Thread by @Yann_Le_Gall

Thread/ Hi, Yann here. I’ve been working with japanese anime studios/artists and making collaborations with western studios/artists for more than 10 years. Currently working for a french/japanese studio in Tokyo with a team of french bg artists on an american/japanese project.

After the recent discussion about the awful condition of animators in Japan, many suggested that japanese animators should go work abroad and/or work for foreign, better paid projects. I think that’s a really good idea.

Japanese animation is super popular abroad, but it’s really hard for foreign artists to get the « japanese anime style » right, and many western studios seems to be eager to work with japanese studios/artists.

On the other side, many japanese artists are really curious about/interested in foreign animation, and they are just shocked when they hear about the rates of most western projects (most of the time way above what they can get here).

That mutual interest/admiration has been on for years, so why don’t we see more anime collaborations w/Japan? Especially succesful collabs on top class anime? Why don’t we see more animatrix-like?
Here are some of the many difficulties that I witnessed/experienced in my carrier :

First, the langage barrier :japanese is long to learn & master for foreigners, very few japanese artists can speak english. Translators need to know technical words and understand the basic workflow, sometimes it can be challenging to explain the subtlety of some artistic choices

Technical (workflow) gap :
Almost all japanese veteran animators work only on traditionnal, with pencil and paper. Most of them see the potential of digital animation but letting go of old drawing habits is hard for them.

Japanese veterans animators don’t really have/take time to learn softwares, and even if they do most of japanese production is still traditionnal so they don’t have many opportunities to practice. Studios are not encouraging them to change. Software licenses cost more than paper.

There are a few younger, very good digital animators in Japan (shingo yamashita, ryo chimo, to name a few). But then again Japan, US and europe use different animation software, and japanese will most likely not change their habits for a short job on a western project.

Even with digital, the workflow is so different that it can be hard to make collaborative productions.

We’ve been once making genga on a project for a european studio. They were making the BG layouts on their side. But japanese animators make their own layouts. In the end we had to hire french animators in Tokyo because no japanese animator wanted to work on other artist’s layouts

Directors in Japan are drawing storyboard and checking/retaking every animation cut themselves. If you can’t do that, don’t call yourself a director in front of the japanese staff(or at least explain what you are going to do on the project)or it can lead to severe workflow issues

There are other many deeply rooted workflow differences that makes western/japam collaborations very difficult. I’m reporting only a few here.

Cultural gap (work manners) :
Japanese studios usually don’t sign any contract with freelance artists. Mutual trust and verbal promise are key. That’s one of the reason why it’s so hard to get to work with top class artists. You need to reach them via someone they know and trust

I sometimes feel some animators here care way more about working with someone (director, producer or production assistant) they trust than working for a famous company that pays them a lot.

I got all of my job opportunites here via work relationships. Going to drink with people here is sometimes more effective to start an actual collaboration than a long professional meeting in an office.

Never ever I’ve been contacted by a studio via my website or twitter account. Only via people I personnaly met or was recommended to by one of my acquaintance.
Business card is a must have in Japan (unless you are already a really famous animator/director)

A last one that is going to make many people in US freak out : I’m freelance and I’ve personally never ever signed any NDA in Japan, even when I m working for confidential high budget US projects handled by a japanese studio... mutual trust is key.

Artistic cultural gap :
There’s a big mutual misunderstanding about what is «japanese style», «french style», or «american style». Styles are very diverse everywhere, but some have their own narrow image of what is *japanese animation*. That can lead to severe misunderstanding

I saw western companies looking for some partnership in Japan, because they wanted the «real anime look» for their project. They are ready to hire any japanese artist (especially any veteran who has worked on Akira or any Ghibli movie -whatever was their part on those movies-)

They don’t really know the name of the artist they are hiring (they probably don’t know any japanese name except Miyazaki anyway..), they haven’t seen his work (to be fair, most japanese artists don’t have a reel or website), but they don’t seems to care, as long as he’s japanese

And then they get disapointed when they end up with an agressive shonen looking design when they were expecting a soft ghibli look, or an edgy 4C looking design when they were expecting a classical shonen look (I heard or saw that many times...)

Talented and well known artists can express themselves more freely on japanese productions. Preliminary briefing is key. If you have a very specific idea in mind, you should absolutely express it as precisely as you can. If you don’t, you let the artist do as he wants.

There are always very few rounds of retakes. Even if you pay them a ton of money, you can’t really ask for as many retakes as you want.
Be sure to hire the artist that fits your project’s need and don’t force him to work in a different style. That basic rule also works in Japan..

I’m probably forgetting a lot of things to say.
Working with japanese artists and create beautiful/succesful projects is possible. It has been proven many times already. But it’s not easy. It’s a long background work.

It takes times to earn japanese artist’s trust. It takes time for foreign producers/directors to understand how japanese animation works. It takes time before a talented japanese animator/director is available to work on your project (most of them are booked 2 years in advance!)

Japanese studios will eventually go full digital,but it’ll take time to get rid of old habits. If you want to invest in japanese animation and create some awesome projects with talented people here you need patience and good connections.I think it’s a good time to start right now