Animation producer Marisa Balkus, credited for producing Onyx Equinox at Crunchyroll and overseeing Netflix’s animation slate of titles like Arcane Season 2 and Devil May Cry, spoke on the perception of anime within Hollywood. When asked whether there were common misconceptions, Balkus said (via the brandon violette YouTube channel):
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“I think so, yeah. I think that there are still some generations within our industry that view anime as p*rnography, or something weird, you know. Which is really unfortunate. Or, there are people who just associate anime with shonen anime and whatever’s coming out of Shonen Jump and nothing else, which is really unfortunate, because, obviously, there’s every medium under the sun that anime offers. Yeah, I think that those are the biggest misconceptions — Or that anything that pertains to what women want to watch or consume has to involve magical girls in some way.”
Balkus also shared how an influx of talent entered the animation space during the pandemic when filming shut down, while animation production continued. “Yeah, the yeses [greenlights] were definitely there, and it was also because there was a lot of talent that normally wouldn’t play in that space who suddenly realized they could make a paycheck in animation and wanted to come into this space — which is not a bad thing. I actually think animation is a medium that anybody should play in, even if they come from live-action.” She went on to describe the high-profile (“fancy schmancy“) who didn’t have work and changed their initial projects to animated epics, later falling in love with the limitlessness of animation.
As for why Japanese anime resonates with people and its recent boom, Balkus credited the “degree of sincerity in the emotions and journeys expressed by the characters,” contrasting this with trends in Western — and particularly superhero — stories that became too “grimdark” or “undercut genuine emotions with a quip.” The pandemic was also said to factor in, with people connecting online, and Balkus praised long-running series and anime with ensemble casts where fans could see themselves as friends with characters.
The engagement seen at conventions through interactions and cosplay was also cited as something that gave the anime fandom an enduring quality. You can check out the full interview here. Balkus shares her experiences as a producer, working on Onyx Equinox, moving to Netflix to oversee its large animation slate, departing Netflix, and her current consultancy work at Culture Misfit. She also reveals that Crunchyroll surprisingly tried to bid for Splinter Cell and Captain Laserhawk but was outbid by Netflix on both occasions.
Crunchyroll Aims to Rollout Anime-Inspired AI Customer Service Chatbots, Senior Director Was Surprised at Anime Fandom Levels
While Balkus had long grown up on anime and participated in conventions, current Crunchyroll Senior Director of Global SVOD Customer Experience Luciane Carrillo shared in another recent interview that the level of anime fandom came as a surprise. Following her move from Netflix, Carillo spoke about Crunchyroll’s workplace culture, praising its structure, but said the company wasn’t as mature when considering things like feedback culture. On fandom, Carillo said:
“At Netflix, I also felt like some people were fanatics about specific shows, and they were very vocal about it. But I think at Crunchyroll, it’s at even another level. Like, they are not only fanatics about a specific character or series or films that we put out there, but they dress like them! They listen to songs like them. They follow bands that develop all that experience for them. They’re fully immersed in the experience, and that’s what makes them fans rather than merely customers.” Carrillo added that Crunchyroll “is very determined” to embrace that fandom. Slightly later, when talking about a way to keep fans immersed in the anime experience, Carillo said:
“One thing we keep working on and would love to get to a point is where you communicate with us through a chatbot [for customer service], when you’re trying to self-serve, we’d like to create that persona on the bot so then we can also provide the same type of experience you live in your day-to-day when you’re cosplaying.” Carillo added that Crunchyroll aims to phase out its email support and web forms and transition purely to AI chatbots and live chat with humans.
Notably, Carillo admitted that Crunchyroll is currently unable to actually determine whether problems have been solved when using current AI chatbots, revealing that it amounts to a blind spot of 50% of queries for supported languages.
Source: brandon violette YouTube channel
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