Yuji Kaneko talks about the drastic change in the way animation art directors work due to digitalization [Watching the Animation Industry No.72

When you hear the term "art director ......" for an animated film, what kind of job does it conjure up in your mind?　Roughly speaking, it is someone who draws backgrounds other than the characters, decides on the colors of the buildings, plants, trees, and sky in the background, and oversees the atmosphere of the work. But they do not necessarily design even the shape of the buildings. Still, all backgrounds are controlled by the art director.
With countless animated works being broadcast, distributed, and released, how does one become an art director?　How can one continue to work as an art director?　We spoke with Yuji Kaneko, whose latest art direction film "Josee, the Tiger and the Fish" will be released this month on December 25.

In the aftermath of digitalization, the animation industry in the 2000s was in a state of chaos

─ ─ Until the 1980s, it was clear which art director was responsible for what kind of pictures, and the works were unique.

Kaneko: Nowadays, I think the mainstream is either averaged backgrounds that can only be created digitally, or painstaking backgrounds like those of Studio Ghibli and Makoto Shinkai's works. In the past, art directors such as Hiromasa Ogura and Hiroshi Ohno, who are called "Koba Productions," and Takamura Mukuo, Mitsu Nakamura, Hidetoshi Kaneko, and many others at other studios, freely created very different backgrounds. I feel that digitalization has made the technical aspects too detailed.

─ Depending on the work, there may be an extremely large number of books (cut-out backgrounds), right?

Kaneko: Yes, I feel that the element of being a material shop is becoming stronger. In the past, I would only draw what was necessary for the screen, but now I am sometimes asked to prepare all the materials that might be necessary. In "Future Boy Conan," the rock that Conan lifts up was drawn on celluloid from the beginning, wasn't it? Nowadays, digitalization has made it possible to seamlessly replace the rock drawn in the background with a painted rock. In the past, the roles of the animation director and art director were clearly defined. However, since around 2005, when the animation industry was gradually digitized, it is no longer possible to clearly state that "the art director's work extends from here to here".

─ ─ Art setting and art direction are two different things, aren't they?

Kaneko: In the process of digitization of the animation field, I think all studios have broken away from the traditional way of making animation. During that period, there were productions where the designers drew the art boards and drew the art for the production. Conversely, in some cases, the art director would decide the colors of the characters, which dramatically increased the degree of freedom. I think it was during that period that we started ordering only settings from outside designers as "art settings. In the past, there were only a few background companies that did only art setting. In recent animated films, there may be several names credited as art setters. That is simply because there are more scenes per half hour. They have started to make the scripts tighter and put events in evenly, and there are no more episodes where you have to take a breather. This inevitably leads to more scenes, so we have to ask a lot of people to do the art setting. In the past, we would receive a board drawn by the art director, and all we had to do was draw the background for each cut accordingly. Such simple tasks are decreasing, so I remind newcomers who want to join us (Art Studio Blueprint) that "art work is hard to understand.

─ ─ What should I do if I want to become an art director?

Kaneko: Generally speaking, you start working at a scenic design company, apprentice yourself under an art director to learn various things, and eventually become an art director who oversees the entire production. I started out working for a company called Ogura Studio. The work of the background employees was completely limited to backgrounds, and there were few horizontal connections, so when I think back on it now, it was a very closed-off environment. My first work as art director was "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" (2011; Mr. Kaneko participated until the 6th episode of the TV series), and I was initially an assistant art director. Since there was not much time to work on the film, I slid from assistant art director to art director. So I think I was quite lucky. The next film I worked on as art director was Yasuhiro Yoshiura's "Sacasama no Pathema" (2013). After resigning from the company I was working for at the time, I had the opportunity to get to know Director Yoshiura through a friend, and he made me an offer directly.


So you participated in "Madoka Magica" as a company employee, but after "Sacasama no Pathema," you quit the company and started working as a freelance art director?

Kaneko That's right. Sacasama no Pathema" was a big work for me. I did not have a proper dedicated studio, but rather rented a floor at Ordet, which is now part of Ultra Super Pictures. At the time, Ordet was working with Sanzigen on "Black Rock Shooter" (2012). The "Sacasama no Pathema" team was working in a space of about 4.5 tatami mats, with a little help from the "Black Rock Shooter" art team. Director Yoshiura and the animation director were in the same corner, and there were three art directors including myself. There was a seat for Hiroyuki Imaishi of Trigger on the same floor, so we had a chance to get acquainted. That's when I got the opportunity to work on "Little Witch Academia" (2013) and "Kill la Kill" (2013). At the time, I felt like a "fledgling rookie art director," so I think I was given a trial run.