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How Creative Original Anime Get Made with Takayuki Nagatani


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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5521
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Interesting interview that reaveled a few things I don't like.

Quote:
Takayuki Nagatani's upcoming series are Sirius the Jaeger with P.A. Works and Masahiro Ando, and Black Fox with Studio 3Hz and Kazuya Nomura. These are both original series with both Japanese and overseas audiences in mind.


Catering to "overseas audiences" almost never works out well. It should just stop. Most people watch anime because it's Japanese. It's unique when it's aimed at the Japanese audience. Jaeger also isn't "upcoming". Ironic that a show aimed at "overseas audiences" is being region locked by Netflix.
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Zeino



Joined: 19 May 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Mr. Nagatani sounds exactly what the anime industry needs for the most part. (The one chief objection being catering to overseas audiences as pointed out is a dangerous tight rope to walk on that more often than not doesn't pay off.) He wants to promote new talent that has show itself to be quite promising and put more anime original works out there. That is the best sort of production possible. Just please make more thing like Shirobako and Flip Flappers and less like Citrus.
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RangerDanger





PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:12 pm Reply with quote
Zeino wrote:
Just please make more thing like Shirobako and Flip Flappers and less like Citrus.

Citrus isn’t an anime original though.
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Ronie Peter



Joined: 27 Feb 2017
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:23 pm Reply with quote
I am convinced that for a studio, be it small or large, the greatest achievement is when your original work becomes a hit. Original series that achieve a global popularity is actually the "cherry on the cake" of any studio. I like Nagatani for this, because it can end up helping studios both big and small to achieve that happiness.

Now about White Fox: I'm really sorry about the studio, for not being able to make an original that would at least gain a bit of notoriety. I tried to find out about his original but I saw that it really went unnoticed. It is a pity. It's a studio that really deserves an original that gives you a credential. White Fox is one of the most exemplary studios out there, worrying about its employees, more than most studios. I think they deserve a job that gives them joy.

About 3hz I really love their desire to want to create originals, but I hope they stand as a studio because they are still very new. There are other studios like Pine A. P. Works is a pioneer in this area. He managed to leave behind Gainax, which has already been reference in originals. No studio does more original than P.A Works. I think that the union of the studio with Nagatani really was predestined.
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Blackiris_



Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 535
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:25 pm Reply with quote
Thank you for this very insightful interview, Callum. It’s good to see some more light being shed on producers, the often unsung heroes of anime productions. People may (and should) know Masao Maruyama or Toshio Suzuki, but there are so many more producers out there and they have an enormous influence.

Kougeru wrote:
Interesting interview that reaveled a few things I don't like.

Quote:
Takayuki Nagatani's upcoming series are Sirius the Jaeger with P.A. Works and Masahiro Ando, and Black Fox with Studio 3Hz and Kazuya Nomura. These are both original series with both Japanese and overseas audiences in mind.


Catering to "overseas audiences" almost never works out well. It should just stop. Most people watch anime because it's Japanese. It's unique when it's aimed at the Japanese audience. Jaeger also isn't "upcoming". Ironic that a show aimed at "overseas audiences" is being region locked by Netflix.


"Catering" to any audience rarely produces works that could really be called creative or unique. But I’m not seeing any issues in producing something with a certain audience in mind – if the staff members themselves really want to make that work. The problem is always the "catering" – if it goes too far, the work is always in danger of loosing its sense of identity, something that happens to a lot of shows regardless of the audience they were catering to. (Though catering can also be very successful and creativity certainly is no indicator of financial success.) So overall I can’t really understand the sentiment that anime that are produced with Western audiences in mind are more likely to be bad or less unique than anime produced with only Japanese audiences in mind. Both types have given birth to a fair share of great and utterly forgettable titles.
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
Posts: 1771
PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 3:33 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
When I asked Nagatani what sort of shows he wanted to create, he told me that he wanted to make anime about adolescence and growing up


We were truly starved of those before he came along Confused
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:21 pm Reply with quote
The Canipa Effect did a great video on this
Quote:
Sirius the Jaeger with P.A. Works and Masahiro Ando, and Black Fox with Studio 3Hz and Kazuya Nomura. These are both original series with both Japanese and overseas audiences in mind.
And yet Siruis has not been simulcast, in fact I do not believe it has even been licensed. I've heard some people say that Netflix have it, but I have yet to hear any announcements, and they usually do that before the show has started airing.
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Ermat_46



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 7:24 pm Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
The Canipa Effect did a great video on this
Quote:
Sirius the Jaeger with P.A. Works and Masahiro Ando, and Black Fox with Studio 3Hz and Kazuya Nomura. These are both original series with both Japanese and overseas audiences in mind.
And yet Siruis has not been simulcast, in fact I do not believe it has even been licensed. I've heard some people say that Netflix have it, but I have yet to hear any announcements, and they usually do that before the show has started airing.


Netflix don't announce whether they have an exclusive license over the show or not. They just came out on Netflix. In this case, it's the official twitter page for Sirius and Hi Score Girl that announced their December debut on Netflix, not Netflix themselves.
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:16 pm Reply with quote
Lemonchest wrote:
Quote:
When I asked Nagatani what sort of shows he wanted to create, he told me that he wanted to make anime about adolescence and growing up


We were truly starved of those before he came along Confused


Indeed. When I made my top 10 favorite series list I noticed that 90% of the main characters in all 10 shows were between 14 and 18. While I like teenager characters its true that the medium is a bit saturated with characters from this age group. Instead, why not make more stuff like Wotakoi and Aggretsuko which feature adult characters?
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TheCanipaEffect



Joined: 27 Apr 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:54 pm Reply with quote
Hi, I'm the author of the article (I'm also The Canipa Effect that was mentioned here) and I thought I should give some context to a few things.

Sirius the Jaeger is made for both overseas and local audiences. It being on Netflix is actually a part of that. Even though it's not simulcast and will be released in bulk this December, it is still targeted at overseas fans. Taito Okiura, Director of Anime at Netflix, explains:

"It takes time to create world-class subtitles and dubbed audio for these shows , but in doing so, we hope to serve larger customer needs on a global basis. Our belief is that maintaining this all-at-once format is the best way to serve our global customers needs.

We understand there are some fans who want a global simulcast, but we believe that the all-at-once distribution window is best in order to maintain the quality of production."


Agree or disagree, that's Netflix's stance on it.

There's also some worries about anime being made for overseas viewers in this thread. Kougeru stated that, "Catering to "overseas audiences" almost never works out well."

Except a large amount of anime that are popular globally are series that were made with an overseas audience in mind. Catering to a global audience doesn't mean diluting content, it just means being aware that the audience you are serving is global. This affects more than story development as well. For example, the animation of My Hero Academia was produced by Bones because Toho Animation found that Studio Bones was popular overseas.

Anime production has changed a lot and with a huge portion of anime revenue now coming from China and the USA, producers need to keep a global audience in mind. This doesn't mean removing Japanese culture or mannerisms from anime, but can often just mean "Paying more attention to global licensing" or "Debuting the first episode of our anime at Anime Expo" or "Finding ways to interact with our global fanbase."

Making anime with a global appeal isn't new and today, it's the norm rather than the exception and it can mean great things in regards to licensing and marketing.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:00 am Reply with quote
"B The Beginning" was uploaded to the various Netflix versions roughly the same time, outside of time zone differences. Netflix should do this method for most of their anime. Sirius the Jaeger's delay-cast is a reason why I don't feel guilty watching pirated versions of it.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5294
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:25 am Reply with quote
TheCanipaEffect wrote:
Making anime with a global appeal isn't new and today, it's the norm rather than the exception and it can mean great things in regards to licensing and marketing.
You know more than we do. And if it truly is the norm, then it must have very little impact. I can not think of many shows from the last few of years that screamed that they were made for an American audience. There was Panty & Stocking, Tiger and Bunny(which was more popular in JP), Heroman(which didn't take off in American) Dimension W?. The only one where it was directly mentioned was the Trigun film. I suppose it must be down to just how the show is released and promoted as you said.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 3:45 am Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
TheCanipaEffect wrote:
Making anime with a global appeal isn't new and today, it's the norm rather than the exception and it can mean great things in regards to licensing and marketing.
You know more than we do. And if it truly is the norm, then it must have very little impact. I can not think of many shows from the last few of years that screamed that they were made for an American audience. There was Panty & Stocking, Tiger and Bunny(which was more popular in JP), Heroman(which didn't take off in American) Dimension W?. The only one where it was directly mentioned was the Trigun film. I suppose it must be down to just how the show is released and promoted as you said.

Space Dandy is the most notable recent anime that was created to cater to overseas markets. Others in the past were Blood the Last Vampire and Afro Samurai

Ironically the most popular series are the ones that are NOT specifically created to target western markets (I refer specifically to story development). They just happen to appeal to other audiences and that's how it should be. Most of these are adaptations.

You can't tell me that mangaka are told by their publisher to change things so that Amercians would like it for their serialization? Or that Fate universe writers and original VN creator thought, hmmm what would westerners like?
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Lemonchest



Joined: 18 Mar 2015
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 4:20 am Reply with quote
You lot know that "International audience" doesn't just mean the USA, right? Plenty of shows get tweaked to increase appeal for international distribution, whether that's in China, South America, the USA or Europe etc. Indeed, with Japan's population & especially the core child-teen audience shrinking rapidly, they have no choice but to try to sell their wares abroad. Studios like Kyo Ani that produce maybe one show a year aimed at a specific section of the adult audience can survive on the domestic audience alone; but for the big fish, Japan has long since become too small a pond to swim in.
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TheCanipaEffect



Joined: 27 Apr 2017
Posts: 52
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 5:17 am Reply with quote
MarshalBanana wrote:
TheCanipaEffect wrote:
Making anime with a global appeal isn't new and today, it's the norm rather than the exception and it can mean great things in regards to licensing and marketing.
You know more than we do. And if it truly is the norm, then it must have very little impact. I can not think of many shows from the last few of years that screamed that they were made for an American audience. There was Panty & Stocking, Tiger and Bunny(which was more popular in JP), Heroman(which didn't take off in American) Dimension W?. The only one where it was directly mentioned was the Trigun film. I suppose it must be down to just how the show is released and promoted as you said.


Most people don't realise when anime is being targeted at a global audience because most anime is made that way. It doesn't need to be super obvious like Panty & Stocking or Heroman. Anime creators already know that anime is popular, all they need to do is not alienate their overseas audiences and be available to overseas audiences conveniently.

configspace wrote:
You can't tell me that mangaka are told by their publisher to change things so that Amercians would like it for their serialization? Or that Fate universe writers and original VN creator thought, hmmm what would westerners like?


Westerners and Japanese people really don't differ that much on what they like. Also, as Lemonchest said, "international audience" doesn't just mean America. And yes, some mangaka do create stories that have global appeal. That doesn't mean they're making stories about "Johnny America going to save the day from all the Russians who have stolen our precious supply of hot dogs and Coca Cola™!" But it might be a story about superheroes, pirates, zombies or ninjas, concepts that appeal broadly.

It's not a case of "What will international fans like?", but more "Maybe we should change this part of the story, because international fans won't understand it."

Japanese creators know that people all across the world like anime, so it's not like you'll find concious attempts to change it. Rather, you'll just see smarter licensing and streaming deals, and larger companies avoiding concepts that don't translate as well (But even that has exceptions!)
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