Ask John: What’s the Point of the Itano Circus?

Question:
Why in action anime series when a military weapon has multiple missiles, guns, etc. do they all get fired at once? For example, in any Gundam series if a mobile suit, armor, etc. has multiple missile ports, machine guns, or beam weapons they are all fired at once?

Answer:

The now frequently seen image of multiple simultaneous weapon shots may be primarily attributable to the work of animator Ichiro Itano on the 1982 Superdimensional Fortress Macross television series, although Macross isn’t the first anime to depict this tendency. Anime from the 1970s including Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock may have depicted a ship’s cannons firing multiple shots simultaneously, but that’s an example of multiple parallel guns firing simultaneously rather than a single weapon firing multiple simultaneous shots. The giant robots of the 70s typically utilized single projectile attacks. Robots like Grendizer may have sometimes used attacks like “Shoulder Boomerang” that launched dual attacks, but none of the mecha anime of the 70s exhibited the sort of swarming shot attacks familiar in more contemporary anime. Even 1979’s Mobile Suit Gundam didn’t unleash weapon barrages. However, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s 1980 robot anime series Space Runaway Ideon did depict its titular robot firing dozens of simultaneous lasers.

While Macross technically may not have been the first anime to depict mecha shooting a barrage of shots at once, it was the anime that popularized the image. Macross animator Ichiro Itano’s signature style of action animation in the Macross television series was characterized by filling the screen with erratically flying missiles, each trailing a distinct smoke tail. That dynamically animated visual, combined with the sight of jets or flying robots dodging and acrobatically spinning between oncoming shots earned the nickname “Itano circus.” Its influence, in both the image of weapons and robots firing dozens of simultaneous shots, and the full “Itano circus” effect of the twisting contrails and rapidly tracking camera have become a modern trademark of anime, appearing in countless robot and mecha shows, and even in non-mecha anime like Dirty Pair, Nin Nin ga Shinobuden, and Crayon Shin-chan movies.

The argument may be made that in realistic terms launching everything at once may not be practical, tactically wise, or even physically possible, but it is undeniably an amazing sight. The image of a tank, gunship, or robot firing a barrage of shots is a complex and resonant image. It suggests overwhelming force, and also desperation. The image of a barrage of lasers or missiles implies modern and futuristic sophistication removed from the single-shot simplicity of earlier eras. The rocket barrage is also a means for animators to show off. There’s nothing else in cinema quite like seeing a missile pod launch a stream of rockets. Even though Japanese live action films including Cutey Honey, Ultraman, and 2002’s Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla have adopted the “fire all weapons” imagery, it’s still exclusively rooted in anime. In effect, launching everything at once looks great on screen, and simultaneously expresses unspoken meaning about the scene and particularly the machine launching the attack and its pilot or controlling agency.