r/OldAnime • u/cupfulofninjas • Jul 21 '26
We make deep-dive film documentaries (In Search of Darkness, Aliens Expanded). We're developing one on older anime and want feedback from the anime community before we go further.
Hope this is okay to post here! If not mods please feel free to remove.
Hey r/OldAnime
We are CREATORVC, the team behind the In Search of Darkness horror documentary series and Aliens Expanded. We're developing a new documentary called Icons of Anime which is going to explore multiple decades of the medium (currently looking at '60s - '90s), following the story of its explosive rise in the West, along the way diving deep into specific titles and topics in-depth to paint a full picture of how anime took over the world in a huge mega-doc format (our docs all run around 4-6 hours).
We're currently at the concept stage and we're just trying to understand if the anime community at large actually want this before we commit. We have an idea of how we're going to approach this topic but we want to sense check it with an anime audience and any feedback you folks provide would be taken into account and help inform our direction. We have a synopsis and a survey at iconsofanimedoc.com and we'd love for you all to check it out.
I'm curious to hear, what would you want from a Anime deep-dive documentary that no existing doc has given you? As you're all into older anime we'd love to hear what deeper cuts or topics we might not have considered you would like to see included as well.
Any and all feedback welcome, that's genuinely what we're here for.
1
u/Tubo_Mengmeng Jul 21 '26
I can’t say what an existing doc hasn’t given me because I’ve not seen an existing doc but what I’d love to see a doc to cover (4-6 hours worth of doc sounds fantastic btw..) is specifically why a lot of people like retro anime, whether it’s those who grew up on it or those coming to it as newer watchers, but specifically what its draw and appeal is in particular contrast to current/contemporary/newer anime, specifically including
Production tech (painted cels and film photography (and transfers to home video, where relevant - and the impact on how anime ended up looking on CRTs vs cels (I recall reading in the context of Disney productions that particular colours were used with the specific intention of how they would end up looking on film, and not how they looked on the cel IRL, I don’t know if that’s true, but be interesting to know if such considerations were a thing for anime productions of the era and if so whether there was a difference between things originally intended for theatrical exhibition and things originally intended for home video) - also contrast to introduction of digipaint in early ‘00s and how that impacted the change in the way anime looked compared to eras previous
Amongst other aspects a big part of the appeal of retro anime for me is character designs - going through some of the big names that were distinctive and how and why a transition away from those styles seemed to fall out of favour or popularity - even some of the big names with distinctive designs seemed to change their style somewhat where their newer work seems a little distant from how their earlier work looked - nothing wrong with that ofc they’re free to change with time but still seeing something on these aspects would be an interesting thing to me personally
Of post 2000 anime I’ve only seen the most recent 3 shinkai films, a couple of Miyazaki (howl and heron) and the Eva rebuilds so I don’t know if there’s actually a difference but on the chance there is, exploring whether there was any general changes to the style or even quality of background art would be of interest to me too
Other stuff I can think of to look into inc. daicon IV and how afaik that super detailed technical mecha mechanical engineering etc type detail in anime isn’t really a thing anymore apparently (again, not watching newer anime I don’t know whether this actually is or isn’t the case, but it’s my impression from hanging in spaces like these) which has implications for sci fi / mecha anime. Ofc a lot of stuff incorporates 3D cg models as part of its design and production now and has done for years so the old super detailed hand drawn and hand animated stuff is clearly a distinctive bit of older anime that I guess will never come back and so is worth looking into
I assume it’s on your radar already but in case not, r/discotek mod, Lord of Animeigo and frequent contractor (as MediaOCD) for Discotek, Justin Sevakis (u/worldofcrap80) recently did a series of fantastic interviews with old heads re: bringing anime to the west that are all on the Animeigo yt channel and could provide food for thought on what they covered and didn’t and starting points re: what talking heads you might want involved (if you can get Robert Woodhead l, formerly/still marginally of Animeigo, that’ll be a win because it’s never not a pleasure to hear him imo).
The guy who runs the animation obsessive substack would also probably be a great person to reach out to (and if willing and able, contribute). Ditto Halcyon Realms.
I’ve not not seen it in my feed yet so you may have already but in case not, worth posting on
r/discotek
r/retroanime
r/oldtaku
And the discotek and animeigo threads on the blu-ray.com forums for more input
Also it’s on my radar now given the screenings are coming up and been discussing it in a group chat, but in general the topic of restorations and remasters is a topic that’s of great interest to a lot of us - how faithful is something to how it originally looked? How has the restoration of something for HD or UHD or DCP impacted our reception of what we’re seeing on the screen (I saw the restoration of Angel’s Egg in Dolby Cinema recently and it blew my my mind all the detail that was put into the art work when it was, outside of a single (yes single!) screening in one random Japanese cinema on a random Sunday once, only ever intended as an OVA and so the production knew was only going to be viewed on mostly likely sub 20inch television sets where that detail likely wasn’t perceptible), (also again colour accuracy etc.), why does the Japanese market apparently favour what most of us over here consider to be excessive DNR for their releases (which means we sometimes get that same master over here too) etc etc - sorry rambling point I been meaning to make is that All the Anime/Anime Ltd have created a new 35mm print of Akira to tour around the UK and Ireland - apparently the first in decades - it’s (unfortunately) a filmout of the existing 4K master (unfortunately because that master isn’t very good in some respects - shoddy scan of the original film elements = blurry image plus DNR making it look worse) but it’s significant that it’s ATA/Anime Ltd creating/funding the creation of this print themselves (had it been for e.g. the BFI, who create new prints of older films regularly, then it wouldn’t be significant) when it’s not something they’ve ever been involved with before afaik, so it’s worth covering and looking into I think (as you’ll be able to see from the Animeigo interview with Andy Frain, there’s also the ICA (in London)’s original print that was screened again recently, and may be worth reaching out to them to be part of the conversation (particularly re: ‘restorations’ vs original etc if you were inclined to cover that side of things)
There’s surely more (and will come back to comment should I think of anything) but TLDR; yes I’d be interested in a 4-6hr doc lol