Dezaki, illuminated

A useful tweet with some 2004 documentary screenshots explaining an analogue lighting technique:

Comment faisait Dezaki pour insérer ces fameux faisceaux de lumière qu'on retrouve dans toutes ces oeuvres ? ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fdUzRR9WzI

— Julien Bouvard (@julienbouvard) December 15, 2020

[Something like: How did Dezaki manage to add these famous light beams which one finds in all his works? I don’t really have French, so don’t take that as an authoritative translation!]

Anime’s aspect ratios

Anime-Gataris (2017; before you rush to try this: it doesn’t manage this kind of wit often)

Aspect ratios go unremarked, but few things can be more fundamental to an anime than its shape. To my knowledge, few things have been said on the topic. Jamal, voice of the podcast Get in the Mecha, has covered it a little, in an episode which helpfully reminds us that aspect ratio is a choice. Jamal’s treatment focuses on aspect ratios’ artistic ramifications, though, so I thought I’d have a go at gathering some more basic historical information about them.

Overscan in anime

Let’s talk about what happens in the bottom left corner of this shot from Gunbuster.