Since The Japanese manga became active in the West, the war between Japanese fans and American manga fans has not stopped, Japanese fans think that the American manga is either naïve and deep, will not grasp the plot, or it is an adult yellow joke show with no connotation, and the American manga fans think that the Japanese manga is full of tentacle fantasies and old-fashioned storyboards, and its fans follow the pillow every day. Oh ~ what a good drama ah ~ , but The impression of Winglet on the American comic in recent years in addition to the box office explosion of superhero movies, the rest is probably only living in childhood, it just so happens that this year is the 20th anniversary of the Flying Little Policewoman (thanks to the editor-in-charge Of curtisan's reminder ~) Today Winglet will talk to you about the impact of this childhood work on the industry, and some of its deeper things ~
Released in 1998 by Craig McCracken (the work is the result of the Clackken couple, as will be mentioned later), The Flying Girls tells the story of three mini super (Lolita) heroes — Flower Flower, Bubble, and Mao Mao ( Chinese ) who hunt down criminals and fight against evil forces in the town. But now when it comes to the little policewoman, I think you are most impressed by this simple painting style that can no longer be simple. Yes, in the 1970s and 1980s, the painting style was still basically continuing the realistic style, and although the characters did not necessarily match the reality completely, there were still details to be there. The Flying Little Policewoman is a new style of painting created by McCracken himself, highlighting the characteristics of the character, but trying to be as simple as possible unnecessary parts, and the lines are as simple as possible. But perhaps Cracken himself did not expect that his new style of painting would be so popular, and even affected the two ACG cultural circles in Japan and the United States. Incidentally, Cracken himself continues his painting style to this day, and his personal homepage is still accessible, and he himself often puts some of his own manuscripts on it.
(Image from Craig McCracken's profile, https://cmcc.deviantart.com/)
After the release of the Flying Little Policewoman, her minimalist style of painting was immediately sought after by the audience, and other production companies in the United States also followed the trend and began to produce this simple style animation with outstanding characteristics. Even Disney, the titan of the American comic circle, did not throw away this hot cake, and launched "Spicy Girl" in 2002. (This is another childhood work ah ~) Through the spicy girl's painting style, it can be seen that although the characters can still clearly see that the facial expressions and limbs are Disney's final compromise on this simple style, compared with Disney's other works, this work is obviously greatly simplified in terms of human settings.
And Japan, which is far away on the other side of the ocean, even once thought that this was the mainstream style of American comics in the early 20th century, when GAINAX, as a first-class production company in the industry, after successively throwing out two super crossbow works of Evangelion and Tianyuan, wanted to make an animation work completely made by the Japanese, so this "Garter Angel" that claimed to be able to change three styles in one episode was born. (By the way, I recommend this time, and the small partner who has not seen it can go to make up.) ）
Of course, don't be fooled by the cover, in fact, the most commonly used style of painting of garter angels is like this.
Of course, an excellent animation work, its excellent plot and human settings are the soul of the whole work. This is especially true for the Flying Girls, who just mentioned that the Flying Girls are actually a work co-produced by Craig McCracken and his wife. Here we need to mention Clarke's wife, Lauren Faust. That's right, she's the author of the G4 Rainbow Pony that swept the world 12 years later in 2010.
Ms. Lauren spent her early years as an animator at Turner Animation before meeting her husband during a project for The Flying Policewoman. And in the process, I tried different positions such as director, writer, story, story supervisor, storyboarding, supervisor, and personnel. In fact, Winglet thinks that in the script, Ms. Lauren may have more work, and we will find some very interesting features when we watch the Flying Little Policewoman. For example, why did this anime create a superhero with three female characters? You know, even in a superhero league like Marvel, female superheroes are rare. Why did you create a villain similar to the little policewoman later in the animation - the rough boy? With the deepening of the plot, it is not difficult for us to find that the personalities of the three little policewomen are also characterized by their own characteristics, Hua hua is strong and brave, and the bubbles are cute and naughty, these two can be said to be more popular and templated female characters. But why is Mao Mao's personality another serious and stubborn?
Of course, this is inseparable from Ms. Lauren's experience, due to her many years as an animator in an animation company. Lauren had a great opinion on the girl animation at that time, Lauren believed that most of the girl animation at that time was thin and the plot was boring. Lauren believes that teenage animation can also have the protagonist to carry out wonderful adventures, setbacks, growth, and battles like juvenile animation, rather than holding dolls and licking candy all day long and performing some day-to-day routines with other similar girls. It can be said that Ms. Lauren is a respectable feminist, and in this context, the little policewoman was born. Lauren's later works also basically continued this path, the Flying Little Policewoman was, and so was the Rainbow Pony.
Finally, Winglet would like to excerpt a passage from Ms. Lauren's words, through which we can understand a little bit of Ms. Lauren's unique values for girl animation, and this value is also permeated everywhere in the work of The Flying Little Policewoman.
There are lots of different ways to be a girl. You can be sweet and shy, or bold and physical. You can be silly and friendly, or reserved and studious. You can be strong and hard working, or artistic and beautiful.
(There are many kinds of girls, you can be a sweet and shy little girl, you can be brave and energetic, you can be friendly and a little dull, or you can be subtle and studious.) You can be strong and hardworking, or you can have an artistic temperament. ）
Find out what makes you you. Follow your passions and ambitions, not what others expect of you.
(Find your true self, follow your passions and ideals, and don't be what others expect of you.) ）
You can be friends with people who are vastly different from you. And even though all friendships have their share of disagreements and moments when you don’t get along, that does not mean that your friendship has to end.
(You can make friends with people who are completely different from you, and even all friendships will go through disagreements, but that doesn't mean your friendship will end for that.) ）
Cartoons for girls don’t have to be a puddle of smooshy, cutesy-wootsy, goody-two-shoeness. Girls like stories with real conflict; girls are smart enough to understand complex plots; girls aren’t as easily frightened as everyone seems to think.
(Cartoons made for girls don't have to be full of pink bubbles, sweetheart babes, well-behaved little girls, girls have real conflict stories, girls can understand complex plots, and girls aren't as flattered as everyone thinks.) ）
（译自：My Little NON-Homophobic, NON-Racist, NON-Smart-Shaming Pony: A Rebuttal）
Hats off to you! lady! Lauren knows very well what kind of animation girls really like to watch, and she also takes on the work ethic and responsibilities of a woman and an animator with her actions. If such works are not popular, I think they will be surprising
Interactive topic of this issue: What is the most impressive american comic in the childhood of the villagers? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to share Oh ~
Sentence/Dark Wings
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