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Could Taisu Be the Ideal International Anime Collaboration?

by Alicia Haddick,

International companies are increasingly involved in producing and commissioning new anime projects, with international talent playing a progressively integral role in bringing them to life. Outsourcing production to foreign studios and companies has been common in anime for a very long time. However, the growing demand for Japanese talents and companies has made it more necessary in the modern anime landscape.

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Take Taisu, for example. It's a project of four short films produced by Tencent and Chirying Culture for the Chinese streaming site, QQ TV. Production is being led and created by animators and directors across the planet. Two of the shorts have their origins in Japan: the first by director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Space Dandy) with "A Girl Meets a Boy and a Robot," and Shuhei Morita (Tokyo Ghoul) with "Roots."

Even these aren't solely Japanese productions either: Watanabe worked closely with a team from Europe, Asia, and Japan. It's a global production with Chinese producers and staff from WETA Studio in New Zealand, Japan, and Europe, reflecting the increasing internationalization of anime and animation.

Both films are decent enough to become the poster child for the new production status quo. Shuhei Morita's short takes place across two separate lands, centering on two women who meet and get to know each other through their unusual bond over a pair of twin flowers that grow in their homes. These flowers act as a telephone-like device that allows them to communicate with each other. Tashen is a princess in a Chinese kingdom set on an expansionist warpath, but she is indifferent toward politics and spends most of her time in her room. Aila lives in a mythical forest with flying whales and giant birds. But despite her freedom, she feels trapped like Tashen.

Watanabe's film is (somewhat) more grounded. In a post-apocalyptic world, long since destroyed by war, a young girl without her memories wanders alone in search of pretty rocks and human life. She stumbles upon a dysfunctional robot and befriends it. She later makes her way into a city and meets a young boy who happens to be searching for a rock with the power to transcend time. There's an expressionist joy to the visuals displayed in this short, degrading its sketchbook-esque visuals into its raw line work, as though the world pulls away from us.

Both CG animated shorts bring together the talents of the directors and individuals, local and abroad. Discussing the origins of their involvement in the project, Morita noted, "For my involvement, I met a producer from Chirying Culture, and they mentioned to me that they wanted to make an original animation project. There were a lot of original anime projects from Japan in the '80s and '90s. I thought I would like to make something like that, but it's getting harder and harder to do that here. But he was so passionate about it, talking about how much he wanted to do it and how he wanted to overcome those difficulties, and our conversations continued from there."

Watanabe followed this with a similar story about his first involvement in the project as well. He talked about Chirying Culture's enthusiasm when they approached him despite sounding like a consultancy company. He noted their passion for wanting to create a work that maximizes a diverse range of talents. "It was easier back then for directors to create whatever they wanted. But it's harder to do that now, and this project allowed me to do so. I've wanted to create an animation like a picture book for a long time. So this was a great chance to do it."

Similarly, this was an excellent chance for Watanabe to create something entirely new using CG. "When making this film, I didn't just want to create a story but something you could look at, immerse within, and believe. After finally seeing it on the big screen like this, I'm really happy with the result."

Both admitted that production could have been a smoother process for them. Despite this, the opportunities offered and collaborations with international animators gave them new experiences. In particular, animating hair for Morita brought issues throughout production for his team at MAPPA. "There were times we had difficulties making animation as pretty as we wanted. For example, if we wanted to do fluffy hair or things like that, the staff would wonder how we would approach it. CG is strong at this stuff, and if you want it to look like a simulation of real hair, you can do it. If you want to make it beautiful, to look more animated and artful, that's something different."

Of the two productions, Watanabe's short featured the most international production, with talents from Indonesia, France, the UK, and others. An issue with having an international team is scheduling conflicts due to time zone constraints. "As anime becomes more digital, animators who don't live in Japan have become further involved in animation. My animation director lives in France, and I've never actually met him. We would arrange things online, and I'd send scenes and animations online for him to check. We'd arrange retakes using my poor English. With lots of people participating from many different countries, we had more drawings that weren't as we expected and needed amendments, so it was a bit difficult but a lot of fun."

These two shorts served as the curtain-raiser for the Niigata International Animation Film Festival. Few things are more international than a work pooling talent from across the world and for talented directors to take bold new steps forward with their work into unfamiliar territories. The work produced in these instances proved entertaining, with the crowd and directors happy with the results. It will be some time before the general public can experience these shorts for themselves (a release towards the end of 2023 is expected for all four shorts), but these unique international collaborations look worth the wait.


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