A New Anime Series is the Focus of Attention! Studio Trigger Shares their Thoughts on the Work [2/3]

TOM: It’s been about two years since you became independent. How much do you think you succeeded in “testing your own strength”?
Otsuka: By now, we have arrived at the point of starting a TV series. In the past two years, we made Inferno Cop (※1) and Little Witch Academia, but I think this series will be the real challenge. The period until now was the preparation phase; this year is really game time.

TOM: But still, looking back on those two years, before entering this period of struggle, is there something toward which you think, “We managed to achieve this”?
Otsuka: This is just my personal thing, but working mainly as director up until now, this was the first occasion to take part in management, and it is true I went through some things. No matter how wonderful the plan is, if you don’t arrange the basic environment as a company to make that plan into a piece of work, you won’t be able to make anime. Even though our organization is still inexperienced, I think that in this two years we managed to form the foundation as a company to a degree.

Tsutsumi: Yes, until now we were under the protection of a big organization: Gainax. On a lot of occasions, we thought we could pull something off, but we had to realize it was impossible. That is most true about the handling of money. When we started the production of anime all on our own, we had to realize that we couldn’t go on with our previous attitude. It was very difficult, actually (laughs).

Otsuka: When living alone for the first time, everyone has troubles with managing their money. This was exactly the same feeling. We acquired the freedom to decide on a matter with only our discretion, but at the same time, we also had to manage them. Such hardships came along. Now, we realized how much “the signboard of Gainax had helped us.”

TOM: Do such experiences have an influence on the production of anime?
Otsuka: Well, certainly, at the production scene we say, “Please, think about the money,” but it doesn’t change so dramatically (all present laugh). Of course, we think about many things during the planning stage. However, putting those into practice is never as simple as a unanimous, “Understood.” Losing the quality of a workpiece because of overdoing budget management would be mistaking the cause for the end. Under present conditions, I think we should aim for the next step while affirming that we started to think about money as a whole company, since until now we didn’t need to think about it. I feel this TV series is really going to test our powers in that area, too. We want to improve our company by putting to use the lessons we learn during this series in the next one.

TOM: Little Witch Academia was one of those steps. Could you tell us about its production process?
Otsuka: Little Witch Academia was a project made for Anime Mirai (Young Animator Training Project of the Agency of Cultural Affairs). I watched all the productions starting from the first Anime Mirai, and I was very interested. Plus, there is also the sense of an impending crisis that if we don’t train the younger generation, the industry itself is going to taper off, so we are making efforts everyday to train the next generation. However, there was also the fact that while making a TV series we wouldn’t be able to get the time off for that. That’s why we thought that Anime Mirai’s project for a short anime would be the most optimal chance to spend time coaching the young generation without having to rush. However, by the time of the application period, the preparations for the TV series had already started, and it would be a lie to say that we didn’t have worries about having to split our people for the Anime Mirai project. Nevertheless, we concluded that participating in Anime Mirai at an early stage would prove beneficial to the company, so we applied.

When pondering about who should be the director, I immediately had Yoshinari (※2) in mind. By the time we told him about our idea, Yoshinari had already started working on a TV series as one of the main staff, and it seemed he was in conflict about whether it was okay to leave the staff. Despite having expected refusal, his answer after a week was, “Let’s do it.” That is when our project started.

Continue to Part 3

Anime Mirai Official Site:
http://animemirai.jp/ (Japanese)

Notes:
※1: Studio Trigger’s first animation.
※2: You Yoshinari, the person responsible for direction, original plan, character design, and animation direction of Little Witch Academia.