EMARA: EMIRATES HERO - OPENING 1
epic, just epic! I’m blown away by your creativity.
>#omg#still cute tho#but i’m also confused
the whole thing is full of obvious creative bankruptcy
first, watch these openings and compare them with Emara. a lot of similarities, not just in drawings but in the direction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0rMFj_LFxY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5LhZ7pQpM
the way this slideshow scene flows is directly from KLK
the helicopter scene is shameless plagiarism to the same extent as the OP comparison
the “Mao Dante-esque silhouetted kaiju figure towering above everyone in a stylized night cityscape” thing isn’t completely traced but maybe it should have been? their version is super boring, they should’ve copied the Go Nagai monster-drawing style and not just the buildings’ composition
checkerboard patterns, checkerboard transitions
this might not seem too bad at first glance
but then if you compare it to the Bleach OP it’s from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFNQhmDLjTk you’ll notice the exact same “motion-tweened still illustration but with animated clothing” effect so it’s clear they used Bleach as reference. it wouldn’t be as bad though, if there was some kind of iconic appeal to this opening that wasn’t stolen from something else.
I swear the part where she jumps around on the dudes’ heads reminds me of some anime thing but I can’t put my finger on it
hello! someone made a post similar to this before but deleted it so I hope you don’t mind I just repost the same response I wrote to them : “stealing is a bit harsh we were trying to reference our favorite openings of all time! the animation and everything is done from scratch nothing was traced or anything . also aside from cutie honey if you squint you should also see a bit of lupin, bleach and death note. we’re not not ripping them off we’re hoping fans notice because WE’RE fans too and this was our way of paying tribute to shows we love sorry if it came off as anything else tbh”
Man… I didn’t expect any staff members to respond.
I definitely think you guys went too far overall. Especially since RE: Cutie Honey is a pretty obscure source. I’ve defended things that others called “ripoffs” before; for example, I wouldn’t say Osamu Tezuka went too far with New Treasure Island:
Some people say this comic is a “shameless ripoff” of a bunch of Disney stories, but not only are the drawings quite different, the pastiche nature of the story is thematically justified. It’s all about a kid’s idealized adventure and just how detached such fantasies are from the real world; the ending makes it really clear to the point of being comically unsubtle.
Meanwhile… look at that drawing of the nameless goons robbing a jewelry store. That’s far, FAR too close and there’s no thematic justification for it either. What I can’t help but notice is just how few original ideas are shown off in that intro and how much of the iconic imagery is taken from somewhere else. There’s just very little artistic identity in there.
The thing is, the drawings make it clear that you’re way, way too good for that. You CAN draw solidly, you CAN construct characters from your mind. You clearly understand things like color theory. You’re way too good at drawing and understand the appeal of anime too much to be relying on existing scenes to such a big extent.
Just… work towards creating your own artistic voice by mixing together influences like no one else did, because you CAN do it. Look at how Imaishi himself, or someone like Tezuka, handled their influences and references and balanced it out with their own unique voice. Try to think about the balance of references vs original content. And… really, don’t do stuff like that robbery scene. It’s just way, WAY too close.
I don’t want to tear you guys down; I just think these things are worth pointing out for any artist.
yeah if you checked the notes or the studio's social media you'd see were more than happy to read comments and reply
I understand where you're coming from but again, we wanted to reference the intros we love and we made it that obvious so that fans pick up on the fact that "Hey! these guys love the same shows I do!" and feel closer to us as a result ( or something along those lines but basically it was not and is not meant to be something malicious, it's an homage to our favorites)
We're not the first project to reference other animated works and we definitely won't be the last.
We know we're good and we've worked very hard on a project that was very difficult to get made from the get go so might wanna rethink throwing around words like "ripoff" or "creative bankruptcy". You DID try to tear us down but that's ok 'cause most of what you've written is based on your opinion and measure of how much is ok to reference and how much isn't.
