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What was the first anime series to use digital production? How many years
passed between the first use and the complete conversion to digital?

According to [this interview to Toshihiko Arisako by
ANN](http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/video/300/) [04:42] Toei first used
digital animation in 1998 for the fourth _GeGeGe no Kikaro_ series, and "2000
was the year that most of our productions were produced digitally". Is this
time frame valid for other studios or Toei was a precursor?


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2013-04-27T22:48:21.760
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anime-production anime-history
What was the first anime series to use digital production?


According to [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime#Production):

> In the 1990s, the Japanese began incorporating computers into the animation
> process. Some works such as Ghost in the Shell and Princess Mononoke mixed
> cel animation with computer-generated images. Towards the late 1990s,
> companies had began shifting towards drawing cels digitally instead of with
> paint. Fuji Films to boldly announce the halt of cel production for the
> animation industry prompting a mass scramble to import foreign cels and
> transfer more of the production line to digital.

[Princess Mononoke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke) was
released in 1997, though animation production began in 1995. [Ghost in the
Shell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_%28film%29) was
released in 1995. Based on that, digital production as a part of the general
production began in or before 1995.

According to
[this](https://plus.google.com/u/0/115837430604346486194/posts/DHSUPpK3E8n),
which may or may not be correct (I don't know how reliable the source is),
Tobira o Akete was an early anime short to feature digital production, as was
Bit Cupid (an anime series rather than a short), both of which were from 1995.

Also,

> Production I.G., known for their world-famous Ghost in the Shell film and
> other prestige features (Patlabor 2, Jin Roh) produced the first two digital
> anime series that most anime fans can recognize by name: Love Hina (with
> Xebec) and FLCL (with Gainax)

[Final Fantasy: The Spirits
Within](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy%3a_The_Spirits_Within),
released in 2001, was the first photorealistic computer animated feature film.
[Blood: The Last
Vampire](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood%3a_The_Last_Vampire#Production),
which was from 2000, was fully digital, and, according to
[this](http://books.google.com/books?id=81Y1TVYQSrEC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&dq=first%20fully%20digital%20anime&source=bl&ots=MkUQ3MMbtc&sig=t3TbAxb9NsD0OXsOZUN_Q-
TiOLI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=eI18UcveCcSQ0QHGxIHADQ&ved=0CEUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=first%20fully%20digital%20anime&f=false),
the first fully digital feature.

The first fully digital anime series was Bit the Cupid, which was created in
1995 by Satelight Inc. A description is on [this
page](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%93%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B6%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%94%E3%83%83%E3%83%89),
but it is in Japanese. From what I can tell from the translation, Bit the
Cupid was the first continuous CG animation in the world. It was made to look
like it was modeled in 3D. Also, after being colored, the contour lines were
taken off.

All in all, it's kind of difficult to determine exactly when things began, but
from what I can find, digital production began in 1995 and the first fully
digital feature was released 2000.


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The Professional: Golgo 13 (1983), a popular manga in the 70s, had a CG
helicopter sequence. I'm mostly unsure of the team who animated it, but I'm
mostly surprised that it manifested quickly after the release of Tron (1982).

Production IG had it's first instances of CG in the 90s, but it appears that
they were shown in the form of wireframes. I've heard of some talk that these
wireframes were painted over in some cases.

I would probably mention that industry completely transitioned to digital
within the early 21st century.


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