At this year’s Anime NYC, we got the opportunity to speak with CEO of Production I.G and President of WIT Studio George Wada, anime producer Hitoshi Ito, and anime director Hiro Kaburagi. Production I.G has genuinely produced too many incredible anime to mention, but the company is perhaps most well known recently for sports anime such as Kuroko’s Basketball, The Prince of Tennis II, and Haikyu as well as non-sports titles like Heavenly Delusion. In 2012, staff within Production I.G (including George Wada) founded WIT Studio. The animation studio went on to produce the first three seasons of Attack on Titan as well as other popular anime such as Spy x Family and GREAT PRETENDER. This scope of work definitely showed in the thoughtfulness and wisdom behind our conversation.
An Incredible History of Content
The combined careers of these three and the collective works of both Production I.G and WIT studio are long and successful. I wanted to understand more about how they choose projects and partnerships as well as get their thoughts on some trends within the anime industry writ large. I asked the three about what the main focus is when looking for new projects and how they approach the choice to grow organically within a single enterprise or bring in other studios and companies for partnerships. Wada explained the philosophy the studios make use of.
“We don’t look for studios. We look for projects. And then, depending on the piece, [we decide based on] how important it is to get it out to a wider audience as soon as possible. For example, in Spy x Family, the speed of the animation is limited. For that to happen [successfully], we needed two studios. So we think about how to make the anime based on the original work. From there, we would make the decision whether or not it’s necessary to partner with other studios to get it out as fast and with as high quality as possible.”
Attack on Titan is one example of this sort of decision making process. WIT Studio handled the first three seasons of the series while MAPPA handled the production of the anime’s fourth and final season. I asked Wada what that transition was like and if it felt gratifying overall to see people engage with the animated work as a whole.
“Yes, I’m very happy about Attack on Titan itself is so popular. What actually happens a lot is that the timing of the popularity of a manga and the timing of when a studio can actually get out the anime doesn’t always match up. The reason that we were able to complete the series was because MAPPA took it on. And it’s a wonderful studio, so I’m very happy that they were able to take it on and continue with it.”
While that was an example of one studio picking up a series from another, there are also more direct collaborative efforts that WIT Studio has formalized. Alongside media company Aniplex, animation studio CloverWorks, and publisher Shueisha, WIT Studio jointly established a new company named JOEN. JOEN was formed with the goal of creating new television anime projects with the combined talents of multiple companies instead of a single one. Wada noted that they (the joint companies) should be able to make an announcement about JOEN soon, but for now we should stay excited and keep an eye out for it.
These sorts of cross-studio collaborations are, in my opinion, a welcome change. The demands of audiences for higher quality, constant releases, and high-octane sequences are increasing more and more. Especially in an era where an anime clip alone can generate millions of fans for a series overnight, it seems difficult for a single studio to handle an entire project. WIT Studio and Production I.G specifically have always been involved with visually spectacular anime with strong storylines. I wanted to know from these industry experts themselves whether they felt the anime industry is tending toward larger and larger expectations and whether such high quality is sustainable. Wada’s answer to this was immediate and resolute.
“I don’t think it’s possible to keep this pace up. What’s really important is that the number of anime fans in the world needs to continue to grow. Once they’re able to acquire more anime fans around the world, businesses are going to be willing to put more money towards the creation of anime, which will allow them to continue to create work of such high quality. So, if anything, it’s dependent upon the number of fans increasing.”
When asked what the best use of that money would be in order to maintain high quality, he said this:
“Into the people. Putting all of that money towards growing the personnel and the talent pool is what we would do.”
Projects From Production I.G & WIT Studio
As I mentioned earlier, Production I.G has made a lot of sports anime and the conversation at points shifted toward the topic of sports anime specifically. I told staff from Production I.G about the manga series Tenpinz, whose author had a booth at Anime NYC, and asked if there are any other sports that they want to see more anime projects about.
“I’m not sure if your audience knows about this, but Go [a two-player strategy game where players compete to win territory by placing black and white “stones” on a board]. I really would love to do an anime about Go, the board game. There hasn’t really been anime or manga about Go since Hikaru no Go. So, if anything, that’s where I would love to create something.”
Beyond sports, we talked about anime’s general growth into depicting a variety of different industries. For example, the Komada – A Whisky Family anime film and BARTENDER Glass of God anime series, the latter of which premiered at Anime NYC, are both pretty novel in their exploration of the alcohol industry and bartending. Hitoshi Ito spoke a bit, from the perspective of a producer, about how non-anime industries are creating and using anime and answered the question of if they’ve begun to do it more.
“Yes, I think there’s been more use of animation [in non-anime industries]. In Japan, animation is being used a lot in music videos. And in the case of the whiskey distillery anime, I think creators of animation are always looking for new content that can be drawn and animated. The same goes for GREAT PRETENDER. I think that project was established when people who wanted to use animation for its story were matched together.”
“I think we are looking at things outside of anime. For example, there are a lot of American TV dramas and live-action content. The idea of taking those IPs [intellectual properties] and turning them into anime is something that’s definitely on the table. We [Production I.G] are also working on a Terminator anime [Terminator: The Anime Series]”
Among current projects, one that without question staff from WIT Studio feel deserves more attention is GREAT PRETENDER. It’s perfectly understandable why. GREAT PRETENDER was WIT Studio’s first original net animation and one of the most bold and inventive stories they’ve ever put to a screen. The anime showcases characters from a variety of cultures, takes place at places all over the world, and received a brilliant treatment from dubbing staff who preserved accents and important localization details across the different versions of the anime’s audio. Even more, a sequel titled GREAT PRETENDER razbliuto, written and directed by Hiro Kaburagi, was announced at Anime NYC and has since premiered on Crunchyroll.
We’d like to thank George Wada, Hitoshi Ito, and Hiro Kaburagi for speaking to us on behalf of Production I.G and WIT Studio about so many aspects of the studios’ work and the anime industry. We plan on speaking to them again specifically about GREAT PRETENDER, so be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, you can check it out on Netflix.
© WIT STUDIO / Great Pretenders
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