Netflix is quickly becoming a key influencer in the anime industry, producing and licensing a slew of iconic series and movies. Today, the content platform opened an Anime Creators Fair in Tokyo to provide professional tools and support for animators, designers, and writers.
As reported by Varietythe base of anime creators is located in Netflix’s new office in Tokyo and is currently staffed by two veteran designers, Namiko Ishidate (main princess) and Saina Cisse (Banana Fish), which will help creators develop their ideas and concept art. Teasing the creator base, Netflix released a virtual space tour with the company’s own anime ambassador, N-ko Mei Kurono, serving as the guide.
Netflix anime’s chief producer Taiki Sakurai discussed the idea behind the anime creator base in a recent blog post, writing, “When I watched the hit anime series for the first time Hands off Eizouken!, an inspirational story about three high school kids coming together to start an animation club, I was intrigued by the idea of creating a space where creative minds could come together. It reminded me that creative processes should always be driven by passion and fun.”
While the Anime Creator Base is now open, there is still work to be completed. It will eventually house three creative spaces: a designers’ garage, a writers’ garage and a multifunctional laboratory. The Designers Garage will provide artists and creators with assistance in developing the aesthetic aspect of a project and the Writers Garage will be a space where teams can conceptualize, write and edit scripts. In the multifunctional lab, staff will be able to experiment with new animation technologies, including advances in virtual reality and motion capture.
“When we think about the process, there are three classic stages of pre-production, production and post-production. What we want to do is respond to a stage even before that. Conceptual illustrations, image boards , rough designs,” Sakurai explained. “So when we create an original show not based on an existing show or manga, the team will have an instant common picture of what it will look like, while they brainstorm story ideas. This can sometimes be ignored due to lack of time or resources.”
While many projects in the Anime Creators’ Base will be original stories, adaptations of existing works will also be a focus. Some of Netflix’s most popular anime projects have been created by adapting and reimagining pre-existing stories, such as Castlevania and The seven deadly sins. “If we think design adaptations are suitable for rebooting an existing manga property, we’ll ask people from the creator base to work on it and maybe take it to the publisher (IP) and ask “then what they think about it. Or we could visit a publisher of a novel, from Japan or overseas, but without any visual reference. We could create an animated world and present it to the publisher,” Sakurai said.
Source: Variety