Originating from the Land of Sakura, the anime world is understandably filled with various foreign terms. There are tsundere, otaku, seiyuu, and many more. Now, we are going to talk about sakuga. Yup, not sakura or Gatsuga, but sakuga. Perhaps some of you have heard about it, or maybe you haven’t. But this one is quite an important term for you to understand if you call yourself as anime lover or just animation in general!

As a warning, this discussion on sakuga in Japan-cyclopedia this time will be filled with videos, so watch for your data. After all, we’re discussing about animation, it would be hard to talk about it without having visual examples.

The Definition of Sakuga

So, what is sakuga? In Japanese, sakuga itself has a rather straightforward meaning, which is 'hand-drawn' (as in 'a hand-drawn painting'). The other meaning of it is animation.

But since the word sakuga is often used by fans who are talking about animation scenes that amaze them, eventually the term sakuga has another meaning, which is 'good animation'.

What Distinguishes Sakuga from Animation?

By answering this, we will also have the answer to the origins of the ‘anime-style’ animation. For that, we have to go back to 1960 -- to the first era of anime, Astro Boy, by Osamu Tezuka.

Before we dive into Astro Boy, we need to briefly discuss the origin of the inspiration. The concept of cartoon as an entertainment is arguably popularized by the American animations; such as Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat which first appeared in the 1920s. This kind of animation takes 12 to 18 unique drawings/frame every second in order to produce a lively and smooth animation.

As you might think, making such cartoon with that process is time-consuming, as it would also swell the budget for the production process. The more time it takes for a job to be done, the more money the studio has to pay the employee for the overtime, right? Meanwhile, if you want it to be done faster, that’d mean you have to add more employees. That’s even more money you have to put into the studio’s budget.

Seeing this, Osamu Tezuka found a genius way to 'limit' the production costs. He used various 'tricks' to reduce drawing time including: less frames per second (8 frames or less compared to 12-18 frames), frequent use of static images, only drawing the movements of the mouth for the characters to talk, movement effects are shown with backgrounds being changed with minimum movements from the character itself, and many more.

You can compare the Steamboat Willie Mickey Mouse to Astro Boy below. Once again, keep in mind that Steamboat Willie came out in 1928, while Astro Boy in 1960.

Do the standing-still side characters, the number of close-ups on facial expressions to emphasize emotion, the length of the airplane scene make Astro Boy look worse? Not necessarily so. As said earlier, those were Tezuka tricks in cutting production costs in order to keep creating anime with a limited budget in a short period of time. Just imagine, even today, anime(s) such as One Piece and Boruto still come out every week. Did they store hundreds of episodes since the year before? That’s not how it works.

Since 1960 and through decades of development; from using traditional tools to digital and 3D CG assistance; anime studios throughout Japan have successfully developed numerous tricks to speed up the production process while still producing unique and visually pleasing animations.

Those tricks earned anime their own ‘style’ and distinguished itself from cartoon animation -- and at the same time resulting in sakuga when it surpasses its usual quality.

And Now, The Application of Sakuga in Anime!

While the standard anime (especially the weekly ones that have no breaks within their seasons) can sometimes look stiff, then the extremely smooth dramatic or action-filled moments can be seen as sakuga.

Smooth animation, vivid, and sometimes aims for the elements of realism or highly detailed is surely needed in the action-themed anime that are filled with battle scenes so that the devastating power of the characters can be shown to maximum degrees. However, some other kinds of anime, such as drama also love to use sakuga as their ways to highlight certain dramatic emotional scenes -- sakuga even sometimes used to deliver comedic scenes!

If you’re looking for the most consistent moments of sakuga, look for (cinematic) anime movies, such as Kimi no Na wa, Koe no Katachi, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Summer Wars, and Ghibli movies; considering movies tend to have more production time and budget compared to the weekly anime, as well as aiming for a bigger segment of audiences, not restricted to anime fans.

For the weekly anime themselves, sakuga is often used in the opening and/or closing scenes -- which leads to fans mocking the budget allocated to those scenes while the show itself looks worse. Perhaps studios are deliberately pushing their work into those two scenes to attract audiences.

Talking about 'in-between animation’, it’s fair to say there are two different sides in a sakuga work.

On one hand, there’s the memorable battle scene that will not be forgotten by both Naruto and anime fans in general. Yup, it’s the battle scene between Naruto and Pain in Naruto Shippuden Episode 167.

In this episode, Studio Pierrot put their trust into an animator, Atsushi Wakabayashi along with a small team and a veteran animator, Shingo Yamashita, to work on the emotional and crucial moment in Naruto’s life. Through his detailed direction and storyboard, Wakabayashi worked on the script for the non-stop battle scene starting from Naruto destroying Shurado to the defeat of Tendo, Yahiko’s body. Meanwhile, the 7-minute climactic scene between Naruto and Tendo was single-handedly done by Yamashita.

The scene received mixed reactions among anime fans. Having a messy style of animation, the fight between Naruto and Tendo was considered as deliberately made that crude to depicts the emotional outburst of hatred and suffering between the two ninjas.

Ugly? Nope. The scene uses a dynamic perspective from the beginning till the end, the movements also have a readable flow to them, even that the frequent use of broken ground was meant to illustrate their devastating power. But inconsistent from the previous animation styles and it depends on our tastes? Sure.

While on the other side that is ‘easier’ to appreciate, is Boruto Episode 65. The almost non-stop battle scene between Naruto and Sasuke against Momoshiki Otsutsuki instantly becomes the hotly-discussed topic on the internet (and the main reason for this week’s Japan-cyclopedia on sakuga) due to the smoothness and dramatic improvements compared to previous episodes, especially approaching the Chuunin Exam arc.

Just like that Naruto Shippuden episode, although it’s a directorial-debut of a talented young animator, Chengxi Huang, the whole episode was a collaboration work between 30 animators from around the world -- one of them originated from Indonesia. Each animator contributed to their roles and styles into the script/storyboard created by Huang. Therefore, what is the difference between Naruto and Boruto here?

Technically, it’s fair to say both are equally smooth; it’s just Boruto scenes were drawn with a consistent style, so they look far better than the previous episodes and are easy to follow. Now, to have a rough estimation on which anime/episode that will have their sakuga moments, you need to do a micro-analysis; meaning that you need to know who are the animator, director, and staff in the production of the work.

But Then, How Does One 'Look' for Sakuga?

As mentioned before, you can’t be 100% sure that your favorite anime title will always be filled with great animation. The staff could be rotated for other projects within the same studio, employing freelance animators for your favorite scenes, or even studio changes as they enter the second season, just like the controversial High School DxD.

The easiest way to track down an animator portfolio is to look for sakuga compilations on the internet, which usually come in the form of MAD (Japanese anime music video). Besides being separated by animators, MAD is also often made from the same anime titles, anime that air in certain seasons, or even in certain specific themes; such as swordfight, pistols, and many more.

Aside from that, there’s also sakugabooru.com that collects various sakuga scenes neatly categorized by the anime title or the animators. Ranging from the mainstream anime, such as Naruto, One Piece, Dragon Ball, to lesser-known or classic ones, like Akira, Cowboy Bebop, Redline, and many more.

It is important to take notice, realize, and care about the animators of your favorite anime; not just appreciating their artistic works, but rather to learn and identify their personal style in creating an animation work, detaching them from their 'anime studio' entities that employ them to create a product that you absolutely adore. And if you notice a shift in quality with the loss of certain names from your favorite anime, you may already guess what’s going on.

Well, are you ready to dive deeper into the world of sakuga and memorize the talented animators’ names in it?

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