Today saw a relatively early start and was very full with two company visits. Today was out Toei/Telecom day! Toei was first, after a train ride and a short walk. It was a large building, compared to the game companies we have visited thus far. I was very excited to get to see inside, and hoped that we’d get to see behind the scenes of what made the company tick.
They took us inside to a conference room, handing us each an information packet before taking us to the testing room. The room had a larger ‘movie’ screen, a medium size television, and a little television in it, along with a cabinet full of sound and viewing equipment, as well as theater-style seating and a number of large videotapes. Each of the viewing screens served a purpose: the largest was for detail viewing, the middle for how it would appear to viewers, and the smallest was for color. They showed us an introductory film featuring the characters from Pretty Cure, followed by a few opening themes from some of their well-known anime. We got to watch on the three screens, observing the differences in each viewing experience. It was quite exciting to experience!
From the testing room, they gave us a general tour of the studio, starting with the background area. Most of their backgrounds are painted by hand and we learned that, in one 30 minute segement of footage, there would be about 300 background paintings. 300! They allowed us to look at some examples before bustling us quickly through some of the work areas to the place where they cleaned up the line art and applied color to the characters. We were allowed to watch as one of the employees cleaned up and applied color to a series of images that would animate a character from One Piece. The used color charts to color the character, and then would test the color consistency with movement. One has to have extremely good attention to detail and be able to pick out even slight variations in color shades as the images pass by. I was boggled by the speed at which the woman went through the images, swiftly cleaning up and coloring the images. Knowing from previous experience, that is not easy, but this woman made it look like it was the simplest thing in the world. I was very impressed. The employee explained that she was using Retas Studio software when asked: a tool very similar to Photoshop. 
From clean up and color, we were led to the Special Effects lab, where we got to see how they put the final, significant touches on a scene. SFX are in charge of adding auras, smoke, dust, wounds, and other similar details to the characters and items in a scene, adding depth to the scene as a whole. They draw directly on a tablet, allowing them a deeper degree of versatility in their work. The gentleman who we were observing and interacting with explained that “What you can’t show with a drawing, one can add with special effects.” He showed us a couple of examples, such as adding texture to a flag and an aura to a character. It was fascinating as he took us through the step by step, showing us all the layers that would go into a single shot. He really ran home that one has to have drawing skills to be a SFX person, and that reference materials are invaluable. I really enjoyed watching him at work and I feel that I have a better appreciation for the amount of work that goes into anime now. Seeing the amount of detail going into each image blew my mind a little bit, for it was something I had just watched and let flow over me previously. Seeing these people at work, seeing the step by step, has really made me appreciate how much individual effort ends up in the shows. After SFX, they allowed us to visit their new gallery set up, which will be opening up to the public tomorrow. It was beautifully organized, featuring various storyboards, character sketches, and cells. The gallery primarily featured their newest series and we didn’t get to stay long, but I spotted posters from some of my favorite series and snapped some pictures for posterity.
From the gallery we proceeded back to the conference room where we were introduced to Mr. Azuma – the head of the Operation Planning Department. Our guide performed introductions and we all sat down for a Q&A session with him. Censorship was the big topic, seeing as there has been so much anime censorship stateside. Mr. Azuma explained that censorship was implemented by the company importing the work, and that they did not truly have much of a say in it. He also discussed work hours with us, explaining how the hours seem endless. Embellishing, he explained that animators tend to work at night, while others will work during the day, so the hours are not clearly define. If he had to set hours, he told us that they’d be from about 9am to 6pm. Mr. Azuma explained that productivity per day was not as significant as the quality of the animation and the meeting of deadlines. The studio as a whole is very proud of its technique and the quality of anime it has created, and wishes to continue that tradition of excellence as they shift to CGI. Mr. Azuma informed us that they wish to maintain the handdrawn quality in the 3D realm, and continue to deliver interesting works as the studio progresses forward. 
Mr. Azuma described Toei as having a character focus in many of its anime, trying to creat funny, interesting stories and characters that are acceptable for younger audiences. He specifically expressed that the studio wishes to maintain interesting characters, even though the media is rapidly changing. In targeting a specific audience, Mr. Azuma told us that the softer curves and simplistic designs reached out to a younger audience, yet the incorporation of certain trends would reach out to an older audience as well. I appreciated how they try to reach out to audiences of all ages, for it is not an easy thing to do. I believe they have been relatively successful however, seeing as many of my personal favorite anime from Toei are still enjoyable to me now that I’m older. I was also surprised that Toei outsourced much of their work, keeping the key animators and main project workers in-house. I supposed I shouldn’t be overly surprised, but I had thought most animation, even in-betweens and the like, were done in-house as well. As we wrapped up the meeting, our guide spread a number of goodies out on the table and asked us to take them all. We were all quite pleasantly surprised and came away with some awesome things. Toei’s generosity seemed to be a bit of bragging in comparison to the other companies I’ve visited thus far. They can afford to give things away for free, because they’ve been around for so long and are a very successful studio: some of the other companies we have visited are not nearly as well established.
Expressing our thanks and saying our farewells, we departed from Toei on the hunt for lunch. Our translator took us to a place that was relatively inexpensive and we split into two tables in order to accommodate everyone. I had the pleasure of eating with Shiro and some of the girls, enjoying a shrimp/pasta dish and lovely conversation. The only downside was that we were in the smoking area, and had to deal with the billows of cigarette smoke that would float across our table.
After lunch, it was off to Telecom! Telecom is the home of series like Inuyasha, Last Exile, Lupin the Third, and Detective Conan. Settled above a grocery store, Telecom looked run down and cluttered in comparison to Toei, though it felt more close knit then the other studio. The president of Telecom, Koji Takeuchi, gave us a personal tour, talking about the number of employees (60-70 total, all key animators, background artists, etc) and showing us where each section worked. We got to see some in-progress work from the new Superman series as it was being drawn, the area when they added color, worked on backgrounds, and when they composited it all in Adobe After Effects. We even had an exclusive viewing of part of an episode of Lupin the Third that they were working on to release later this week. It was fantastic to actually see After Effects in action. Getting to see a working that I know and use was so inspring. It makes me feel like I’m actually getting somewhere with what I’m learning, and that they’re actually applicable tools. It made me smile and get very excited.
After the viewing, we proceeded back to a small sitting area and engaged in a Q&A with Mr. Takeuchi. He told us about the process of animation (it was encouraging to here that it’s the same, even in Japan), and how they started with hand-drawn storyboards and keys and ended up with digital in-betweening, shooting, and editing (yay scanning!). I found it interesting how Japanese storyboards utilize a top-down format, in comparison to our left-to-right in the US. I find it easier to follow on a singular sheet in comparison to the American norm, though I’m not sure using a top-down format would work well in the American industry. They map timeing the same way folks do in the states though: exposure sheets! The frame rate is no different either, staying at the good-old 24 frames per second. I found it interesting that, in comparison to Toei, Telecom does their SFX in After Effects, rather than the Retas program. Telecom uses Retas as well, but not for SFX.
The internal ladder works the same way as it does stateside: start at the entry level and work your way up over time. Employees have to come in as an in-between, production assistant, or a similar, low teir position and earn a higher position in the company’s ranks. Not at all different from studios stateside.
When we asked Mr. Takeuchi which series was Telecom’s most successful and why he thought it was so, he went to Lupin the Third. Lupin has been a conglomeration of various studio’s works, and Mr. Takeuchi believed that its action and romance appeals reached to a broad audience and made it successful. We learned that, though Lupin has come out of various studios, overseeing directors work to keep characters consistent: well, as much as they can.
We inquired after Mr. Takeuchi’s opinion regarding the current 3D trend animation seemed to be taking, and he expressed his concerns. He feels that expression is difficult to work with on a 3D face, and explained that animators are trying to circumvent the problem by working with 3D bodies and hand drawn faces. The series debuting this technique is to be released by a big animation studio stateside sometime soon, or so we were told. In lue of this dicussion, Mr. Takeuchi expressed that, to be hired, animators need drawing ability, sense of perspective, and an understanding of acting. I could not agree with him more. Without these things, anime would not have the visual quality it maintains. It also would make the job that much more difficult, since (as Mr. Takeuchi enforced) the animation has to convey as many senses as it can even though it is translating through visual means.
The discussion turned to the difference between anime and American cartoons. Mr. Takeuchi expressed that viewers can feel a tempo in anime through its continuous story spanning multiple episodes, and how the seasons reflect a passage of time. However, US animation gravitates primarily towards individual, self-contained stories per episode and lacks the same feeling of time passing. I fully agree with him! The reason I gravitated towards anime was because of those longer, more intricate stories that spanned multiple seasons. American cartoons bother me because they seem so shallow and simplistic in comparison, leaving them boring and almost annoying to watch for me. I was excited, especially since someone running an animation studio shared my views. It was encouraging to know that people were still in it for the story, and no solely for the gags and profit.
We spoke briefly of Telecom’s relationship with Warner Brothers and the upcoming Superman anime, encouraged my Mr. Takeuchi’s positive view of the relationship between the two studios. The Q&A wrapped up shortly afterwards and we filed out, thanking Mr. Takeuchi profusely for a look behind the scenes and for his willingness to answer questions. The fact that we got to actually see things being worked on and had full access to the studio was so inspiring. I appreciated that a lot, and it really encouraged me to keep working at my studies and learn more about the programs. I’m excited to one day be able to apply what I’m learning in a setting like Telecom’s.
We trekked back to the hotel and hung out for a while, joining up with some of the gang for a bit before heading out to dinner. I had octopus (which is delicious!) and had a really good time with the group, before going out for a night on the town, and then back to the hotel to sleep.
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