Like all animation, the production processes of storyboarding, voice acting, character design, cel production and so on still apply. With improvements in computer technology, computer animation increased the efficiency of the whole production process.
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.^[40]
The large majority of anime uses traditional animation, which better allows for division of labor, pose to pose approach and checking of drawings before they are shot – practices favored by the anime industry.^[41] Other mediums are mostly limited to independently made short films,^[42] examples of which are the silhouette and other cutout animation of Noburō Ōfuji,^[41][43] the stop motion puppet animation of Tadahito Mochinaga, Kihachirō Kawamoto^[44] and Tomoyasu Murata^[45] and the computer animation of Satoshi Tomioka^[46] (most famously Usavich).^[47] Sara Pocock, an animator and contributor to Anime News Network, described the majority of "mainstream" anime as being animated using the pose to pose style but using fewer expressive keyframes and more in-between animation.^[48]
Japanese animation studios were pioneers of many limited animation techniques. Ke Jiang, an animator for Disney, told Anime News Network that like everyone animation, Japanese animators study the techniques of Disney in school, however Japanese anime has its own set of rules to be followed that have developed over time. Unlike Disney animation where the emphasis is on the movement, Anime emphasizes the art quality as limited animation techniques could make up for the lack of time spent on movement. Such techniques were often used not only to meet deadlines but also as artistic devices.^[49] Even in bigger productions, studios often use limited animation techniques, even intentionally at times, to fool the eye into thinking there is more movement than there is.^[4] John Oppliger, when examining the question of animation quality inconsistency from titles, noted a trend in his weekly column for AnimeNation "Ask John" that for titles from larger studios, stating that the "most reliable predictor for animation quality" is the profile of the series itself, and that "shows that are expected to be big hits or shows that are consciously crafted to make a big splash ... typically get unusually exceptional animation quality." He stated that although viewers can expect high quality animation from small studios with a reputation for high quality animation due to their ability to focus all of their resources on a single work, large studios tend to work on several shows and thus prioritize speed over quality. Oppliger stated that anime is one of the rare mediums were putting together an all-star cast usually comes out looking "tremedously impressive."^[50]
Anime scenes place emphasis on achieving three-dimensional views. Backgrounds depict the scenes' atmosphere.^[4] For example, anime often puts emphasis on changing seasons, as can be seen in numerous anime, such as Tenchi Muyo!. Sometimes actual settings have been duplicated into an anime. The backgrounds for the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya are based on various locations within the suburb of Nishinomiya, Hyogo, Japan.^[51]

Camera effects

Camera angles, camera movement, and lighting play an important role in scenes. Directors often have the discretion of determining viewing angles for scenes, particularly regarding backgrounds. In addition, camera angles show perspective.^[52] Directors can also choose camera effects within cinematography, such as panning, zooming, facial closeup, and panoramic.^[53]

Story themes

A wide variety of stories have been adapted into anime. They are sourced from Japanese history, classical literature, and even adult-oriented themes. While animation for children exists, most anime are intended for an older audience.^[54]
As early as Osamu Tezuka's Atom Boy (1963), a recurring motif in Japan is the doll with a soul originating from the Japanese old folk belief that a doll loved and care for can develop a soul. This fuzzy border between the human and the mechanical would be revisted again and again, appearing later also as cybernetic humans beginning with the 8 Man (1963) series and the robot where humans initially controlled robots via radio but later as pilots in their interior as in the giant robot subgenre. These shows presented technology as not inheirently good or evil, but instead as a tool that could be used towards such means. Gilles Poitras describes this as "appropriate" since the Japanese had seen the rebirth through technology of their own nation after the destruction at the hands of political and military power.^[40]
In the 1970s, Poitras describes that many series began drawing from great heroes and epic stories. Several works were based on the manga writer Leiji Matsumoto's tales of heroism, of courage, of humanity, and of suffering set in many a strange world. Narratives in the fantasy and supernatural genre drew especially from Shinto and Buddhist legends and practices and more recently from western influences, from sources such as Dungeons and Dragons.^[40]