Studio Orange producer Daigo Ikeda said the studio’s priority is to animate a character’s behavior and individuality, not to make a 3-D design imitate an established 2-D art style. That distinction, reported after Anime NYC in August 2024, helps explain Orange’s approach—but it does not erase the concerns viewers raise about how CGI looks, moves, and fits with hand-drawn animation.
What did Studio Orange say at Anime NYC?
In an August 29, 2024 report, Otaku USA attributed the remarks to producer Daigo Ikeda. He said a character’s original design matters, but matching its existing art style is not the studio’s main objective:
“Replicating the art style is not the objective, but to replicate the behaviors as animation is the prime goal.”
Ikeda said Orange redesigns characters to express what makes each one distinctive. In other words, the studio is describing a design choice in service of performance: a model need not reproduce a 2-D image exactly if its shape and movement better convey the character.
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Does Orange try to copy 2-D anime styles?
Not as an end in itself, according to Ikeda’s reported comments. He characterized Orange’s approach as interpretive rather than a straightforward reproduction of existing methods:
“Orange is not just trying to replicate existing methods, but trying to interpret and create our own as well.”
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He also connected the studio’s interest in CG animation to CEO Eiji Inomoto’s influence from Toy Story. That is an account of one creative influence, not a claim that Orange’s anime should look like Pixar films or that every production follows the same method.
How can CGI and hand-drawn animation work together?
Orange’s reported event demonstration included ways of combining CG and hand-drawn animation. One specific example was IDOLiSH 7 LIVE 4bit BEYOND THE PERiOD, whose backgrounds were made with Unreal Engine, according to the Otaku USA report. This illustrates why “CG anime” and “hand-drawn anime” are not always cleanly separate categories: different elements of a production can use different techniques.
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An Anime Herald search-result excerpt, from an interview tagged “Anime NYC 2024,” also describes Orange discussing experimentation and a goal of making audiences more familiar with CGI animation. The interview page was inaccessible, so that excerpt is limited secondary context; it should not be treated as a transcript of Ikeda’s reported panel remarks.
Why do viewers criticize CGI anime?
The criticism is not one single objection. It can involve whether 3-D models feel visually integrated with their surroundings, whether their motion and expressions suit the characters, or whether a shift away from familiar 2-D imagery feels jarring. Some viewers may also suspect a production chose CG to save time or money, but that suspicion alone does not establish why a particular production used it.
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A January 2024 Otaku USA report summarizing New York Times coverage quoted anime scholar Rayna Denison, author of Anime: A Critical Introduction, on the difficulty of translating a 2-D source into 3-D movement:
“Anime takes these flat images and allows them to move. That’s very different than presenting a 3-D model of a character that you know as 2-D.”
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That gap helps explain why a technically polished model can still feel unlike the image a viewer expects. The source material’s linework, proportions, and graphic simplifications are part of how audiences recognize a character; rendering a model in motion has to make choices about how those qualities carry over.
The same report quoted 3-D animator Austin Hardwicke, whose credits include Trigun Stampede and Godzilla: Singular Point, saying he believed the increase in 3-D anime reflected a hope for easier production. He also warned that poorly executed CG can look out of place, ugly, or like a cost-cutting measure. Those are his observations, not proof of the economic motives or quality of any particular title.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is CGI a replacement for hand-drawn animation?
There is no single position represented by the comments in these reports. Ikeda described Orange’s effort to develop its own approach to CG and to use design to express character behavior. By contrast, Atsushi Okui, animation photography director on The Boy and the Heron, described CG at Studio Ghibli as “a complementary tool in graphic production that puts hand-drawn 2-D animation as its principal axis.” The January 2024 report also quoted Okui hoping that Japan’s shift toward digital tools would not happen “so completely.” Those are Okui’s views about Ghibli’s approach, not statements from Orange.
The useful comparison is therefore not simply “CG or hand-drawn.” Consider whether the technique supports the character’s behavior and design, whether 3-D and drawn elements sit convincingly together, and whether motion and expression serve the story. Criticism is strongest when it points to a visible result; assumptions about production shortcuts are a separate claim and need evidence of their own.
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The detailed remarks are available through Otaku USA’s event reporting, rather than a retrieved primary transcript or recording. They establish how Ikeda described Orange’s artistic priority: behavior and character uniqueness over direct imitation of an existing style. They do not establish that all viewers dislike CGI, that every Orange production uses the same balance of techniques, or that CG is inherently cheaper or less expressive. The reports provide no named audience statistic or survey methodology that would support a numerical claim about anime fans’ attitudes.
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