Quote:
Originally Posted by ultimatemegax
To me, when you say "KyoAni screwed up!" there is ton of ambiguity behind said statement to the point of nothingness. Instead of blaming the company as a whole (which happens frequently amongst anime fandom), it's certain people who are of fault, just like certain people are to credit when things go well. I know it takes more effort to learn who's in charge of things, but it's worthwhile to realize who you really want to blame and who you want to credit so you can make better viewing decisions later.
The examples given of random organizations/programs don't really fit into the entertainment structure like they do elsewhere. There's a certain amount of control given to the director of a project that doesn't fit other corporate structures. They're more hands-on than project leads in gaming/software creation to counter Wing's example. This is their vision of the project. Klash gave great examples of directors that have their own quirks that would be present regardless of what studio was assigned to animate that particular project.
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To pick a little bit more on this (I promise I'll stop after this, I have things to do), do you believe that guidebooks, interviews, tweets and such stuff provide an accurate picture of what is going on behind the scenes? If not, are you content that you will only be able to extrapolate and speculate what really happened? You gave me the Free! guidebook example... I mean, it's great that you immerse yourself in this stuff as much as you do, but... I want to frame this right so that it doesn't come across as insulting, but do you believe that the information provided through official channels properly reflects the truth?
Let me give an example, I used to be a big data geek as well, wanted to know all information about upcoming anime. Quite frequently I would find myself correcting others that such and such information hasn't been officially confirmed. This "official framework" was what to me was the scope of acceptable information. But we know that this world isn't ideal. The Japanese are very good at keeping information about their internal processes private unless they want to release it. They are usually very selective about what they release. Some simply lie, but the best lies are half-truths, the unfinished picture. This is just typical PR stuff, so I don't want to call anyone a liar, they are just doing their best to keep the brand as palatable and as presentable to the world as humanly possible.
Japan's anime industry has to compete with new emerging otaku industries. Part of this effort is to look for new business models. Most new business models in the otaku biz these days talk about how to package what they call "communication." You can see this in the way many Japanese otaku buy BDs because of participatory reasons. Similarly, I would not exclude the possibility that the numerous interviews, booklets, guidebooks, even personal tweets can be part of making brands more engaging for fans. The way some fans refer to directors, script writers, lead animators etc. by their names, the amount of love the studio receives while the critics and the trolls aren't around, the kind words ... KyoAni fans really love the studio. I don't see so much love anywhere else. But I believe this is for a reason. There is more information available about them. Their PR works. They have a way to connect to their audience unlike many other studios (perhaps Trigger does this better because Twitter) and they say the right things.
So when you talk about the internal structure of how entertainment production works, you're not really saying much about it, just what was told in these official, controlled interviews and publications. We all know how the creative process is supposed to be. The director is more like a coordinator who keeps the project going. They have more or less creative control, depending on the project. But because the public can cling to an established idea of how the creative process works, it's also easier to feed information and play to stereotypes. It's easy to say "director X worked tirelessly to produce the best storyboard with the writers", "we all enjoyed working on Y character, I fell in love with her ww" when you have the luxury to keep quiet about other things. The fans don't really have the right idea how the production played out. What you guys have is either presented to you, extrapolated or assumed. Who knows what kind of organizational structure they really have. Maybe it's flat, maybe it's hierarchical, maybe someone holds more creative control because he's favored with some investor, maybe the script writer is a stuck-up old man nobody dares to oppose, etc. Really, we don't know. The product is called a product because it's at an intersection of different parts of the creative process. The director had a big part in how that went, but who knows what has influenced his decisions, which of his decisions got overwritten etc. Example: Yamakan's control got taken away, he wasn't let to do his thing and was subsequently fired.
That's why pointing the finger at Ishidate is irresponsible, especially if you're on a quest to promote higher awareness of the studio's inner workings. But at some point you have to realize what was presented to you is all made up to a certain degree.