Over the
past few decades, anime studio Orange (“BEASTARS,”
“Trigun Stampede”) has become one of the leading Japanese creators in the CGI
anime scene. According to Eiji Inomoto , chief director and
representative of Orange, his team had to overcome several important
obstacles before achieving success: first and most importantly, the public used
to be much less accustomed to CGI animation.
Orange
opened its doors in 2004, a year in which studios increasingly turned to CGI to
facilitate the production of their anime. However, creating a CGI anime
studio was still relatively risky, as most only did commissioned work for other
major studios. However, Inomoto believed that there were certain
things that his team could only achieve effectively using CGI. During a
recent interview, Inomoto explained why he decided to throw caution to the wind
and start forming an internal team to create original productions with CGI
animation.
Inomoto
began his career in CGI production as a freelancer in the video game industry. In 1999, he began applying his
talents to anime production. One of his first projects was “Zoids,” a science
fiction mecha anime that became a huge national hit. He was also responsible
for the animation of the Tachikoma robots in “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone
Complex (2002)”. These series opened Inomoto's mind to the
possibilities of CG animation, but he still had some reservations about opening
his own studio.
" In
the anime industry at that time, the demand for CGI was increasing from the
perspective of compensating for difficult-to-process parts in animation ,"
says Inomoto. « Due to this unstable situation, production companies
specializing in CGI animation were able to continue generating profits. But, to
be honest, I didn't know if I could continue producing… I didn't know if a
company specialized in CGI could function as a business .
In its
beginnings, Orange began doing outsourcing work for studios such as Satelight (Genesis of Aquarion) and
Kinema Citrus (.Hack//Quantam). In 2017, the studio was selected as
the main contractor for an anime called Land of the Lustrous. This meant that
Orange handled almost every major aspect of the production, including the
script, storyboards, and animation.
Inomoto saw
this as a golden opportunity to start using CGI for things that the public was
less accustomed to at that time. « I made this work with the idea
that I wanted anime fans to accept CGI, and it was great that this work finally
achieved that goal. Until then, robots and other devices had been successful,
but in Land of the Lustrous, CGI drawn characters were well received ,"
Inomoto explained.
Although
Inomoto was actively trying to make CGI more appealing to general audiences, he
admits that the public's attitude in 2017 influenced the way he designed the
series. « When I was working on Land of the Lustrous, my goal was to
get a line that looked like both animation and CGI. The other
day, by chance, I saw it again and I thought: 'at the time, I thought this was
the best'. But if I had to make Land of the Lustrous now , I
wouldn't do it like that. Seven years have passed, and both the
public's tolerance for CGI and my own tastes have changed, because the parts of
CGI that make people feel comfortable have changed .
Inomoto
realized this shortly after the premiere of “Trigun Stampede (2023)”, which
quickly gained a dedicated audience. « We created Trigun Stampede
anticipating that there would be negative reactions such as “too much
movement”. In fact, there were some people who said that in the early days of
the broadcast, but the broadcast ended on a much better note than I expected .
Orange is
currently working on the long-awaited final season of “BEASTARS.” Additionally, Orange is also
developing a new anime inspired by historical events, which Inomoto describes
as a "new challenge" for his studio. However, Inomoto faces the
challenge with optimism and high hopes for the future of his team. « Orange's
next goal is to make a “big hit” with full CGI, so I hope we can achieve that
and that even more people will accept CGI works . »
Source: Comic Natalie
