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Interview: Polygon Pictures President Shuzo John Shiota


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tootbrush



Joined: 31 Oct 2009
Posts: 230
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 10:37 am Reply with quote
Should've told them to put more frames in their shows.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:02 am Reply with quote
^ Yeah he mentions the different approach they take compared to Sanzigen and Orage but frankly for me I think the other's approach, albeit also depending on animation director, is better. Specifically looking at the production footage for Kill La Kill, Sanzigen uses framerate modulation, not being afraid of smooth animation and then going through the entire CG animation sequence again frame by frame and holding certain frames longer for snappiness. Similar animation technique is used by ufotable for that super smooth yet snappy feel, likewise for Science Saru with flash vector animation. This is in contrast to most of Polygon's work where everything is constant on 3s with too constant timing and/or spacing that leads to the annoying constant choppiness.
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Panoptican



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:09 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, I really don't understand why the interviewer didn't take that chance to dive in deeper on their frame rate decision. It's easily one of the most discussed aspects in the West when it comes to Polygon anime

I actually have to wonder if they're even aware it's a divisive issue among Western fans. Is it an issue among Japanese fans? I have no idea. It must be tough to have any real awareness how fans are reacting in other parts of the world, especially when none of it is in your language.

It's definitely possible they're not aware though. For instance I read an interview with the director of Final Fantasy VI a while back. He had no idea many Western fans disliked the way FFV and FFVI look on mobile and PC. He didn't know until the interviewer asked him about it and he seemed receptive to the feedback.

Final Fantasy Interview
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
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Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Wow, this was a fantastic interview. I learned a lot, and appreciated their take on how Netflix is effecting the industry, with a bit more optimism than I'm seeing in other circles.


Panoptican wrote:
Yeah, I really don't understand why the interviewer didn't take that chance to dive in deeper on their frame rate decision. It's easily one of the most discussed aspects in the West when it comes to Polygon anime


Because when someone offers you an interview, you don't derail it for a personal gripe. And this discussion has been had like 10,000,000 times already, so beating that dead horse is pointless. If you want to know why they do it, you can pretty much read it directly from the response "we don't want to turn people off who are used to the 2D look". Whether or not that makes sense or is successful is pretty irrelevant, but there is no sense is delving into it more, yet again...
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64BitRatchet



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:38 pm Reply with quote
I'm interested if Netflix ends up getting Knights of Sidonia season 3, this interview makes them seem more involved in the first two seasons than I thought, but the first two seasons aired on Animeism, which Amazon has exclusive streaming rights to now.
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ParaChomp



Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:43 pm Reply with quote
They might be my favourite animation studio and the fact that they gave Fist of the Blue Sky to Taiwan makes sense but the fact that they're proud of it makes me feel really disappointed.

I'm so sad...
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Panoptican



Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 160
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:11 pm Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
Because when someone offers you an interview, you don't derail it for a personal gripe. And this discussion has been had like 10,000,000 times already, so beating that dead horse is pointless. If you want to know why they do it, you can pretty much read it directly from the response "we don't want to turn people off who are used to the 2D look". Whether or not that makes sense or is successful is pretty irrelevant, but there is no sense is delving into it more, yet again...


The discussion has been had a million times among random anime fans. The chance of having the discussion with president of Polygon itself is a unique opportunity that has far more value than those other conversations. And it's not just a personal gripe. It's a common sentiment that you see all the time. There are ways to tactfully bring up criticisms of people's work in an interview. You don't have to shove it down their throat or anything. Just look at that Final Fantasy interview. It was brought up and discussed and then they moved on. It was fine. My main point is to gauge whether they're even aware of the criticism and to get his thoughts on the matter. That didn't really happen in this interview. I don't care about the million random anime fan's thoughts. I want Polygon's.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:23 pm Reply with quote
64BitRatchet wrote:
I'm interested if Netflix ends up getting Knights of Sidonia season 3, this interview makes them seem more involved in the first two seasons than I thought, but the first two seasons aired on Animeism, which Amazon has exclusive streaming rights to now.

Netflix was only a licensee, despite the misleading "Netflix Original" moniker, hence its broadcast on Japanese TV as with nearly all other titles. Justin had addressed this specifically in a previous Answerman.They were mentioned in the same context as other licensees such as Funimation, Crunchyroll in terms of raising the budget through higher licensing fees. The show was already produced before the solicitation process:
Quote:
And in regards to business, the budgets have been going much much higher thanks to the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Crunchyroll .... So we needed to find our own way to recoup our investment. Luckily we got the North American rights and because of our presence in the North American market, we knew the going price for anime properties with the normal players like Funimation and such. So we decided to go mainstream. We approached Netflix and Hulu and thankfully Netflix signed us as their first original anime and gave us pretty decent license fees and it's been going up since then.


It should also be noted that Netflix did not get the full versions of Sidonia either--Sentai did for the US.

Only current Bones co-productions of new original material is where Netflix actually gets involved.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
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Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:29 pm Reply with quote
The studio's contemporary interior design surprised me. You see, the likes of Shirobako had led me to assume that creativity in the anime industry can only be cultivated within drab, utilitarian offices.

Quote:
So we had tried it and we knew it was going to work, so when Pingu in the City came… initially there was talk about making it look more like a normal animation, but after talking to the producers at NHK, Mattel and Sony, we decided we should make it look like a stop-motion kind of thing.

Egad, stop-motion is normal animation as far as rumbustious penguins go!
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64BitRatchet



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 317
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:38 pm Reply with quote
configspace wrote:
64BitRatchet wrote:
I'm interested if Netflix ends up getting Knights of Sidonia season 3, this interview makes them seem more involved in the first two seasons than I thought, but the first two seasons aired on Animeism, which Amazon has exclusive streaming rights to now.

Netflix was only a licensee, despite the misleading "Netflix Original" moniker, hence its broadcast on Japanese TV as with nearly all other titles. Justin had addressed this specifically in a previous Answerman.They were mentioned in the same context as other licensees such as Funimation, Crunchyroll in terms of raising the budget through higher licensing fees. The show was already produced before the solicitation process:
Quote:
And in regards to business, the budgets have been going much much higher thanks to the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Crunchyroll .... So we needed to find our own way to recoup our investment. Luckily we got the North American rights and because of our presence in the North American market, we knew the going price for anime properties with the normal players like Funimation and such. So we decided to go mainstream. We approached Netflix and Hulu and thankfully Netflix signed us as their first original anime and gave us pretty decent license fees and it's been going up since then.


It should also be noted that Netflix did not get the full versions of Sidonia either--Sentai did for the US.

Only current Bones co-productions of new original material is where Netflix actually gets involved.
I know Netflix just bought the streaming license, but the article makes it seem like they helped with the budget. Wit Studio and Production I.G. are also co-producing anime with Netflix.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:40 pm Reply with quote
Panoptican wrote:
relyat08 wrote:
Because when someone offers you an interview, you don't derail it for a personal gripe. And this discussion has been had like 10,000,000 times already, so beating that dead horse is pointless. If you want to know why they do it, you can pretty much read it directly from the response "we don't want to turn people off who are used to the 2D look". Whether or not that makes sense or is successful is pretty irrelevant, but there is no sense is delving into it more, yet again...


The discussion has been had a million times among random anime fans. The chance of having the discussion with president of Polygon itself is a unique opportunity that has far more value than those other conversations.


It has literally been addressed by this same person. And like half a dozen other people who work for the company. Check out their social media accounts and other interviews. They are aware that some people don't like it. They are also under the probably reasonable assumption that many people do like it. Nothing we can do about it. I don't think it looks so bad, personally.
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Chrono1000





PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:42 pm Reply with quote
64BitRatchet wrote:
I'm interested if Netflix ends up getting Knights of Sidonia season 3, this interview makes them seem more involved in the first two seasons than I thought, but the first two seasons aired on Animeism, which Amazon has exclusive streaming rights to now.
Knights of Sidonia is one of the first anime that Netflix promoted so it is very likely that Netflix will get the rights to the third season. As for the broadcast time if needed they can pick a different time though some recent productions have been exclusive to Netflix.

ParaChomp wrote:
They might be my favourite animation studio and the fact that they gave Fist of the Blue Sky to Taiwan makes sense but the fact that they're proud of it makes me feel really disappointed.
Well if I was with Polygon Pictures I would be shouting from the rooftops that Fist of the Blue Sky was outsourced to Taiwan. I mean even the mention of it being cheaper than average is a subtle way to explain why it looks that way.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
And all of a sudden, the Netflix option seemed much more attractive, especially because of their pricing.So it's been a huge influence, and I think it's been a good influence in that now we're able to deliver our properties to 190 different countries and millions of people all of a sudden with subtitles. So I think in this case, we're combating what was previously a big issue of piracy because people can see it legitimately and they don't have to wait like they used to.

...(Goes out of room, begins laughing)...(catches breath)...(comes back in), ok, I think they need to crosscheck their info...(starts laughing uncontrollably)

Quote:
Some people have raised concerns that that might happen for Fist of the Blue Sky. What is your approach with Fist of the Blue Sky that may allay those concerns?

Well, so far as I've seen, it's looking pretty good.

.... ... ....Go check your eyes
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64BitRatchet



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 317
PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:47 pm Reply with quote
relyat08 wrote:
Panoptican wrote:
relyat08 wrote:
Because when someone offers you an interview, you don't derail it for a personal gripe. And this discussion has been had like 10,000,000 times already, so beating that dead horse is pointless. If you want to know why they do it, you can pretty much read it directly from the response "we don't want to turn people off who are used to the 2D look". Whether or not that makes sense or is successful is pretty irrelevant, but there is no sense is delving into it more, yet again...


The discussion has been had a million times among random anime fans. The chance of having the discussion with president of Polygon itself is a unique opportunity that has far more value than those other conversations.


It has literally been addressed by this same person. And like half a dozen other people who work for the company. Check out their social media accounts and other interviews. They are aware that some people don't like it. They are also under the probably reasonable assumption that many people do like it. Nothing we can do about it. I don't think it looks so bad, personally.
I honestly don't even see frame drops in their shows, but I can barely tell in most video games too, unless it is really bad.
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Jonny Mendes



Joined: 17 Oct 2014
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2018 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
Quote:
And all of a sudden, the Netflix option seemed much more attractive, especially because of their pricing.So it's been a huge influence, and I think it's been a good influence in that now we're able to deliver our properties to 190 different countries and millions of people all of a sudden with subtitles. So I think in this case, we're combating what was previously a big issue of piracy because people can see it legitimately and they don't have to wait like they used to.

...(Goes out of room, begins laughing)...(catches breath)...(comes back in), ok, I think they need to crosscheck their info...(starts laughing uncontrollably)


My reaction in that frase was almost spiting what was drinking, Seriously, Netflix only works for binge watching people and for net anime. Is very painful for a hardcore TV anime fan waiting for Netflix release a show that is weekly on Japanese television.

Even if Netflix works fine for me in Live Action shows, i prefer to watch TV anime simulcast or If i have to wait, i prefer to wait for the BD's.

Fortunate for me, the only anime on Netflix that i like, are the Fate franchise anime, and for those, BD's is what i will wait for. So, thanks but no thanks, Netflix.

Quote:

Plus there's this movement for the Castlevania kind of thing where anime tastes are opening fans up to American-ised or European-ised international storytelling. And Netflix is all over that now, it'll open up some doors. It might have the hardcore anime fans dissing it, but I think it'll open up a door for other variations of so-called anime.


And these are the kind of so-called anime I couldn't care less about.
I love Japanese anime, not the other variations like American-ised, European-ised or Chinese-ised international storytelling anime, but for the fans for these, im happy that Netflix are co-product animation for them.
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