks human".

Normal "walking" body language conveys the idea that you put one foot in front of the other, maintaining the weight of your upper body on to your feet (in other words, the ankles and base of your foot touch the ground as opposed to walking on the tips of your toes).

But because "walking" is a foreign concept to Ram here, due to the fact she can fly... using her feet completely or her full body weight in her movements is something "lost" on her... hence why she only walks on the tips of her toes as an afterthought.

If all humans could walk gracefully on our toes, I think we'd be a much more positive people.

That just conveys how "evolved" Valentines are compared to normal humans... (Interestingly enough Elphelt can do this too, but chooses not to because to her she prefers to look more normal as a person in public).

[kylobedrawin]

Ignore the fact that my name is different here. I can't pick a handle but this is my video Essay on Blue Sky animation! I hope you enjoy.

[tikkisfanart]

The Animated Tear: Clone Wars and The Bad Batch

Why have we not seen it in The Bad Batch? Who will shed it in Season 3?

Emotion plays a big role in storytelling, and tears are a powerful way to express emotion. In an animated show, when time is taken to animate a tear falling from a character’s eyes, it means something. When those characters are war-hardened soldiers, it means even more. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, we are given very few instances where a clone trooper actually cries. I can think of only three occasions where this happens:

Season 4, episode 10: Carnage of Krell: Waxer sheds a tear just before he dies, after the realization that the men he and his men were firing at were their brother clones.

Season 7, episode 11: Shattered: Rex sheds a tear as he tries to hold back the effect of Order 66.

Season 7, episode 12: Victory and Death: Rex sheds a tear at the thought of fighting his brothers to get Ashoka and himself to safety.

(If I missed any, I apologize.)

The scenes that brought about these tears were emotional to begin with: the tragedy that came from Krell’s deceit; the tension of Order 66; the thought of fighting family in order to survive. Adding tears makes the scenes more powerful. To see a clone break the composure of a soldier for a single moment to shed a tear is emotionally impactful to the audience.

So why have we not seen an animated tear in The Bad Batch?

Granted, there are a couple times Omega’s eyes do water—s1 e9: when she is rescued by the Batch from Cad Bane; s2 e8: as she says good-bye to Echo—but we never see a tear actually fall down her cheek. Omega does wipe her hand under her eyes several times, and Wrecker does occasionally, as if wiping away tears, but there has never been a tear animated on their cheeks. One reason for this may be just to have an animation shortcut. They wipe their eyes, so we assume there are tears, but we don’t have to see them so they are not animated.

But I would hope there is a deeper reason for not yet animating a tear—something other than an animation shortcut. I hope that they have not yet animated a tear because they are waiting for when such a detail in animation would be emotionally impactful to the audience.

We have seen Omega’s range of emotions throughout the show, which is fine. She is a child, and it is better to express emotions in a healthy way than it is to push them away (go watch Inside Out). Because Wrecker is so childlike, he is easily susceptible to his emotions as well. I believe we have not seen the tears shed from them because it would not make the scene much more emotionally impacting on the audience. Because of this, the animators may not want to animate tears so often that they become common place and expected. When the tear is animated, it has to come as a surprise, and during a scene that is already emotional for the viewers.

So, who in The Bad Batch would be the best candidate to shed this animated tear?

Hunter has been on a big character transformation: going from tough soldier to fatherly figure. It would be nice to see such emotion from him, and a tear would possibly seal this transformation. But I feel that is too obvious and would not be a surprise.

Personally, I want to see Echo shed this tear. We have seen some emotion from Echo, but not such deep emotion. He is the most soldier-like of them all. He will forever be a soldier. I feel that a scene where Echo lets go of his soldier composure to express such strength of emotion to cry—whether out of sorrow or joy—would be very powerful. However, as much as I want to see this emotion from Echo, if we only get one shed tear animated in the whole show, there is someone else who this tear would be most impactful from.

Of course, it is Crosshair. Crosshair is the hardest and most closed-off of them all. He hardly expresses any emotion other than anger or annoyance. We have seen a little bit more from Crosshair slowly leaking out throughout season 2, but he is still very stoic. A scene where Crosshair would break down far enough to display any emotion—other than anger—would be powerful. To see him shed a tear would be heartbreaking! So, if the animators wait to animate a single tear from only one clone, Crosshair would be the best choice. It would be the most emotionally impacting coming from Crosshair.

However, whenever the tear is animated, and from whomever it is shed, it must be done properly. They could animate a tear from Crosshair, but if done in the wrong way, at the wrong time, it would not be as impactful. It has to be during a scene that is already emotionally striking to the audience (such as with order 66 in Clone Wars s7 e11). Take this emotional scene, and add in an animated tear, it will be so much more poignant, especially if it comes from Crosshair.

[xamaxenta]

I cut and slowed down this particular moment by about 20% from Ep 1025 because its so incredible to look at

Here we can see around (roughly) 4-5 frames of Marco anticipating the dive, where he positions his body into a head first situation with the perspective, all frames I think the first three four frames of him moving are running on 2s as part of the pre action and then the awesome wingbeat frames are two separated drawings on 1s

Here they are the sexy wingbeat frames:

Poor quality bc thats what happens when you muck around with timing a gif but you get the jist

Just look at the initial down pose its so powerful as a stand-alone, the shape of his wings and the way they have that V shape fucking poetic, his main body has yet to move which is what gives the powerup feel which is then further supported by the high contrast frames after

See second frame of the stark black and the gold spark, I thought the black bg only had the gold but theres one frame with the blue follow through fire of Marcos wings phasing out dramatically - not phasing out where hes cancelling his power but its a visual trick esp the shape of the blue fire is very hard and sharp looking, it leads the eyes because the golden sparkle of Marco himself comes through on all 1s and holy fucking shit it works

I didn’t add it here as its own cut so have the gif again:

But notice how the golden sparkles on the black bg part tilts towards the lower right corner of the frame?

Looks like huge wings banking during flight and its rly cool how Ota animated the effects like this bc it then cuts into a close up of Marco flying toward and past the camera and theres this delicious tilt back towards the left bottom corner like a rocking motion Idk how to explain it

But it sells the fact that hes riding the wind whilst controlling all of this insane power which he is hes gearing up to land a heavy blow to an enemy character, I just think the way the gold wingspan tilts to the right and then Marco cuts back in with his blue gold purple aesthetic and tilts back to the left visually it rocks it rocks my goddamn little socks off

Especially bc the injtial frames of Marco coming out of the sparkle effect is clean as hell then he blurs up its jsut hfnbngngg good animation really fucking good stuff

Praise Akihiro Ota for this sequence, dudes out there doing Gods work for Marco fans

[swampjawn]

The first episode of Dungeon Meshi is out, and with it, an assortment of great shots:

But one of my favorites was this somewhat unassuming one:

This is what it looks like in the manga, a pretty simple goop-pour, you might say.

But the animators have taken the opportunity to elevate such a simple shot by really paying close attention to the individual chunks of fruit and scorpion meat, and making them define the form of the sludge as it pours out of the pot.

The rest of the custard mix, rather than just being an amorphous sludge, acts more like a liquid and globs around the chunks as they fall:

I just love the attention to detail here. As someone who spends a lot of time pouring goop with chunks of things in it out of pots, I feel represented.

There's a lot more where this came from, I broke down the whole episode over on my youtube channel, so go check it out if you're some sort of twisted animation-analysis-pervert.

[amazingrich101]

So from that trailer for that new MHA film I’m gonna assume this guy suffers from main protagonist syndrome.

From the beginning of the trailer you can clearly see he he is obsessed with All Might from photo’s he has of him on his walls and that he wants to be like him.

Not to mention that when he was watching that AM vs AFO fight where AM said “now, it’s your turn” this new villain says “yes, it’s my turn“ like I think this guy is gonna be one of the most delusional villains in this movie since he believe AM chose him.

And I think he might serve as a great narrative foil to Deku in this film since for the whole series he tried imitating AM, but the difference here is Deku tried to do all of that in a less extreme manner, this new villain however seems to take it in the worse way possible

[skooterskootyskoot]

*DEEP BREATH BEFORE EMOTIONAL BREAKDOWN OF THIS PERFECT IMAGE*

It might have been intentionally done by the creators, it might not have been, I’m not an animator so I’m not going to decisively say that it is or isn’t, but do you notice how the lines match up between them? Their hips and shoulders are on the same level, Amity’s belt lines up with the hem of Luz’s jacket, it’s just a straight line that separates Luz’s front from Amity’s. If you squint, it looks more like two legs of one person rather than four legs from two people. The way their arms cross over each other resembles the way a person might cross their own arms in order to hug themselves. It’s not a 50-50 image where we see half of Luz and half of Amity. 

They’re not embracing in a way where we can see both of their faces; instead we see Luz as the focus of this image, and only see a few wisps of Amity’s hair, showing us that this moment is specifically drawing attention to Luz and her perspective.

Luz had always been an outcast without any real friends, because no one understood her. Everyone wanted to change her in order for her to fit their idea of what she should be in order for them to tolerate her. Even her mother who undeniably loves her was going to send her to a camp so she could change in order to “fit in.” 

While part of her may have wished that she wasn’t so weird so people would like her more, she knew if she couldn’t be weird, then she wouldn’t be happy; and she wants so badly to be happy. It wasn’t that she wanted someone in her life who was just as weird as she was, she just wanted someone who liked her despite her weirdness. 

Luz was able to find friends in Willow and Gus, but what was it that made Amity special to Luz?

Right off the bat, Amity thinks Luz is funny, even when they’re still in their “enemy/rival” phase. She hardly reacts to Luz’s more strange behavior, probably just writing it off as a human thing (because it is! Luz *IS* human! her behavior isn’t abnormal, it’s being human!) and actually makes more comments about how odd or strange the human realm seems whenever Luz shyly tells her about the normal and mundane things humans do.

Amity actively goes out of her way to learn more about Luz and to understand her, weirdness and all. Because she caught a glimpse beyond the surface and saw something familiar in Luz. She starts seeing more and more sides of Luz that draws her closer. She eventually realizes what she saw in Luz was someone she didn’t realize she always wish she had. She shows time and time again that she sought out and found all of these little facets of what makes Luz so special to her.

Here, Luz is finally able to hold onto someone who makes her feel a way that she was afraid to hope for, let alone believe could actually happen. She finally feels seen, understood, accepted. She has someone who makes her forget that she thought something was wrong with her in the first place. When they hug, their connecting lines are opposite colors, the patterns are not symmetrical, and their combined silhouette is not smooth or form perfect shapes, but none the less, all of the parts fit together with not a single gap or empty space between them.

Luz is able to embrace this complete version of herself that she found through her relationship with Amity.

The silhouette is them. It’s theirs. And they’re happy. Because they fit.

[enderman-pandas]

i would like to talk about sonic 2 tails for a quick second hes a little tod and i like how they make him act like one his walk has this tiny little bounce that makes him look like hes just a teeny baby kid his little idle fidget is him yawning because hes tired and sleepy and hot damn it looks pretty early in every sonic game and this kid is not a morning person (because hes not insane) his little wibble wobble on the edge of a platform looks less nervous and more curious which honestly fits him since he could just fly off he always looks kind of curious (when hes flying his tiny bit of mouth appearing makes him look like hes doing a tiny :o face and when he crouches down hes still looking up with his eyes like hes still interested in whatevers above) him at the end shows him being a little child also in the title screen hes smiling because hes just happy to be there with his bestie okay thats all i really like tails hes the favorite child

[phrogarmyinvasion]

okay so perhaps this is me fundamentally not understanding people but i keep hearing people saying that anime is so much more subtle than western cartoons and i just… don’t see it? like the method of storytelling is different, ofc they are. but i don’t see either of these two animation styles being subtle. both western animation and anime will just straight up tell the audiences shit. both have character poses that are a dead visual giveaway no matter if it’s your first time watching animation or your 50th. they both have monologues for things that just happened a minute ago. and quite frankly both genres are loud. like VERY loud. anytime we are supposed to laugh at a character in anime they are laughing or screaming. the exact same thing happens in western animation. people scream or yell and it’s part of a joke. like neither are subtle. i love them both but really, they’re both obvious most of the time.