Smears go by many names; in-betweens, multiples, happy accidents, outline distortions, sakuga, among countless others. However, one thing everyone can agree on is that smears are the little frames in animation that smooth things out, and speed things up. They’re the unsung heroes of cartoons; (usually) undetectable to the untrained eye, while still keeping the other frames in line.
The smears featured in today’s article have been given to us from the courtesy of the Nobaddy Institute of Fine Animation; only the finest of screencaps (handpicked from the institute’s collection by Nobaddy himself) are going to be shown.
However, what makes this a “blind review” is that there was no context given for any of these smears! After all, the truest form of reviewing is having absolutely no context whatsoever; that way, you remain completely unbiased as you watch/read/play whatever you’re reviewing!
These smears aren’t going to review themselves, though, so we should probably get started already…
SMEAR 1# Kaboom!
You know how sometimes in cartoons, characters explode? Well, in this smear, the poor toon has been blown to smithereens; poor guy… Don’t worry about him too much though; he’ll be back to normal in about 24 frames or so.
9/10: A classic smear.
SMEAR #2: Delicious!
Wait, this isn’t a smear… It’s a long-distance anime cook-out! Just look at those long-distance anime patties cooking on all of those grills; they’re even grilling the buns! The buns! It’s almost like these generic anime background characters are supposed to stay still so we can focus on the food…
Not Applicable/10: Nice purple table, though.
SMEAR #3: It’s all smear!
I can’t even tell who this is anymore; Is this supposed to be Sailor Moon? Bart Simpson? Lisa Simpson? Well, whomever it is, they’ve accomplished the highest form of smear; becoming completely unrecognizable. It’s completely amazing! They’ve become the SMEAR MASTER, the one with the smears and living embodiment the smear itself.
∞/100: Truly Majestic.
Sadly, we were given only three smears to work with; however, they were all very, very good smears. Would we blindly review smears again? Yeah, sure, let’s do it.
(And remember to subscribe to the Buttbuddz and send us more smears if you guys want to see another blind review!)
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