There is an increasing trend of Japanese and anime-themed games gaining popularity in recent years, especially in North American and European regions. According to Data.ai, anime games have yet to reach the mainstream, but their highly engaged audience has a huge spending appetite, accounting for $1 of every $5 spent through app stores on mobile games in 2022.

Since 1959, published manga, broadcast anime, and other staples of Japanese pop culture have been the foundation of Japanese games. In 1983, with the first home game consoles coming to market, games started to generate their own manga, anime, card games, and character-product spin-offs, advancing the hybridization of such media. This trend continued into the 90s, and to this day, anime continues to exert a strong influence over Japanese game designers.

Influenced by Japanese anime and manga, Japanese game art appeals to viewers due to its distinct look and feel, cultural nuances, and unique concepts. Anime art uses a more stylized aesthetic that liberates the animators from stringent adherence to depicting the real world. Its characters, both in terms of personality and appearance, are simplified and exaggerated, expressive and easy to understand. The styles range from direct and straightforward to bizarre and flamboyant. For example, it is common to see oversized, expressive eyes in characters, with non-organic hair colors (green, blue, violet, etc.) to denote personality. 

PTW has two art studios within our family of brands: 1518 Studios, specializing in Western-style art and animations, and Qbist, who are our in-house experts for anime-style art production. Established in Tokyo in 1995, Qbist began their work producing video game guides. As the games industry grew, they ventured out into Japanese game art production, including characters, illustrations, backgrounds, animations, and more. At present, the company builds networks with thousands of Japanese artists and participates in an array of game projects.

We invited Mr. Koito from Qbist to discuss what makes Japanese game art so special.

 What are the differences between Japanese game art and Western game art?

Japanese game art often has a lighter finish, reminiscent of anime, while game art produced overseas has an impasto finish—one thicker and more textured. For characters, the designs with a human touch seem popular for Japanese characters, while Western characters are often less human-like with muscular bodies, notable differences in height, or other unrealistic physiques. I'd also say there are more anthropomorphized designs among Japanese characters.

 What about Japanese game animation? What are its characteristics?

In Japan, 2D animation has been widely used, but use of 3D animation is beginning to grow recently. Spine and Live2D are widely used applications for 2D animation. Spine is intuitive and user-friendly, and has the benefit of letting one handle effects as well. Live2D allows adding smooth movements to characters easily.

Maya is widely used for 3D animation. It has many tool sets, and can make scripts to perform a variety of functions.

 What’s the usual process for the clients to outsource art to Japanese artists, such as concept art, characters, 2D art, 3D art, and animation?

The concepts are normally proposed by the client. There are cases where we create concepts with clients, and in those cases, our director or art director will offer proposals and engage in discussions with the client as we proceed. We conceive several character proposals for a set concept, decide on a proposal after several rounds of discussion, then complete the design work.

For 2D projects, an in-house director and art director will assist the clients through the project. Depending on the project details, we’ll use either in-house or external artists to achieve the best result. For 3D and animation work, we’ll assign an in-house director and use external artists, but going forward we will also leverage the resources from our group company 100studio.

 What would you consider to be Qbist’s signature Japanese art style?

We are proficient at all art styles, but specialize in "animenuri" (or "anime coloring") and impasto painting.

Is there any advice for outsourcing your game art to Japanese artists?

It depends on the content of the requested subject matter, but we believe that our work goes more smoothly by prioritizing preparation of written instructions that allow said request to be conceptualized clearly.

 How does Qbist differ from its competitors?

Qbist's strengths lie in our ability to accommodate art in a range of genres and tastes, and create production systems with adaptability. With our 20 in-house artists and 10,000 individual artists, we can facilitate mass production from the concept stage.

Anime and anime-themed games are gaining popularity across both the Western market and the world. With more than two decades of experience, PTW has established strong expertise in this special style of art.

With our two in-house game art production teams—1518, specializing in a more Western aesthetic, and Qbist, for anime or Japanese-style game art—PTW is ready to bring your game art to the next level, wherever your target market is. If you need assistance, please contact us at https://www.ptw.com/contact and we can offer you a free consultation.