Support NeoGAF

[Beats]

http://yattatachi.com/one-punch-man-interview

A friend sent me a link to this interview with the director and character designer for the show that I thought was pretty interesting. While they talk about One-Punch Man for much of the interview there are also some answers on the industry in general.

The story of Saitama, the titular One-Punch Man, was originally written as a web comic by an artist referred to as “One.” It was later adapted by manga-ka Yusuke Murata, who collaborated with One, into the online edition of Weekly Young Jump magazine beginning in June of 2012. After it started to gain traction with audiences, Madhouse Studio then contacted Shingo Natsume with the offer of directing the animated version of the series that they were creating.

Question for Natsume-san: Many fans noticed that a lot of the animation staff involved also worked together on a previous show, Space Dandy. Did you make an effort to keep in touch?

Natsume-san: As far as the anime animators, the community is small. So even though we are working across different studios, we know each other, like recognizing names and faces. When we work on a production together, we put all our time, our blood, sweat, and tears in the production. So through that, we become friends and comrades and I made sure to stay in touch. It just happened that a lot of us came together after previously working on Space Dandy. A lot of them are from the same age/generation as me, so it was easy to get along with everyone. It was a lot of fun to be there at the studio.

Kubota-san: Another thing about the anime community, it’s not that one studio producing the anime is really good. The truth is the animation (sakuga) community isn’t tied to one studio. Most of them are freelance animators. So in the end, those animators are just borrowing those desks at the studio to work.

Question for Kubota-san: You once put out a tweet mentioning that the reason for One-Punch Man’s animation quality wasn’t based on the budget, but instead the hard work of the animators. Is this a common misconception that you see with fans?

Kubota-san: You guys really do your research well to find that tweet. A lot of people have this common misconception that the quality of the actual animation is based on the production’s budget. But in Japan, the TV production world, especially when it comes to anime, generally they all have the same budget. There are really rare situations where some have a little less and some tend to have a little bit more, but nothing that is very drastic. So, in reality, it is based on the staff.

Natsume-san: We were fortunate to have extremely passionate people on this project who were not money-driven. We are really lucky to have this staff around this year because they sacrificed part of their personal life for a while to make this anime a success for everyone.

There's a lot more in the link if you're interested.