Chinese film, television, music

sunnymaxi

Captain
Registered Member
My personal opinion is that we are still in the learning stage.
The commercialization process of animation in our country is very slow, and social cognition has always remained "only suitable for preschool children.". Once children enter school, they must stay away from these "childish things".
The older generation has a pathological hostility towards this new type of entertainment, so don't expect them to have any development in the new era.
Don't even think about it, these conservative things have no resistance against Japan's mature and powerful industrial strength.
Therefore, China's ACG industry can be said to be struggling to learn from scratch. The prerequisite for discovering your own style is to first survive and learn them.
I personally miss the artistic style of our country during the past.
This is one example:
View attachment 125929

However, this style is destined to be costly and difficult to commercialize.
seems like you are illiterate or you just do this deliberately. or you are poorly illinformed despite living in Global era.

you completely ignore @FairAndUnbiased post. he explained really well about Manhua industry in regards with Manga.

There's a noticeable aesthetic difference between manhua and manga. There is a huge between cpop and jpop.

Jpop is basically 1970s-1980s American music in Japanese language. This is unsurprising since Johnny Kitagawa basically imported US pop music to Japan as the founder of Jpop. They use very modern (well, 1980s) techniques and splash a ton of English words to try and appear more "international". To my knowledge there are 0 jpop songs in classical Japanese. There are classical Japanese songs, but they're not pop. Classical Japanese is a dead language.

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Cpop is a huge category but anime style Cpop is classical Chinese music in an anime skin. In general, anime style Cpop has become associated with classical language lyrics. Classical Chinese is a living language in no small part due to manhua and dongman - living in the sense that new literary works are still being produced in it.

Just a few examples:




So the origins and message could not be more different. Jpop is fundamentally a US dominated music format that looks to foreign sources for inspiration, Cpop is fundamentally a classical Chinese music format that looks internally for inspiration.

BTW getting into animation was the best decision Chinese studios made. Koreans failed to promote their animation industry with domestic IP and instead allowed them to be back office slaves for Disney and Netflix. Now you have the destruction of K dramas inside Korea itself since Netflix has taken over.

even a staunch China critics praising the ''Manuha'' increasing popularity..

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TOKYO -- The animation industry is undergoing seismic changes as works from Chinese studios have caught the eye of Netflix and other streaming platforms. The shift has not gone unnoticed by Japanese animation studios, who have virtually dominated the global market in recent years but are now scrambling to deal with serious competition.

Chinese studios "have been improving over the past few years and are now able to create original content," says Shizuka Kurosaki, a producer at Aniplex, a Tokyo-based anime planning and production company of Sony Group.

A Chinese anime series titled "The Founder of Diabolism" has become a global hit, amassing more than 11 billion views worldwide. Especially popular with women, the series topped the chart on MyAnimeList, a global anime and manga social networking site.

Anime studios in China, which in the past have mainly produced works outsourced by Japanese makers, are starting to release original products, gaining a large fan base in China and even in Japan.

The popularity of Chinese and other countries' anime may be due in part to mastery of three-dimensional computer graphics (CG), allowing studios to quickly create lifelike characters and realistic backgrounds.

Much Japanese anime uses 2D celluloid pictures, in which character movements are painstakingly created by hand, though the use of CG is also prevalent in Japan. "The Founder of Diabolism" resembles a 2D production but includes many scenes that employ 3D, according to industry insiders. "Chinese studios are superior [to Japanese] in certain ways in terms of background art and 3D technology," Kurosaki said.

In the global anime sector, 3D computer graphics are now mainstream, as exemplified by U.S.-based Pixar Animation Studios, which released 3D computer-animated movies such as "Toy Story" in the mid-1990s and more recently "Frozen."


"Arcane" took over top place on Netflix, dethroning the long-running "Squid Game." (Image courtesy of Netflix)
In China, 3D CG has developed due partly to the abundance of subcontractors that work on Japanese games, anime and other digital content. Many Chinese internet giants such as Tencent have invested large sums in the anime sector, helping drive production of high-quality, original content.

Big U.S. studios like Walt Disney, Pixar and their Japanese peers have lost a bit of their luster and are no longer kings of anime due to Netflix and other global streaming service platforms, which have disrupted the industry by allowing lesser-known players to compete.

Netflix's "Arcane" stormed the internet over the winter and has since displaced "Squid Game" as the service's most-watched anime. In addition, League of Legends, a popular multiplayer online battle game developed by Riot Games, a Tencent-backed U.S. game developer, has been made into an anime series.


Netflix and other streaming services are disrupting the traditional anime business model by delivering content online. © Reuters
Japanese anime producers are getting the hint.

"Dragon Ball" and many other Japanese 2D anime remain popular, due to the genre having developed its own culture and becoming "sustainable as a business in the domestic market with a population of more than 100 million," said an executive at a Japanese anime company.

But as Japan's population declines -- and with it, the domestic market -- its anime sector is being forced to maintain the popularity of its 2D creations while offering new products for a changing global audience.

That does not mean Japanese anime is in imminent danger. Streaming services are trying to keep the industry pumping out more content.

Studio Ghibli's theatrical version of "Earwig and the Witch" is the Japanese producer's first 3D CG movie and has been streamed by Netflix since November 2021.

Walt Disney's streaming service Disney+ has been showing since September 2021 "Visions," the animated anthology of the movie "Star Wars," produced by its Lucasfilm unit in cooperation with Japanese anime studios such as Kamikaze Douga and Geno Studios.


"Earwig and the Witch," released by Studio Ghibli, is the Japanese anime producer's first 3D CG movie and is being streamed on Netflix.
Moreover, Netflix opened an Anime Creators' Base in Tokyo last fall to provide a space where animators, designers and others get together to create conceptual art of planned content before scripting anime scenarios. The project is supported by Netflix designers. "We will continue investing big on big anime," said Netflix chief producer Taiki Sakurai.

But unlike Chinese anime studios, which seem to be awash in cash and crews, their Japanese counterparts are facing an industrywide shortage of talent and funds. "Although CG producers have increased from the past, top talent rarely enters the anime sector," said an executive at a major Japanese anime production company. In short, Japanese CG producers are looking for more lucrative jobs in the business sector rather than in anime.

Industry watchers are wondering how far cash-rich streaming services will dig into their pockets to help support anime producers in Japan and elsewhere.

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Dongbuzhou, Jiangsu become Anime hub ..

Anime industry.jpg

i have seen you in ''PLA Strategy in a Taiwan Contingency'' thread. they literally owned you with facts and statistics.. and now you are bragging about dead Japanese industrial might. its ridiculous to see a mainlander behave like this. wake up we are in 2024.. Japan has become the part of history..
 

Eventine

Junior Member
Registered Member
There are some games like Genshin Impact that are based on the Japanese aesthetic, but in general the Chinese aesthetic is different from the Japanese aesthetic. It may be difficult for Westerners to tell the difference though. I agree that manhua closely resemble manga due to the longstanding popularity of manga in China, but there are some differences. To me, Chinese animated characters tend to look more East Asian than Japanese ones. Also, Chinese animated characters are not as sexualized as Japanese ones. Nonetheless, in the realm of comics and animation, the Chinese aesthetic is still strongly influenced by the Japanese aesthetic.

Outside of comics and anime, the Chinese aesthetic is completely different from the Japanese aesthetic though. Chinese songs, dramas, and cinema are unique and enormously popular in greater China, although they are not popular in the West so you probably don't know what I'm talking about.
I was speaking more specifically about the style of drawn works, particularly games but also manhua and animated TV shows.

I'm aware there are other styles such as Scissors Seven and Fog Hills, but the mainstream aesthetic is clearly derived from Japanese comics and animation. Not just in the past influence sense, but in the sense that anybody looking at it will think it's a variation of anime.

What interests me is whether this is recognized as a problem in Chinese entertainment circles, or if it is just regarded as a trivial issue because "art styles have no nationality." Basically I'm trying to understand the mind set of Chinese creators when they adopt the anime style. Do they think, "I'm a huge fan of Japanese style games/shows and want to make them myself." Or do they think the anime aesthetic is more generally East Asian and therefore, even though it is derived from Japanese culture, it isn't something that is owned by the Japanese?

This is, of course, relevant because of the phenomenon we're seeing recently of Chinese entertainment companies becoming highly successful internationally through making anime games. Genshin Impact - and Mihoyo as a whole - are an obvious example. But it's not just them. Tons of Chinese companies are jumping on the same train and achieving different degrees of success.

I could see a future in which Chinese made anime style games are a dominant player in the industry, which in turn could stimulate similar successes in adjacent industries like comics, TV, and cinematic animation. But I wonder if this is going to become just another chapter of the anime story, or if it's a stepping stone to more creative and original aesthetics from China.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
I was speaking more specifically about the style of drawn works, particularly games but also manhua and animated TV shows.

I'm aware there are other styles such as Scissors Seven and Fog Hills, but the mainstream aesthetic is clearly derived from Japanese comics and animation. Not just in the past influence sense, but in the sense that anybody looking at it will think it's a variation of anime.

What interests me is whether this is recognized as a problem in Chinese entertainment circles, or if it is just regarded as a trivial issue because "art styles have no nationality." Basically I'm trying to understand the mind set of Chinese creators when they adopt the anime style. Do they think, "I'm a huge fan of Japanese style games/shows and want to make them myself." Or do they think the anime aesthetic is more generally East Asian and therefore, even though it is derived from Japanese culture, it isn't something that is owned by the Japanese?

This is, of course, relevant because of the phenomenon we're seeing recently of Chinese entertainment companies becoming highly successful internationally through making anime games. Genshin Impact - and Mihoyo as a whole - are an obvious example. But it's not just them. Tons of Chinese companies are jumping on the same train and achieving different degrees of success.

I could see a future in which Chinese made anime style games are a dominant player in the industry, which in turn could stimulate similar successes in adjacent industries like comics, TV, and cinematic animation. But I wonder if this is going to become just another chapter of the anime story, or if it's a stepping stone to more creative and original aesthetics from China.
The backgrounds in Chinese anime are traditional watercolor, while in Japan they're still bright and solid lined. The style is nowhere near each other.

Compare 2 similar animes: Inuyasha vs. Soulmate Adventures. Both medieval themed martial arts/magic themed although Inuyasha is clearly more on the magic side.



Look at the background art. It is completely different.

I don't think anime is Japanese at all, just that they were the first to use it. But being first doesnt entitle you to permanently declare anything of that style to be yours just as it would be utterly laughable for Chinese to claim all magnetic navigation or firearms.

and then, Japanese themselves use anime to portray blonde white people more than actual Japanese people. if they weren't speaking Japanese, you wouldn't know it was Japanese. So how would you say that it is a distinctively Japanese style when you can't even connect it with Japan simply by looking at it?
 

Staedler

Junior Member
Registered Member
I was speaking more specifically about the style of drawn works, particularly games but also manhua and animated TV shows.

I'm aware there are other styles such as Scissors Seven and Fog Hills, but the mainstream aesthetic is clearly derived from Japanese comics and animation. Not just in the past influence sense, but in the sense that anybody looking at it will think it's a variation of anime.

What interests me is whether this is recognized as a problem in Chinese entertainment circles, or if it is just regarded as a trivial issue because "art styles have no nationality." Basically I'm trying to understand the mind set of Chinese creators when they adopt the anime style. Do they think, "I'm a huge fan of Japanese style games/shows and want to make them myself." Or do they think the anime aesthetic is more generally East Asian and therefore, even though it is derived from Japanese culture, it isn't something that is owned by the Japanese?

This is, of course, relevant because of the phenomenon we're seeing recently of Chinese entertainment companies becoming highly successful internationally through making anime games. Genshin Impact - and Mihoyo as a whole - are an obvious example. But it's not just them. Tons of Chinese companies are jumping on the same train and achieving different degrees of success.

I could see a future in which Chinese made anime style games are a dominant player in the industry, which in turn could stimulate similar successes in adjacent industries like comics, TV, and cinematic animation. But I wonder if this is going to become just another chapter of the anime story, or if it's a stepping stone to more creative and original aesthetics from China.
There is a very obvious difference in styles between the three East Asian drawing styles. Specifically what aspects of the body they focus on and how they draw different parts of the body.

For example, all three draw eyes very differently. Some popular styles: Large round eyes for the Japanese. Aegyo sal, or under-lid baby fat, for Koreans. Eye outline highlights for Chinese.

Japanese draw their characters shorter and more stocky with bigger heads. Chinese tend to draw tall, lanky characters with smaller heads but very long legs.

Western artists tend to have very defined lips more focus on musculature. In turn their eyes tend to be very barebones.


In most cases it is very recognizable just from style which nation the artist hails from.

Japanese "manga style" also shares many abstractions with the Western medium it came from. The differences between the two are not really a result of Japanese creativity, but the simple reality that East Asians and European-derivatives recognize people and faces very differently. Hence when they draw, the features they focus on are very divergent. Because Japanese, Chinese and Koreans recognize people using the same features, their drawn styles will appear more similar than with the West to the untrained eye.

For all the lament about the "uniqueness" of traditional Chinese art, look at traditional Korean and Japanese art and you'll see they also look "similar" to the untrained eye. The only difference is that the Japanese and Koreans don't draw in that style anymore.
 

tamsen_ikard

Junior Member
Registered Member
3 body problem review are now live, here is a round up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/threebodyproblem/comments/1baas2y
It seems to be quite mixed. A lot of reviewers talk about dumbing down the story for larger audience and adding soap opera elements. This actually convinces me it won't be a good adaptation of the books. Especially considering how incredible and surprizingly cerebral the Chinese TV show was. I loved how the Chinese tv show did not cower on the science aspects and kept faith in the audiance to be okay with it, and it worked. Wang Miao of the Chinese TV also had a very good arc as a character and he was a solid scientist that seemed to be over his head but still kept his cool.

But here its now Oxford five, all British Characters now.

I don't like the fact that they not only removed most of the Chineseness of this story. They made all actual heroic characters non-Chinese. In fact, the two most hated or negative characters in the books were Ye Wenjie and Cheng Xin, both shown as negative, weak or too moralistic. They kept both as Chinese characters. So they kept the Chinese women shown as negative as Chinese. But removed the heroic Chinese men like Zhang Beihai or Luo Ji into non-Chinese. Way to go Western media when it comes to portrayal of Asian men in general.

In one way, I don't want this adaptation to succeed too much and overpower the original story. But on the other hand, if a wider audiance is interested to read the original books or watch the chinese series after watching this netflix abomination, then that's a plus. Let's see how it goes though.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
3 body problem review are now live, here is a round up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/threebodyproblem/comments/1baas2y
It seems to be quite mixed. A lot of reviewers talk about dumbing down the story for larger audience and adding soap opera elements. This actually convinces me it won't be a good adaptation of the books. Especially considering how incredible and surprizingly cerebral the Chinese TV show was. I loved how the Chinese tv show did not cower on the science aspects and kept faith in the audiance to be okay with it, and it worked. Wang Miao of the Chinese TV also had a very good arc as a character and he was a solid scientist that seemed to be over his head but still kept his cool.

But here its now Oxford five, all British Characters now.

I don't like the fact that they not only removed most of the Chineseness of this story. They made all actual heroic characters non-Chinese. In fact, the two most hated or negative characters in the books were Ye Wenjie and Cheng Xin, both shown as negative, weak or too moralistic. They kept both as Chinese characters. So they kept the Chinese women shown as negative as Chinese. But removed the heroic Chinese men like Zhang Beihai or Luo Ji into non-Chinese. Way to go Western media when it comes to portrayal of Asian men in general.

In one way, I don't want this adaptation to succeed too much and overpower the original story. But on the other hand, if a wider audiance is interested to read the original books or watch the chinese series after watching this netflix abomination, then that's a plus. Let's see how it goes though.
It's better for the Netflix version to be as shit as possible and lose as much money as possible because there's the Tencent version that can be watched for free as a comparison.

How would you know the fragrance of a flower is beautiful, without the odors of shit?
 

THX 1138

New Member
Registered Member
It's better for the Netflix version to be as shit as possible and lose as much money as possible because there's the Tencent version that can be watched for free as a comparison.

How would you know the fragrance of a flower is beautiful, without the odors of shit?


The books and the Tencent series are largely unknown to most people outside of China. And it will remain that way if the Netflix adaptation is a dud. But if the Netflix adaptation is a hit, it will drive up awareness and result in more people seeking out the books and the Tencent series.
 

FairAndUnbiased

Brigadier
Registered Member
The books and the Tencent series are largely unknown to most people outside of China. And it will remain that way if the Netflix adaptation is a dud. But if the Netflix adaptation is a hit, it will drive up awareness and result in more people seeking out the books and the Tencent series.
better for it to be unknown than to be known as the mediocre copy version.
 
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