One thing that aspiring animators/illustrators should be aware of is that the industry requires a lot of your time. A lot of the shows we watch draw us in with their stunning effects and character designs, but just one frame alone can take hours if not days to complete. Being an animator is harder than it looks mainly because you really have to dedicate yourself entirely to your craft. Both the gaming and anime industry have become very fast paced with hours lessening due to quick deadlines. The salary can differ depending on your position and also your work ethic with regards to the specific piece you're working on. By no means is the salary high, but as mentioned earlier receiving a decent salary in this industry is common as they tend to be around roughly $50,000-$60,000 annually for entry positions. Becoming an animator/illustrator requires a lot of your attention as every detail matters. As aforementioned just one frame can take up most of your time, since it has to match up with every other frame that you're either drawing or animating on screen. This shouldn't deter you from dipping your toe into the pool, but it's important to understand the challenges that come with animation. 2D and 3D animation also differ in their approach but also share some similarities. In the 80's, to create a 3D illustration one would have to draw the same image numerous times at different angles which resulted in over hundreds of sheets of paper being used. Now in today's advanced world, the work has been cut down severely but still brings about more challenges as programs such as Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator have a steep learning curve to master. To truly become one with your craft, a lot of commitment is needed which can be beneficial if it suits you but a detriment if it doesn't. This now brings us to the next reason why animation/illustration is a bit harder than we imagined.

When animation was just seen as a 2D format, a lot of the work was done by sheets of paper but now everything is split between computer and traditional styles. Despite the ease of use with computing, the manual work of having to draw out each frame of your character’s movements is still a drawback. In most video games today, everything runs in 60 frames a second which is very fast when compared with the old standard of 24 frames in film work. Creating movement by hand drawing out 60 frames is a lot of work, especially when you first have to design your character, upload it to the PC for detailing in illustrator then render its actions on screen. The entire process itself can be very taxing since not only do you still need to have a strong fundamental understanding of 2D animation/illustration, but now you need to transfer all of that hand drawn work onto a computer to complete your design. Patience is paramount when considering your position as an animator/illustrator because so much of your time will be limited. Anime and gaming differ in their respective ways, but both still carry the burden of having to combine both classical and modern day tasks to achieve the detail we see in our favorite shows. When you watch Bakuman, Moritaka dedicates his time entirely to ensuring every frame of his creation was spot on. Throughout most of the show, there are moments where so much paper is thrown away because one off frame could spell trouble for the rest of your animations. Don't take this as something negative as the whole point behind our justification is that everything requires effort, and if you aspire to take your dreams to the next level you must also strengthen your resolve as you go forward. There will be nights of no sleep, but the end reward is that once everything is compiled together the feeling of excitement permeates throughout your body. Evolution is part of the ongoing process of becoming an animator/illustrator not just yourself, but more importantly the technology that surrounds it all.

To be consistent at what you do it requires a lot of practice and commitment to see any sort of result over time. One must learn to evolve along with the ever moving industry that is animation. Technology plays an extremely major role in the art of animation/illustration, and so therefore in order to truly see results from your hard work you need to have a strong grasp of the programs that exist out there. As mentioned earlier, programs like Photoshop and Illustrator have made a lot of harder tasks a bit less daunting, but still require you to understand the program itself to maximize the benefits. Technology is evolving at a rapid pace, and so more programs are being released which make the job of drawing simple expressions a lot easier. 3D applications such as Maya and 3D Studio Max have been around for many years, and are industry standard programs that are used to create the games we all play and the anime we grow to love. Understanding both realms is where the hard work starts to take its effect, because you can't have one without the other. So while technology is evolving to make our lives easier, there are still many cases where we have to rely on the more traditional style of illustration to form a scene. If you intend on entering the industry, understanding the core fundamentals will take you a lot further over the span of your career.

Despite the many drawbacks that being an animator/illustrator can bring, the reward behind seeing your design come to life is uplifting. The sleepless nights and overtime start to feel a little less crazy as now a lot of your work can be easily uploaded through a usb and completed through various programs. Our article isn't meant to scare you away from chasing your dreams, but more to help motivate you to realize that any dream worth chasing will require a lot of sacrifice in order to deliver achievements. The best way to begin is to do a lot of research, starting off with understanding the uses of both 2D and 3D respectively. Animation will always fall back on 2D and so when you're able to master the art of hand drawn animation, your overall design and ideas will skyrocket. One anime can take several months to put together depending on the team behind it, while others can take up to a year to see completion. Knowing this uphill battle is part of the everyday life of an animator but make sure you stay grounded in your approach not letting it deter you. Mind you this isn't for everybody since you're required to always be thinking outside of the box, and that may create a problem in this very hectic world. Just remember that you can't become anything over night, and that to truly see the fruits of your labor shine you need to stay consistent.

“When will I ever be free of Free!, please let me be free,” is the running joke among the people who fell in love with Free! and are now still deep in the hell hole. Free! is more than just a sports anime about swimming. It offers a story that draws you into loving the characters so much that every time you think you’re over it, the slightest newest thing about Free! Kyoto Animation comes up with could send you to tears thinking, “Damn, I really do love these boys.” While it’s a lot about swimming and the world through the eyes of Nanase Haruka, Free! is largely about friendships. Sure, the fandom thrives in shipping the boys, but the best point about Free! is the friendship portrayed between the boys. From the on-screen friendships between the Iwatobi boys, between Haruka-Makoto or Haruka-Rin, or between Iwatobi and Samezuka boys, to the off-screen, more in-depth friendships in side materials like Rin-Nagisa or Makoto-Rin—most of them are simple, slice of life stuff that are mostly less dramatic than your usual sports anime, but it hits you in the heart.

Recommending Fate/Zero to friends is something I rarely do, because while it’s extremely amazing, it makes so much more sense when you either 1) love the Nasu-verse or 2) have seen the old Fate/Stay Night anime years ago, which personally I hadn’t enjoyed. But Fate/Zero was a complete blow to me, going from looking at it skeptically to falling absolutely in love with almost everything in it. Saber in a suit escorting Irisviel everywhere! The Tohsaka family when it was still remotely happy! Tiny Illya! Gorgeous animation and colors and breath-catching battles! Gilgamesh and Diarmuid and Lancelot! Urobuchi’s heartrending writings! Thank you Ufotable!! Fate/Zero was an amazing ride in almost every aspect. Sure, it’s a prequel, and you know most of the characters are going to die anyway, but the pain was part of why it was good. But what made me really fall in love, what rendered me dysfunctional in the face of the Fate/Grand Order mobile game announcing its current collaboration with Fate/Zero, is Team Rider’s story. Waver Velvet and Iskandar the Great—their Master-Servant relationship that somehow grew into one of loyalty and a King-Vassal relationship, and how Waver learned to find his own worth through Iskandar’s mere presence—to me, it’s their story that shone the brightest, one that for the first time made me wish these two were the main characters. This was what made Fate/Zero most special to me out of all the Fate series.

If there was an anime that left me with such profound sense of conclusion and satisfaction, it would be Terra E. My favorite thing about this anime, other than it’s beautiful animation and the excellent seiyuu line-up, is that this anime itself is a journey. A long and complicated one, but at the same time very satisfying in a way you rarely feel when you finished up the anime. Terra E is about leaders, about race, war, politics, exclusion and perhaps extinction, but more than that, it is a story about coming home. In the dystopian world of Terra E that takes place far in the future where humans have colonized the stars and only a handful of “selected ones” remain on earth, the blue planet becomes a dream for the excluded Mu race—humans with psionic abilities—who are desperately fighting to avoid being hunted into near extinction. What made Terra E most interesting was that it looked at the dystopian world through the eyes of two main characters who were on the opposite sides of the fight and knew nothing about one another (except at the very end). On one hand, there’s Jomy who’d never wanted to be a Mu, but then was snatched away because he was the Type Blue, or the strongest type, Mu, and was probably the only one who could save his people from extinction. On the other hand, we have Keith, the human raised in a test tube who ended up leading all of humanity, who was the Mu’s most dangerous enemy, but also perhaps the human closest to understanding Mu in the course of the anime. The sense of everything coming together in the end, every thread tied together satisfyingly, is one of the best impressions an anime ever left me, even if it also becomes the anime that made me cry at the very mention of Peter Pan.

5 CM Per Second might be Shinkai Makoto’s most well-known and loved movie, but as a fan, I would have to say his masterpiece is really Kotonoha no Niwa. Some people would agree, considering its superb animation that would simply take your breath just by looking at it—there have been people finishing the movie without actually knowing what exactly happened because the animation is too good and they can’t concentrate on anything else. But some others would disagree, mostly because the story has a very slow pace and borders on boring to some people, but I would maintain my statement: Kotonoha no Niwa is Shinkai’s masterpiece. Not only it’s got Shinkai’s gorgeous animation and backgrounds as well as Irino Miyu and Hanazawa Kana’s perfect acting, Kotonoha no Niwa’s storyline deals with a very humane and realistic aspects of human life without making it too painful like 5 CM Per Second did. It is a love story, but it’s more than just a love story. What absolutely destroyed me was the very concept of Akizuki’s dream of being a shoemaker, and how simply aiming for the dream incidentally saved Yukino, who was trying to get back up and learn to walk again in life. It’s a love story, but more than that it’s a story about having a dream and not giving up, all presented beautifully with shoes as a symbol. This is the anime that, once you realize its significance and core story, would be the one you’d rewatch over and over and over again when you’re feeling unsure about life or your future.

If someone were to ask me what is my favorite anime, Soukyuu no Fafner would be my answer. I love everything about it, so much so, it becomes the only anime that resonates with me on personal levels—the anime has been a great push in making me finish writing my thesis, the fandom has been my home for almost 12 years, one of its line literally becomes my life motto. It’s very personal and this will be a much-biased writing, but still: Soukyuu no Fafner is unbelievably amazing. As a series going strong after 12 years even with blank periods in between, Fafner started in 2004, ended in a way that made audience griped for a sequel, and then had a prequel, Right of Left OVA, in 2005. Fans were only granted a sequel in the form of a movie almost six years after the TV series ended—Heaven and Earth was released in 2010, and the first announcement for an actual TV series sequel EXODUS followed shortly after, but only came to realization 5 years later in early 2015. The first thing about Fafner is that it’s a heavily philosophical science-fiction mecha anime, one that perhaps only the writer, Ubukata Tow, understands it perfectly. In the far future, an alien being called Festum came upon Earth and began assimilating humans, taking away even humans’ ability to reproduce. Japan was destroyed, and its survivor, cast off by the rest of humanity, embarked on a man-made island called Tatsumiyajima, where they hid from the rest of the world in peace for years, while constructing the mecha who could fight Festum’s mind-reading abilities: Fafners. What drew me into Fafner in the first place was its mecha designs, but what made me stay was the highly complicated and yet extremely touching story. What made me absolutely loved it was how Fafner explored its characters as they changed the world, its firm focus on very much existentialist themes such as choices, conversations, collective conscience, existence and nothingness. Everything about Fafner—its characters, animations, mecha, storyline, world-building—is extremely engaging and capable of rendering me into a sobbing mess on the floor. A lot of people would look down on it and call it another Evangelion rip-off, but in actuality, it’s a very different take on the mecha and science-fiction genre itself. Sure, there’s the alien Festum that humans fight with, but Fafner doesn’t stop at that—it highlights more about how Tatsumiyajima people protects their life, their way of life, how adults protect their children even if it’s their children who put their lives on the line fighting Festum. It’s an anime that flawlessly combines the happiness of daily life and life-and-death battles, that in the end, it becomes the story of ‘living’ despite the many deaths that happened in the series.

Good things come to those who wait, and you will have to wait until episode 63 of Fairy Tail (2014) to see our first choice on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage. But believe us, it is worth the wait! The character you will get the chance to see in some bondage action is Erza, the scarlet-haired, well-endowed mage. While fans of Fairy Tail often get to see Erza in her provocative armour and clothing, seeing a female with curves in all the right places tied up is something special of course! Especially when it’s Erza, with her typically forceful and strict character. In episode 63, Erza finds herself, along with Natsu, captured and chained to a wall. True to her strong personality, Erza is not easily intimidated by her captors, and despite being tortured she remains strong and confident in herself. There is some argument from fans about how censored this bondage scene is compared to the manga – in the anime, Erza is depicted fully clothed (though only in a tight, small dress), whereas in the manga, she is naked. However, even with her clothes on, it’s hard to deny that Erza’s bondage scene is still a great one for the fans to enjoy!

Triage X is a series that has a lot of short bondage sequences, but for our Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage, we have chosen the hostage from episode 4. Triage X follows the story of many women that are fighting against the “tumours” of society – criminals that they think are beyond redemption, and must instead be killed. Of course their exploits and adventures in an ecchi series full of fan-service often finds themselves in vulnerable and questionable situations quite regularly, but episode 4 features full-on BDSM bondage involving the person they are trying to help. When Mikoto, one of the main female heroines, goes to a warehouse to remove one of these so-called “tumours”, she finds that the man in quest has a woman with him, a hostage. However, the hostage is in no ordinary binds – she is being forced to crawl on her hands and knees on the ground, a leash around her neck, leather belts on her body, and a gag in her mouth. The leader goes so far as to stand on her back, yanking at the chain around her neck before Mikoto eventually begins fighting him. This intense and very risqué depiction of bondage puts the hostage from Triage X on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage – and if you are looking for even more similar situations, be sure to check out the rest of this series, too!

Coming in at number 8 on our list of Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage is actually a bit of a trap – it’s Tail Red, from Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll already know the secret, but for anyone new to the story the truth may come as a surprise. Tail Red is in reality a boy – high school student Souji Mitsuka. However, when he uses the Tail Gear, he transforms into twin-tail warrior Tail Red, who is undeniably a female. The bondage sequence we are referring to on our list is from episode 2 of Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu, and because Souji is in his Tail Red form at the time, he gets to be included on our list of Anime Girls. Lucky chance, Souji! Tail Red is already an attractive and provocative girl, with her long, bright red twin-tail hair style and her outfit of a bathing suit paired with thigh-highs, boots, and long gloves. In episode 2, we get to see her in a more vulnerable position – tied up with ropes in a very traditional, BDSM-style. As a male character, who can become a female one, and thus finds themselves in the middle of a large female harem, Tail Red makes for a unique and interesting addition to our Top 10 Anime Girls (?!) in Bondage!

The bondage in our 7th spot on the list of Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage is one that stands apart for having a completely different context than the others on the list. It goes to Chifuyu Himeki from Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de, in episode 4. Chifuyu is one of the main characters of the anime, and fills the role of being the “lolicon,” or small, cute girl, character. She is very shy and playful, which is what makes her bondage scene especially so surprising. What sets Chifuyu in bondage apart from the rest of the girls in our list is that hers is entirely voluntary, because it’s actually staged! While all the other girls on our list have either been captured against their will, or have been at the very least left in a vulnerable, sexy situation, Chifuyu’s bondage outfit is just a cosplay! She is in a white straightjacket held in place with leather bonds, complete with a blindfold and a gag. Her outfit is very reminiscent of the bondage that Misa Amane of Death Note finds herself in (see number 4 of this list). But very unlike Misa, Chifuyu is only playing along with the rest of the cast who are also cosplaying, making her bondage much more light-hearted and fun!

Ninja Slayer From Animation certainly has the most unique and cutting-edge style of any other anime on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage. Our choice specifically is Nancy in episode 12. Ninja Slayer From Animation is an action anime at its core, full of intense violence and exciting fights despite each episode only being twelve minutes long. Nancy herself is definitely a strong fighter, usually seen beheading her opponents and dominating battles. In episode 12, however, we get to see a very different and more vulnerable side of Nancy. She finds herself tied up in a style of Japanese rope bondage called “shibari,” with the rest of the cast trying to save her. In the meantime, there is no shortage of shots of Nancy struggling against the rope bonds, grunting and moaning. The intense and colourful animation style of Ninja Slayer From Animation, with its pronounced outlines and high contrast, make it easy to see all of her curves and add to the excitement of the scene. That intensity and over-the-top art style, along with the use of shibari specifically, are what put Nancy on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage.

Our decision to include Walkure Romanze on our list of Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage is based on the quality and length of the bondage scene – and that it involves not one, but two girls! Episode 7 finds Akane and Celia not only both tied up, but in fact, tied together. Typically the story of Walkure Romanze revolves around a medieval jousting tournament, but episode 7 took an extremely different turn for the fans involving the series’ two main females. Even just leading up to the actual bondage, you can expect a lot of stripping, groping, and cuddling between Akane and Celia. However, that isn’t what this article is about, so on to the fun! Walkure Romanze features exhibitionist bondage, with Akane and Celia tied up with ropes inside a windmill surrounded by many other people outside – and eventually one that finds them in their vulnerable state and takes the opportunity to get in on the fun with a bit of groping as well! If you’re looking for a more prolonged bondage sequence with plenty of boob shots, and multiple girls, look no further than Walkure Romanze.

Easily one of the most famous and iconic anime of our time, Death Note finds itself on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage thanks to its main female character, Misa Amane. Misa is a gothic Lolita girl and one of the most important characters in the series. As her character develops into the second Kira, since she too has a Death Note and a Shinigami the same as Kira himself, she becomes more intriguing and stronger throughout the course of the series. But first, let’s back up to near the start of the series – specifically, episode 6. Misa begins the series as an up-and-coming alternative model, and a strong supporter of Kira after he eliminates the criminal who killed her family. Eventually L, the lead detective on the Kira case, suspects that Misa is in fact the second Kira, and has her captured. Rather than simply putting her in a cell, or handcuffing her, L completely restrains Misa in total bondage – she is unable to move or even see due to the straight jacket she has to wear, secured with thick belts and a large blindfold. Eventually her predicament wears on her, and while Misa refuses to speak about Kira, she does ask her Shinigami Rem to kill her. Misa isn’t able to become free from her situation for a long time, and the uniqueness and totality of her bondage, as well as their significance to the plot of the series, put Misa on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage.

Kallen Stadtfelt, who prefers to use her mother’s maiden name of Kouzuki, is a leading member of Zero’s revolutionary army the Black Knights in Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch. Kallen is a very strong and confident female protagonist, and is good at fighting and piloting her Knightmare. She’s never afraid to speak her opinion, even to Lelouch, and can be very aggressive. Because of her position in the Black Knights, she often is a target of violence. Eventually, in episode 11 of the second series of Code Geass, Kallen was finally captured for Britannia by Li Xingke when the Black Knights attempted to kidnap Empress Tianzi. Though Lelouch promised to rescue her, in the meantime Kallen found herself passed about between her captors and eventually given to Suzaku Kururugi, one of the Knights of Britannia. While captured, Kallen goes through several bondage situations that depict her both tied up on the floor as well as strapped to a table. She never stops fighting though, and doesn’t let her vulnerable situation damper her aggressive, strong personality. Seeing how such an intense character faces being captured and tied up is what puts Kallen so high on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage.

We certainly cannot have a Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage list without bringing up Asuna from Sword Art Online. Asuna’s sequence in bondage in episode 24 of the original Sword Art Online series is a highly discussed and debated scene in the anime community. Whether you loved it or hate it, it’s hard to deny that from a bondage standpoint it’s very good. The second half of Sword Art Online saw Asuna almost removed from the main plotline, and instead captured by Fairy King Oberon and kept in a cage in the ALfheim Online game. Oberon’s avatar was controlled by Asuna’s ex-fiancé, Sugou Noboyuki. When Kirito, the series’ main protagonist and Asuna’s boyfriend, tries to save her in the final episode of the show, he is confronted by Oberon. Not about to go down without a fight, Oberon ties up and harasses Asuna in front of Kirito, and in her vulnerable state she is barely able to fight back against what is arguably almost rape. Asuna is saved by Kirito in the end when he killed Oberon, but the critical moments before her rescue land her in our number two spot on our list of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage.

This brings us to our number one spot on our Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage list, and that spot belongs to Hana Katsuragi from Seikon no Qwaser. Hana is not a girl in bondage for only one scene, but rather, she is in it many times throughout the entire series! In fact, most of Hana’s screen time is spent either completely tied up, or at least in some kind of bondage-style outfit of ropes, leather, or ribbons. She not only has sequences of sexual BDSM kinds of bondage, but she also finds herself captured and tied up by the enemy on more than one occasion. The plotline of Seikon no Qwaser revolves around people that can fight with supernatural abilities through powers they gain by drinking soma, a magical substance found in the breasts of women. Many of the characters have a soma “reserve” character that they typically drink from, and Hana is Ekaterina’s starting from episode 4. Ekaterina is a “lolicon” style of character with a dominating attitude, and she constantly subjects Hana to sexual abuse usually through bondage and humiliation, and often makes Hana wear little more than BDSM-style outfits of leather belts and nothing more. All of this time spent in bondage does eventually give Hana BDSM-related abilities later in the show though – and some part of her really seems to enjoy it! The sheer number of times Hana is depicted in bondage, as well as the variety of different styles that she endures, puts Hana in the top position of the Top 10 Anime Girls in Bondage.