title picture / "The Daredevil", "The Bad Guy in the Painting of Jianghu", "Under One Person" and "Douluo Dalu"
Chinese comics usher in a new turning point
On December 16, Tencent Online Video Golden Goose Honor Release Series was held in Macau. At the Golden Goose Honors Animation Awards Ceremony, many domestic animation masterpieces, including "Douluo Dalu I", "Perfect World", "Under One Person Season 5", "The Bodyguard" and "Dragon", won the Animation of the Year and Member's Favorite Animation of the Year. , the most acclaimed animation of the year and many other awards.
The influence of these works, which are at the top of the Chinese comic market, has already entered the entertainment market and commercial fields. For example, "Douluo Dalu" has been continuously appearing in live-action dramas, games, offline carnivals, and commercial licensing for six years. The game adapted from "Under One Person" is also highly anticipated.
In the overseas mature animation market, animation carries the function of IP amplifier. After the animation IP commercial development chain is completed, it will be difficult for animation sequels to maintain high quality. In China, the development path of domestic animation is different. A large number of domestic animations not only choose long-term production, but also the quality of animation is constantly improving. Many excellent domestic animations have millions of fans and tens of millions of viewers. According to public data from Tencent Video this year, the user penetration rate of animation content has reached 87.3%, and animation has become popular in China. It took almost 11 years for Chinese comics to go from the earliest form of niche content to becoming a daily entertainment companion for the public.
Based on the video platform, it has established a content matrix of long-term annual series + premium quarterly series.
Starting from the first domestic animation "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes" based on the Internet in 2012, domestic animation has been in the selection of themes, production models, and publicity directions. After continuous attempts to explore the needs of animation audiences, from learning from overseas mature animation market development models to developing localized development models, we finally formed a content matrix based on the video platform and established a long-term annual series + high-quality quarterly series. . For example, the annual series "Douluo Dalu I", which has been broadcast for 6 years, began to be broadcast in China in 2018 and has been in its fifth season so far. "Under One Person" has been running for nearly 10 years and finally ushered in 2023. "The Bad Guys", which has become a big hit, and "Dali Temple Diary Season 2", which has excellent picture details and action design, etc.
Whether it is an adapted work such as "Douluo Dalu" or an original work such as "Drawing Jianghu: Bad Man", the main focus from the beginning is to be a companion, to cut into the entertainment of animation audiences with continuous drama production . With the continuous improvement of domestic animation production and narrative capabilities, more and more viewers are initially attracted by the pictures, gradually pay attention to the story itself, and achieve emotional resonance with the characters. Nowadays, on various social platforms, many young animation viewers share the "Weekly Animation Update Calendar", which is full of domestic animations from Monday to Sunday.
The initial annual production of domestic animation based on the Internet was only a few dozen, with one episode only having twelve or three episodes, and the length of the feature film was only a few minutes. Nowadays, all video platforms can basically have new animation series online seven days a week. , making domestic animation truly a daily entertainment necessity for the public. How is this done? The reason can be found in some of the works of this Golden Goose Honor Animation.
How do Chinese comic works win hundreds of millions of viewers?
In the overseas animation market, passionate and fantasy works have the largest audience. This kind of narrative core that can infect global audiences also has an extremely large audience in China.
"Douluo Dalu I", which won the Animation of the Year, Member Favorite Animation of the Year, Best Music of the Year, and IP Stars, has attracted countless readers for 15 years with its passionate adventure story and universal core told in the original novel. The anime adaptation was launched in early 2018 and became an instant hit, giving the platform and producers great confidence. "Douluo Dalu I" officially launched the annual update mode, becoming the first annual update in China.
6 Over the past year, the animation has highly restored many "famous scenes" in the original novel, including the friendship between the Shrek Seven Monsters, the father-son relationship between Tang San and Tang Hao, the love between Tang San and Xiao Wu, and Tang San's passionate battle against the two gods. ...Each climactic plot is presented to the audience with sophisticated audio-visual language.When the animation was completed, it received more than 50 billion views, continued to receive commercial authorization, and became a domestic benchmark for annual productions.
Another favorite animation work of the year, "Perfect World", the two battles "Twin Stone War" and "Seven Gods" produced since its launch in 2021, have aroused heated discussions among animation audiences with their sophisticated production standards comparable to the theatrical version. In these plots that have a huge turning point in the protagonist's growth, the production team carefully studied the original work and used audio-visual language to spare no effort to restore the character emotions behind the text. On Tencent Video, 7.7 million viewers gave "Perfect World" a high score of 9.5.
For these domestic animations with a "year" update cycle, in addition to grasping the storyline and character growth, what is more important is the continuous output of content to cultivate the habit of Chinese audiences to watch domestic animations regularly and for a long time. At this point, the 3D CG animation production technology used in Nianban's works has achieved systematization and industrialization at the production level through continuous innovation and iteration. It can not only enhance the appeal of the plot at the level of audio-visual effects, but more importantly, it can maintain the animation Stable, long-term updates. With the support of
technology, the imagination of animation creators can be vividly displayed to the audience through unique editing and lens changes, breaking the limitations of time and space. Among the works of Golden Goose honoring the best animation art of the year, the beauty of future technology in "Swallowing the Starry Sky" and the beauty of Chinese style in "Dali Temple Diary Season 2" are both the top-notch appreciation of animation art by animators based on the tone of their works. use.
Based on human beings' inherent cognition and rich imagination, "Swallowing the Stars" builds a futuristic and believable apocalyptic world for the audience. In the anime, warriors from different countries and combat strengths are distinguished by detailed mechas. Monsters of different strengths are also given different shapes to highlight their strength and abilities. Cities and shelter camps with different atmospheres can be used through different The use of mirrors and perspectives create a human world where hope exists despite the difficulties of survival. When the protagonist Luo Feng leaves the earth and heads to the universe, the visual performance of the animation becomes more imaginative. Whether it is interstellar navigation or the visualization of other planets, the audience is fascinated.
In "Dali Temple Diary Season 2", the "casual" character design is in sharp contrast with the detailed story scenes designed with reference to the architecture of the Tang Dynasty. In the blend of illusion and reality, animation uses a large number of two-dimensional and three-dimensional scenes to combine and intersperse. A large number of long-range shots are used to hint at the background of the story. A large number of facial close-ups show the psychological state of the characters. The combination of elegant and atmospheric art design and lens language highlights the animation. Unique artistic characteristics.
It is worth noting that the annual and quarterly editions are just an updated model of animation. Whether it is pursuing technology or graphics, the ultimate goal is to tell good stories. The audience has never hesitated to praise a good story, which is deeply reflected in the list of the most acclaimed animation awards of the year.
The season animation of "Under One Person" has also reached a climax. The storyline of the fifth season of the anime corresponds to the most popular "Chen Duo Chapter" in the comics. This chapter focuses more on the portrayal of characters and emotions. The tragedy of Chen Duo's active choice to die is the ending of the story. Through the shaping of Chen Duo And explore "what it is to be human" about the fate and choices of other characters.
The concept of conduct and conduct rooted in traditional Chinese culture is infiltrated into the story. This is why "Under One Person" is called "The Light of Chinese Comics" by domestic animation enthusiasts. Coincidentally, in the other two most acclaimed animations of the year, "The Bad Guys Season 6" and "The Bodyguard", we can also see the creators using their works to explore people and society.
For example, Li Xingyun, the protagonist in "The Bad Man in the Painting of Rivers and Lakes", previously only wanted to be a wandering cloud and wild crane, hanging a pot to help the world, but was called "the mud can't support the wall" by the bad guy Yuan Tiangang. After suffering all the pain, he was willing to bring peace to the world and bring peace to the world. He became a new bad commander and decided on the path he wanted to take.
"The Daredevil" has the shell of a traditional martial arts story "the battle between rivers, lakes and temples", but inside it is about the conflict between social order and the pursuit of personal values.The story emphasizes from the beginning to the end that "Everyone in the world is for profit." However, every character such as Touma, Chishiro, Ayuya, Shu, Yan Ziniang, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Pei Shiju, etc. are extremely vivid and full of human nature. dimensions.
These three animations have also gained high reputations on Douban. "The Bad Guys Season 6" has a Douban score of 9.6, which is the highest score among Chinese comics in the past five years. They are able to accumulate audiences with their high reputation because they form a narrative with Chinese cultural characteristics - the world is not black and white, people are not either good or evil, and each character chooses a different path under different eras. It is to insist on being yourself.
Animation itself is a kind of content that can create a deep emotional connection with the audience. Accompanied by high-quality content, you will also get a response from the audience. On various social platforms, in-depth analysis of animation plots, passionate expressions of favorite characters, and various secondary content created by domestic animation fans are the best proof. This is also the entertainment content based on the Internet and the audience. positive interaction between them.
The long-termism of Chinese comics
From 2012 to now, both animation creators and video platforms have experienced several difficult moments. Now that Chinese comics are reaching the public, it can be considered that the development of Chinese comics has broken through the original The shackles have ushered in a new turning point, which is the result of Guoman's insistence on long-termism.
In the huge matrix of Chinese comic content, the works mentioned above are actually only a small part of them. Their ability to stand out is of special significance to the further expansion of the basic base of the Chinese comic market.
Content creation is never about chance. The success of these excellent works is the result of the animators' accumulation of production experience in several attempts, supplemented by the platform's analysis of user preferences, continuous upgrading of animation production, and continuous adjustment of operating strategies. In addition, the relatively mature production system established based on these works can be transferred to the production process of other domestic animation works, helping to improve the overall production standards of domestic animation. For example, the most promising animations of the year, "Douluo Dalu II: Peerless Tang Sect", "Shading the Sky" and "Dragon Tribe", were all completed by teams with rich experience in domestic animation production.
In addition, high-quality animation content has improved the aesthetic level of the audience, and the audience will also expect more high-quality content. This requires the Chinese animation industry to not only continuously improve the production level of animation of established types and themes, but also to explore animation works with diverse themes and differentiated narratives. For example, the new works to be broadcast on the apocalyptic supernatural theme "Starting from the Red Moon" and the Cthulhu-style western fantasy theme "Lord of the Mysterious" are Tencent Video's new attempts to broaden the themes and narrative expression of Chinese comics. This is also The plump domestic animation market must stick to the path it is on.
