The last one standing in Japanese cel animation
Asahi.com reports that the art of cel animation in TV anime is about to disappear in Japan as computers take over, leaving Sazae-san as the last TV anime that is still using hand drawn cel animation. Sazae-san has been using cel animation for the 39 years that it has been running.
Other classic anime such as Chibimaruko-chan and Doraemon have switched to production on computers in 1999 and 2002 respectively.
The makers explain that they continue to stick to cel animation in Sazae-san because the small variations in the lines between each hand drawn frame helps to create a warmhearted feeling which puts the minds of viewers at peace. They are even resisting the move to digital broadcast, as showing cel animation in high definition will make the little faults in cel animation such as dust a lot more obvious.
They are also running out of people who can do cel animation in the digital age while the current cel animators are getting older and older. They currently have approximately 120 people working on the anime across 3~4 companies, but they are still lacking in manpower and 20~30% of the anime is drawn in China.