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Anime Production Studios Gaining Global Attention and Paving the Way to the Future Vol. 20: Kinema Citrus Part 2
Up to now, we’ve been talking to two young guys supporting Kinema Citrus in the workplace. But, why? How did Kinema Citrus come into being? The answers to all those questions are buried in the heart of the studio’s founder and CEO, Muneki Ogasawara.
We sat down once again with Ogasawara to find out a little about the studio’s beginnings and discovered unexpected connections to Production I.G and Bones as well as the extraordinary struggle it took to get where they are now.
■ Connections with people who helped save the company during foundation
- A little while ago, we asked Harada and Saita a few things about Kinema Citrus, but you’re the person to ask if we want to know about the company’s foundation. How did you come to set up Kinema Citrus?
Muneki Ogasawara: Around the time Eureka Seven was ending I fell into poor health and left Bones. I had no intention of returning to the anime industry. Six months or so later, someone I’d worked with in my Production I.G days invited me to come work on Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance… I liked the End of Evangelion movie so I came back without thinking about it, and thinking about it now perhaps I was hasty. That feeling intensified and I set up Kinema Citrus. That was 12 years ago.
- When you set up Kinema Citrus, you were working on Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers?
Ogasawara: Just as I’d finished the prep work to set up the studio, I got a call from Bones’ in-between director Koichi Iwanaga asking me to come back because they were short staffed on the Evangelion movie. It was just when I was thinking about reporting back to Masahiko Minami from Bones about setting up the company. When I left Bones, I told him that I wanted to be a fisherman and catch a tuna.
- There’s no stopping you (lol)
Ogasawara: If Minami would help me, I thought it might be OK to start over. I told them I’d work on the movie, but only after I set up the studio. They said it needed to be right away though, so I carried on prepping for the studio while I worked on the movie.
- You seem like you’re always battling something.
Ogasawara: Minami helped me a lot. Working on Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, I feel like Minami really saved us. He gave us an opportunity to go prime contractor with a project that came from Bones once it was over. That’s connected to Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. When I think about it now, maybe Minami was kind of producing the company.
- So, you started in a good position?
Ogasawara: No. We had a lot of trouble in the first couple of years that made me think it wasn’t going to pan out. I’m so grateful to Minami and Production I.G’s Mitsuhisa Ishikawa for looking out for us. Roots are important. I really feel that you mustn’t forget the people who helped you grow.
- Why did you call it Kinema Citrus?
Ogasawara: The first name was Necrime.
- (lol)
Ogasawara: There was some opposition, “we can always register it tomorrow,” etc., but it was decided quickly in a meeting. We wanted to make stories that would have lasting value across the generations, 100 years of film, so we didn’t use the modern “cinema” but the old-fashioned term “Kinema.” It was also an idea I’d had before to take the last few letters from my name Muneki and reverse them, “Kine” adding the “ma” from Matsuka, and the “Citrus” from Tachibana like a translation of the kanji in his name. The company’s name referenced three out of the four founding members, though it would have been nice to add in Shito (lol). That’s how we came up with it. It was like that.
■ Resetting the studio with .hack//Quantum Part 3
- I think it must be hard for everyone setting up a new studio; it’s amazing that you were able to carry on with no drop in quality.
Ogasawara: When I was on secondment to Bones, I was put in charge of a project that still had a team on it as a gross subcontractor. There was a lot of fuss in the beginning, and I was shocked it was finished in such severe conditions. Even so, Eureka was done properly, even the established color was on point and we were able to make something amazing… That was where I started, and since then I’ve worked with Production I.G, Bones, Anno’s “brand.” I certainly know a lot of talented people, but various things happened and they haven’t worked on much with Kinema. When I started to think about the staff for the studio, how long could I go on paying high salaries? By providing a stable working environment over a period of years, I thought people would start working for us.
Bones and Production I.G, they had purpose and promise for the future. It was the kind of environment where I could think, “I could really become a character designer here.” If I hadn’t had that expectation, I don’t know if I could have finished the film. After that I threw away my conceit and started concentrating on the work.
- After Eureka Seven: Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers, there was Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, right?
Ogasawara: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was Tachibana’s first show as a director. He was young, and he had conviction, but there were times he was cornered. Director Kazuya Murata and writer Natsuko Takahashi took him under their wing and looked after him as they worked together. Those two were really like the parents who raised Kinema Citrus. I was really happy with the story, but not so much with the animation quality. We didn’t have enough people, and I really wondered if we could keep the quality up for even two or three.
For the final episode, Kazuya Nomura directed and brought the animators together, he had that kind of power. I felt bad that I wasn’t strong enough, for the director and the show you have to aim for high quality. But you need to be strict with the business too. After that I thought maybe we should avoid episodic TV shows. There’s no point, you can’t win. After that, we got a request from Bandai’s Yukawa to work on an OVA and did that. After that we were asked to work on .hack//Quantum, we started making satisfying work, and getting work from other companies who’d seen it.
- As you got more experience you become more trustworthy?
Ogasawara: I guess so. We’ve never had so much work before. People turning up, lowering their heads and saying “please work for us” is a little cold (lol). I feel like the work you ask for yourself has more value. It was all quite different then. Just serving tea in the meeting room and going home was rough. But, after .hack//Quantum I started doing unbusinesslike business. There were a lot of times the young producers were doing work for us.
More than a producer mentality I had a desk mentality. In response to the work we were asked to make, I thought about how to turn it into anime, and how to make it interesting. That wasn’t so hard, even with genres we weren’t good at, so it was easier than you’d think.
- How about now?
Ogasawara: We haven’t done a completely original show from scratch yet. I’d like to do just one before I retire and I’m prepping it now.
- Well, that’s a long way off (lol).
Ogasawara: No, not at all. I think anime should be made by young people close in sensibility to the viewers. From now on I want to follow the challengers and unrefined parts of the young.
- Thank you so much for speaking with us today.
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