Kyoto Animation, which is invincible in the animation industry, was defeated in such a heartbreaking way. Kyoto Animation, regarded as a holy place by countless fans, was tragically set on fire, killing 34 people and injuring dozens more.

Kyoto Animation , which was invincible in the animation industry, was defeated in such a heartbreaking way.

For many anime fans these days, the mood must be very heavy. No one would have thought that such an ordinary day as July 18 would actually become "the darkest day in the history of animation".

Kyoto Animation, regarded as a sacred place by countless fans, was tragically set on fire, killing 34 people and injuring dozens more. The soul figure of Kyoto Animation, Masuharu Kigami, unfortunately passed away. Many well-known animators, including Yasuhiro Takemoto, , Eisaku Kawaami, and Taishi Nishiya, are still missing.

Just like what is said in "Daily Life", every ordinary daily life we ​​experience may be a series of miracles.

When disasters and accidents happen, we will realize that the ordinary and boring daily life is the most precious.

We condemn the indifference, cruelty and ruthlessness of the arsonists. We are heartbroken for the deceased victims and precious original manuscripts. We lament the fragility of life and the impermanence of the world. Various emotions are intertwined in our bodies and minds, and we cannot let go for a long time. .

When we relive the endless August in " The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ", then watch "Clannad" which "writes cl, reads as life", and then listens again to "Mikazuki Dance" in Kitauji High School The sound echoed in the playground, but things have changed and they are no longer what they used to be.

No matter whether you like anime or not, whether you have heard of Kyoto Animation or seen their works, you will be shocked and saddened by this shocking incident and the casualties it caused.

But for some old fans of and KyoAni , in addition to such shock and grief, there are more regrets and memories that have nowhere to put them.

Since the launch of in 2003 with " Full Metal Panic Campus", KyoAni has attracted countless fans with its interesting and touching works in the past 16 years.

Some fans call KyoAni the "Notre Dame" of animation and the Disney of Japan. He even made some bold statements: All of you who are black KyoAni people have a twisted love for it!

This is "all Jinghei is distorted japonica rice (Jingmi)".

Why can KyoAni be called a unique existence in Japan where there are many animation companies? Why is it that when an animation company is set on fire, fans all over the world feel sad and heartbroken?

Let us first adjust the timeline to 1973. This year, the insect production company founded by the god of comics Osamu Tezuka declared bankruptcy due to poor management.

Among the many unemployed employees of Insect Production, there is a woman named Hatta Yoko . She is responsible for coloring the completed animation draft at Insect Production, that is, coloring the painted celluloid film.

After losing her job, Yoko Hatta got married and moved to Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture with her husband Hideaki Hatta.

In 1981, in order to achieve re-employment after marriage and give herself something to do, Yoko Yata roped in nearby housewives to establish "Kyoto Animation Studio" and started her old profession of coloring. Began to undertake the outsourcing work of Dragon Son and Risheng .

In July 1985, Kyoto Animation Studio was incorporated as a limited company, and Hideaki Hatta became the president. This was the beginning of Kyoto Animation as we know it.

The picture comes from Baidu Encyclopedia

At first, Kyoto Animation was only responsible for coloring. The following year, in 1986, the painting department was established.

started with coloring and its quality is very high. Kyoto Animation quickly made a name in the industry and participated in the coloring work of many animations we were familiar with in childhood:

even participated in the background production of "EVA", Mamoru Oshii Part of the production of " Patlabor ", Otomo Katsuhiro 's " Akira ", Hayao Miyazaki 's " Porco Rosso " and " Kiki's Delivery Service ".

In 1987, Kyoto Animation entered the field of animation production by contracting Tatsunoko's TV animation "Star Wars Heroes" (Ako Hikari Seiko).

When Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the producer of this work, later established I.G. Tatsunoko (later renamed Production I.G), Kyoto Animation provided financial support.

Since the mid-1990s, Kyoto Animation has had all aspects of independent production of animation , including performance, painting, finishing, background, photography, etc., thus starting a "turnkey" business. During the heyday of Kyoto Animation's turnkey business,

had four studios and more than 100 employees. It also undertook business such as game box design.

In 1992, when Kyoto Animation contracted the TV series animation "呪いのワンピース" commissioned by SHIN-EI Animation, it was the first time that the company's internal resources and manpower were used to complete the entire production process.

At this time, Kyoto's high-quality reputation has established a reputation in the industry, and it has become a long-term outsourcing partner of SHIN-EI Animation, Sunshine Animation, Studio Pierrot and other companies.

animation supervisor Sugii Gisaburo once said that due to the high quality of Kyoto's paintings, some production companies even adjusted their animation production schedules to wait for availability in Kyoto.

(the above information is quoted from Wikipedia)

The time has come to the year 2000. Entering the new century, Kyoto Animation separated the Osaka Studio, which was mainly responsible for outsourcing work, and established "AnimationDo", so KyoAni was free to focus on independent animation production.

In March 2003, KyoAni's first independently produced original animation "munto" was released; in August of the same year, the novel-adapted animation "Full Metal Panic (Campus)" was broadcast, and the author Ga Tozhaoji therefore had a close relationship with KyoAni. Arnie developed deep relationships.

After that, he also participated in the scripts of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" (2006 version) and some episodes of "Lucky Star". In 2012, he served as the script coordinator for " Hyouka ".

It is not difficult to see from KyoAni’s resume that this is an animation company that started by relying on basic production work and gradually accumulated strength and connections. It is also a textbook template for animation companies to grow from seedlings to towering trees.

After producing "munto" and "Full Metal Panic (School)", KyoAni began to flex its muscles in the animation industry. (Basically) every subsequent work has attracted the attention of countless fans and viewers.

The picture comes from Wikipedia

If you like cute daily funny retirement dramas, there are "Daily", "Lucky Star" and " Light Music Girl "; if you like mecha carrot movies, there is "Full Metal Panic"; if you like campus fantasy, there are "" "Beyond the Realm ", "Chuunibyou also needs to fall in love", "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"; if you like reasoning, there is "Hyouka"; if you like emotional healing, there is the Key Club trilogy (air, kanon and Clannad); if you like sports, there is " free"; My favorite music is "Blow the Euphonium"...

I can't list them all.

KyoAni can do almost all types of animation, and it does it well. The foundation that supports 's wide range of dramas is 's strong human and financial resources and unique animation production model .

Let’s talk about manpower first. Masuji Kigami, Yasuhiro Takemoto, Tateya Ishihara , Taichi Ishidate, Naoko Yamada , Akiko Ikeda , Yukiko Horiguchi (the founder of Kyoto Face, it seems that she has now gone to draw illustrations), etc. Wait for the big guys in the industry to rely on their strong strength to support KyoAni, the big tree in the sky.

KyoAni: I don’t do fighting scenes because I’m afraid of hurting myself.

At the same time, KyoAni only recruits full-time animators and cultivates a fixed production team. Compared to other animation companies that hire different freelance animators for each animation and charge on a piece-rate basis, KyoAni’s personnel are much more stable.

It is rare that all the staff in this episode of animation are insiders of their own companies. It also makes people envious of

's good working environment, stable income, and the guidance and learning opportunities from industry leaders. Generally speaking, No animator will leave easily. A model like

is conducive to the cultivation of talents, and it will not happen that the talents who have worked hard to cultivate will eventually leave for other companies. But it also makes it difficult for KyoAni to break through in terms of style. It is either daily funny and cute , or daily realistic youth or a mixture of the two.

Violet Evergarden production process

Secondly, the relatively closed production process greatly reduces various costs in the animation production process. Almost all the production staff of are within the company, so there is no need to mail original paper drafts or travel all the way to participate in various discussions. Save a lot of time, manpower and material resources.

Miao Sen in "White Box" often travels back and forth between the two cities to transport the original drawings

. Moreover, we have worked together for many years and understand each other's needs very well, so it is easy to adapt the works well.

Finally, let’s talk about KyoAni’s financial resources. After all, animation in costs money.

Compared with other animation companies, one of the biggest advantages of KyoAni is that it has its own library, which means that it does not have to worry about the source of its works (although the quality is emmm...). He can produce animations as the largest head of the production committee, which means he can get the most revenue, and he can directly absorb the funds for animation production internally.

The picture is taken from KyoAni's official website

And KyoAni has always been good at money. As mentioned before, when Mitsuhisa Ishikawa established IG Dragon Son, he received assistance from Kyoto Animation, with funds reportedly amounting to 50 million yen.

Therefore, whether the sales of small disks die suddenly will not really have much impact on KyoAni. The funny thing is, as I said in the introduction, KyoAni, who seemed to be unstoppable, was actually defeated in this way.

Although many people say that KyoAni’s model is not conducive to the overall development of Japanese animation, they have to admit that KyoAni has improved the overall production level of Japanese animation.

’s expressiveness in performances and storyboards, as well as his control of details (composition, small movements and expressions of characters), are unmatched by anyone in the Japanese animation industry.

For example, running is also used to express the explosion of emotion. In Makoto Shinkai's popular " your name ", Mitsuha's running and Kumiko's running in "Blowing the Euphonium" are expressive and infectious. is completely different.

Mitsuha's run was painted by Okiura, and Kumiko's run was performed by KyoAni's soul figure Masuji Kigami. I believe everyone has heard that in "painting is not enough, performance is needed". The excellent performance of can make up for the shortcomings in painting.

But for an animation company like KyoAni, which is not bad at drawing, it can also come up with such an amazing performance style.

Let’s talk about a more intuitive and subjective example . You can watch a few episodes of "Blowing the Euphonium" in 2015, and then come back to watch "Dororo" and "The Rising of the Shield Hero" in 9102. , just from the perspective of appearance, you will feel that the latter is a bit crude and unwatchable in terms of background and characters.

There are stars in Kumiko’s eyes

It is true that most of KyoAni’s works are better than those of Mamoru Oshii’s “Mobile Police” and “ Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence” Shinichiro Watanabe’s ’s “ "Cowboy Bebop ", Ruffian's "EVA", Kon Satoshi's works, Otomo Katsuhiro's "Akira", Miyazaki Hayao's works, because focuses on 's daily emotional interaction with people, seems that lacks humanities Care, philosophy and reflection of social reality, the theme is not grand enough and seems petty.

But this is also an aspect of artistic creation. The works of art that are put away and viewed by people are art, and the works that reflect the reality of people's lives and bring people joy and emotion are also art.

Now to answer the title question, why do we have tears in our eyes for KyoAni?

can be summed up well by using the lyrics from the "Jing Zi" op "sincerely":

Why am I crying? Because I love animation and KyoAni deeply.