Maurice_5 said:Every reference to the sky, or anything to do with the sky. But, and this is the kicker, I wouldn't tell anyone. From then on, no anime would ever show anything above like head level and no-one would ever know why. All the camera angles would be awkwardly pointing downwards, there would be no aeroplanes or anyone talking about them, and no-one would ever look up. And no-one would know why.
Animators and artists would just do these things, and not think about why they weren't putting the sky in any shots any more. Editors would frantically censor puddles that showed reflections, but wouldnt be able to say what was wrong if asked.
It wouldn't be noticed immediately. You could do quite a bit with endless scenes of people inside, or with top-down views like in a videogame. But sooner or later someone would notice - past May of 2019, there was no sky in anime. People would slowly begin to ask questions. They'd write letters to studios and producers, politely pointing out the odd choice - because it
has to be a choice, right? - and asking why. They'd receive no answer.
But it's not just that. Old anime would be rereleased as 'remastered' versions, edited out so that there was no sky - it would be awkwardly cropped out, or covered by unlikely-looking skylines and buildings and ceilings and canvas sheets for no reason. But nevertheless the anime comes out. Some suffer worse than others - the Miyazaki folio is almost entirely unwatchable.
Eventually someone in the industry notices. Eventually, people involved in making anime slowly begin to realise something's not right - but it's hard to break what's now become a tradition, and every attempt to put the sky back in anime is rejected by editors - editors who, people start pointing out, never seem to go outside, or who only ever look at the floor and never raise their gaze.
But, as the old guard retire and new blood is brought in, it happens - for the first time in ten years, there's a show that has the sky in it. It's trash - a web novel adaptation about a kid who's hit by a truck and sent to a fantasy world along with his parole officer who is transformed into a cute wolverine mascot - but about once an episode there's a shot that shows things above the characters' heads. The clouds look like crap, because no-one's been drawing them for years, but they're there.
Soon, more and more shows show more and more sky, and people just put the odd decade where anime didn't show the sky behind them. No-one knows how it started, or why it ended. Only a handful of people even remember the thread that started it all.
But we know. We'll always know.