Drrr: Gray background people?

[Captn' Red]

So what I've noticed is that they tend to not color the people in the background, what's your opinion on this?
Is it just em being lazy and cutting down on money cost, or do they want to keep the focus of the 15 different main characters instead?

I personally ain't bothered by it, I think it adds to the style of the show.

[Tragic]

Hmm... I can't remember if Baccano was like this, but I just saw this topic brought up on Animesuki the other day. I've got no problem on it, but it's probably laziness/cuts or them trying to contrast the main characters. One of the two I'd say.

[kryss]

Didn't they do that on Hidamari Sketch too?

[Flyvåpnet]

Back in the '90s I began asking around on the Web as to why female anime/games/manga characters uniformly had flat butts, shapeless legs and skinny arms.  I was repeatedly told it was a time-saving measure, enabling those corporations to crank out more product by using what amounts to stick-figure technique on everything anatomical apart from the head.

I'm rather hoping the no-butt/stick-figure era is slowly drawing (sorry) to a close.  However, unless corporations involved in anime/games/manga reasonably explain such phenomena as this thread addresses I'll continue to believe it's all about making money and only coincidentally about art.



=^..^=

[Silent K]

I'm sure money is an important factor in the decision, but I didn't even really notice it. I kind of like the symbolism of background people in the city just being a "gray mass." And most of the time, you don't consciously remember what everyone around you in a city looks like anyway, so maybe Brain Base took that into account as well?

[Kov]

I've not yet seen it to properly comment but I agree with Silent K.
I'm sure they've done something similar in other shows, dunno why Azumanga Daioh springs to mind.

[Tragic]

Well, Brains Base never did that in Spice & Wolf... Kind of odd. Perhaps there's a special reason or something. I personally still think it's a way to offset main characters, but there could be multiple other reasons why.

[Captn' Red]

Yeah Ive seen it before too, but this show is just extreme with the main characters walking around in Tokyo. lol

It's probably both a cost decision, and to keep focus on the main characters.

[Kov]

I noticed in ep7 whilst following Shizuo around at one point some members of the public had yellow accessories like bandanas and caps.

The first thing I thought about was about the gangs colours, but I've not noticed them doing that in the other episodes. Why now and why the yellow?

[Tragic]

Perhaps a special color gang or something... Maybe they hold a deeper meaning than we think.

[Kov]

I thought that maybe the gray colour signifies that the public are the Dollars group. We're following the people who we know are probably in the group but maybe deep down everyone who isn't part of one of these colour groups, like the yellow, is a part of the Dollars?

[Tragic]

I read up some more on the novel and stuff... I have some potential ideas on the yellow people, but I won't reveal anything.

[Silent K]

I thought that it states somewhere how the yellow bandannas are the most powerful group aside from the Dollars.

[Tragic]

Spoiler for Hiden:

With episode 11, it changes! All the gray people turn out to be Dollars members! Check out the part when Mikado sends out the email and as it spreads through the crowd, the gray dissapates. :3