I just finished watching Tekkon Kinkreet, a story about two street urchins Black and White, and their relationship with the town that they rule – Treasure Town.
The anime art reminded me of Kemono Zume and parts of Noein, where the characters are drawn lang flat objects. Since I saw Kemono Zume and read Ping Pong, I’ve been trying to imitate the style. It was futile because I’ve always drawn with volume.
I remember reading about some alternative manga movement referred to as Superflat. Founded by Takashi Murakami, superflat is distinguished by its flattened representation of Japanese pop culture, manga, anime and graphic art to symbolize shallow consumerism.
Superflat has become very common in today’s anime. You can see it on the final battle between Naruto and Pain, the movie Summer Wars, Tekkon Kinkreet, Ping Pong, Robot Carnival, Sword of the Strangers and many popular titles.
What I love about superflat is its use of extreme angles and body movements. It also works great when used in action sequences.
I’m still in the process of learning to draw using superflat. I’ll post some drawings this weekend.
Out for now.
