- After the banger that is Casino Royale and Vs Glo, NSP returns with a new Kits animation. I am reviewing this animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcV6Vwdvtik
Whenever an NSP animation gets released, I usually hold off on watching it. Not because I think its bad, quite the opposite. I already know its good. NSP is one of the animators that I am very confident with in many aspects, especially in his fundamentals as an animator. An animator usually has a few quirks embedded in them that shows in their work that makes a work their own. NSP is no exception to this, can you guess what it is? Casino Royale nailed home the fact that a new era and story has come for NSP and in the middle of that journey is Kits vs Vike. Here’s what I think about it:
Kits vs Vike is a well made animation, I also think its their best animation (I am very biased). It’s constant usage of dynamic animation along with what feels like a comic panel really makes me giddy. And what finally ties this huge ass cake together is the way it ended, which would involve spoilers so I won’t elaborate in that.
I specifically picked the word well made is because of how intentional the animation is in its presentation. I am very vigilant about intent when consuming media, and this is a very nice treat to the eyes. The usage of what I would call paneling for now, is a massive proof of the intent behind the frames. Here’s a very obvious example:
As the black frame slowly closes in, it diverted my attention from looking around to just focusing to the center. And this is the same for the character, he slowly realizes where Kits will be attacking from and slowly shifts his attention there. Content with substance is content with intention. If you watch through the entire animation, it is filled with such examples, it doesn’t end with a box closing in. There is a sequence where one of them quite literally slams the other to the next panel, its amazing! It’s like watching a moving comic!
I realize now that intent might be defined differently by different people, so I thought I should elaborate what makes a work intentional in my terms. My idea of intent in media is when an artist uses their medium to communicate other ideas other than what’s immediately seen. I usually find intent present in through the animation principle called Staging. Staging is where you use your frame (or camera) to direct your viewer’s attention. And wowee! This is very present in this very animation we are reviewing. From the very visible use of the black frame, to the subtle instantaneous use of sound words (onomatopoeia), all to help direct our attention to what’s happening and what’s coming. It’s an animation with a story that uses everything at it’s disposal to tell you a story.
And I know you might be thinking: kyuna, don’t all animation tell stories? Yeah, most animations aim to do that. But are you a good storyteller? Through animation, can you tell the story of a fox-person mugging a courier knight in a very entertaining and substantial manner? Maybe that’s what I am looking for huh, good storytelling through animation. I’m not very good with words, so please allow me rephrase my idea of intent: it’s when an artist uses their medium to walk a viewer through a story the way they want you to see it. And I hope to see more great storytellers with stories to tell in the future.
This reminds me of a similar work that adopted a comic book style of presentation: Spiderverse. It makes me think about how much of Spiderverse’s flair is intentional and how much of it is there for the sake of looking cool. A lot of animations present in the community seems to be following the rule of cool when it comes to presenting their animations, and that is also a fine and valid approach. However, I personally believe a work that tries to tell its story to its viewers in different ways will stand out from the rest. Anyways, those are my thoughts about Kits vs Vike, I don’t really like putting numbers into things so I’ll just say I loved the animation. I am looking forward to what NSP creates next.
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