Kyoto Animation: Studio discussion, speculation, and whatnot.

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

They have staff who know English, so as long as the questions are grammatically easy, you could probably ask them on the form.

To do so, click here. On the first entry slot, enter a nickname. Underneath that is asking your gender (top-male/bottom-female). The first drop-down box is age range (10s). The second drop-down box is location (choose the final option "Abroad"). Lastly, enter your question/comment in under 1000 characters in the final box. Hit the button. It'll ask if you want to confirm your submission on a new page. Scroll down and hit the top button to send or the bottom button to revise what you've entered.

Hmmm, seems risky to send in "complicated" questions they might not understand. We'll see.

[kyouray]

Thanks for the details!
Hoping for reports & photos since this looks really interesting

[Warm Mist]

Originally Posted by darkchibi07

I might as well bring this back up considering a lot of peeps are getting really iffy feelings towards Kyoukai no Kanata and not clog up the series thread anymore (I wonder what the Japanese feel about the series as well). So Taichi Ishidate as a director so far....oy, something tells me he's not going to get the same success the first-time directors for K-ON! and Free got, and like I said before that's just embarrassing in comparison of those two.

I wonder what's going to happen to him if this show doesn't meet certain expectations. Will this be his first and last time directing for awhile?

Unless they slotted a second season for KnK immediately like they did for Chuu2, Ishidate probably wouldn't direct another show for a while even if this was successful; they have 5 directors now, have to balance the duties :P

[Triple_R]

[mod edit: moved this reply from the KnK thread to here since it's more general about the studio]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Reminder: Taiichi Ishidate is the director, Jukki Hanada is the series composer, and KyoAni is the animation studio. Any complaints regarding the adaptation should go to Ishidate/Hanada, not the studio.

Isn't this like saying that a pro sports GM bears no responsibility for a poorly performing head coach? Much like how a pro sports GM can fire/hire the team's coaches, KyoAni selects its directors and series composers. Does KyoAni not have the power to tell their directors and series composers to be faithful to the source material?

Look, you know as well as I do that KyoAni has built up a reputation of being extremely faithful to source material when doing anime adaptations. Along with high animation quality, this is something that KyoAni is renown for. It was definitely something that they derived brand strength from.

The fact that they're letting some rookie Director throw that completely into jeopardy does not reflect well on current KyoAni. Sorry, but it doesn't.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Isn't this like saying that a pro sports GM bears no responsibility for a poorly performing head coach? Much like how a pro sports GM can fire/hire the team's coaches, KyoAni selects its directors and series composers. Does KyoAni not have the power to tell those directors and series composers to be faithful to the source material?

Look, you know as well as I do that KyoAni had built up a reputation as being extremely faithful to source material when doing anime adaptations. Along with high animation quality, this is something that KyoAni was renown for. It was definitely something that they derived brand strength from.

The fact that they're letting some rookie Director throw that completely into jeopardy does not reflect well on current KyoAni. Sorry, but it doesn't.

At the same time, this is like saying "Damn you Edmonton for drafting (player)." It doesn't make logical sense to say the entire company did (decision). Yes the producers chose Ishidate/Hanada to direct/write the series, but they (as all committees do) gave them the freedom to make the show however they want. They could've forced a rookie director to make a show about an elementary school swimming team, but they allowed her the freedom to advance it to high school because she wanted to do so. The same applies here. It was those directors in the past who chose to do things mostly faithfully, not the studio as a whole (and you can point out examples where they weren't faithful too).

[musouka]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Look, you know as well as I do that KyoAni has built up a reputation of being extremely faithful to source material when doing anime adaptations. Along with high animation quality, this is something that KyoAni is renown for. It was definitely something that they derived brand strength from.

I don't think you can really say this, especially considering how far Chuu2 (reportedly) strayed from its source material. Even Free!, which obviously used High Speed as a firm basis for the series, strayed in some pretty noticeable aspects, creating odd inconsistencies if you want to view them as completely interrelated.

I haven't read the Chuu2 novels, but most people seem to agree that the series is stronger for KyoAni's lack of fidelity. It could simply be that in this case, they ended up throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but either way I don't think strict adherence to their own IPs is something KyoAni has ever been interested in doing.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Reminder: Taiichi Ishidate is the director, Jukki Hanada is the series composer, and KyoAni is the animation studio. Any complaints regarding the adaptation should go to Ishidate/Hanada, not the studio.

Sorry, you put your name on it, you bear responsibility. When BP oil has an oil spill because some idiots made a mistake , are we going to say, "oh it's not BP's fault, just some random managers and maintenance people in the company." It's their staff, their responsibility as a whole. They are a brand.

[RollingPenguin]

Look, you know as well as I do that KyoAni had built up a reputation as being extremely faithful to source material when doing anime adaptations. Along with high animation quality, this is something that KyoAni was renown for. It was definitely something that they derived brand strength from.

I dont know what reputation you are speaking of,whenever KyoAni adapted in house light novel they made gigantic changes. Though frankly the LN sounds just about as boring as anime is.

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by Warm Mist

Unless they slotted a second season for KnK immediately like they did for Chuu2, Ishidate probably wouldn't direct another show for a while even if this was successful; they have 5 directors now, have to balance the duties :P

That's assuming if he is given another chance in the future though.

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by RollingPenguin

I dont know what reputation you are speaking of,whenever KyoAni adapted in house light novel they made gigantic changes. Though frankly the LN sounds just about as boring as anime is.

I'm talking about their works up through Hyouka.

Look, I've had countless conversations about KyoAni on Anime Suki, and a point that was frequently raised was how unusually faithful KyoAni is to the source material. This is something that KyoAni's fans stressed a lot in years past, and it was a valid point.

Perhaps that's something that started changing with Chuunibyou, and is continuing to change with KnK, but I'm definitely not lying or misremembering here. KyoAni had been praised heavily for source material faithfulness in the past.

[darkchibi07]

Should we at the very least give them some credit for willing to experiment doing a looser adaptations? Yeah, there is a risk that it could backfire immensely which seems to be Ishidate's case, but Chuunibyou and Free managed to find successes. The company will remain stagnant if they aren't willing to take a few risks here or there.

[Pocari_Sweat]

If Kyoani's future business model is going to be based around promoting in-house amateur light novels, then honestly I don't give a damn about the studio. I've already gotten sick and tired of the fact that every one of their series goes through their "lenses" with that goofball slapstick and moe humour that they love doing, and if we add the fact the source is going to be from a light novel, then shoot me since that medium is infamously known for having garbage characters, plots and writing (exceptions are there, but they are exactly that, exceptions and not the norm).

Kyoani is starting to give me a picture of a what-if scenario (thankfully it's not true) if Activision only made Call of Duty games with a significant amount of its fandom (not necessarily here) acting like Call of Duty fanboys. It's very shiny, it's well made I guess if you're into that stuff, and yes if you look hard enough every series is somewhat different, but you can say each CoD game is different (they are set in different time periods and each have slightly different multi-player functions woooo) but damn is it repetitive and tiresome overall. If I continue with this ridiculous analogy, then I guess Hyouka is Call of Duty 4 (Modern Warfare 1) .

EDIT: Forgot to make a point about Kyoani anime originals. Just stop... I don't know if they saw likes of PA Works, Production IG, Sunrise or A-1 Pictures heavily investing in the area and wanted a piece of the market share but ugh... they still have a long way to learn.

[0utf0xZer0]

Hmmm, well, if we're going to take the discussion there, I'm going to ask some obvious questions:

1) What light novels does KyoAni actually publish in house?
2) What has the reception been to these properties?
3) Which have been adopted?
4) What's left?

Given that we are an English language board, our knowledge of these matters may be limited, but I'm reluctant to speculate when there should be a wealth of useful data out there that isn't on the table yet.

Personally, I don't mind light novel adaptations, I just wish they had better quality control, in particular with regards to:
1) Not having ecchi scenes that are 99.9% effective at killing brain cells.
2) Not ending season on a weak note. A lot of light novel authors seem to expend a lot of their good ideas in book 1 and then proceed to milk the franchise for a few books - one of which will usually form the basis for the last arc of a one cour season. Some consistency would be nice.
3) Does embrace the lowest common denominator of its fandom like the "End of Ore no Imouto".

So far KyoAni's been batting above average on these fronts to the point where I honestly see the KyoAni name as a bit of a seal of quality... I hope they keep it that way.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

Hmmm, well, if we're going to take the discussion there, I'm going to ask some obvious questions:

1) What light novels does KyoAni actually publish in house?
2) What has the reception been to these properties?
3) Which have been adopted?
4) What's left?

1. Kyoto Animation has published a total of 9 light novels thus far. They are:
Yuuyake Todai no Himistu (Secret of the Sunset Lighthouse)
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! 1/2
Oyake to Coppelia
Kyoukai no Kanata 1/2/3
Tamako Market
High Speed!

2. Most of the reception outside of High Speed! was ignorance. A lot of people didn't know about the novels and we have no data as to how much they sold outside of High Speed! Those who've read them comment that they're mediocre. (Eng. side isn't much better and a lot of people haven't read the ones that are translated)

3. Chuunibyou and Kyoukai were adapted from the novels themselves. High Speed! got a sequel in Free! and the Tamako Market novel is an adaptation from the anime with 11 original shorts.

4. Yuuyake and Coppelia are the only novels without an anime adaptation.

[0utf0xZer0]

So for those of us unaware of the publishing timelines... are they actually producing material fast enough to feed their anime productions over the longer run? Or do you think they'll be looking for outside material again at some point?

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

So for those of us unaware of the publishing timelines... are they actually producing material fast enough to feed their anime productions over the longer run? Or do you think they'll be looking for outside material again at some point?

They have the potential to produce material quickly; it all depends on the authors to write more. This year has 4 of those 9 published (2011-4, 2012-1, 2013-4 (2 are Kyoukai volumes)). What we don't know and can't know are what they plan to adapt from their Kyoto Animation Award entries. Depending on those, they have a possibility of looking for contract work, but I would doubt it at this point.

[brocko]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I'm talking about their works up through Hyouka.

Look, I've had countless conversations about KyoAni on Anime Suki, and a point that was frequently raised was how unusually faithful KyoAni is to the source material. This is something that KyoAni's fans stressed a lot in years past, and it was a valid point.

Perhaps that's something that started changing with Chuunibyou, and is continuing to change with KnK, but I'm definitely not lying or misremembering here. KyoAni had been praised heavily for source material faithfulness in the past.

Chuuni is not the first instance where they've taken creative liberties. They've done so well before it in the past as well. If they feel that the source is lacking in someway and that they can add to it then they will. See Lucky Star, K-ON and Nichijou (even tidbits in the other shows as well). Most of their past works have naturally had strong source materials so they didn't need to interject themselves as much. Now that they're working with glorified amateur novels, the opportunities for artistic licensing will of course be more abundant.

Faithfulness has always been a priority for them, yes. But they won't blindly stick by it if they know they can do better otherwise. This is not something that they've just learnt to do.

[0utf0xZer0]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

They have the potential to produce material quickly; it all depends on the authors to write more. This year has 4 of those 9 published (2011-4, 2012-1, 2013-4 (2 are Kyoukai volumes)). What we don't know and can't know are what they plan to adapt from their Kyoto Animation Award entries. Depending on those, they have a possibility of looking for contract work, but I would doubt it at this point.

One other question: do we have any idea why Takemoto is up to these days? I'm a huge Hyouka fanboy and actually bothered to look up who worked on which shows.

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by 0utf0xZer0

One other question: do we have any idea why Takemoto is up to these days? I'm a huge Hyouka fanboy and actually bothered to look up who worked on which shows.

Since Hyouka, Takemoto has worked on Chuunibyou episode 10, Tamako episode 8, Free! episode 8, and Kyoukai episodes 2/4 as episode director/storyboarder. He may be working on his own project, but we've not heard anything about him working as a full director again since Hyouka.

[darkchibi07]

It'll be so cool for Coppelia getting an adaptation:

The other novel that hasn't been animated is Oyashiki to Coppelia (TL: The Mansion and Coppelia). It won an honorable mention in the first Award, like Chuunibyou did. Coppelia is an automaton made to work in a mansion. She's deemed a failure since she doesn't have a beating heart. She starts to experience emotions as she works with the other maids and spends time with one of them who's a bit frail. This was written by Mutsuki Ichinose, who's also written for GA Bunko and who wrote the Tamako Market novelization.

They can pull a period piece out of the setting which would be a very nice change of pace for KyoAni instead of situating it on Japan.