At the Crunchyroll Virtual Expo in September, the panel promoting the Crunchyroll Original anime EX-ARM did not show a single second of footage from the upcoming sci-fi anime. The lack of completed animation on display, in combination with the fact director Yoshikatsu Kimura and studio Visual Flight have never made an anime before, had many fearing the worst for the project. Based on the series' first trailer, it seems those fears were justified.
The best way to describe the look of EX-ARM's animation in the trailer is that it looks amateurish. The quality of CGI in TV anime varies wildly, but the robotic movements and blurry effects in the trailer make even the first season of RWBY look polished in comparison. The low-quality visuals just get all the more embarrassing in contrast with the trailer's pretentious overconfidence -- the tagline is "Declaring war against all of the SF series around the world!" Somehow we doubt The Mandalorian or Rick and Morty are quaking in their boots over this battle cry.
EX-ARM's production committee intentionally hired a director whose only prior experience was in directing live-action movies. In an interview with Anime News Network during Crunchyroll Expo, Yoshikatsu Kimura stated, "The anime is done in 3D, and live-action directors normally deal with a three-dimensional space." Of course, hiring a live-action director using this reasoning ignores the increasing number of talented and experienced 3D CGI directors working in the anime industry.
There are cases where directors trained in live-action filmmaking have made the successful jump into the animation sphere. Indie darling Wes Anderson is perhaps the most prominent such example, with The Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs just as artistically stunning as his live-action films. Katsuyuki Motohiro, the co-director of Psycho-Pass and director of the FLCL sequels, also started in live-action filmmaking. These successful directors, however, made sure to learn from and collaborate with experienced animators while breaking into this new medium.
In contrast, Kimura stated at Crunchyroll Expo that "rather than doing special preparations for an anime, I involved my usual live-action staff." One aspect of the production that could have theoretically made sense was the decision to use motion capture for the characters, allowing Kimura to direct actors in a more traditional manner for a live-action director. However, even motion capture requires an array of animation specialists to do properly, and it appears as if the production of EX-ARM skimped in that department. The results, as seen in the trailer, are a far cry from the "realistic" animation Kimura was hyping up at Crunchyroll Expo.
It's a shame EX-ARM appears to be receiving such a lackluster production, especially considering the original manga by HiRock and Shinya Komi is a well-drawn (if extremely fanservice-y) seinen manga with an intriguing story. The Crunchyroll Originals have been a mixed bag thus far, with a disappointing Noblesse for every successful Tower of God, but EX-ARM is looking like it might be the streaming service's first flat-out bomb in the Originals department.
If it fails, it should send a message that anime is best made by people who actually have experience with animation, or at least are willing to learn from the experts.
