Anime Industry Watching No. 27: Ideals and Dilemmas of the Producer Profession Interview with Ryoichiro Matsuo

If the animation director's job is to draw dreams, the animation producer's job is to "turn dreams into reality in practice. Hundreds of professionals are involved in the animation production process, and the producer must guide their efforts in a single direction in order to complete a single work. A concrete and feasible methodology is necessary.
Producer Ryoichiro Matsuo has mainly supported Sunao Katabuchi in the creation of his films, including "In a Corner of the World," which is currently in theaters, "BLACK LAGOON," and "My My New Child and the Magic of a Thousand Years. What is the job of a producer who works behind the scenes?　What are their ideals and concerns?　Producer Matsuo talked to us to the limit.

Deciding the budget allocation while keeping the director's vision in mind

What is the job of an animation producer?

Matsuo: I am an on-site producer, so my main job is to manage the budget and schedule, and to gather people. However, the job of a producer varies from person to person, from company to company, and from film to film, and there is no strict "here to here" rule. I would like to ask other producers, "What kind of work do you do? (laughs).

─ ─ In the case of "In This Corner of the World," which is currently in theaters, how many people were on the production team working side-by-side with the producer?

Matsuo: There were two production assistants and another assistant director working together. Strictly speaking, the production team consisted of three people, including myself.

──Did you have a fixed budget at the beginning, and did you decide how much to allocate from that?

Matsuo: Based on our past experience, we would divide the budget roughly into "about this much. In the case of "In a Corner of the World," the key was how much we could capture the vision of director Sunao Katabuchi. In order to realize the detailed theatrical performance that the director envisioned, we allocated a particularly large budget for the animation.

──Did you include the voice actors' fees in the production budget?

Matsuo: Yes, it is included in the sound production cost. However, the lead voice actors are not included. Since the lead voice actors in a film are often exposed in the media through publicity and accompany the actors to stage appearances, it is difficult to account for their appearance fees alone, so we had them paid out of the publicity budget. So, we asked them to come out of the publicity budget. This was done on a case-by-case basis, depending on the work.
Sound effects also come from the sound production budget. A Corner of the World" is a film that has to depict a war. In order to create a sense of realism, we needed to have hard sound effects with a heavy bass. I recommended Kenji Shibasaki, the representative of Arkabooth, to Director Katabuchi, because he was the best person to fulfill his order. Mr. Shibasaki is a veteran of sound effects for live-action films, and I think he was able to bring in authentic sounds, such as the sound of a B-29, to make the war more realistic. The sound of the bombs was really scary. We were able to create a wide range of sound gradations within a single film. Thanks to Mr. Shibasaki.


───Is it because of your personal connections that you were able to bring Mr. Shibasaki in at the right moment?

Matsuo: I had worked with Arkabooth before, so I knew Mr. Shibasaki, and when I heard Director Katabuchi's order this time, I thought he would be a good fit.