How Sony's Japan Studio Created Gravity Rush | Animator Spotlight

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Canipa reflects on the animation of the Gravity Rush series and how Sony's former Japan Studio gave it an environment to thrive.
Support The Canipa Effect on Patreon - / thecanipaeffect
Sources and Further Reading:
CEDEC Gravity Rush report - www.4gamer.net/games/134/G013...
Gravity Rush GDC talk - www.gdcvault.com/play/1015721...
Gravity Rush art book interview - karageko.com/2018/01/07/gravi...
Shunsuke Saito's Twitter - / sshun3
Gravity Rush 2 seminar report - dusty-kitten.hatenablog.com/e...
Vita Games Conference report - www.4gamer.net/games/134/G013...
Gravity Rush 2 interview - www.dualshockers.com/gravity-...
Sony's Obsession with Blockbusters Bloomberg Article - www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
Follow me on Twitter: / canipashow
Intro:
Animated by Christian Maize (@CookieficationJ)
Music by Steven Kelly (@Sarifus)
Produced for The Canipa Effect
Games and Anime series featured in this video (chronologically):
Gravity Rush 2
The Last Guardian
Vib-Ribbon
Silent Hill
Siren
Siren: Blood Curse
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Ape Escape
Toro to Kyuujitsu
Persona 5
The Case Study of Vanitas
Guilty Gear Strive
The Last of Us
Puppeteer
Patapon
Locoroco
Gravity Rush Remastered
Music:
00:00 - Resistance and Extermination - Kohei Tanaka
01:16 - Sponsored Message - Raid: Shadow Legends
02:38 - Pleajeune - Kohei Tanaka
03:57 - Lei Havina - Kohei Tanaka
06:04 - Combat III - Kohei Tanaka
08:11 - Gravity Engine - Kohei Tanaka
All footage is used for the purpose of review and is fair use.

[@TheCanipaEffect]

Install Raid for Free ✅ IOS/ANDROID/PC: clcr.me/eLHmE0 and get a special starter pack 💥 Available only for the next 30 days #ad Thanks to Raid: Shadow Legends for sponsoring this video. The Canipa Effect Patreons will be sponsoring a second video releasing next week!

[@itsmamind]

Me seeing anything Gravity Rush related, I instantly click it. I just love that the two Gravity Rush games where so unique and legit beautiful.

[@dropkickcorpse]

There's a great interview by Toco toco on creator Keiichiro Toyama and his inspirations for Gravity Rush's style.

[@shadicverymt]

Same 😂

[@Lightspeeds]

This gets brought up as soon as I learned that Gravity Rush's creator is the original creator of Silent Hill.

[@0-Nada-0]

Gravity Rush is always the no.1 game I’ll recommend anyone - it’s far too criminally underappreciated

[@no_tiamo]

True...

[@friktogurg9242]

This video is an example of that. It only has 19k views when it should have at least a 100k, not to mention that the game director still wants a sequel.

[@demonpirate5453]

Extremely creative, beautiful, and underrated franchise. The score is incredible, too (Kohei Tanaka never misses). Unfortunate that we will probably never see another entry.

[@alexworman]

I would spend hours just flying around collecting gems in Gravity Rush 2

[@godzilla4189]

This just makes Sony's Closure of Japan Studio all the more dickish.

[@raze2012_]

real shame. Worst part is all that experience lost, people that worked there for 15, even 20 years back in the PS1 days. Even if Sony one day about faces, it will never be the same (which is something a lot of armchair internet people seem to forget when saying "bUt tHeY wErEn'T prOFitaBle!". Maybe not, but an art director who can design illustrations animated them AND model them is such a unicorn that shows how little they understand the talent of the workers there).

[@KuroiPK]

Totally agree, it’s just a tragedy. Sony really make one stupid move after another, I was always a fan of their console exclusive but since one stupid decision after another I switched to PC and game pass.

[@israelgonzalezabrego3551]

@@KuroiPK good no body cares lol, Sony owns the IPs of Japan Studio so it's just time to see a new Gravity sequel, Bokeh studio said that they hope to work with Sony again so it's just time. Farewell and get lucky with your first person shooters

[@KuroiPK]

@@israelgonzalezabrego3551 haha I know, but I dislike their new strategy so as a consumer I choice to support another product and I know a lot of people that did the same. It’s definitely not a good sign that some longtime fans are moving away fron PlayStation in my opinion but oh well time will tell…

[@gamingrex2930]

@@israelgonzalezabrego3551 Lmao found the console peasant

[@Noah-Lach]

This game has such wonderful animation. I still remember the feeling of booting it up for the first time and finally being blown away by my Vita after the rather underwhelming Uncharted Golden Abyss. It truly was the perfect game to show off what a next-gen handheld could be.

[@Noah-Lach]

Also I had no idea there was an anime, so thank you for giving me something else to check out!

[@KonataStar00]

I love Gravity Rush so much, the team poured so much creativity and details into this game. I even translated most of the hidden alphabet because the lore is unlike any other story. I'm still so curious about the rest of the story that remains untold :c ❤️

[@brendondellinger355]

I recently played both games back to back. Play them, they hold up really well on the ps4.

[@charlyhv2909]

That and many other reasons are why Gravity rush 2 is my favourite piece of art. Thanks for the video.

[@marc-antoinehamelin1625]

this game was why i bought a Vita... and i don't regret it one bit

[@Raf8347]

this Makes Sony's closure of Japan Studio even more depressing man Japan Studio wasn't perfect but even their worst games had heart put into them that makes them stand out from Sony's other exclusive titles, even if some of them are collabs with other devs like FromSoftware with Bloodborne now it feels like that sparkle is dying slowly in favor of more "Cinematic" games...

[@bllakc]

Sad we don't have this in PC.

[@JerryFlowersIII]

That clip of Shawn Layden at the beginning REALLY made me realize how much I miss him. Great video as always. I think your work is really important.

[@AZmaybe9]

Man, I love Gravity Rush! So much artistic expression went into it. Maybe a bit too much sometimes but I've been obsessed with the games and the way they feel for such a long time!

[@UdinDjaelani]

8:28 "Animated by Evangelion 3D team" *shows Gainax pose I see what you did there lol

[@TheCanipaEffect]

Gotta provide evidence XD

[@SilverRay85]

Gravity Rush is one of my favorite franchises period, I love everything about the games so much! It really sucks that the sequel didn't sell very well; the online portions of the game were shut down only a year after release, so anyone who bought the game after the online shut down never got a chance to engage with those features (I personally really enjoyed the treasure hunts, it was a fun way to reward players for understanding the world they're playing in).

[@imskiller99]

Man, Gravity Rush 2 is such an impressive game. As a sequel, it set out to improve upon all of its predecessor's shortcomings and succeeded in every field. It's a technological showcase. It has one of the best open worlds I've ever experienced, while managing to contain the entirety of the first game within it. The music is fucking fantastic, even better than the original, I was so impressed I ordered both OSTs from Amazon JP. Yet, it failed commercially

[@flycosis]

this is the first game to wow me in many years

[@mattmysterious866]

i hope we get a 3rd game someday

[@Dude12Dude2]

This was a really cool video to watch mate, always love me some gravity rush as well!

[@guicaldo7164]

As an aspiring animation director, I really want to make a Gravity Rush 3D anime one day. These movement mechanics could make for incredible action scenes if choreographed, and the visual style is a joy to look at.

[@bamban_garcia5562]

Good luck on getting a cease and desist

[@guicaldo7164]

@@bamban_garcia5562 I mean a licensed anime, not a fan-made one

[@bamban_garcia5562]

@@guicaldo7164 Ahh in that case look up the pr manager of crunchy roll they be able to help you out more

[@arntry8072]

"All they see is a bunch of artists that aren't making the global megacorporation any money". Ah yes being in the entertainment/gaming industry but focusing on money making rather than creativity to make money. Basically putting the cart before the horse.

[@raze2012_]

happens everytime. Management thinks they can just replace a key artists and then are shocked when their next business-centric, by the numbers product is lambasted on reveal because its art direction or animation is inferior to the before (you know, the stuff that let them milk a sequel or offshoot?) a tale as old as time. Artists don't tell business heads how to manage a global conglomerate, why do business people not extend the same grace and assume the talent they are paying know what they are doing?

[@keinname1896]

Raid. Haven't heard the name in a while and i can't say that I missed it. But well, if it keeps the Canipas Lights running it's at least good for something

[@medecko4394]

Spotlight for Gravity Rush? Epic! Just started playing this many months ago and it was a great experience.

[@ashenwolf3846]

Truly a tragic shame that we will probably never get another Gravity Game, but if we got future sequels through anime than I'm okay with it.

[@Ky-sh6gg]

i got so excited when i saw this in my recommended I love this game sm and I never hear anyone talk about it !!!!!!!!!!

[@grimmreaper5349]

as someone who has the original Gravity Rush in physical format, I want to say, I absolutely love every single time this game gets attention, specially since I first got to know it when it was free to download on the monthly roll of playstation plus free games all the way back, barely a few months after its release, and I absolutely LOVED it, but couldn't beat it, so I got it in physical format for my birthday back in 2019, and I've been replaying it a lot since! trying to get 100% on it lately, it's being very fun ngl

[@JRPGGUY]

I really hope we get a third

[@jogymogy3691]

I am very glad I got my copies for PS4 Remaster and Part2.

[@NyJoanzy]

I didn't in know what the visuals were based on i'd anything It was distinctly japanese And yet I could tell off the bat that this game was the Frenchest thing I had played.

[@fums63]

I literally just opened up PSN and bought the game after watching this (on sale for super cheap rn). Well played

[@callumw5731]

Gravity Rush 1 and 1 are by far my favourite games, masterpieces in innovation.

[@sen8368]

love seeing one of my favourite series get any attention but i will never forgive sony for shutting down japan studios

[@PostMesmeric]

I love this series so much. Gravity Rush 2 is my favorite PS4 exclusive, so it's great to see it get some analytic attention. Great video.

[@kekeuniverse]

Gravity Rush is like my favourite game of all time and the only reason why I would buy a PlayStation. So it makes me super happy to see you cover it.

[@issy785]

i wish there was a gravity rush 3, GR3 was my first game so i didn’t play GR1 but i ended up falling in love with the game almost immediately the gameplay, the story, the artstyle- honestly it gives me so much anime vibes i wish it was actual series

[@lewa3910]

Will always watch another vid singing Gravity Rush's praise ^_^ Most beautiful game i've played

[@oniplingz]

Damn, Japan Studio wa astonishingly amazing. This video only makes me miss it more. Amazing work as always, Canipa. I can't wait to see your next videos, dood

[@eckoecko13]

Thank you for making a great analysis video about one of my favorite game series!!

[@flor.7797]

Looks exactly like what happens to me during dreams sometimes. Maybe I should play this to improve my navigation skills?

[@pugman9672]

Seeing something gravity rush related makes me happy and sad. Happy because it getting love and exposure but sad because it probably never coming back and if It by some miracle dose it will likely be very different

[@MeCantSpell]

Not dropping frames? What the actual hell? You haven't used Jupiter Mode to the full potential! I played on PS4 too...

[@Lucifer_Abysseum]

this is my favourite game ever and im so glad it was greenlit and so sad now that japan studio got shut down

[@chanchoqatari3328]

I wished this was on PC.

[@rookless4121]

Same, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

[@user-bl4od1fd4u]

Me too

[@shadic971]

Gravity Rush holds a very special place in my heart. I found it during a dark time in my life and it very easily imprinted itself as one of my favorite games of all time (GR2 still holds this place today) So when I found out Sony was shutting down the studio that made it because "it's just not profitable" I could not wait to rid myself of any form of monetization I give Sony. This company no longer cares for art and fun. Now it just wants whatever AAA title will bring in more millions

[@bamban_garcia5562]

Sony Interactive Entertainment is a business first & foremost, making profits is part their core regardless of artistic vision or fun element You might want to look into the real reason Japan Studio was restructured, let's just say over 40 ongoing projects with almost nothing to show for most of them even some still being in beta after years of development is not a good look for a studip

[@ade1174]

Always like seeing you talk about videogame animation. There are some truly beautiful games out there.

[@meditalisoo7]

I finally finished the first game and started the second one earlier this year. Hope to finish it soon even though I have so much else to play.

[@noahballard7967]

Anytime something new with gravity rush appears I immediately invest all of the time required to it

[@miz6294]

Ah the shadow legends game I remember

[@morriganrenfield8240]

Fucking LOVE this ip, Sony really screwed up not marketing it properly. This could have easily been their mario in a sense…

[@bamban_garcia5562]

Sony heavily marketed it for several major gaming events, put out countless trailers, commissioned a short animated film for it, promoted it across several of their other gaming franchises, paid several other multiplatform publishers to bring in marketing costumes, created an entire expansion story for it, remastered the first one to popularize the franchise Sony did not failed their own IP the consumers themselves did

[@notimeforcreativenamesjust3034]

@@bamban_garcia5562true, but I also can’t blame the consumers, the second game came between two big blockbusters that blew this niche title out the water in terms of ip power.

[@Rocksteady72a]

Gravity Rush is so underrated. The original announcement had me thinking it'd be the next inFamous series, but it ended up being so much more than that. Shame that it doesn't get nearly as much attention

[@lnsflare1]

It's basically Spider Sonic: Odyssey of the Wild, and godammit if they didn't knock it out of the park.

[@europanzer3929]

Always happy to see Gravity Rush on the spotlight. Both games were a joy to play through.

[@soldado141]

Just finished playing the first game and loved it. Started the second and it doesn't have the same feel, but I'll definitely finish it. Overall great.

[@SaberRexZealot]

I don’t love Gravity Rush but it’s definitely one of the most imaginative and criminally underrated games out there that more people should play.

[@TKaz10]

OMGGG YESS MY Favorite game!!!

[@darksenshi1337]

thank you very much for this video. I played many games on the PSVita, but looking back Grafity Rush was the only one that instantly comes to my mind. I really enjoyed playing the game and it's sequel later on PS4.

[@Mazed927]

Kat is one of the single greatest video game protagonists of all time. It's not about cool lines or marketability. It's about what it feels like to BE them, which Gravity Rush nails in a truly special way.

[@IveNeverStoodUp]

the first game I ever got to 99,999 hours in...

[@FreedomFighterAsuka]

I will never forgive Sony for shutting down Japan Studio

[@aikotitilai3820]

MY FAVOURITE GAME

[@flor.7797]

Sounds like you have two different voices :P

[@champ6436]

man that gave me motivation to replay gravity rush on my vita. i platined the game back in 2012 but i haven"t replayed it since.

[@171QA]

Great video.

[@doctorhunter5553]

Rest in peace Gravity Rush and japan studio for making my favourite of all time being bloodborne

[@veryredfumoze]

soooooooo Eden Zero

[@raifikarj6698]

Damn what a string of coincidence you upload this when a string of bunch video land me in Viewing gravity rush content. First is Charlie/Penguinz0 video about Rush E comment section incident between just a guy that like hentai with fanchen. Fanchen able to backup his claim make me visit his channel and Saw the first video he make and it was gravity rush OST. Because how good it was then i searching gravity rush in KZbin search and it landed me in Gravity Rush Animation Part A and Part B from PlayStation then in the end i Saw your video in the next list of video and it was uploaded 1 day after Critical video such a string of coincidence. Probably there is some people that follow through this Path.

[@mehmeh6442]

Hell yeah

[@zan8117]

Astrobot is a decent game, very reminiscent of Ape Escape more than Mario Odyssey which people keep comparing it too. Team Asobi got some big shoes to fill After Team Siren/Gravity and Team Ico. Their next game will likely require a VR headset. To be quite honest, London Studio have more of a reason to be shutdown than Japan Studio. Also kinda weird everyone wants sony to acquire Bluepoint when most of their games are remakes and remasters of Japan Studio games. There would be no Demon's Souls without Japan Studio, they're really the only people at PlayStation who saw potential in it. That's what PlayStation kinda lost, people with vision and foresight.

[@NouhousFilms]

vision and foresight = Knack

[@zan8117]

@@NouhousFilms ​ @Nouhous Pro Productions Not only is the Writer/Director of Knack and Knack 2 still working at Sony, That man built both the PS4 and PS5 because that man is Mark Cerny.

[@omfgpullpulloff]

This is my favorite video KZbin ever

[@RossRandomStuff]

Only played Gravity Rush 2 because it was free for those PS+ members at the time. I loved every single bit of Gravity Rush 2 from Kat's abilities to the open world (Bro and that ending gave me Nier: Automata vibes)... and I wanted to play the 1st one but never had the money to buy it. A shame, that we see few games made by passionate artists and developers in big companies... of course, indie titles still exist.

[@willmacdonald3203]

Gravity rush is one of the few games that I have genuinely enjoyed with my body and soul, others being: nights of azure, final fantasy, as well as the monster hunter series. I fell in love with gravity rush for its ingenuity and scenery, the game is only made better as you learn alongside kat, about the world that she is in, as well as the type of person that she is ( a precious cinnamon roll ) the game grabbed my attention almost instantly with its ‘cutscenes’ being comic panels, added to the fact that the method of combat was a unique experience in itself. I will say this again, gravity rush has been one of the few games that I have wholeheartedly loved from its design to the personality of the characters; it is an atrocity that Sony have stopped allowing the production of smaller, more creative game titles.

[@thecriticalalchemist7620]

At the moment he said "a lot of other Japanese action games" I got a Nier ad

[@mordred7820]

Ah the good old time when movies and games were a work of art Remember those times? Me too

[@Noah-Lach]

Those times still exist. But sadly we don't have nostalgic memories to filter out all the garbage for us.

[@Vaennylla]

This game was SOOOOO underrated! It was genius!

[@SuperSteden]

Nice video 🙂👍 As a french your pronunciation of "bande dessinée" made me laugh

[@TheCanipaEffect]

I knew I'd gotten it wrong as soon as I said it lol

[@YairD203]

Interesante solo que esta en ingles xD

[@hrithiknaagar127]

Will we get an animation spotlight for vivy Florite Eye's song??

[@tobiasarevalo9929]

Gravity rush 2 is my favourite ps4 game :)

[@Motivateddragon]

Apparently sony doesn't want more of these gems

[@MegaZayd1]

I loved gravity rush, I hated to play them tho.

[@darkroninmarvel]

It's closure gave me another reason to hate Sony

[@sownheard]

GravityRush was a amazing game it made me pick up the ps4

[@InternetNinja100]

7:53 not dropping frames bruh did we play the same game ?

[@TheCanipaEffect]

Not dropping frames intentionally XD

[@KekkanSeihin]

#justacommentofappreciation

[@CornishCreamtea07]

It's a shame that they closed down, well downsized technically. I didn't think it would happen as Sony seemed fine with them not selling well as long as they brought in new PlayStation users. I'm part oft the problem as well, never played a great deal of their games.

[@gchu149]

The one good thing in spite of Studio Japan closing is that Keiichiro Toyama has his own studio now, so Gravity Rush hopefully isn’t completely dead.

[@Tanteikid94]

sad

[@sonicking1525]

Such a shame they shut down japan studio. Gravity rush was such a fun series.

[@santiagomoralesgarcia1802]

Gravity rush 2 is great but the problem is how the main missions were built, few of them were great and a lot of them were terrible.

[@Wol333]

I bought a Vita just to play GRAVITY RUSH it was worth it.

[@jekblom123]

They left way too many things unexplained.

[@notimeforcreativenamesjust3034]

Gravity rush 2

[@jekblom123]

@@notimeforcreativenamesjust3034 just created more questions.

[@johnjohning3372]

Rip

[@MaxIronsThird]

Japan Studio is a major loss to the gaming industry.

[@SadFace201]

It broke my heart when you showed Patapon and LocoRoco while saying that their contracts weren't renewed. Those games were so fun and unique! The world needs more of that shit and less of the mainstream games.

[@tchitchouan]

Games are a buisness after all regardless of artistic expression, if your games don't sell you get the axe.

[@lewa3910]

Basically by the end of this, i'm just like, Gravity Rush >>>>>>>>>>>> Last of us.

[@samueltheprideofafrikarobi9319]

I know I'm a man alone on a island here, but I couldn't bring myself to love the Gravity Rush games. Everything said here is true. GR is a truly unique duo of games. The creatives/devs poured a lot of heart, soul and imagination into the titles and it shows. The problem for me however is that they didn't pour nearly as much into the people...or maybe they did and something is lost in translation for me. I played through the entirety of the first game directly into the second title and stopped shy of halfway through. I simply couldn't stand the people. I understand that people can be weary of outsiders to their cultures and whatnot, but there was barely a single soul who you actively interact with in either title who acts like they can even stand Kat's presence. EVERYONE is terrible and they either use her, insult her to her face while expecting her to do something for them, or they dismiss her out-of-hand. Even the city that you saved from the gaping maw of the void in GR1 completely pushes her to the side and treats her like trash in GR2 because she left for a year or two and came back...as if she never mattered or, even worse, as if they didn't need her to save them in the first place. Even her "friend" Syd is a lazy, self centered tool who climbed the ladder as a detective in the first game off of Kat's accomplishments without giving her any credit THEN feigns being hurt in the second game and pawns off his work on her so that he can sit around and flirt with women! And all the while she just eats it while knowing that these people are s*itting on her. Not to mention that he frequently guilt trips and blames her whenever ANYTHING goes wrong and tells her to fix it. It's constant verbal abuse from every direction. The only person who seems to genuinely love and care for her (at least after the time jump into the second game) is her friend/love interest (?) Raven. THEY EVEN BROUGHT BACK THE A**HOLE FOTHER/SON DUO FROM THE BEGINING OF GR1 AND THEY STILL EXPECT YOU TO HELP THEM AS IF KAT OWS THEM SOMETHING! Blaming her for all of their problems just because! All I could think was either "God I wish there were dialogue options to tell these people off and let them suffer." or "Why am I supposed to care about saving such a hateful world?". And those aren't things you should be feeling when you're expected to get invested in a story. Like I said, maybe there's something here that's inherent to Japanese culture that I as an American just aren't grasping, but I hate being in a situation where I'm expect to be kind to and help a**holes for free and call it fun. It almost feels (to me) like the devs hated Kat just as much as the game world does.