Animators React to Bad & Great ANIME 2

I love animators react. Hope you get Genndy Tartakovsky for one of these. His shows are legendary.

The new Trigun got a lot of flack for not being exactly like the source material, but I absolutely loved it. The passion put into it was super apparent

The breakdown of Trigun Stampede and Chainsawman is just a love letter to the animator and a big middle finger to the "fans" that keep whining this and that about those two great anime ❤

Wren’s face watching Chainsaw Man at 4:43 is priceless 😂

The blood-bending episode in Avatar: The Last Airbender is pretty dark. They did a pretty great job of creepifying the normally kung-fu-styled bending animations.

LAND OF THE LUSTROUS. In my opinion, it's Studio Orange's underappreciated masterpiece, what they do with the animation and storytelling is masterclass level

“Oddly dark or twisted episode.”
My brain went straight to courage the cowardly dog. One of the strangest designs in cartoons and even CGI sometimes.

The show Chowder from Cartoon Network had a cool texture effect going on, where the people would move but the texture would stay in the same place. Always thought it was unique

Love the chainsaw man appreciation, the anime is so unique with style and camera shots seeing it get that appreciation from an animators eye is awesome

Alex was absolutely playing his cards pretty tight to his chest when talking about the corridor animatic... Would love to hear more of his genuine views on both how AI fits in this medium but how well this short aped more authentic anime...

Anyone who hasn’t watched Trigun Stampede yet, it’s an absolute must watch. My favorite show of 2023. Amazing animation and a beautiful and melancholy reimagining of Trigun.

Since the fall season is slowly creeping in seeing y’all react to Over The Garden Wall would be cool especially the last few episodes fitting in with the somewhat dark theme

Studio Orange is the anime studio that has been getting cg anime done right. They do such a clean job animating and marrying the characters into the environments. And it doesn't feel like they are just trying to make an anime but in cg or awkwardly sticking 3d models in with 2d animation. They have also been adapting really enjoyable series which makes it very easy to tell people to watch their stuff.

12:41 Episode 5 of Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 is absolutely amazingly animated, but the visuals are so much more gritty and dark than the show's artstyle usually is.

I'd love to see Phil Tippet on an episode of the show, idk if it's animators or stop motion artists or what, but he's been in the industry for years and is still making fantastic art like Mad God.

I love when Alex is on the show, everything about his insights and experience is amazing.

Trigun looks like someone took all the character intro and special attack animations from a fighting game and turned them into an anime. All those little things that have to grab your attention in the couple seconds they play for between gameplay, but it's one scene after the other with no intermission.
And I mean that in the best way possible.

CSM is so damn good. It was frustrating that a lot of contrarians were ragging on the CG animation when it wasn't even CG. lol Even if it was CG, it was great and Mappa always delivers amazing animation.

Man, courage the cowardly dog had tons of episodes that just felt dark and such. The main one I can remember is the "return the slab" episode, always creeped me out as a child

You talked so little about Trigun Stampede. Orange made a tool that would change the mesh of the characters depending on the perspective to mimic the anime style. (Sorry if I described it incorrectly, I'm not good with terminology) It's absolutely mind-blowing how much they evolved from Land of the Lustrous to Trigun. They're definitely the future of cgi anime.

I'm so happy you guys finally brought this series back. Hopefully you talk about more anime, and particularly the 2D animation.

Hands down for most dark twist to a visually not-dark show is Made in the Abyss.
I could point out plenty of scenes but i would say the elevator scene in particular or episode 10 of the first season where one of the characters receives a pretty horrific injury.
It's just such an absurdly brutal show conceptually when it's artstyle is super chibi and cute. REALLY interesting core concept to the world and series, I think you guys would like it.

i love this, many people doesn't like anime not being purely hand drawn, but nowadays, many anime applies CG in some part, at least in some of their scenes and i think it's inevitable. Can you guys react more about these stuff? I really expect more about anime that that fully CG such as expelled from paradise and arpeggio of blue steel

Man, the original trigun anime was a huge part of my childhood. Such an awesome anime. I wished I could be Vash. 😂

Studio Orange is one of the biggest names in 3D anime. It's really cool to see you guys covering their work. If you decide to look at more of their work, I highly recommend Land of the Lustrous. There are some amazing scenes in it with some really cool use of camera perspective. It's all the more amazing since it's one of Studio Orange's earlier works. The Trash Taste podcast had one of their animators on for an episode which explained a lot of Studio Orange's process. They talked a lot about Trigun and was very informational regarding 3D anime.

weird how 2 of the most memorible works that have been on the react shows were commercials. this snap and the train are insane works of art

When it comes to dark animation, I immediately think of Watership Down- there are several different styles shown in it, from the very stylised parable of El-ahrairah at the start, to Fiver's nightmare vision, to the base animation itself - its one of the few animated films in which the style is highly realistic and gritty but still expressive enough to convey character emotions.

Love this. I hope there’s more coming in the future

I want to see them react to some of what studio Ufotable's put out, since they specialize in making almost photo-real backdrops for their projects

I was hoping they would do " land of Lustrous " its one of the best cgi anime i have seen

"The Southern Raiders" episode of Avatar The Last Airbender had a surprisingly dark exploration of revenge. "The Puppetmaster" episode as well. Granted ATLA is a much more mature than usual animated series. But those episodes still stood out as exceptionally dark.

I'd really love to see the guy(s) from Fortress Films come in and talk about Source Film Maker (SFM). They released a full length movie (Emesis Blue) using the TF2 IP and had such a crazy story and amazing lighting and animation as well!

I would like to recommend 2007's sword of a stranger, specifically the final climb up the tower and the final fight. Absolute master class animations for 2007. And fantastic story.

I can't unsee Alex doing reference vids for Olaf in Frozen 2 in the BTS doc on Disney+. He's definitely one of my favorite animators because of it.

Speaking of 3D elements mixing with 2D ones, I'd love to see you guys have a look into the Lord Tengen vs. Gyutaro fight from Demon Slayer. Or really anything from UFOTable. Some really impressive scenes there!

A lot of episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog were dark, but one that always stuck out to me as a kid was the episode “The Mask.” I remember it dealt with domestic abuse and prostitution and just had an overall chilling, noir-ish feel to it.

THE LAST UNICORN is a classic animated film from my childhood that I loved specifically because it was SO much darker than anything else I was allowed to watch. I'd love to see someone tackle it on the show!

Loved the episode! I would also reccomend Niko, Wren and Alex to watch the Fate Memorial Video of 2023. 3D, 2D mixed together so you have so much to look at and talk about. It's eye candy for everyone!~ Thank you guys

These animators react are by far my fav videos, please keep them coming at a steady rate! :)

a oddly dark animated episode i remember is the episode ¨haunted¨ of teen titans were robin mind was being tortured by alucinations of slade fighting with him but really he was fighting no one and only hurting himself

The band performance scenes of Bocchi the Rock actually showcase an interesting 2D/3D technique. The precision and smoothness of the movements look 3D, but it’s got the imperfections of 2D as well.
That’s because they got an actual band to perform the songs in mocap, tracked the mocap data onto 3D models of the characters, and then the animators traced that 3D footage while putting their own 2D spin on it. So for example the faces and hair look traditionally anime, there are stylizations like smears for fast movements, but the way they play the instruments is still 100% accurate, and it blends in really well with the fully traditionally animated cuts interspersed in the scene.

Always a treat to have Alex on.

What Studio Orange has been doing with their CGI is really remarkable, especially with how fluid it was in Trigun. Chainsaw Man also has some amazing CG animation.

I remember an episode of Rocky & Bullwinkle (that's how old I am) where they went through a portal in the space-time-continuum and turned into vegetable versions of themselves. I'm pretty sure Rocky was an onion and I think Bullwinkle was a bunch of celery. I think it was a real episode, and not just a atrange dream, but it weirded me out enough that I still remember it more than 50 years later.

You mentioned jjk, but you should really look into it for one of these! Especially S2E3. Specifically, the aquarium scene. Absolutely gorgeous, and the amount of details that they put into the eyes, insane imo

Very viscerally memorable animation from my childhood: Rocko's Modern Life; the episode where they go to the baseball game; the part where the hammerhead shark gets hit in both eyes with the baseball. Jeeeezy Creezy! I will remember that slow motion animation for the rest of my life.

Loved the Video.
More of Anime reactions would be appreciated.
Your work is so good, thank you for delivering again.

Never Ending Story! I don't think it was a ton of CG but the way they built shots was so cool!

4:43 I love how Wrens facial expression exactly mirrors mine, as I was watching the scenes from Chainsaw Man: Confusion, slight disgust and more confusion.

Studio Orange is the king of CG animation, I feel like every frame I see of them, I can tell it's CG, but it's also in a way where I can go "damn, that looks amazing", it's especially great in motion though, where they really push to use CG in a way where it excels, which is making realistic movement, but they crank up the knob to 11, and make it something truly great

for an uncharacteristically dark episode of an animated show, has to be the mother's day episode of "Rugrats", where it explains what Happened to Chucky's mom. It was truly tear-jerking, probably not the dark in the way uyou meant, I'm now realizing, but the first to come to mind.

If you do another one of these, Land of the Lustrous is another Studio Orange anime thats fully 3D and would be interesting hearing what you think about it

I love Trigun and Trigun Stampede is visually so different it took some getting used to but i love them both now so much

The cartoon of Sam & Max: Freelance Police adapted the comic's story "Bad Day on the Moon" pretty faithfully, including the part where Max gets disintegrated and Sam scrapes the remains of his scalp (pretty much just his ears) into a paper bag and carries it around with him.

i'd love to see an Animators react episode just about 90s Nicktoons. Some of the animation on the original seasons of rugrats was INSANE, same creative director as Aeon Flux

Oddly dark and twisted episode, my first thought isnt a whole episode, but Aang meeting Koh, the face stealer. That moment was just had me on the edge of my seat, skin crawling when I first saw it

Season 3 of Reboot was an especially dark tonal shift in what had, up to that point, been a relatively light hearted show. Episode 4 of Season 3 is especially dark where some of the main characters, basically children too, were essentially given what had been seen as a death sentence before that point. One of my favourite shows of all time though. It still holds up to this day.

I'd love to see you react to some scenes of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. It has great action scenes, disturbing episodes, wonderful story and neat art style. Great video as always.

Courage the Cowardly Dog often used different art styles for the monsters to make them seem more creepy and alien, definitely worth a look.

Please talk about Land of the Lustrous
It'd be so intersting! I love the manga and really hope it'll get another season

I love seeing animators react. Would love to see you guys react to some of Monty Oum's work (from Dead Fantasy, Red VS Blue and RWBY). In my opinion he animated some of the best fight scenes I've ever seen.

I'd like to recommend you guys check out Mazumaro's - Myth's bad ending. Its an animation done by one person and it uses both traditional 2D animation techniques along with 3D very well. I'd love to know your guys thoughts on it. NOTE: The characters are all VTubers from Hololive and the music is orchestral rearrangements of their first songs/background music.

man imagine what you can do when you put talent and not just money into creative projects

i cant remember any weirdly dark episodes in my cartoons as a kid, but i do recall how much the story ramps up in the Reboot CG animation series.

The TNMT (00's) series had a whole lot of dark episodes. The one I really remember is the ''Mutant captain experiment gone wrong''

There was an episode of Miraculous, the season 4 finale I believe, and it has a lot of serious stuff going on for a goofy show with not the best animation and models, but it really puts you in the characters shoes and has you feeling almost exactly what they're feeling.

You should check out Dorohedoro. It's got hand drawn backgrounds, but the characters are cg
It's the most natural looking cgi I've seen so far, and the style that comes out is really unique

The Wingfeather Saga might be an interesting kid's show to talk about. It has a unique art style, all made in Unreal I believe. The show is currently in production as well.

Chainsaw Man was a work of art - especially episode 8. Some of the best directing in anime. Next episode - please look at Space Dandy, Dorohedoro, and Red Line.
Also: it's not Jujutsu KaisON, it's KaisEN

As far as dark and twisted cartoons go, Courage the Cowardly Dog definitely springs to mind.

Pierot Le Fou from Cowboy Bebop was really spooky. Toys in the Attic episode was also creepy at times but also hilarious.
The Naruto Shipuuden episode where Obito saw Rin die was horrific.

Adventure time gold star scene. It wasn't off brand but it was one of the darkest/coolest moments that stood out more with how it contrasts with the rest of the show.

Would love an "animators react" to the Nimona movie! love the artstyle in that movie!

I wonder if they will ever react to the finale fight scenes of Amphibia and The Owl House
The animations really great

Demon Slayer is in my opinion just sooo nicely animated, it's crazy.

I would recommend "courage the cowardly dog" or "ah! real monsters!" or Literally every cartoon from the 80/90's. I'm so happy i was a kid during this time. ❤

Ulysses 31, a French/ Japanese show from the early 80s, using The Iliad as the story inspiration for a sci-fi cartoon is pretty dark in places. The Chair of Forgetfulness episode always baked my brain as a kid.

I can’t believe you didn’t do anything by Ufotable for this. They were the ones that honestly made 2D and 3D seamless for me. Mainly season 2, 3 and 4 of demon slayer. That and their work on Fate zero of them using CG space for their camera work.

I think Invader Zim took an especially dark turn when he took a whole bunch of organs from school kids, because more organs means more human.

i reaaaaally liked inuyashi the last hero, that anime has some very sick scenes and amazing actions combining 3d and traditional animation, good review material

1987 Christmas Claymation Special "Carol of the Bells" always hit me in a creepy yet lighthearted way

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of an oddly dark episode of a cartoon, is the bloodbending episode in Avatar: The Last Airbender ("The Puppetmaster" EP#48) The body contortions really freaked me out as a kid and even as an adult I'm hesitant to rewatch that specific episode.

Nice video as usual. Maybe you'll get to do one where KRUGSTON and Gildedguy would appear. They are some great youtube animators with some fancy styles I think you would like.

YES! FINALLY SOME ANIMATORS REACTS!!!
Honestly, it's soo rare, but it's so fun to learn more about animation through you guys so I hope there is more.

Tokyo Ghoul centipede transformation scene was one of the best horrors, crooked but musically dynamic masterpiece. The way they used piano and sounds, you feel the pain , dredd. As an audience, I thought that was magnus opus.

Might be cool to compare something like the original 90s Sailor moon to Sailor Moon Crystal. They have some scenes which are pretty much identical but the animation style is different.

There are so many episodes in the Clone Wars that are surprisingly dark, the blue shadow virus for one comes to mind off the top of my head.
Legend of Korra also gets surprisingly dark too, like the Earth Queen death with airbending, or the fate of Amon at the end of season 1

Kids next door had the one odd episode where they were all getting turned to old "adult" age. I remember the animation for that being pretty nasty and the episode got pretty dark haha

I would love for them to take a look at Speed Racer- the 2008 movie, I think that the CG is artfully done, so that even though you can tell a lot of stuff is CG, it still looks pretty good and cohesive

Studio Orange is fuckin’ incredible with their 3D CGI work. Ufotable is the runner up, in my opinion, mainly because Orange uses almost full 3D in all their shows while Ufotable is smart about incorporating 3D in the backgrounds for dynamic shots.

Blue Submarine No. 6 had some dark themes and was also one of if not the first anime to have 3D effects. Though it looks pretty bad now, it was admirable for the time.

I know you guys have already reacted to both Avatar series, but I'd love to see a reaction to Azula and Zuko's final battle

Oddly dark was the cartoon Exosquad. I watched it as a kid, and it had the same action of GI Joe but showed a world full of prejudice and racism, without obvious "good" vs "evil" themes.

You guys should really get Alan Becker in the series and talk about his Animator vs. ... Series. His animation journey from beginning to now is very impressive.

Talking about anime CG, I know I've said this before, but I would love for them to have a look at the mechs in '86: Eighty Six'

Animators React is the most informative of the react arcs. Love these so much. 🙌

I'd love to see Andrei Tarkovsky and Andrew Tate on this show, their chemistry would be somethin else

Made in Abyss randomly got some serious body horror in the last couple episodes. It was shocking because it was mostly a kid's show before that. I can imagine someone who has never seen anything so dark coming to the end and being totally shocked by that.

This was great bec it started with legit anime, to a creation that's essentially a celebration of animation, to a middle finger to animators. Insane variety in today's episode.

I would love you to react to the old Beast Wars or Reboot episodes. Curious what you guys have to say about some of the first CG animated TV shows