Sazae-san – Survivor of Japanese Cel
In the world of Japanese anime, Sazae-san is the only anime series left that is still cel animation.
Since Sazae-san started running 39 years ago, it has been using hand drawn cel animation. The makers explain that they continue to stick to cel animation in Sazae-san because the small variations in the lines between each hand drawn frame helps to create a warmhearted feeling which puts the minds of viewers at peace. They are even resisting the move to digital broadcast, as showing cel animation in high definition will make the little faults in cel animation such as dust a lot more obvious.
They are also running out of people who can do cel animation in the digital age while the current cel animators are getting older and older. They currently have approximately 120 people working on the anime across 3~4 companies, but they are still lacking in manpower and 20~30% of the anime is drawn in China.
Other classic anime such as Chibimaruko-chan and Doraemon have switched to production on computers in 1999 and 2002 respectively.
Source: Asahi.com
Personally I have never seen or even heard of this Sazae-san, at least I heard of Chibimaruko and Doraemon. But still I think I would like to have a look at how it would actually look on a television set.
“Personally I have never seen or even heard of this Sazae-san”
Funny thing is, neither has most of Western fandom, but aside from probably being the longest running animation series in the world (we are talking thousands of episodes), it get the best viewing figures of any anime series on Japanese TV by a huuuuuuggggggeeeee margin.
39 years huh. Amazing. I remember watching it on TV to practice my Japanese listening skills. :]