What is ghosting and dimming in anime? Explained

With the release of the latest episode of Jujutsu Kaisen season 2, there has been an ongoing discussion surrounding the use of ghosting and dimming in anime. This was mainly due to the streaming versions of the latest episode, which were seemingly vastly different from the original Japanese raw version of the episode.

Part of what was so vastly different about the latest anime episode for Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 stems from the use of ghosting and dimming in the episode. With various fight sequences in the installment utilizing both in their streaming service versions, fans are now discussing the merits of the two tactics and why they’re in the streaming versions.

While fans have many theories on why the team at MAPPA Studios would give streaming services these versions of the episode, there is one option which seems predominantly likely. In addition, many fans unknowledgeable of what ghosting and dimming mean in the context of an anime episode are asking what the two terms signify.

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Ghosting and dimming in anime taken to a new level in Jujutsu Kaisen season 2’s latest episode

What is ghosting and dimming? Explained

In anime production, dimming and ghosting are terms used to refer to visual aspects of a certain scene or sequence, typically dealing with a fight scene or sequence in a battle series. The latest Jujutsu Kaisen season 2 episode is specifically being discussed in the context of these terms because of a fight sequence within the episode.

Ghosting refers to frames of animation blurring into each other during a fast-paced action sequence, giving a visual effect similar to smear frames. However, one key difference between the two is that smear frames are intentional and have their blur isolated to one single frame. Ghosting occurs because different frames not intended as smear frames are bleeding into each other, creating a similar effect but without the same intention.

Dimming, which is often seen in a scene alongside ghosting, is when a string of anime scenes or sequences have the overall brightness of the episode turned down. It’s essentially the same as watching a video on a monitor that has brightness control, and quickly turning it down for one specific scene before turning it back up for the rest of the episode.

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Why is dimming and ghosting used?

Generally speaking, anime series implement dimming and ghosting into international and sometimes domestic television releases in order to drive a desire for home DVD sales. More specifically, Blu-ray DVDs of certain anime seasons will often have the dimming and ghosting removed, also sometimes implementing upgraded animation practices as well.

One of the most apparent instances of this, as evidenced in the tweet above, stems from a Garou fight seen in One Punch Man season 2. In a sequence where Garou throws several punches in quick succession, the television release version features severe dimming and ghosting. The Blu-ray version, meanwhile, features generally better and clearer animation as well, as mentioned above.

The impetus for such an approach from anime production teams stems from how critical DVD sales were prior to the arrival of streaming services. With production teams making far less money on streaming services than they would on DVD sales, there’s a financial reason to implement ghosting and dimming in a streaming service release.

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