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Answerman - Do Foreigners Work In Anime?


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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 12:26 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
But the barriers are insane, and there are so many easier, better paying paths for a talented artist or writer to take that whoever does get there would have to be absolutely nuts.


To be honest, the artists and artistic types I've known being "nuts", that it to say "very very determined", is pretty much a standard qualification ... if not a positive career enhancer.

Mark Gosdin
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synaia



Joined: 10 Oct 2011
Posts: 112
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 12:40 pm Reply with quote
I know of at least one person who works at Sunrise as a production assistant on Gundam: Origin who's from Hungary .
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lavmintrose



Joined: 13 Apr 2015
Posts: 90
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 12:41 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
"...learning Japanese well enough to write nuanced scripts..."

Good stories aren't that dependent on language - if they were, translation would be impossible. Most people aren't going to write something extremely wordplay-heavy in a non-native language for them, but scripts don't need to be like that to be good - and it's not like it's all done by one person anyway.
You know the anime industry better than I do, but I don't think that a series composition writer would get laughed out of the industry for asking another writer on the staff, "What's the best way to phrase this line to get the right emotion across?" - the writers' room of any decent series in any language are constantly asking each other this, even if they're all native speakers, or the series isn't good. Every writer of every decent book is constantly asking their critique partners this, too, or their books wouldn't end up being good.

People seem to have this attitude about language that complete fluency in a non-native language is impossible, but it's not.

Until some other country's studios start making animation of the quality that Japanese studios do, my goal is still to write for anime. To write stories that get made into a final product of the quality of KyoAni, A1, or GoHands (well... like K season 1), not like Naruto or whatever. Live-action can't do that, and American/others' animation doesn't seem to want to.
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Imitosis



Joined: 17 Feb 2015
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 1:12 pm Reply with quote
It does seem much easier to get work as a foreigner in Japan if you're an animator, artist, or designer. Justin's right that the pay and scheduling is not usually worth the trouble though. But with the gradual proliferation of digital animation and production techniques in Japan it is increasingly possible for foreigners to work remotely. I know that Bahi JD, an Austrian animator, got his start in anime working from home before eventually going over to Japan. Though I suppose for that to become a larger scale thing more studios would need to find a way to tackle the language barrier.

I remember that Space Dandy had quite a few foreigners who did key animation, in addition to design and background work from people like Thomas Romain, Santiago Montiel, and Aymeric Kevin. Masaaki Yuasa specifically put out a call on twitter inviting people from around the world to contribute to his Dandy episode. Though Yuasa seems to be increasingly interested in a more global approach to animation by working with Cartoon Network, using Kickstarter, and hiring foreigners at his new studio, Science Saru. It's also worth noting that his studio's co-founder is Eunyoung Choi, who Justin mentioned in the article.
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Nyron



Joined: 16 May 2013
Posts: 161
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 1:14 pm Reply with quote
Savin Yeatman-Eiffel made Oban Star Racers after an 8-year production cycle
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NishizawaMihashi



Joined: 23 Feb 2016
Posts: 29
Location: Malaysia
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 2:14 pm Reply with quote
hah... Hah... HAhahahaahahahah... All of this sounds like a challenge if I ever have to say!

The quickest way to all business ventures is dat paper. If ya' got some, then that'll make things a whole lot easier. And since the most straightforward way ever to making these things is being a producer who has dat dough, then that I shall be. Of course, being part of the writing team for some project has always been one aspiration of mine so I'mma aim for the exosphere for that too Very Happy

Having bros join together to do stuff like this makes the whole process easier as you can develop an information pool and all so hopefully I can gather more folks from my country to pump out some stuff. And from the looks of it, it seems that we've got one other dude right here who's intent on being a writer too Very Happy
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TehDarkPrince



Joined: 07 Jun 2012
Posts: 67
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 3:12 pm Reply with quote
Imitosis wrote:
...I remember that Space Dandy had quite a few foreigners who did key animation...


The most notable foreigner doing genga on Space Dandy, Bahi JD, as well as several other animators like former star Titmouse animator/Korra storyboarder Ben Li, worked from outside Japan. Probably still technically counts, but Space Dandy was somewhat unique in just how many non-japanese offshore animators contributed genga to it; accountable to the fact that there was, if I recall, at least 1 producer on the show working in the US for awhile. Bahi JD is one of the few non-Japanese animators working outside Japan on anime on a regular basis.

It made me excited that I could have a chance to do at least 1 cut on a show if I could overcome the language barrier well enough, but the more CG and symbol-based stuff I work on makes worse at drawing, little by little.
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CBongo



Joined: 17 Feb 2006
Posts: 43
Location: Minneapolis, MN
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 4:30 pm Reply with quote
Outside of the visual aspect of anime, there have been some foreigners involved in the audio portion (Rasmus Faber being a current example, who has done sound/score for several anime).
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 4:33 pm Reply with quote
lavmintrose wrote:
Until some other country's studios start making animation of the quality that Japanese studios do, my goal is still to write for anime. To write stories that get made into a final product of the quality of KyoAni, A1, or GoHands (well... like K season 1), not like Naruto or whatever. Live-action can't do that, and American/others' animation doesn't seem to want to.

It's not "impossible" to get there, but the road would be VERY long assuming you don't currently have Japanese fluency (because you do need to work your way up ANY company, and you can't do that if you don't speak the language). With that in mind, it would PROBABLY be easier to work your way up a Western animation studio and "recruit" a character designer and director from Japan. I say that simply because you will PROBABLY find it easier to navigate the vagaries and pecuiiars of corporate structure in your homeland rather than a foreign land AND you don't need to take time to learn their language and can instead recruit someone to help with THEIRS once you are in a position to spec the work and select certain key people.

The "grunt" work is the same regardless of nation, and while there are MANY important contributors, you CAN get the "anime" look with a few key people if that's your main goal.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1822
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 4:44 pm Reply with quote
I'm sure that I've mentioned previously that I believe that Kevin Penkin is the first Austalian to write an anime OST (for Norn9).

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KDSD-893



Details are missing in the ANN Encyclopedia and I was unsuccessful updating it.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1822
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 4:47 pm Reply with quote
CBongo wrote:
Outside of the visual aspect of anime, there have been some foreigners involved in the audio portion (Rasmus Faber being a current example, who has done sound/score for several anime).


How complete is the ANN Encyclopedia's entry for Rasmus Faber? I only saw (The) Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water and Lagrange - The Flower of Rin-ne (2 seasons of each) listed.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 6:11 pm Reply with quote
omiya wrote:
I'm sure that I've mentioned previously that I believe that Kevin Penkin is the first Austalian to write an anime OST (for Norn9).

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KDSD-893



Details are missing in the ANN Encyclopedia and I was unsuccessful updating it.


I've found the ANN encyclopedia to be pretty frustrating to update in the past as well. There are a surprising number of missing entries. In regards to Kevin Penkin, he is also doing the Under the Dog OST, which, so far, has been absolutely phenomenal.
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oOJonnyOo



Joined: 18 May 2016
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 8:23 pm Reply with quote
Idk if it really counts but it was adapted to anime and somehow directly or indirectly is related Razz but Yū Kamiya whose real name is Thiago Furukawa Lucas is Brazilian and is well known for his work "No game no life" as many of u might know.
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 8:27 pm Reply with quote
Evan Call is another foreign composer who got the job in a couple of anime projects, notably Schwarzesmarken and the currently airing Big Order.
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dm
Subscriber



Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1345
PostPosted: Wed May 25, 2016 8:46 pm Reply with quote
Lea Hernandez chronicles her work with GAINAX in her web-serial Bani Garu:https://boingboing.net/2013/10/23/bani-garu-problems-from-the-s.html. Surely that counts? Or maybe that was a different time.....
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