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

[Westlo]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Heck, if you wanna talk about curses and being allergic, look no further than A-1 Pictures as of late. They might have their good or decent series once in a while (e.g. Shin Sekai Yori and Shigatsu), but anything with "Aniplex" + "insert hyped writer, director, composer here" and it's pretty much doomed from the start.

They haven't really done that many series with hyped whatever... and besides if people are expecting Shin Sekai Yori/Shigatsu/Space Brothers etc level from the creators of Strike Witches and KITE than... lol.

[Archon_Wing]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/int...-video/.103172

Oohhh, great scenery. Wait, it's real. I also enjoyed their reel of their shows starting at 23:30. Great memories, and some not as much but all very impactful one way or another. As well a few they seemed to have forgotten to mention. I think Hana Saku Iroha looks the best out of the lot.

Is it just me or anime trailers and reels and such love to spoil shows by showing really important scenes like that? It almost feels like any time they do anything True Tears related, it seems to think we've already watched it all?

[SeijiSensei]

Hired animators will start with a monthly training pay of 37,500 yen (US$354) for two months in addition to what is earned for production work during that period. After the first year, the company will also grant an 8,000 yen (US$75) month lunch stipend. P.A. Works also provides one-room dorms with a kitchen unit, bath, and toilet for its animators for 15,000 yen (US$141) a month excluding additional service charges and utility costs.

P.A. Works expects its animators to meet a goal of 20 stills completed each day, reaching 350 stills completed a month within the first year before working up to 500 stills completed a month within two years.

Japan's minimum wage is 780 yen/hr. At that rate the 37,500 figure constitutes less than 50 hours of work. Who knows what "production work" pays. I'm pretty sure it would take a couple hundred hours to draw 350 stills in a month.

[VORTIA]

I'm told the rate for in-between frames is around 220¥/piece, so at that rate, 350 stills per month is only an additional 700 US$. This is in step with what we've been told in several news sources that the starting wage for Japanese animators is roughly 1000US$ per month. That's partially compensated by the fact that the company is providing dormitories at a greatly reduced cost, but it's still a pauper's wage, to be sure.

At least PA Works' animators have the advantage of living in or near low-cost of living Nanto instead of sky-high Tokyo like most animation studios.

[totoum]

Just a few thing:

The studio now has an official english website: http://www.pa-works.jp/en/news/index.html as well as an official english facebook: https://www.facebook.com/st.paworks.eng/

And on that studio's facebook page there s a 2 part interview with the head of the studio here and https://www.facebook.com/st.paworks....0709355676978/

And I have to say he seems pretty harsh with the studio's work.

In these times, it’s great that we have been able to come this far, but it’s still far away from ideal. That’s how I feel.

We thought it would take 10 years to develop a team that could keep producing works continuously. More than 10 years have passed since we started, but we have not achieved that goal yet.

About true tears:

. As we were a small team with many new people that lacked in skills, Director Junji Nishimura and Chief Animation Director Kanami Sekiguchi took great care of us.

About Canaan:

e completely relied on Director Masahiro Ando. He began as an animator and later became a director, so he was able to prepare the drawings himself. Our staff were barely able to keep up with him and weren’t able to support him at all. I think the first half of our projects were mostly like that. Directors and Chief Animation Directors took care of and looked after all our young staff during the first 10 years, just believing in their future, even though there was no merit at the time in doing so.

About Hanasaku Iroha:

Daisuke: Hanasaku Iroha is your 10th anniversary animation. Were there any particular things you challenged?

Horikawa: It was the first time we created an original story from scratch. Since then, for our original titles, we decided to strongly express what’s on our mind as the theme of the show. Until then, we didn't really strongly express our opinions during the scripting process.

On Tari Tari:

I came up with the idea of TARI TARI after the earthquake on March 11, 2011, in Tohoku region, Japan. I wanted to express in songs the feeling that no matter how sad we feel, we mustn’t give up hope and keep on moving forward.

On Another:

In the past, KADOKAWA has reached out to us several times to do a collaboration. After reading through many of their books, I felt that this novel, Another, would be fitting for us. This was our first series directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. He is very good at making humorous shows, so I was curious what would happen if such director made a horror show. When I asked him to work on this show, he expressed interest, so we insisted him to work on it.

On NagiAsu:

Up until that point, I was the one who was making the decision on which projects we would work on. However, as our young line producers gained more experience, I thought it was time for them to step up and develop projects on their own. Nagi no Asu Kara (A Lull In The Sea) was their first work that they did it all by themselve

On Eccentric Family:

. I believe it’s impossible for a group of freelance key animators to meet Yoshihara’s requirements and create a high quality mass produced television series. Yoshihara’s expectations are quite high, from skills, ability and even work ethics. To accomplish this level of production, I believe there needs to be in-house staff; that’s why we have been training our staff. (...)The Eccentric Family is the first show that our years of training have paid off.

On Red Data Girl:

. Projects like there are difficult to get approved so it was a rare experience to work on this show. This series got me started on thinking deeply about making things, especially stories. Beginning with RDG, I expanded out and began to read myths and legends. Personally, this series has had a huge influence on my creative process since then.

On Glasslip:

Usually, when we make animation we create the story composition, entire flow of the story first. However, with this one, I wanted to make a story without a decided ending and instead just decide on a theme, a theme that we can think with the characters, throughout the show. Because we had difficulty finding the answer to this theme, we couldn't see the ending, so we almost hit a snag with this project.

(bold are mine because goodness knows people went "wtf PA works" and this could help explain things)

On Shirobako:

I did not expect to have positive support from people in the same profession. In this show, I have put in things I have found fascinating, what I had experienced, felt and heard during the past 25 years since I have started my career in this industry,

On Angel beats and charlotte::

When we produced Angel Beats!, our staff were too young to truly provide what Mr. Maeda wanted. Even though many said that it was a good show, as an animation studio, I don't believe we were able to get the passing grade. Now that our staffs have gained more experience, I wanted to create something new with Mr. Maeda again. Our young staff really enjoyed making Angel Beats!, so I thought it would be good for them to create something once again

(Angel Beats critics can have fun with this quote )

On HaruChika :

. I was looking for a story to adapt into animation at that time, and when I first read this book, I remember thinking, how is it that I haven’t run into this amazing novel before.(...) with our audience.
I thought that the character setting was remarkable from the main characters to the guest characters. From the beginning, it shows the love triangle(?) involving Haruta, Chika and the teacher, Kusakabe. By doing that, it declares this is not the love story of Haruta and Chika. That was very unique. I felt that this would be a fun youthful group story.
However, I thought that it would be a difficult work, as there is no action in a play where characters solve mysteries, so I was wondering how we would create visual changes on these scenes. Haruta and Chika are part of the brass band club, but there are few scenes wherein they are practicing. How to effectively use the brass band club was another difficulty in this project. Finally, this novel dealt with a social problem that happened 50 years ago. Therefore, it was also difficult to get the message across to our audience, who has not experienced that time. I think it was a challenging project for Director Hashimoto.

On Kuromukuro:

Giant robot anime has been produced for a long time, and I had been longing to produce one someday. Besides, I wanted to produce an animation so that our 3D work staff, which has always supported the animation, could play the leading role. The number of animators has increased at the headquarter (...) Even if it’s 3D, I wanted to see robot combat action animation with a sense of scale and weight, like that of hand-drawn animation.
Secondly, I wanted to watch action scenes in a city, not in space. I referred to existing places because I wanted the audience to imagine what would happen if giant robots battled somewhere familiar to them.

What I take away is Horikawa doesn't think the studio has reached its full potential, and even if he's ever barely mentioned he seems to have quite a bit of influence on the directors and scriptwriters. Also the increased output from the Studio as of late could be due to there being a "Junior producer team" that has been responsible for NagiAsu and Charlotte.

[Dextro]

Another:

In the past, KADOKAWA has reached out to us several times to do a collaboration. After reading through many of their books, I felt that this novel, Another, would be fitting for us. This was our first series directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. He is very good at making humorous shows, so I was curious what would happen if such director made a horror show. When I asked him to work on this show, he expressed interest, so we insisted him to work on it.

Well, I guess he was working on something right up his alley then given how the show basically became a comedy at the end there

[ices]

I assume that this is a sign that they're more aware of western audience. And put more effort for it.

On a related note, just the other day.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...-sword/.106128

"Animation production company P.A. Works approached the blacksmiths at Baltimore Knife & Sword to recreate Kennosuke Tokisada Ōma's sword from their current anime series Kuromukuro." ...
"P.A. Works sent Tamahagane, high quality Japanese steel, to the shop specifically for the creation of the weapon."

Yup, they have too much money at hand. Hence they also greenlit Uchoten Kazoku season 2.

[Guardian Enzo]

I'm with Horikawa (who was at A/X this season and came off as a super nice guy who loved his studio and team) - RDG is sadly underrated. Flawed, but ethereally beautiful at its best and quite deep.

[Pocari_Sweat]

This has been spreading on twitter and interpret it as you like but I'll post it here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comme...om_an/d9ikedh/

Not gonna lie. My first reaction was "lol RL ema in their own studio. How ironic"...

[Marcus H.]

Considering that she has allowances on pretty much the basics like lodging and food and a discretionary income of 67k yen after three months of work, it's not actually that bad. Most salarymen in Japan, in comparison, will still have to take away whatever discretionary income they have to pay for rent and buying basic necessities (unless the company in question also has them covered).

Meanwhile, labor laws here are being exploited so hard that very few workers are regular and those who enter contracts become unemployed when their contract ends within 5 months. (Labor law here states that a casual employee that has worked for 6 months must be made regular.)

[MCAL]

Umm... You are definitely not getting the whole picture there.

http://blog.bdh.moe/?p=111

They're basically a slave. And oh yeah they were fired. Anyone who defends this shit is out of their mind.

Certainly doesn't make Shirobako look good.

[Marcus H.]

Hey, ignorance is bliss. But hoping that change would happen to labor practices helps little, especially with how stubborn companies in Japan are.

Even if they managed to budge, it will take decades (and possibly a more visible collapse of the anime industry) before changes would be made.

[IceHism]

Why would you even take that job.

[Archon_Wing]

I don't money ;;

[SeijiSensei]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/inte...-video/.103172

[Guardian Enzo]

P.A. Works' official response:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...itions/.108466

[DragoonKain3]

It's stories like these are the sole reason why I still subscribe to streaming shows and still occasionally buy BDs. I knew Shirobako was showing the optimistic side of things (especially in the case of Ema), but still, stuff like only having less than 20 dollars for yourself every month is downright depressing.

I do hope working conditions improve for the animators, even if it means less anime shows per season. Still, with the number of shows growing per season, I have a stinking feeling that the influx of money that is going into anime is just merely giving these people more things to work on, rather than improve their quality of life. I just hope things change, but sadly it's the same story I've heard a decade ago when I started to support the industry (rather than just be the filthy pirate I was), and I doubt much has changed since then...

[relentlessflame]

The problem with the whole situation is that I doubt anything P.A.Works is doing is unusual in the slightest. The person in question talked about how they wanted to move to Tokyo presuming they'd be better off, and sure, presumably there'd be more potential employers there, but I doubt the pay or the conditions will be better. This is particularly the case if they're already in their third year at P.A.Works and still doing in-betweening (so even if they tried to go to another studio, with that resume, the studio they're going to may raise an eyebrow). The other problem is that all the other employees have been through the same process of working up the ranks, so even though it's grossly unfair and the system sucks, they're not likely to have a ton of sympathy for someone in this sort of case. In fact, they'll probably think that their problem is they're not very good, which is why they're not getting advancement (and their "whining" is probably not going to help their case).

It's a P.A.Works story because she works/worked there, obviously, but it could just as easily be the story of almost any other studio today. The whole industry needs change.

[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.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

The problem with the whole situation is that I doubt anything P.A.Works is doing is unusual in the slightest. The person in question talked about how they wanted to move to Tokyo presuming they'd be better off, and sure, presumably there'd be more potential employers there, but I doubt the pay or the conditions will be better. This is particularly the case if they're already in their third year at P.A.Works and still doing in-betweening (so even if they tried to go to another studio, with that resume, the studio they're going to may raise an eyebrow). The other problem is that all the other employees have been through the same process of working up the ranks, so even though it's grossly unfair and the system sucks, they're not likely to have a ton of sympathy for someone in this sort of case. In fact, they'll probably think that their problem is they're not very good, which is why they're not getting advancement (and their "whining" is probably not going to help their case).

It's a P.A.Works story because she works/worked there, obviously, but it could just as easily be the story of almost any other studio today. The whole industry needs change.

This is why more studio should learn a things or two from KyoAni.

• have their animators on salary, rather than paying them by drawing.
• have their own animation school, where they train and draw upon new talent to work on their shows.
• do pretty much all of their work in-house, rather than outsourcing
• moved to owning and self-publishing most of their works

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by ices

This is why more studio should learn a things or two from KyoAni.

• have their animators on salary, rather than paying them by drawing.
• have their own animation school, where they train and draw upon new talent to work on their shows.
• do pretty much all of their work in-house, rather than outsourcing
• moved to owning and self-publishing most of their works

And they also work normal days because they budget their time properly.

It really would be great if more studios did that, but probably the result would just be that more key animation ends up going to other Southeast Asian countries to preserve the low-cost business model.