The anime Megalo Box could intentionally be using a lower video resolution compared to other current shows. I personally have not picked up on such details, but other sharp-eyed viewers with technologically superior televisions seem convinced of the more pixelated nature of the picture. Citation is needed, and as of this writing no admission on the part of the animation studio has surfaced.

There has been a lot of backlash to this aesthetic choice. My first praise of the title was that it felt in line with “that VHS swapping era of anime”. A time when you had to rent two episodes per tape from Blockbuster, buy the bootleg fan-subs at the sketchy comic shop in the even sketchier local mall, or collectively purchase an entire series to be shared with your friends. Megalo Box is intentionally calling back to this era and beyond. The digital brushes resemble the old inks on paper, giving it a slightly “sketchier” feel in parts. Character designs portray the adult rounded eyes, nose, and chin of 80’s protagonists while the antagonist possesses a narrow face, beady eyes and chiseled jaw inspired by the Aryan villains of Cold-War action cinema. The setting emphasizes a line-shaded and water-colored slum detailed and populated with trash and broken machinery. The only smooth, clean, and fashionable technology around belongs to the wealthy. Everyone else is stuck with rust.

None of these flourishes disguise the fact that it’s a digital creation. All inks and paints are still done on a computer, and the in-betweens maintain a smoothness not found before the new millenium. Instead, what really solidifies that old-school feeling is the setting and execution of the narrative. Our characters are full grown adults living like cockroaches in the shadow of a wealthy city. There’s no school of plucky kids or Otaku protagonist unintentionally tripping into some girl’s boobs. Tropes are not intentionally being applied in order to appease the fans. It’s straight-up science fiction with Western inspirations but a uniquely Japanese telling. It’s precisely the sort of anime that would have hooked me like a fish and tossed me into a bucket of newly minted fans of the medium.

Which makes Legend of the Galactic Heroes such a juxtaposition. Here we have an actual concept from the 1980’s – originally given an adaptation from 1988 to 1997 – that fails to evoke that same old-school feeling. It’s appearance is in every conceivable way cleaner than that of Megalo Box. Where the latter uses brushes evoking paper and charcoal, the former has precise linework of a consistently fine point. Galactic Heroes uses three-dimensional models for its space ships while Megalo Box has no such CG employed as of yet.

Different approaches to the visual aesthetic is somewhat appropriate to each show’s setting. It is suitable for the futuristic vision of Legend of the Galactic Heroes to have such a pixel perfect presentation of its elegantly noble characters. The thick brush-strokes of Megalo Box reveal the imprecise human element while the “low-fi” ratio – should it prove to be true – prevents the image from being pristine. Rather than crystal clean clarity on the wineglass you are left with fingerprints tainting the imagery.

A clean still image does not make for better animation, nor does a higher resolution indicate superior technical application. Examination of the conversations in episode three of Legend of the Galactic Heroes reveals a limited A&B camera jumping between two petrified characters. The only motion taking place on screen is the subtle motion of the mouth and jaw, two frames of animation repeated for as long as necessary. You’ll have occasional flourishes such as the malfunction of Oberstein’s mechanical eyes, but otherwise he and Siegried are still as statues until the discussion reaches its conclusion.

Megalo Box employs a much more dynamic approach to conversations. Facial expressions will shift during a single sentence. Fingers will begin to readjust articles of clothing. Several different angles will be employed instead of just two. The end result is that these scenes not only feel much more alive, but they also feel a lot less mechanical.

Once more you could argue for intentional and fitting aesthetic choices based on the different settings. Megalo Box’s characters are somewhat ignoble, being lower-class fraudsters wrapped up in the criminal underbelly of the scrap heap. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is driven by sophisticated military leaders acting in accordance with old-fashioned upper-crust standards of behavior. Such characters would certainly seem stiff as society would interpret “stiffness” befitting of their station. I would rather call it a convenience capable of saving the animators time.

I do not mean to compare these shows out of some strawman counter-argument to the anime community. If I wanted to be fair I’d be comparing the animation of Megalo Box with that of My Hero Academia, the latter employing a multitude of modern conventions in design and narrative. It is more that the jarring difference between Megalo Box and Legend of the Galactic Heroes allowed me to better understand what I loved about the former’s aesthetics and style. It’s not just the superficial tricks used to beckon a bygone era. It’s the clear effort on the part of the animators to bring their characters to life.

The conversation regarding Megalo Box’s visuals seems to be hung firmly onto its resolution, however. A glance at the MyAnimeList forums or 4chan reveal enough of a mob crying out against its aesthetic, claiming it to look “awful”. My eyes cannot spot the same artifacts that they can, but I’ve never been a fan of prioritizing resolution anyway. I’m the sort of gamer that would deal with 480p visuals if it meant a solid sixty frames-per-second.

Even this doesn’t really address the complaints, though. After all, if Megalo Box is a digital animation, does that not mean it can be available at higher fidelity? Is it truly a resolution problem or is it a filter chosen to help sell that illusion of old school cel paintings?

I don’t know. All I know is I’m too lost in the actual technique of the animation to care how many pixels are on screen.