Anime’s Future: Nakaya Onsen
Digital animators have been putting out some of the most impressive work anime has to offer over the last few years. Today we present you one of the leaders of a new wave within that movement, which introduces a more human element to those flashy spectacles. Meet Nakaya Onsen, who has been receiving lots of attention as one of the stars in the astounding Fate/Apocrypha #22!
Nakaya Onsen initially gained notoriety not as an animator, but as an illustrator and mangaka of sorts. On his late teens he had his own circle and was used to publishing comics of all-ages and adult variety, illustrated novels, all sorts of original and derivative art. That shouldn’t be considered a phase of his or even training, but rather a venue of expression that he’s kept active to this day. His art is more on the realistic side when compared with the people who surround him, and his drawings, often framed as if they were rich anime layoutsLayouts (レイアウト): The drawings where animation is actually born; they expand the usually simple visual ideas from the storyboard into the actual skeleton of animation, detailing both the work of the key animator and the background artists., are full of delicate gestures that feel alive even in still form. Those all enhance the mundane peacefulness he likes to depict – if you want to take a peek into the life of a slightly playful catgirl and her handsome partner, you’re in for a treat here.
この手もいつかはしわしわになるの pic.twitter.com/Z3G9Ke6Rfy
— Ｏ・Ｎ (@OnsenNoTubuyaki) September 18, 2016
Onsen’s first anime industry appearance was in episode 11 of Idolmaster Cinderella Girls, which turned out to be quite the significant debut. The fact that he went straight onto key animationKey Animation (原画, genga): These artists draw the pivotal moments within the animation, basically defining the motion without actually completing the cut. The anime industry is known for allowing these individual artists lots of room to express their own style. and clean-up duties, including a climactic scene to boot, speaks volumes of the trust he inspired as a newcomer already. But not only that, the team he worked with essentially defined his career; that episode happened to be outsourced to studio 8-bit, commanded by the young crew who has been in charge of Yama no Susume over the last few years: the likes of Kazuaki Shimada, ちな, and Satoshi Furuhashi. While Onsen isn’t strictly a follower of Yusuke Matsuo – incidentally, character designer of both Cinderella Girls and Yama no Susume – his animation sensibilities happened to gel well enough with a group of artists who also value the charm of everyday life and the importance of mannerisms. They were already acquainted beforehand, hence why he was offered this opportunity to begin with, but the partnership wouldn’t have lasted if they didn’t chase similar goals.
His freelance animation career has proceeded as smoothly as you could realistically hope for in this messy industry, quickly making a name for himself through solid work. He would often collaborate with the aforementioned crew, receive requests by A-1 producers more often than not, and also get invited to that kind of special episode that attracts outstanding animation talent. The timeframe we’re talking about here is quite narrow – keep in mind that we’re talking about someone who only had his debut in 2015 – but despite his limited appearances, he’s already managed to leave an imprint. His frankly spectacular contribution to Fate/Apocrypha #22, a genuine landmark when it comes to digital craft in anime, might seem like it came out of nowhere if you hadn’t been paying much attention, but from within the industry it was seen simply as the confirmation of the skill they knew he possessed. Onsen’s own site has a set of disclaimers aimed at producers seeking his assistance, which confirm that he’s earned the right to be treated better than usual; his bare minimum rate for layoutsLayouts (レイアウト): The drawings where animation is actually born; they expand the usually simple visual ideas from the storyboard into the actual skeleton of animation, detailing both the work of the key animator and the background artists. and key animationKey Animation (原画, genga): These artists draw the pivotal moments within the animation, basically defining the motion without actually completing the cut. The anime industry is known for allowing these individual artists lots of room to express their own style. are above the abysmal industry standards, he warns that nuanced acting and action will easily cost 2-3x as much, there’s an offer for prioritization fees, and he notes that whenever he’s very busy – often – he’ll simply choose the most interesting and better remunerated offers. Mind you, his demands are still fairly modest, and in a sane industry 10k-20k JPY for TV anime cuts should be the average rather than a slightly positive exception. But I digress.
Truth to be told, Onsen’s presence in the anime industry is a sign of hope that extends beyond his own work. His cuts are often delightful, but he’s even more interesting as a representative of a new wave within the webgenWebgen (web系): Popular term to refer to the mostly young digital animators that have been joining the professional anime industry as of late; their most notable artists started off gaining attention through gifs and fanmade animations online, hence web generation. It encompasses various waves of artists at this point so it's hardly one generation anymore, but the term has stuck. movement. Initially, the flashiest digital animators in anime had received criticism for lacking artistic fundamentals and having a generally weak grasp of character work. I personally believe the claims were exaggerated and those youngsters were being held too strictly to standards that aren’t relevant to their creative adventures, but it’s undeniable that neither character art nor expression were their forte. They did by all means make up for that through sheer force – we’re talking about artists who grew up drawing spectacular stick figure gifs, and who recently have been greatly influenced by the king of impact Yutaka Nakamura. There’s a reason the likes of rapparu and Shun Enokido keep on catching the attention of viewers: in spite of their failings, their animation is ultimately a spectacle that has the effect on the audience that they sought.
That said, the rise of animators like ちな, soty, Noriyuki, Moaang, and of course Onsen himself is very interesting. People are the centerpiece of their work, even within grand pieces of action, and they hold acting experts as their idols rather than trying to follow the current born in projects like Noein. This doesn’t mean they can’t pull off exciting fights – Onsen’s tremendous Achilles vs Atalanta stands as proof of that, but even then his greatest success was the incredible volume he imbued the designs with and the aftermath filled with emotion. If you weren’t able to fully appreciate the work of previous digital anime leaders because it felt emotionally distant, chances are that you’ll have better luck with this new wave of young acting masters. It’s important to keep in mind that this isn’t a black or white situation (people like Bahi JD already landed neatly in the middle of both currents), but it’s an important enough positive trend in the anime industry to be hopeful about it. Nakaya Onsen only just turned 25 and hasn’t worked on all that many series. He’s a mostly self-taught animator who nonetheless has a very extensive, sort of innate understanding of animation. And yet, despite the lack of experience, he’s already prepared to be one of the leaders of a wave of creators bound to make anime a richer environment. Not the only animator in a position like that to stand out recently, but let’s leave that as a tease for the next entry of Anime’s Future!
Support us on Patreon to help us reach our new goal to sustain the animation archive at Sakugabooru, SakugaSakuga (作画): Technically drawing pictures but more specifically animation. Western fans have long since appropriated the word to refer to instances of particularly good animation, in the same way that a subset of Japanese fans do. Pretty integral to our sites' brand. Video on Youtube, as well as this SakugaSakuga (作画): Technically drawing pictures but more specifically animation. Western fans have long since appropriated the word to refer to instances of particularly good animation, in the same way that a subset of Japanese fans do. Pretty integral to our sites' brand. Blog. Thanks to everyone who’s helped out so far!
can you explain what is digital animation in anime ?how is it different ?so nakaya’s animation has no genga
To reduce it to the most simple explanation, it’s animation drawn on tablets rather than paper. There still is a standard key animation stage (though there’s a higher tendency to draw the in-betweens themselves, as multiple people in that Apocrypha episode did) so in a way it’s indistinguishable to the viewer – if it weren’t for the unique quirks these artists tend to have. It can get more complex with fully digital pipelines or actual Flash animation like Yuasa’s been putting out, but for the most part anime’s “digital animation” just means that.
That’s so cool that he is able to have higher freelance rates than the average! Is that a “common” thing among most of the animators that someone paying attention to this world would be familiar with(I’m already assuming someone like Aninari would be)? Or is this truly a pretty exceptional case? It makes me happy that he’s asking for more and getting it though. There aren’t many positives to freelance work, but that’s certainly one for those talented enough.
The exceptional part is that he’s getting away with it as a general rule while still being a newcomer, since those are the ones suffering the most usually. Being this open about remuneration isn’t all that common either, but that might be down to his character in general – he’s very frank! And he retweeted this post so let’s take it as a seal of approval.
Haha, he sounds like the kind of person I’d get along well with. 🙂
For the record, Onsen updated his rates just yesterday. Notorious increase that shows how much his reputation has grown as of late.
Can we get translation of the rate thing? google translation is just confusing me.
I know this website isn’t about that but you guys nevertheless seem pretty informed so its worth the shot in asking: how does a westerner go about self-teaching animation in the manner that Nakaya Onsen managed (and the webgen animators) to and I mean that in the sense of learning sakuga, not necessarily Western-style animation? Do you guys have any insight on what their self-teaching methods are?
If you’re experienced with animation already but not necessarily in the way anime is made, it’s more readjusting than learning I feel. For the ATOM opening, Bahi JD had to explain the basic Japanese animation idiosyncrasies to Jonathan Djob Nkondo, who got a grasp of the workflow very fast. A few years back, Bahi himself had to get used to it as he’s admitted he didn’t really get the terminology and quirks at first, meaning there was trial&error and consultations until he got it. There’s a bunch of people who have had to go through this adaptation process but he… Read more »
You can try looking here for starters https://learnmanga.deviantart.com create a database of reference anime images to draw different things that’s what I have done. I’m currently practicing sketching on paper then tracing on the computer.
Is that some sort of a meme do they really mean it when both he and China tweet about hundreds of millions of yen they’he earned via bitcoin?
They’re not rich beyond their wildest imagination and have retired from animation.
(It’s a meme, with them it’s always a meme.)