P.A. Works: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot

[Marcus H.]

That's theoretically not a problem if the Japanese studio has its very own overseas subsidiary like Toei. Theoretically.
Considering what happened to Dragon Ball Super during a particular chunk of its airing, not everyone can do it right.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by ices

Got this explanation from other forum:

PA Works trains their inbetweeners to eventually become key animators via exam. At which point, that animator's pay will go up significantly. If the inbetweener is unable to pass the exam after two years, they will be charged to use their desk as a way of pressuring them out of the company. In this case, the inbetweener at PA Works has been there for three.

Also, note that the tweet mentions that their pay becomes 67x as much after three months. Which implies that they pass the exam and becomes key animator, eventually.

Guess that the woman was judged not good enough if she was on her third year. Reminds me of how many workplaces put harsher practices that eventually pushes those they want to rid of out of the company. The unspoken goal is to save up on money. I.E, in France, the labor laws makes it harder to fire people because you gotta pay compensations. So what bosses do is to slowly pressure, through less work or just plain bullying, the unwanted employees into leaving on his/her own.

[Archon_Wing]

Damn, it's been 2 years since Shirobako? It felt like yesterday. And all the shows after that sucked. >.> It's like they decided Shirobako was so good that both Key and PA Works needed to hit a new low with Charlotte. (Though that was short lived for Key since that Rewrite "anime" came out which shows you can always do much worse. Race to the bottom!) Well, okay Haruchika was alright I guess but I think that opinion is even less agreeable than my previous statement for most.

Time flies when you're sucking I guess.

[Guardian Enzo]

I would argue the first cour of Nagiasu was pretty good. Certainly better than Haruchika (which was tolerably decent).

[Haak]

NagiAsu was before Shirobako though.

I really enjoyed Kuromukuro though.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, it's nice that people aren't just hatin' on Haruchika at least I mean it had severe problems but I still enjoyed it. Kuromukuro just felt very w/e to me. Not that it's bad or anything. I found myself unable to care.

Then again, I don't even hate on Glasslip, (only Another and Charlotte get my shit) and that was pretty bad, so YMMV.

[Tanuki.]

I'm actually quite excited for their two upcoming shows The Eccentric Family 2 (because S1 was pretty good and unique) and Sakura Quest (because that's what P.A. is best at). My favorite P.A. shows are easily Hanasaku Iroha, Shirobako, NagiAsu and The Eccentric Family.

I've watched almost their entire catalogue with the exception of Canaan and Another. I have mixed feelings about the recent works. Kuromukuro was rather mediocre, with some cool elements and a likable classic storyline, but also some rather stupid parts. Haruchika is easily the uninspired anime in P.A.'s history and I'd prefer it if they stick to original works. And Charlotte was rather meh if you prefer stories to be plausible, but then again I've really grown out of love with Jun Maeda's way to write drama/tragedy works (it only really worked for me in Clanned, anyway).

I like P.A. Works because they tend to do a lot of original stuff, have some good slice-of-life and drama shows and often excel artistically. I feel like they have a stronger identity than most of the bigger studios.

By the way, their local promition stuff is not too bad, either.

[Dextro]

Thanks for bringing Sakura Quest to my attention, that looks like an interesting show. I'll have to add it my list