This series will introduce some basic knowledge of anime production, including the role of each position in the op and ed staff list as well as the normal anime production process. We will systematically introduce them to you by some representative anime. And hopefully, each of you would have a convenient way to get started!

Today, we’re gonna focus on the very first step of anime production: Anime Planning.

Project: How Is Anime Born

First of all, anime starts with an “appeal”. For example, a director can propose his idea to any anime studio for the work he likes. Otherwise, some publishers / game companies may want to increase the popularity of the original works by anime. For instance, in order to promote the original light novel, No Game No Life‘s anime was produced. It was a great success and stimulated hot sales of its original light novel.

Besides, there are also some capital parties (advertisers / toy companies, etc.) who may want to make a profit by making anime. For example, after Re: Zero‘s great success, many anime studios received overwhelming requests to produce anime like Re: Zero.

In any case, there is an “appeal”, or said anime planning at the beginning. With anime planning, you need to raise some money or capital to make an anime. And that’s where the producer comes in.

Producer

Producer is the person responsible for administration of anime production process, including promotional activities and peripheral product development. Meanwhile, producer is also responsible for hiring main staff like the series director, serial composition and others.

One of the Producer’s main tasks is to find capital for the anime planning. They need to raise the capital to realize the plan. In short, it is a position to run up and down to find every boss willing to invest in the anime.

Well, if the bosses get a fine assessment report and consent to invest, there’s finally capital inflows. And with the capital support, the anime project can continue to go on.

Production Committee

However, the bosses will not just give the money away, right? So they will form a production committee.

Production committee is comprised by one or multiple companies, a fund to share the capital risk. The return will be divided based on the ratio of capital contribution.

Production Committee will be in the highest rank of the anime production system. Essentially, it is similar to the shareholders’ meeting. They have the right to decide everything about the project. Of course, these bosses offering the capital inflows will not make the anime themselves. They need someone to help them do the actual operation. Here comes the anime producer.

Now that we have raised enough money and reliable producers. What else do we need? Of course, the one makes anime.

Anime Studio

At this point, the Production Committee will find the suitable core position such as Series Director, Chief Animation Director and Series Composition. On the other hand, they will also finalize the anime studio to make this anime.

It may go like: “Hey company A, Committee has decided that you would do this project, okay?”

It may be completely different from our imagination that an anime studio is in charge of everything. In fact, Japanese anime is supervised under Production Committee. If the anime studio is not one of the Production Committee, then it just works for the Committee.

Therefore, no matter how well the sales of the anime BDs go, the profit basically has nothing to do with the studio. In contrast, if the sales data of the anime is not good enough, you don’t need to worry about your favorite anime studio in case of bankrupt.

These profits and losses are mostly the matter of the production committee and not directly linked to the anime studio.

Main Staff

Now we have production committee to cover the cost and a trusted producer. We have also finalized the production company and a bunch of staff brought by the producers. This is also a place to test producer’s ability. Because senior producers are able to solicit famous veterans in the industry to form an anime dream team. Of course, this connection and charm need to be accumulated step by step.

Now that we have the core team. Should we start doing anime right away? Don’t worry, next step we will go to the setting work (or pre-production) of anime production. Please look forward to the next article in this series.

Bonus

In an anime’s op and ed, we can often see the staff list, but do you know the difference between them? In fact, the staff list in the op is called main staff. This group of people is basically set before the anime actually gets started. It is responsible for pre-production work such as project, capital raising, settings, and outline scenario. The ed’s staff list is the one who actually worked in that episode, like the screenplay, storyboard, key animators, etc.

Let’s take Shirobako’s OP as an example:

Series Director

The person in charge of the entire production as a creative decision-maker and final supervisor. They outrank the rest of the staff and ultimately have the last word. There are different levels of directors in series, like Chief Director, Assistant Director, Series Episode Director and all sorts of non-standard roles. The hierarchy in those instances is a case by case scenario.

Series Composition

A key role given to the main writer of the series. They meet with the director, sometimes producers, during preproduction to draft the concept of the series. They will come up with major events and decide how to pace it all. On the other hand, individual scriptwriters generally have very little room for expression and only develop existing drafts. And, of course, series composers do write scripts themselves.

Chief Animation Director

Their job is to ensure the characters look like they’re supposed to. Consistency is their goal, which they will enforce as much as they want.