In the cultural consciousness there is a common misconception that Animation is a subsidiary or genre of film and as a result somehow the lesser of the two art art-forms. However, while the two do share a common visual language, animation also has a language all of its own.
Every Frame A Painting highlights this in it's episode on the editing style and sense of time and place in Satoshi Kon's works. Kon makes use of Animation's unique form in his transitions between scenes and the way he stages inserts. Kon famously stated that he had no desire to direct live action due to his editing style being too fast, which is certainly the case in Paprika. While Live Action directors such as Wes Anderson have tried to implement similar techniques with quick inserts that display visual information in a simplified way, they do so to the detriment to the overall aesthetic while Animation does not have this problem.
Unlike live action film, animation is not a lens through which we see the world, but an entirely artificial world created from the ground up by artists and animators. This grants the director total control over every aspect of a sequence from the lighting to the staging of characters to the overall design and aesthetic unburdened by the shackles of the human form. Animation allows animators to play with proportion and a sense of space to create experiences unique from film. There are certain aesthetics and sequences which can be achieved in animation, that would be impossible to do in live action film due to limitations. What makes animation unique from film is the way it can depict things from visuals alone. As every frame is hand drawn this makes for more potential for storytelling through visual design, whether that be design of characters or the design of the environments they're in.
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