Interview with the main staff of production company Rooster Teeth on the secret behind the international breakthrough of the 3DCG animation "RWBY

Last fall, the second and third installments of the American 3DCG animation "RWBY" were screened at a series of events. The third installment, "RWBY VOLUME 3," in which the four members of "Team RWBY," the main characters of the series, are dismembered and defeated, was a shocking development that seems to have increased the number of "RWBY" fans in Japan at once.
However, the production company Rooster Teeth lost Monty Aum, the central figure who wrote and directed "RWBY" and was also the action animator, in 2015. RWBY VOLUME 3" is the culmination of a team of directors at Rooster Teeth who have worked to carry on the legacy of Monty's work.
What is the secret behind the popularity of "RWBY," which has the look and feel of Japanese anime, but is supported enthusiastically by people all over the world?　Last December, the Rooster Teeth directing team (Kelly Shawcross, director and screenwriter; Gray G. Haddock, co-director and supervising producer; and Miles Luna, co-director and screenwriter) visited Japan for an event screening of "RWBY VOLUME 3", We attempted to interview them.

No sponsors, only fans as partners!

─ You are all not only directors, but also voice actors. Kelly, you are the voice of Neptune, the handsome guy who appeared in VOLUME 2, right?

Kelly (in Japanese) Yes.


─ Mr. Gray is the villain Torchwick, who has appeared since the first episode.

Gray Yes, that's right.

Miles-san plays the third hero, J'onn, right?

Miles (in Japanese) Yes.

───Is it unusual in Japan to have all the staff members doubling as voice actors?

Miles The first reason is that it is cheaper than anything else (laughs).


Gray Secondly, Rooster Teeth has a tradition of having staff members do voice acting. Also, from the fans' point of view, they find it interesting to have a staff member they know as a voice actor. Of course, if we had a larger budget, we could hire professional voice actors. We may see such cases in the future.

─ ─ Perhaps Rooster Teeth is different from Japanese animation studios in many ways. How did the company come to be?

Gray: The company was originally founded by a group of friends who liked anime and video games. It was right around the time that YouTube was coming out, so we were able to gain a large fan base by releasing our works online for free. It was fun for fans to watch the company grow rapidly again. I guess another great feature of our company is that we have a fan community on the official Rooster Teeth website, where fans and staff can interact intimately.

─ Does "RWBY" have any sponsors?

Gray: No. We raise our own funds. We raise our own funds and create our own productions from start to finish.

─ Then, do you collect production costs through character goods?

Gray: We sell a lot of character goods on our official website. We have online paying members, so I guess you could say that they are our important partners.


Miles: We receive some income from YouTube advertisements, but we are by no means dependent on advertising revenue. We are developing our own business, increasing the number of paying subscribers, and earning a larger income, which we use for our next productions.

Gray: There are several ranks of paying members, and we have what we call First Members, which are those who have priority to benefit from the service. Nowadays, you can distribute your films not only through YouTube, but also through Netflix, Xbox, PlayStation, and many other media. No matter which medium you watch "RWBY" from, you will eventually end up at the official Rooster Teeth website. With each success, we were able to expand our business one more time, and now we are able to expand our activities beyond "RWBY" to include talk shows, video games, conventions, and live-action productions.