Japanese Animation Producers Practice Their Pitching Skills In English - All as according to Ass News Network Gaijin keikaku

[I Love Beef]

Japanese Animation Producers Practice Their Pitching Skills In English

Studio Durian pitched a film as Flip Flappers director Kiyotaka Oshiyama's next project

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Japanese Animation Producers Practice Their Pitching Skills In English posted on 2019-04-21 15:45 EDT by Kim Morrissy

Studio Durian pitched a film as Flip Flappersdirector Kiyotaka Oshiyama's next project

Five Japanese animation producers held an English-language pitching session in front of international producers and industry professionals during AnimeJapan 2019. The Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) organized the session with support from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The VIPO has been training the producers in their pitching skills since January, and the pitching session was held "to encourage Japanese animation producers to gain skill to appeal in international markets, training them on how to provide effective materials and how they should deliver speech in English."

The five producers were Emmy Ozawa from Flying Ship Studio (FLCL Progressive, Yuki Yuna is A Hero Season 2 3DCGI), Yuki Nagano from Studio Durian (a studio set up by Flip Flappersdirector Kiyotaka Oshiyama), Ken Yoshida from Picona Creative Studio (Midnight Crazy Trail), Ryūnosuke Watanabe from Nippon Animation(World Masterpiece Theater), and Takae Masuda from POP-iD.

All the pitches showed drawings and explained the story and concept behind the proposed project. Some showed animation samples. They also explained the budget of the projects and what the producers were looking for from foreign investors. The English fluency level among the producers varied greatly when the program started, although the emphasis was more on breaking down the pitch itself in Japanese than on training English language ability.

Ozawa pitched a 3DCG television show aimed at children called Chiruta & Chanlula. The show is about gnomes and children, and will tell "stories of fostering a life, set in a secret mossy forest." Earlier this year, Flying Ship Studioproduced a pilot, and the studio wants US$3 million to expand it into a series.

The feedback from international producers was that the pitch was very tight and concise. The only concern was that a European audience may have a different idea of what gnomes look like, but it could still appeal to a Northern European audience.

Nagano pitched a 2D-animated movie called Shishigari, to be directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyamaat Studio Durian. The story follows a hunter-gatherer protagonist who encounters a single-winged fugitive, and the theme is about the clash between primitive humans and humans who have evolved too much (i.e. posthuman). Nagano showed off concept art and some teaser footage, and spoke in great detail about Oshiyama's pedigree as an animator and director. The format is a 90-minute film with a budget between 4.5 to 5 million US dollars.

This was the only pitch that pushed the director's name as a selling point. However, it didn't appear that any of the international producers giving feedback knew of Kiyotaka Oshiyama. They were puzzled by the fact that the story seemed dark but the artwork gave the impression of a family-friendly story. Nagano explained that this was Oshiyama's style as an auteur, but the producers were still bothered by the disparity between the teaser footage and the pitch, and said that the pitch should have been up-front about the target audience and tone of the film.

Yoshida pitched a 12 episode 3DCG magical girl series aimed at 6-10 year old children called Midnight Crazy Trail. It is based on a short anime film by the same name which Picona Creative Studio made for Anime Tamago 2018. The outline for the script for the first three episodes are already done, so the direction of the story is already clear. The budget was US$3.7 million.

The international producers asked questions about the story, which Yoshida explained claimed to be a creative and original new idea because it was about a witch who didn't want to have magical powers. They asked, "Was there anything inherent to the power that interfered with her ability to fit in?" When Yoshida explained that she thought her powers killed her mother, the producers that this would make the conflict more about guilt than about fitting in with non-magic people. They also suggested that the scope of the story was better suited for a film.

Watanabe from Nippon Animation sought US$1.5 million for a 5-15 minute pilot film production for a film called The sob of nature. This is in preparation for a full film project, which would cost $3 million. Watanabe jokingly compared the production cost to Ready Player One, saying that the investment is not that big. As selling points, Watanabe emphasized the skill of the concept artist Akima, as well as the pedigree of Nippon Animation as a studio.

The film's story follows a boy named Haru who has his mind transferred to another child and lost his memory about it. It is inspired by George Orwell and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the target audience is science fiction movie fans aged between 16 and 30. The international producers said that this sounded rather vague, and that a script would be essential for getting a pilot greenlit. It was also hard to feel a science fiction vibe from the character designs shown.

Finally, Masuda from POP-iD gave her pitch for an animated project called Inumen-Z. Masuda was the only producer not representing an animation company. The intent behind the project was to promote a mascot character named Inumen-Z, a dog that "rides a motorcycle and rides in races, not for speed but to help friends." Masuda showed off character goods, theme songs, and footage of people wearing the mascot costume, including herself wearing the costume at the Tokyo Motorcycle Show 2019.

Among all the pitches, Masuda's was the vaguest. There was very little material for animation beyond rough sketches, and Masuda admitted herself that their company will need to first seek out an animation studio to take on the project. Although the international producers told her that she would need to refine the pitch and do more market research before thinking about making an animation, they did note that they were impressed with Masuda's presenting skills.

Overall, it was interesting to watch Japanese anime producers make pitches for an international audience. Every producer tried to include some jokes to keep the mood light-hearted while making their pitches comprehensive. Although this session was mainly for practice rather than a serious attempt at soliciting funds from the audience, it will be interesting to see if any of these projects ever come to fruition.

Source: VIPO pitching session

 

[dingle]

encourage Japanese animation producers to gain skill to appeal in international markets

NO for the love of god NO

 

[Guts]

So... who finally broke it to them that they were making the international market a litle bit uncomfortable?

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

So... who finally broke it to them that they were making the international market a litle bit uncomfortable?

In what way? Whatever it may be, my guess is Sony.

 

[XYZpdq]

lol ANN and CR keep trying to push this "the USA market really matters" bullshit

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Just because it's English doesn't exclusively mean USA. Some Southeast Asian countries also can speak English, since they get a lot of translations of series and games that don't make to US or the West ie the Super Robot Wars series. And also:

 

[Raging Capybara]

No tits and pantsu in animus anymore. The end of an era.

 

[The Cunting Death]

lol ANN and CR keep trying to push this "the USA market really matters" bullshit

And nearly everyone I know still pirates their anime

 

[BrunoMattei]

They forget the reason why people like Anime or anything different: it's because it's unique and not found elsewhere. That's part of the allure, aside from obvious weeab shit, but I digress; if Anime was like any other American cartoon -but with nicer animation- then what's the point? Voltron and Thundercats blew up in the 80's because we didn't see something like that before. Same with Cowboy Bebop.

 

[I Love Beef]

They forget the reason why people like Anime or anything different: it's because it's unique and not found elsewhere. That's part of the allure, aside from obvious weeab shit, but I digress; if Anime was like any other American cartoon -but with nicer animation- then what's the point? Voltron and Thundercats blew up in the 80's because we didn't see something like that before. Same with Cowboy Bebop.

Allow me to push my narrative for a bit on your subject.

Anime, manga, and even to Japanese video games around the 1990s captured a market and series of demographics that was long blocked off by censorship (you know, like comics), along with the fact that anime related works did it well and captured the imagination.

To Japan, the anime and manga market is just but another facet of society to them. Outside, it's what every animation, no, art industry that's not Japan's wishes to be, even to Disney. For as much injokes and prancing parody and jest the world loves to present, anime and related media is the form of animation that went there to touchy and mature topics with style when everything else was in the media watchdog gestapo ghetto of intellectual and creative thought policing.

As much as anime is tossed into the spergery bucket, it was the form of sequential media that just existed, and whose existence alone was a major fuck you to the people who think animation equals babysitting material and bad storytelling automatically. I'm sure I'm the only one who read through the history books to dig out this cultural facet anime has in the western world, exceptionalism notwithstanding.

Even as we speak, the Weeb Wars and where it will go may also play a major factor into this depending on the outcome of the court.

 

[PoisonedBun]

Whoever's wondering why this is a bad idea clearly didn't read the actual article:

Nagano pitched a 2D-animated movie called Shishigari, to be directed by Kiyotaka Oshiyamaat Studio Durian. The story follows a hunter-gatherer protagonist who encounters a single-winged fugitive, and the theme is about the clash between primitive humans and humans who have evolved too much (i.e. posthuman). Nagano showed off concept art and some teaser footage, and spoke in great detail about Oshiyama's pedigree as an animator and director. The format is a 90-minute film with a budget between 4.5 to 5 million US dollars.

This was the only pitch that pushed the director's name as a selling point. However, it didn't appear that any of the international producers giving feedback knew of Kiyotaka Oshiyama. They were puzzled by the fact that the story seemed dark but the artwork gave the impression of a family-friendly story. Nagano explained that this was Oshiyama's style as an auteur, but the producers were still bothered by the disparity between the teaser footage and the pitch, and said that the pitch should have been up-front about the target audience and tone of the film

International audiences are fucking stupid. I do think the international market has a lot of potential for helping Japanese animation profit, but the problem is licensing companies pay fucking peanuts. Studios that want international support should just put up a patreon or something. Studio Trigger makes almost $8000 a month off theirs.

 

[MI 814]

Whoever's wondering why this is a bad idea clearly didn't read the actual article:



International audiences are fucking stupid. I do think the international market has a lot of potential for helping Japanese animation profit, but the problem is licensing companies pay fucking peanuts. Studios that want international support should just put up a patreon or something. Studio Trigger makes almost $8000 a month off theirs.

People just assume that any attempt to appeal to Internation Markets means SJWs are gonna take over nowadays.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Whoever's wondering why this is a bad idea clearly didn't read the actual article:



International audiences are fucking stupid. I do think the international market has a lot of potential for helping Japanese animation profit, but the problem is licensing companies pay fucking peanuts.

This stands out from the paragraph:
"They were puzzled by the fact that the story seemed dark but the artwork gave the impression of a family-friendly story. Nagano explained that this was Oshiyama's style as an auteur, but the producers were still bothered by the disparity between the teaser footage and the pitch, and said that the pitch should have been up-front about the target audience and tone of the film."

This is unfortunately too true. A lot of people still think having a cutesy artwork means it's for kids because they only know of fucking Disney cartoons, and this is why they were so confused. You can tell that whoever these producers are actually aren't fans of animation because they would've applauded and had an auction of who would grab the license while giving their marketing department a head's up to start brainstorming.

Have another paragraph:

"Ozawa pitched a 3DCG television show aimed at children called Chiruta & Chanlula. The show is about gnomes and children, and will tell 'stories of fostering a life, set in a secret mossy forest.' Earlier this year, Flying Ship Studioproduced a pilot, and the studio wants US$3 million to expand it into a series.

The feedback from international producers was that the pitch was very tight and concise. The only concern was that a European audience may have a different idea of what gnomes look like, but it could still appeal to a Northern European audience."

Oh boo-hoo, go cry a fucking river. They don't own the trademark of gnomes, let the audience put up with a differing concept.

I'm personally not too bother that they're attempting to reach out to international markets to expand their audience, and if it helps them polish up their English, that's great. But if the market's just going to nitpick and speak on behalf of normal folk that it's not going to appeal to a mainstream audience when in reality they're just going to be sent straight to home video and targeting people who watch anime, I hope the Japanese producers just say "Nah, fuck 'em, let them figure it out later" and just do what they plan on doing. Maybe this was just them testing the waters to see if it was even worth attempting to reach out to a global market, but this is probably them being unfortunately naïve in thinking they wouldn't be hounded with such trivial shit like "but the Europeans". Which is hilarious because the Japanese are well aware of their European audiences.

Until producers actually care and have an understanding about the niche marketing they're representing, animation quality's not going to progress past pandering to normies, and Japan needs to remember this the next time they do another pitch internationally.

 

[Jeanne d'Arc]

They were puzzled by the fact that the story seemed dark but the artwork gave the impression of a family-friendly story. Nagano explained that this was Oshiyama's style as an auteur, but the producers were still bothered by the disparity between the teaser footage and the pitch, and said that the pitch should have been up-front about the target audience and tone of the film.

This is why we're seeing fewer and fewer anime like Evangelion and Madoka. Sometimes it's nice for an anime to completely and totally go off the rails and fuck with you.

 

[I Love Beef]

People just assume that any attempt to appeal to Internation Markets means SJWs are gonna take over nowadays.

To be honest, it is a double edged sword and a two way street. As much as the older fandom would be relieved that they'll see more 80's, 90's and even video game like fare, there's also the threat of SJW gatekeeping and gay ops, shit like ANN and Colony Drop pulling strings to "recommend making anime more like this", and more backdoors into the Japanese anime and manga industry for talentless know it all know nothing barking taskmasters and censors.

I'm the person who says "make your own industry instead of being whiny shitbathing manbabies", but this is the generation that's killing the guitar for shitty midi shrilling and "easy" things instead of things that require dedication and hard work, an antithesis to a crucial part of Japanese culture.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

People just assume that any attempt to appeal to Internation Markets means SJWs are gonna take over nowadays.

Not really, but if anything goes wrong in America like a shooting or rape molestation aggravated stalking, the blame will go straight to anime similar to how mothers blamed South Park, D&D and heavy metal when those things happened. And how about those articles that linked fascism to anime or our old friend Jacob Hope calling shows like Darling in the Franxx or Gate alt-right inspired?

To be honest, it is a double edged sword and a two way street. As much as the older fandom would be relieved that they'll see more 80's, 90's and even video game like fare, there's also the threat of SJW gatekeeping and gay ops, shit like ANN and Colony Drop pulling strings to "recommend making anime more like this", and more backdoors into the Japanese anime and manga industry for talentless know it all know nothing barking taskmasters and censors.

I'm the person who says "make your own industry instead of being whiny shitbathing manbabies", but this is the generation that's killing the guitar for shitty midi shrilling and "easy" things instead of things that require dedication and hard work, an antithesis to a crucial part of Japanese culture.

On the bright side it might lead to some anime that might make fun of them

Imagine the scenario of your typical ecchi scene and a caricature of ANN people appearing and protesting said scene in horrible broken Engrish

 

[I Love Beef]

Whoever's wondering why this is a bad idea clearly didn't read the actual article:



International audiences are fucking stupid. I do think the international market has a lot of potential for helping Japanese animation profit, but the problem is licensing companies pay fucking peanuts. Studios that want international support should just put up a patreon or something. Studio Trigger makes almost $8000 a month off theirs.

This stands out from the paragraph:
"They were puzzled by the fact that the story seemed dark but the artwork gave the impression of a family-friendly story. Nagano explained that this was Oshiyama's style as an auteur, but the producers were still bothered by the disparity between the teaser footage and the pitch, and said that the pitch should have been up-front about the target audience and tone of the film."

This is unfortunately too true. A lot of people still think having a cutesy artwork means it's for kids because they only know of fucking Disney cartoons, and this is why they were so confused. You can tell that whoever these producers are actually aren't fans of animation because they would've applauded and had an auction of who would grab the license while giving their marketing department a head's up to start brainstorming.

Have another paragraph:

"Ozawa pitched a 3DCG television show aimed at children called Chiruta & Chanlula. The show is about gnomes and children, and will tell 'stories of fostering a life, set in a secret mossy forest.' Earlier this year, Flying Ship Studioproduced a pilot, and the studio wants US$3 million to expand it into a series.

The feedback from international producers was that the pitch was very tight and concise. The only concern was that a European audience may have a different idea of what gnomes look like, but it could still appeal to a Northern European audience."

Oh boo-hoo, go cry a fucking river. They don't own the trademark of gnomes, let the audience put up with a differing concept.

I'm personally not too bother that they're attempting to reach out to international markets to expand their audience, and if it helps them polish up their English, that's great. But if the market's just going to nitpick and speak on behalf of normal folk that it's not going to appeal to a mainstream audience when in reality they're just going to be sent straight to home video and targeting people who watch anime, I hope the Japanese producers just say "Nah, fuck 'em, let them figure it out later" and just do what they plan on doing. Maybe this was just them testing the waters to see if it was even worth attempting to reach out to a global market, but this is probably them being unfortunately naïve in thinking they wouldn't be hounded with such trivial shit like "but the Europeans". Which is hilarious because the Japanese are well aware of their European audiences.

Until producers actually care and have an understanding about the niche marketing they're representing, animation quality's not going to progress past pandering to normies, and Japan needs to remember this the next time they do another pitch internationally.

Honestly, the naivety of the Japanese when it comes to the rest of the world is very apparent. I don't mean that they're dumbasses and stupid, I mean like the General MacArthur meaning of Japanese naivety in that they can be like innocuous 12 year olds who think they know it all before getting jumped on the mean streets of life.

In this case, it will probably be just as fatal as Mari Ijima's attempts to try and breakthrough into the US music industry, or that stupid Cool Japan campaign. Japan for the most part never tends to research thoroughly what the reality is like when it comes to things like why people like Japanese stuff so much, or if they're trying to breakthrough internationally, what other places in the world are like. We can see this with Nintendo and Sony HQ back in Nippon, but Cool Japan is probably what I can say is the worst offender of this.

Spoiler: Why Cool Japan Failed

Cool Japan thought that merely everyone in the States was interested in Japan only for its entirety of media and creative enterprise, when in reality, they didn't check out or measure what overseas people thought was cool about Japan and what they appreciated about it. TL;DR, Cool Japan presented everything that attracted weeaboos and those seeking out stereotypical Japan, when in reality, the US loves Japan not only for its anime, but for having been the technological forefront of mankind during the 1980s into the eve of the next millenium and inspiring things like mecha, J-Rock groups like X Japan, video games, samurai, ninja, martial arts, Japanese Buddhism, Shinto, related morals, virtues, and philosophy of the two religions, and creative rawness amongst other things, including the more manly aspects of Japan and genius efficiency. Into 2018, Cool Japan has crawled away from its massive bomb of a cultural promotional campaign into obscurity.

When it comes to them trying to present concepts and show ideas to overseas producers, they better learn to study up on overseas entertainment industry history and culture, and the real history of the impact of anime and manga onto the rest of the world to know what the hell is going on before pitching Japanese entertainment for the rest of the world, before they get caught up in the trap of conformist horseshit that is "political correctness and appropriateness."

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Honestly, the naivety of the Japanese when it comes to the rest of the world is very apparent. I don't mean that they're dumbasses and stupid, I mean like the General MacArthur meaning of Japanese naivety in that they can be like innocuous 12 year olds who think they know it all before getting jumped on the mean streets of life.

In this case, it will probably be just as fatal as Mari Ijima's attempts to try and breakthrough into the US music industry, or that stupid Cool Japan campaign. Japan for the most part never tends to research thoroughly what the reality is like when it comes to things like why people like Japanese stuff so much, or if they're trying to breakthrough internationally, what other places in the world are like. We can see this with Nintendo and Sony HQ back in Nippon, but Cool Japan is probably what I can say is the worst offender of this.

Spoiler: Why Cool Japan Failed

Cool Japan thought that merely everyone in the States was interested in Japan only for its entirety of media and creative enterprise, when in reality, they didn't check out or measure what overseas people thought was cool about Japan and what they appreciated about it. TL;DR, Cool Japan presented everything that attracted weeaboos and those seeking out stereotypical Japan, when in reality, the US loves Japan not only for its anime, but for having been the technological forefront of mankind during the 1980s into the eve of the next millenium and inspiring things like mecha, J-Rock groups like X Japan, video games, samurai, ninja, martial arts, Japanese Buddhism, Shinto, related morals, virtues, and philosophy of the two religions, and creative rawness amongst other things, including the more manly aspects of Japan and genius efficiency. Into 2018, Cool Japan has crawled away from its massive bomb of a cultural promotional campaign into obscurity.

When it comes to them trying to present concepts and show ideas to overseas producers, they better learn to study up on overseas entertainment industry history and culture, and the real history of the impact of anime and manga onto the rest of the world to know what the hell is going on before pitching Japanese entertainment for the rest of the world, before they get caught up in the trap of conformist horseshit that is "political correctness and appropriateness."

Most people in the States especially young people also lack research and tend to be naive. Almost like 12 year olds, so it will be a horrible association, like the blind leading the deaf.

 

[PoisonedBun]

Honestly, the naivety of the Japanese when it comes to the rest of the world is very apparent. I don't mean that they're dumbasses and stupid, I mean like the General MacArthur meaning of Japanese naivety in that they can be like innocuous 12 year olds who think they know it all before getting jumped on the mean streets of life.

In this case, it will probably be just as fatal as Mari Ijima's attempts to try and breakthrough into the US music industry, or that stupid Cool Japan campaign. Japan for the most part never tends to research thoroughly what the reality is like when it comes to things like why people like Japanese stuff so much, or if they're trying to breakthrough internationally, what other places in the world are like. We can see this with Nintendo and Sony HQ back in Nippon, but Cool Japan is probably what I can say is the worst offender of this.

Spoiler: Why Cool Japan Failed

Cool Japan thought that merely everyone in the States was interested in Japan only for its entirety of media and creative enterprise, when in reality, they didn't check out or measure what overseas people thought was cool about Japan and what they appreciated about it. TL;DR, Cool Japan presented everything that attracted weeaboos and those seeking out stereotypical Japan, when in reality, the US loves Japan not only for its anime, but for having been the technological forefront of mankind during the 1980s into the eve of the next millenium and inspiring things like mecha, J-Rock groups like X Japan, video games, samurai, ninja, martial arts, Japanese Buddhism, Shinto, related morals, virtues, and philosophy of the two religions, and creative rawness amongst other things, including the more manly aspects of Japan and genius efficiency. Into 2018, Cool Japan has crawled away from its massive bomb of a cultural promotional campaign into obscurity.

When it comes to them trying to present concepts and show ideas to overseas producers, they better learn to study up on overseas entertainment industry history and culture, and the real history of the impact of anime and manga onto the rest of the world to know what the hell is going on before pitching Japanese entertainment for the rest of the world, before they get caught up in the trap of conformist horseshit that is "political correctness and appropriateness."

I see what you’re going for but I think you missed the point of my post. What you’re talking about is something else entirely. Japanese anime shouldn’t have to ‘change’ heavily to appeal to a worldwide market, or else it will become watered down garbage like everything else. In this situation I think the investors are the ones that are naive here, listening to Japanese pitches and getting confused by simple concepts like ‘cute thing is deeper than first appears’ instead of being in your face obvious about a dark, gritty story.

 

[Zbk3VmLfujjzjxBd43tL]

No tits and pantsu in animus anymore. The end of an era.

That will be because of Chinese censorship, which will be far, far worse than anything SJWs could possibly do. Remember how the Chinese got that one light novel guy totally blacklisted and his career destroyed because all the studios and voice actors had to appease the Chinese market?