Short Answer: Anno<p>Until their depiction in <i>Neon Genesis Evangelion</i> in 1995, power lines were virtually non-existent in anime. After all, why draw them when they take up more time and effort during a time-packed production schedule? However, Hideaki Anno, the director of the aforementioned anime, began to implement them in backgrounds, bringing in a new kind of mechanical urban aesthetics. Anno has a certain kind of obsession with mechanical structures, such as power lines and rail tracks, as he likes the way they continue into a distance. He continued depicting them in his later works, such as <i>Kare Kano</i> as well as live action features such as <i>Shiki-jitsu</i>, <i>Love and Pop</i> and his recent blockbuster <i>Godzilla Resurgence</i>[1]. Given how Evangelion revolutionized anime, the industry quickly followed its influence including its aesthetics.<p>Source: I've interviewed him. [Link](<a href="http://rickyreports.com/archives/annohideaki/" rel="nofollow">http://rickyreports.com/archives/annohideaki/</a>)<p>[1] Well, it is rather an essential feature to portray destruction within this long-running monster franchise.
Because that's what Japan looks like, duh! Any place in Japan has basically power lines all over the place, even in cities like Tokyo.<p>And also because it's easy to draw and show for 5 seconds in every anime to save on the precious animation budget because it's super static and goes everywhere. Added bonus it can be added into any decor and you would not notice it's the same pattern imported all over again in between animes.
In addition to the reasons given here, I'd say that as far as bang-for-buck in terms of visual realism goes, power lines are pretty effective. They look complex but are quite fast to draw with line tools or model in a 3d package and usually can be represented with minimal shading. Creating the impression of modern urban landscapes is largely a question of creating very detail-dense images, and power lines are a pretty cheap way to add a lot of small detail.
Lol... I was going to say this exactly. <i>Evangelion</i> and <i>Lain</i> were pretty popular even in the US around the year 2000, so I imagine they were near ubiquitous in Japan. Both were well-animated and the power lines a symbol that was returned to again and again.<p>Anime/manga also loves to meme/trope things like this because animation studios are cheap and love 30s tracking shots across 2 hand-drawn panel with nothing more to animate than a bit of lens flare. IMO it started as a style thing but quickly became a “this is a cheap way to pad our runtime” thing.
In that great documentary "Crumb" cartoonist Robert Crumb shows his notebooks in which he keeps pictures of all sorts of mundane infrastructure that he incorporates into his drawings.<p>It's really effective in this sequence "A Short History of America":<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IFVUHg_tUc" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IFVUHg_tUc</a><p>That one always gets me...
This makes me wonder about how complex is the world we are living today. The large amount of niches humanity created, unceasingly. On our complex societies, even a micro blog about "power lines in anime" have an audience, and got a journalist's attention to create an interesting article.
Even before I read the link, I thought: Serial Experiments Lain.<p>The power lines are almost an additional character.<p>Also: I think this is where the X-styled hair tie started. I remember some discussion of it at the time, and so many characters since then have had some reference to it.
No one mentioned this specifically, but as someone who's dabbled in animation a bit...<p>Power lines are fantastic for selling depth / perspective. The poles are long and slender vertically as are the wires horizontally. When you parallax, it's a nice way to have a mid-ground layer that doesn't obscure too much of the background and naturally pokes up above shorter foreground elements.<p>Not saying the other thoughts re: theme etc aren't valid. Just something else to consider.
It isn't just powerlines. Anime -- especially well-done anime -- has a way of focusing on the mundane in order to establish an emotional connection to the setting.<p>Thr anime movie <i>Your Name</i> is riddled with brief, but sumptuously animated and richly detailed, close-ups of doors opening and closing. These include simple doors on a rustic rural home as well as the automatic sliding doors on a Tokyo railway car.
To quote bitwize from this thread: Well-done anime has a way of focusing on the mundane in order to establish an emotional connection to the setting.<p>For anyone who wants to understand this aesthetic, I strongly recommend watching The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭), which is only 46 minutes long. There is something breathtakingly beautiful about this film and other ones like it. They engender a strong feeling of longing and gentle sadness (nostalgia?) by bringing focus to the little things in life. It's a sentiment that tugs at the human soul.<p>Look up mono no aware (物の哀れ), which may be translated as 'a gentle sadness at the transience of things', as well as wabi-sabi (侘寂). Both of these are central to Japanese culture and history.<p>Edit: I also recommend checking out '5 Centimeters Per Second' and 'Your Name', both directed by Makoto Shinkai. To quote Ronnie Scheib's review:<p>Shinkai has been hailed as the next Miyazaki, and his dreamy mindscapes often equal or surpass the anime maestro in breadth of detail and depth of emotion. Shinkai extends the innate possibilities of the anime dynamic, reapplying its principles of lush effects, inflated background detail and sometimes undernourished character animation to mirror the interiority of the characters in every nuance of their surroundings.<p>Some images from 5cm/s: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=5+cm+per+second&oq=5+cm+per+second" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=5+cm+per+second&oq=...</a>
I propose a more prosaic explanation. Anime artists probably spend a lot of time looking out their windows. Unless they're doing <i>very</i> well for themselves, they probably see a lot of power lines.<p>So the one thing they look at and study the most, is very likely to be power lines.
I thought it's just that in Asia, they don't usually hide lines or make effort to decrease number of individual wires.<p>That's what you have on street - that's what you get in anime.
It's a beautiful trope that immediately ties you to the location. The shots of trains passing is another - you can tell the train type and company being detected often with a scary level of accuracy.
(fd - haven't lived in Japan since 2008)
I don't see how this is much different from the establishing shots, panoramic shots, still life shots, etc. that exist in other genres as well. That being said, I do see these types of shots less often in modern non-anime film and I appreciate how anime has been carrying this tradition. Lots of classic films also have a taste for the scenic and contemplative, and it's one of the things I love about them.
Not directly related, but this made me think of general role of power lines in art.<p>When they are drawn or painted, they are valuable: they obviously carry a message, someone took the time to draw them.<p>On a photograph, they are considered something to avoid, or an eye sore to erase. Perhaps because often photographers want to convey what they <i>perceive</i>, not what they <i>see</i>. I can say that about myself - I tune out all the utilities from a beautiful piece of architecture like banner ads from an interesting website. But when it comes to taking a photograph, they come back with full force, often leaving me hopeless.<p>I wonder if there exists a way for a photographer to embrace and love the "ugly" signs of civilization. Perhaps give them a compositional role?
The best creators will innovate these sorts of flourishes, picking things that are thematically and tonally consistent and have a real purpose. Then other creators will copy them, as an omage to the original work in order to ground themselves in the artistic movement they wish to belong to. This is how we end up with such a distinct anime aesthetic; a slow accretion of unique elements forming a distinct culture as multiple generations of artists influence each other in blatant and subtle way.
Brought to mind this post for artists about how to accurately draw power lines: <a href="http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-artists-need-to-know-about-utility.html" rel="nofollow">http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2016/05/what-artists-need-...</a>
Because that's literally what Japan looks like?
I've been to Tokyo and Kyoto, there are power lines/wires hanging everywhere. I don't know for sure, but I assume they don't have this infrastructure hidden underground because of earthquake concerns.
Ironically, one theme that is becoming quite popular nowadays in manga/anime/light novels is "isekai" (i.e. main character gets transported to another world, typically a medieval fantasy similar to LoTR)
Because they are graphically striking, lush.<p>Also they are magical objects. A visible shout of power.<p>Speaking as an artist, it's low hanging mangos on a silver platter. Of course we're gonna do them.
To highlight the location using archaic and outdated infrastructure? I mean, a two-prong 115 V outlet would be kinda hard to see in comparison, no? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯