With the successive launch of new works by the original author 40 Yuan, this animation should have continued to be produced smoothly, but the commercial achievements did not extend the life of the animation.
As an “instant noodles” with only 5 minutes per episode, the animation “A girl with a disgusting expression will show you fat times”, which was broadcast for the first time in 2018, has achieved considerable commercial results.
The actual content of this animation is consistent with the long title. Simply put, it is trying to sell characters and give benefits. Among them, the sideline scene can be said to have caught up with the short video era. After landing on the Japanese barrage website Niconico, it gained unprecedented attention. The popular animation also drove the sales of the original work, and the popularity was gratifying.
The first episode of the animation scored 700,000 views on the Niconico website. For comparison, the current season’s popular animation “Licorice” has only 500,000 views.
With the successive launch of new works by the original author 40 Yuan, this animation should have continued to be produced smoothly, but the commercial achievements did not extend the life of the animation.
After the end of the second season in 2019, the series has no more sequels, and it was not until the beginning of this year that a court case brought the work back to the public eye.
On September 6, author 40 Hara and animation supervisor Saya Fukase were interviewed by Japanese media. The chaotic animation scene a few years ago was finally made public, and the delayed third season finally had a reason: the producer was in The investor, the original author, and the three animation companies were scammed back and forth. The animation director who had run away with money had no choice but to take out the money to buy a house and continue to do animation…
1
Essentially, “The Girl With A Disgusting Expression Shows You Fat Times” is a short animation adapted from the illustrations drawn by the original author 40 Yuan.
The animation supplements the plot and fills in the content for the weak illustrations. It is just a few unrelated and exquisite illustrations pieced together into an animated series with a good look and feel.
The example of adapting a complete animation with a few illustrations is not uncommon even in Japan, where there are many animations, and there are only a handful of works in this category before the official release of this work. According to 40 Yuan’s memory, the opportunity for him to get in touch with the producer was the animation plan handed to him by the other party. Considering the weak market for similar works and the simple and insincere plan, 40 Yuan initially The request for animation production was declined.
The well-known character “Black Rock Shooter” is a precedent for the transition from illustration to animation
Not long after, Toranoana, a large Japanese general store of ACG, took the initiative to contact 40 Hara, which dispelled his doubts. With the investment and promotion of the industry leader, the animation has started. Among them, the director in charge of animation production is the director of this work, Fukase Saya, and the person who originally delivered the plan to 40 Yuan served as the producer.
In the Japanese animation production site, the producer is a crucial position. They are usually responsible for the management and adjustment of all aspects of the animation production to ensure the smooth progress of the animation production cycle, and they also need to go back and forth between the employer, the original author and the animator. Swing is a kind of work with a low threshold but a high degree of difficulty. In this interview, directors 40 Yuan and Fukase referred to the producer as S, and complained to everyone that S played with the three parties in the palm of his hand and finally managed to get out of the whole process.
The animation “White Box” with “animation production” as its content, its protagonist is a busy producer
In fact, in the animation production process, directors 40 Yuan and Fukase have already noticed many doubts of the S producer. Although the works he has participated in are by no means few, and many of them are famous, the director Fukase who works with him has repeatedly felt that the so-called producer is more like an inexperienced newcomer in the industry, who made trouble from his hands. There are countless mistakes, and it doesn’t feel like a professional at all.
For example, after reviewing the promotional images drawn by the animation team, 40 Yuan made several suggestions for revisions to the details of the images, but was unable to receive a corresponding reply. When he asked again whether his email was delivered, S, who was in charge of docking management, said in disapproval, “I received the email but I didn’t promise to change it.”
There are many such examples. For example, 40 Yuan crossed S to communicate directly with the original artist, but was reprimanded by S; the reason S used when requesting the artist to paint is often “the original author’s unreasonable request”. With the difference of information on both sides, S completely disregarded the original author’s opinions on the work, and completely made this work into an animation that suits his own taste.
In addition to the identity of the producer, S also participated in the script in this animation. Under his unilateral and arbitrary command, the quality of the animation is surprisingly good. The well-known gimmicks and the publicity of the big players in the industry have promoted the success of the animation, and the excellent commercial results have also made the animation second season. schedule.
2
At the celebration banquet of the first season of the animation, 40 Hara and Director Fukase discussed the doubtful S producer with each other during the exchange of cups, but what Nian had done was not out of the ordinary. He was also responsible for the script of the whole film, and was a major contributor to promoting the animation planning. This matter was finally settled.
However, the two kept their minds at the end, changed the traditional inefficient phone and email communication, and used a more advanced instant chat software. By the way, they also pulled S together to form a small group of three. However, S intentionally or unintentionally broke up and disrupted the communication between the three parties, and was obsessed with the most primitive telephone and email communication. Over time, this group was still classified as silent and returned to the original communication method.
They used Chatwork, the office chat software commonly used by Japanese
With the experience of the first season, the production of the second season is progressing smoothly. In less than half a year, the delivery was completed, the CD was burned, and the animation production was nearing the end, but when it was time to settle the animation production costs, the S producer began to be a demon again.
At the beginning of 2019, Director Fukase approached the S producer and asked to settle the production fee for the second season. It is not S who is responsible for connecting with Fukase, but a lawyer specially invited by S. According to the lawyer, S is very dissatisfied with many details of the finished animation at this stage. If the animation company fails to repair it within the specified time limit. Do, S will refuse to pay.
As early as 2018, a certain animation company broke the situation of rework and greatly reducing the production cost
It was the first time that Director Fukase encountered such an unreasonable situation. The animation has already started to be broadcast, and the discs to be sold are also in the process of packing. If the producer is dissatisfied, he should raise it as soon as possible. Most of the talk now is to steal the production fee unreasonably. Fukase reluctantly found the animation funder Tiger’s Cave, who only embarrassedly stated that he had already remitted the fees to S’s name, and was obviously unable to interfere in this unilateral dispute of interests.
The matter has come to this point, the lawsuit has been inevitable. The lawyer hired by Director Fukase made full preparations to bring out a large amount of information in order to win the case, but in the end, he won the case unconditionally on the grounds of “defendant’s absence”. S ignored the court’s notice at all and fled with an unknown whereabouts until now, and the 5 million yen production fee that should have been recovered has not been recovered.
Of course, the production cost of the animation is more than millions of yen, and this money should be the last payment for the split delivery. In the case of paying wages to employees in advance, the missing 5 million has become a sudden arrears, and the break in the capital chain has brought the company to the brink of bankruptcy.
According to the income of the first season of the animation, this project is very likely to advance to the third season. Now that there are no people and money, let alone the follow-up works, filling the debt is the top priority. At this time, Director Fukase, who has always been on the front line, stood up, took out the assets originally planned to buy a house in Hokkaido, filled the corresponding expenses that were missing from the company, and used the remaining money to start the animation project of the third season .
3
Afterwards, in the process of communicating with people in the industry, 40 Yuan and Fukase both received similar replies: “It’s better not to have a relationship with that person.”
Although the true identity of S was not mentioned in the interview between the two, the list of personnel clearly written in black and white on the inside and outside of the animation Staff bluntly named the culprit’s name: Sa (Sa) Fuji Ikuo.
This Sato Ikuo has disappeared from the world, but the personal social account he abandoned earlier was dug up by the powerful netizens. In recent days, some people have made a special trip to collect debts. Judging from his own resume, the most dazzling achievement is that he participated in the development and production of the famous works “Jihuo Drafting” and “428 Blocked Shibuya”, but in the Staff list of these games, Sato Ikuo’s The position is called “official”, and it is not an important position in the Japanese game industry.
Most of the works this person has worked on have not held a major role
It is worth noting that in the last tweet he left, Ikuo Sato mentioned the words “animation” and “NFT”. Considering the recent thunderstorms of NFT, perhaps Sato Yuxiong has found a new way to make money.
The fact that Ikuo Sato ran away with money is not a big problem for the original author 40 Yuan. This popular artist with 600,000 followers on Twitter has successfully animated two works and participated in the illustration drawing of many light novels. , For domestic friends, the most well-known character in his pen is probably this cute cat girl.
Catgirl Art Collection was successfully commercialized last month
It’s just that director Fukase, the protagonist of the incident, has never participated in many works, and was defrauded of such a large amount of money at the peak of his career. Judging from the interview with 40 Yuan, Director Fukase is very interested in this work. He often rushes to the author’s home to communicate with him face-to-face to discuss the details of the animation, and strive to make the animation the best. This time, after dealing with the relevant legal matters, he immediately started the production of the third season, and finished the script work of the first episode before the production team was formed.
In order to give back to the director’s love for the work as much as possible, the influential 40 Yuan and the animation company jointly launched a crowdfunding project to raise the necessary funds for the new animation. The crowdfunding amount is 6 million yen, which is basically the same as the production cost of being deceived. At the same time, the crowdfunding introduction did not deliberately use the sale to gain sympathy. It was not until the interview on September 6th that everyone learned about the animation. The reason for the dystocia in the third season. After knowing the story behind the animation team, fans donated their money to support it. After one month, the total amount raised reached 4.2 million yen. The plan to reach the target amount is just around the corner.
The crowdfunding project was successfully launched in early August, when everyone did not know the inside story of the animation
The vicious incident that Director Fukase encountered is not uncommon in the animation market with an annual output value of more than 2 trillion yen. The animation “Tokyo Babylon 2021” originally scheduled to be broadcast in April last year had a business dispute in which the production committee refused to pay the 100 million yen production fee due to plagiarism. Until this year, the contradiction between the two parties still failed to reach mediation.
Interestingly, the “Tokyo Babylon 2021” production team and the funder did not sign a written contract for this animation, which cost hundreds of millions of yen to produce.
The work flow of an animation company’s project for several years is doomed to its fragile nature, and its inability to withstand the slightest toss also urges the animators here to pay more attention to the law. But if you can change the business model as always and find a means of capital circulation that is more suitable for animation companies, perhaps such incidents will be reduced a lot.
Just like the team led by Director Fukase in this article, under the traditional production committee system, they play the role of migrant workers who take the money and deliver the goods. cause disaster. After launching the crowdfunding project, they abandoned the production committee system previously implemented, and the income brought by the new animation can be returned as much as possible to the team who worked hard to produce the animation, and there will be no risk of not being able to recover the production fee.
Of course, don’t forget that this is a gentleman’s animation through and through – as they themselves wrote in the crowdfunding description, making money or something is actually a secondary goal, and the most important thing is to spread their favorites to everyone” Fat Subculture”.
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