by “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness,” the latest anime series of the popular game “Resident Evil,” was released on Netflix on July 8th and attracted a lot of attention from fans.
Naturally, it has won first place in the Netflix ranking in Japan, but what I would like to pay particular attention to is that it is in the top 10 in the Netflix ranking of more than 70 countries around the world, including not only Japan but also the United States and the United Kingdom. ..
According to the aggregate of the video distribution ranking site called FlixPatrol, it can be seen that “Resident Evil,” the overseas title of Resident Evil, is in the top 4 in the ranking of all contents on Netflix.
After all, “Resident Evil” is a popular game that has shipped more than 110 million units worldwide.
You can see that it works well with Netflix, which has more than 200 million members worldwide.
Full animation CG approaching live action
What impressed me personally in this “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” was the evolution of CG technology.
When it comes to “Resident Evil movies,” I think many people have a strong impression of the live-action series starring Milla Jovovich.
However, the CG animation series is also popular, and three works have already been produced: “Degeneration,” “Damnation,” and “Vendetta.”
Naturally, the previous work “Vendetta” was released in 2017, but the evolution of CG technology in this “Biohazard: Infinite Darkness” was remarkable.
Looking at the impressions on Twitter, there are many comments that CG or live-action was confused at the opening.
This time, director Eiichiro Hasumi, who is also known for the “Umizaru” series, challenged the first full CG animation and produced CG under the same conditions as the location of live-action production, so there may be such an influence. Not.
It was impressive that Anno adopted the hybrid of live-action and animation in “Shin Evangelion Theatrical Version.” Still, I feel once again that the boundary between live-action and animation is beginning to melt.
An era where both location and age can be reproduced with CG
The awesomeness of using CG in creating works that utilize Netflix’s financial power has become a hot topic in live-action dramas.
Even in Japan, the scene of the Shibuya scrambled intersection reproduced by CG in “Alice in Borderland” and “Naked Director 2” became a hot topic. Still, recently it became a big topic during the corona disaster. It would be “Vincenzo” who reproduced the Italian scene without going to the shooting location in Italy.
Since the boundary between reality and CG has become so apparent in live-action dramas, it can be said that it is natural in the sense that full CG animation is approaching live-action.
It may be said that the only difference between anime and live-action is whether or not a human actor is acting in his face.
However, Netflix has even achieved the challenge of rejuvenating Robert De Niro and Al Pacino with CG technology in the movie “The Irishman,” and the boundaries of human actions are becoming blurred. It can be said that there is.
This time as well, with the mission of delivering a lot of exciting CG animations filled with “unique to Japan,” the Japanese production team led by Quebico can make CG animations of such a high level. I also feel that what has been proved is excellent news.
What is the “real thing” in making a game into a movie?
Of course, there are still so-called uncanny valleys in human acting with full CG, and CG will not wholly replace human actors.
However, since the world of “Resident Evil” starts from the game, from the perspective of many years of “Resident Evil” players like me, the characters of the entire CG animation were the real ones I was playing. The world of “Resident Evil.”
In fact, for me, Milla Jovovich’s live-action film is, in a sense, something else.
At least, this “Biohazard: Infinite Darkness” was announced as an anime series with four drama compositions instead of one movie. It is also defined as an animation in terms of the classification of the contents in the world. Probably.
However, when it comes to “Resident Evil,” the evolution of CG has melted the line between anime and live-action.
For now, when it comes to “Resident Evil movies,” I think many people give a live-action version of Milla Jovovich. Still, this time, in “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness,” the protagonist may change in the future. Is shown.
