The Aesthetics of Frozen Time and Characters That Breathe
Animation is, by its very nature, an art of movement. The vitality created by a succession of drawings, ranging from several to dozens per second, is one of the medium's most powerful expressive tools. Yet, interestingly, some of the most memorable moments in animation occur precisely when movement is severely restricted, or when the density of the artwork suddenly changes.
To understand this paradox, we must first consider the concept of "visual information." In visual media, information can refer to many different things. Here, the term describes the amount of visual detail contained within an image: the complexity of its lines, the density of its lighting and shadows, and the intricacy of its rendering. In conventional 2D animation, artists often deliberately reduce this information in order to produce movement efficiently. Maintaining complex linework and shading across hundreds or thousands of drawings demands an enormous amount of labor.
At a story's climax, however, or at a decisive moment when a character's emotions erupt, creators sometimes break this convention. Rather than maintaining a consistent level of visual detail, they may dramatically increase the density of an image while restricting its movement, or add an extraordinary degree of refinement to a character that remains in motion. By distinguishing particular shots from the surrounding animation, these techniques direct the viewer's attention toward specific moments and intensify their emotional impact.
The Aesthetics of Frozen Time
During the era of analog production, director Osamu Dezaki developed one of his signature techniques, known as "Harmony." It is a paradoxical form of expression that generates tremendous intensity precisely by bringing movement to a halt.
In conventional cel animation, characters are drawn on transparent sheets of celluloid and placed over separately painted backgrounds. The two elements are produced independently and remain visually distinct. Harmony, however, dissolves this separation at decisive moments. It unifies the characters and backgrounds into a single painterly composition, using brushwork, lighting, and colors that differ from ordinary cel painting. One representative method involves retaining only the character's linework on the cel while rendering its colors and textures as part of the background painting, then combining the two elements during photography.
This approach can be observed in Dezaki's film Aim for the Ace! (1979). During the tennis match between Hiromi Oka and Madame Butterfly (Ochō-fujin), Harmony is used to portray Madame Butterfly playing with all her strength. The same technique appears again when the two characters shake hands after the match.[1]
The movement of a tennis match emerges through the continuous succession of the ball's trajectory, the players' changing postures, and the instant of each strike. Yet Madame Butterfly's determination is emphasized through a painterly still image. The tension previously conveyed through continuous movement becomes concentrated within a single composition. The handshake following the match functions similarly. Once the intense movement has subsided, the relationship and emotions shared by the two characters are emphasized through a motionless image. By temporarily suspending the passage of time, the scene allows the viewer to dwell upon the emotional weight of the moment.
The rough brushwork, watercolor-like colors, and striking contrasts of light and shadow associated with Harmony produce a distinctive visual sensation. When movement within the frame comes to a halt and the camera slowly pans across a still image, or simply holds it on screen, the world that had been constantly moving seems suddenly transformed into a painting. Time appears to stop, while the emotional resonance of the scene is prolonged.
This painterly texture can heighten a character's inner turmoil or emotional climax, conveying a sense of tragedy and dramatic gravity. It may also evoke the melancholy of an old painting or a faded memory. The cessation of movement does not necessarily mean that expression has ceased. On the contrary, it can sustain emotions that movement alone might not adequately convey.
Characters That Breathe
Harmony's ability to capture the viewer's attention through heightened visual detail invites comparison with techniques that emerged as animation production shifted from analog to digital workflows. One contemporary approach that shares a similar expressive ambition while employing different methods is "Make-up."
The technique attracted considerable attention through WIT STUDIO's Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (2016). Using digital brushes, artists add delicate shading and textures to animated characters. These effects can be applied to individual drawings of a moving character, while their combination with conventional coloring, special effects, and digital compositing enhances the final image. Similar approaches to emphasizing the visual qualities of characters can also be found in Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song (2021).
In contemporary animation, there can be a striking difference in visual detail between ordinary shots and those enhanced through Make-up. Animation generally relies on a form of cel-style coloring, in which shadows are divided into clearly defined areas to facilitate efficient production. Digital techniques have made it increasingly common to add subtle gradients and lighting effects during compositing, even in otherwise ordinary shots. Nevertheless, the basic coloring of characters remains largely organized around relatively simple planes of color.
When Make-up is applied to an emotionally significant shot, however, the texture of the image changes dramatically. Rather than merely adding gradients, the technique can introduce translucent blushes that suggest blood circulating beneath the skin, delicate highlights following the flow of individual strands of hair, a moist sheen across the lips, and intricate reflections shimmering within the eyes. The density of visual detail increases substantially.
A representative example appears in the first episode of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, particularly in shots featuring Mumei. Make-up is applied when she awakens inside the Kōtetsujō and when she unties the ribbon around her neck shortly before confronting the Kabane.[2]
The scene in which Mumei awakens invites the viewer to examine her face closely. The gentle shading of her skin, the depth of her eyes, and the sheen of her hair emphasize her presence through details that might otherwise be omitted in conventional cel-style coloring. In the scene where she unties her ribbon, this intricate rendering accompanies the character's movements. Mumei's actions heighten the narrative tension preceding the battle while also drawing attention to the unusually refined treatment of her face and hair.
These effects were also part of an effort to reproduce the qualities of character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto's illustrations within moving animation. Sachiko Matsumoto, who served as chief make-up animator on the series, explained that she studied Mikimoto's illustration collections to understand the highlights in his characters' eyes, the texture of their skin, and the flow of their hair. The challenge was to preserve the impression and painterly qualities of the original illustrations even as the characters moved.
Through this process, a 2D character built upon relatively flat cel-style coloring can suddenly acquire the richness of a highly detailed illustration. The character's beauty and subtle facial expressions become more pronounced, encouraging viewers to imagine physical qualities such as the warmth of the skin or the moisture in the eyes. The result is more than the perception that a character is moving. It creates the impression of a living, breathing presence before the viewer.
Harmony and Make-up: Connections and Differences
Although the two techniques rest upon different technological foundations, they share an expressive purpose: disrupting the ordinary flow of animated images to concentrate the viewer's attention upon a particular moment. More interestingly, this connection is not merely an interpretation imposed through comparison.
In a 2016 interview, Sachiko Matsumoto, the chief make-up animator of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, stated that she had long admired Osamu Dezaki's Harmony technique. She suggested that it may have influenced her approach to enhancing the impact of important shots. In particular, she mentioned the rendering of tactile qualities, physical presence, and visual weight in powerful scenes featuring Ikoma.[2]
Harmony in the analog era and Make-up in the digital era, then, cannot be regarded as entirely unrelated technical innovations. At least during the production of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, Harmony was consciously considered as a possible reference for enhancing the expressive power of decisive moments.
What, then, distinguishes the two techniques?
The first difference concerns their relationship to stillness and movement.
Harmony deliberately suspends physical movement in order to prolong the emotional resonance of a scene. By restricting animation, it allows a painterly image, visually distinct from the surrounding footage, to achieve its fullest expressive potential.
Make-up, by contrast, can be applied to shots that remain in motion, although it is equally effective in still images. It allows fine textures to persist even as a character's hair gently moves or their eyes tremble. In doing so, it can heighten the character's sense of vitality without requiring movement to cease.
The second difference concerns the direction of their visual textures and the emotional purposes they serve.
The rough linework and strong contrasts of light and shadow frequently associated with Harmony in Dezaki's work are particularly suited to conveying tragic intensity and dramatic weight. Through painterly textures, the technique can represent a character's determination or the gravity of the fate confronting them.
By contrast, the Make-up applied to Mumei in Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress employs gentle lighting and rich colors to emphasize the character's beauty and visual appeal. Yet Make-up is not restricted to this aesthetic. In Ikoma's case, it also accentuates rough lines and powerful textures. The expressive effect ultimately depends not only on the technique itself, but also on the dramatic intentions of a particular work or scene.
The third difference lies in how the techniques approach characters and their surrounding worlds.
Harmony dissolves the visual boundary between character and background, allowing a character's emotions to extend across the entire composition. As the background painting and character share the same painterly texture, the whole frame becomes unified as a single image.
Make-up in Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, meanwhile, focuses primarily on refining the character, particularly small areas such as the face and eyes. By rendering skin, hair, and eyes with extraordinary delicacy, it draws the viewer's attention toward the character's physical presence.
Stillness and movement, rough and delicate textures, the entire pictorial space and the finest details of the human figure: Harmony and Make-up employ different means of expression. Yet a common artistic pursuit runs through these differences. Both seek to intensify the emotions and impressions associated with a particular moment by giving it a degree of visual density that distinguishes it from the surrounding animation.
Changing Technologies, Enduring Ambitions
If Harmony emphasized a character's dramatic circumstances through rough brushwork and painterly still images, contemporary Make-up heightens the character's presence through delicate digital rendering and intricate textures.
The word "animation" is etymologically connected to the Latin anima, meaning life or soul. The longstanding idea of animation as a medium that breathes life into drawings offers one way of understanding the significance of movement. Yet movement is not the only means by which an animated character can appear alive.
Harmony suspends time, granting a fleeting emotion an impression of permanence. Make-up adds delicate textures to moving drawings, pursuing a sense of vitality that allows viewers to imagine the warmth of skin or the faint trembling of an eye. One technique stops movement; the other increases the density of visual expression within it.
Production technologies have changed from analog to digital, and the tools of animation have shifted from physical cels to tablets and monitors. Their methods of expression have changed as well. Nevertheless, the desire to make viewers linger over particular moments and experience the emotions of animated characters more intensely has continued across generations.
The vitality of animation is not determined solely by how much its drawings move. Choosing when to suspend movement, and when to enrich a single image with greater detail, is equally fundamental to the medium's expressive possibilities. Harmony and Make-up demonstrate how artists working in different technological eras have explored these possibilities through distinct forms of visual expression.
References
[1] Nerima Animation Site, "Episode 7: Osamu Dezaki (Animation Director), Part 3." Discussion of Harmony techniques and their application in Aim for the Ace! (1979).
https://animation-nerima.jp/enjoy/kyojin/vol07/
[2] Animate Times, "The Secret Behind Mumei's Extraordinary Cuteness and Ikoma's Appeal Lies in 'Make-up'!? The Make-up Animators of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress," May 5, 2016. Interview with Sachiko Matsumoto discussing the application of Make-up in Episode 1, its production process, and the possible influence of Harmony.