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Since quite a few years back, it's been quite commonplace in fantasy anime and manga to represent casting magic as some kinds of 2D circles or geometric figures with patterns, possibly multiple ones, as in the image on the right (Frieren). I see this idea used in almost all – if not all – anime and manga now.
It hasn't always been that way though. Older anime and manga used other and different kinds of representations, say from blinking stars (image on the left, Majokko Megu-chan) to smoke, or even just sound effects.
I'm just curious: does anyone have any info or links to share about how this "2D representation" came about and why it's become so popular? Cheers!
My guess is it's super easy to animate, but also provides really intricate details from any angle. Something 3D might not look good from every angle.
Indeed, I'd never thought about this factor and computer graphics. Makes a lot of sense!