An Interview with FAR from Buta Production

Buta Production’s F.A.Q. mentions that one of the studio’s focuses is IP creation. Could you elaborate more on that? Do you plan to make your own original anime series in the future?

Yes, we want to create original anime. There are too few original anime right now, and a lot of the original anime produced nowadays are also created by people outside the anime industry who just want to create their own IP in anime form. We want to go back to the years 2015 and below when original anime were made by people who worked in the industry, by people who are very passionate about anime.

Unfortunately, to be self-sufficient in that, we need a lot of money. That’s not feasible. Only successful indie studios like GLITCH can do that. We’re not at that level yet. We need to have a good reputation first and constantly create a good product so people are more willing to invest their money. Hopefully, we will be able to do this at the end of next year. By next year, we hope we already have something that proves our quality to others. What we are working on right now is a work commissioned to us and not something original but we are trying to make it as best as we can so we can do a proper original project from there.

As for the material, we already created some designs and scripts. We’re currently creating two idea pitches. They are focused on what we, as a team, want to create, in terms of visuals, genre and content. We are also in contact with some streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. We also talked with people on the planning side from the anime industry so our IP can lead somewhere.

We’re looking forward to what you guys want to create. You guys have experience working with producer Shouta Umehara in some CloverWorks anime like My Dress-Up Darling and Bocchi the Rock!, both are popular titles among Indonesian audiences. In your previous ANN interview, you speak positively about the experience of working with him. Could you tell me more about Umehara? What did you learn from him that influences how you do your own work as a producer?

Umehara is a crazy guy. He’s like Yujiro from Baki. He’s the kind of person that can stay awake for three to four days without feeling down. He’s addicted to animation. He treats animation production as something fun like a passion. One time, we had only three days to meet our deadline, but he treated it like it was fun instead of being worried about it. We in Buta Production tried to get the positive out of him in this aspect.

There was a time when Bocchi the Rock!’s production went into a bad state, then he successfully fixed it. But then after realising that the production had more buffer time, he tried to polish things up rather than wrap things up early. He tried to contact people and improve the final product. So, the spare time has gone. I remember that I thought I would have time to chill out with my family. Instead, I have to work on the last episode of Bocchi the Rock! Immediately before Christmas. It was a very strange experience. At the same time, I was very happy and he rewarded it by putting my name in the Bocchi the Rock! ending credit after the Asian Kung-Fu Generation song.

I think these days he’s a bit different because the anime industry also changed a little bit. Back then, it was way easier to find good animators. So going around the internet and contacting those animators to recruit them into a project just in a matter of days is a very reasonable thing to do. These days, it’s not really like that anymore, you need to prepare in advance way more; you need to make sure you have enough contracted people and also make sure you have a good amount of outsourced studios lined up. I think you can kind of see the difference this approach made on Nigejouzu no Wakagimi‘s (a recent show Umehara produced) credits.

So I feel like a lot of his personality isn’t as much of a fit right now to go into the current anime industry. The current anime industry is more of a game of alliances; preparations, good scheduling, and how much resource you put into a project. In the past, the anime industry was more of a game of passion, as in who has the most passionate team. However, I will say that ultimately it’s not really sustainable to live in that way. I think we are in a new era Umehara as a producer because he needs to do things in a different way. He definitely needs to go in a direction where he’s able to make sure that he’s the one who understands which animators are going to bloom in the next few years, so he can get them preemptively and faster than everyone else; but it’s not a matter of making those animators debut in a project, rather its more a matter of giving them a contract so they can stay under his wings for a while.

He positively influences us. I won’t say that I believe in a higher power, but I feel like there was an element of destiny that led me to meet Umehara. I believe people who have a similar concept of what they enjoy in life will be able to meet and stay together. Of course, we’re not meeting as often as when we worked on the same projects together but we still discuss things together from time to time.

I’ll say that what makes it great to work with him other than the ‘Umehara Experience’ is that his works after Wonder Egg Priority became a great success. When Wonder Egg Priority ended, we had a bit of a situation where people who were involved with the project were aware of their own talents, but due to the fact that Wonder Egg Priority has such a terrible screenplay, they ended up feeling a bit doubtful about themselves—and the people outside of the project were actually doubtful about them. 

It wasn’t a good experience, and it was really rough. I feel like a lot of the people who were involved wanted to have their ‘flowers’ because they felt like they deserved them, and I’m really glad that both My Dress Up Darling and Bocchi the Rock! got very popular, with a lot of people ended up watching those works. I remember when a Marin cosplayer and a Bocchi cosplayer came to me and thanked me for our hard work on the project, they felt good. It reminds me to not give up immediately when things don’t go in our desired direction because ultimately, new opportunities will come for you to do better than the last time, and I feel like my experiences in that production really symbolize that in a very specific way.

There’s an article by KVin at Sakugablog about the lack of skill in young animators and how it affects anime production. As a studio, I know Buta Production mostly hires people who already create animation outside of the studio, like in Studio Tonton for example. But in regards to this problem, do you see training new talents as something that would be important in the long run? 

Well, Buta Production is not Studio Tonton. We can’t be a place to nurture talent from zero anymore. As I said, we have hundreds of animators that we can contact when we need an animator and we can’t follow all of them. It’s simply impossible.

At the same time, we can try to make sure our animators are going in a direction that interests them, making them have stronger technical skills, and achieve their own goals. If by training you mean supporting them as a producer, I always take that into consideration; I put them in a position where they can develop new skills while working on our projects. But if you meant about learning the very basic skill of animation, we can’t go into that deep. It’s just too complicated for us.

About that article, I don’t think the current situation is as bad as how KVin described in the article. Not because the industry is very good at handling the mentioned situation, but because there’s clearly an effort to go into a direction where people get trained, and they also get more money so they’re able to focus more on quality rather than quantity. There are also more and more new tools for training so people can understand what they’re lacking. 

The real problem is that there are too many anime series, and it creates a situation where you have to rely on people who are not that good due to simple math. Also, some of the people who work in the anime industry these days are simply not serious about anime and they’re not penalised for that because of the high demand. Another issue is that training people needs money. It needs resources. Usually, studios that can train their animators have money like A-1 Pictures, Toei, or Science Saru. These studios have the funds to do it, but you can’t expect smaller studios to invest their resources into training like them. The profit margins are simply too low, and they don’t even have a patron or an investor who can put in some more money just for the sake of making the production go more smoothly.

Of course, we tried to help the animators in our way. We have various spreadsheets that we call development spreadsheets. It is made so we can make sure that as a production team, we can discuss what we can to improve a certain individual so they can be the best version of themselves. But we can’t train them from scratch. Of course, Studio Tonton still exists and we can use that to train people with zero drawing skill. Within Buta Production, most of them are already at a point where we don’t need to teach them from zero. If they still have a specific problem, that’s fine. We can try to improve on those.

As far as training, I’m thinking about Kyoto Animation’s approach. But I’m aware that not all studios can do this. 

Yeah, ultimately, what Kyoto Animation does is that they have a school, a very elite school that not many people can enter, and the graduates can work in Kyoto Animation or other big studios. During the course, they are also told what kind of skills they need, what kind of tools they use, and what kind of mentality they need to have if they want to survive in the industry. That’s what’s so special about Kyoto Animation. They’re able to produce everything inside their own walls and even when something chaotic happens during production, they are still able to deliver a high-quality product in the end. I think a lot of studios want to go in that direction. Ultimately, the studio needs to be sustainable first.

What should an aspiring animator do to participate in ButaPro’s project? Are there any necessary conditions that they need to meet?

Yeah, first, you need a good portfolio. It doesn’t need to be a professional anime portfolio, as long as they’re good technically speaking. Another aspect is speed, you need speed to be able to fill the anime demand. Being able to do 15 cuts a month is something that we require. It’s not that you have to do 15 cuts a month, but if you’re at that level, you are probably good enough to work here. 

Another thing is the willingness to work on any project, not just a popular one. It’s because we focused more on the technical achievement that we can get out of a project rather than popularity. We prefer to pick projects that we think are interesting rather than something that we know will be popular.

But in general, we’re open to anyone who wants to work in our studio. It doesn’t have to be an animator either. For example, we also need people who can do background art. We don’t need that many animators in our project right now, but we need someone who can be a good compositor or a good director. They are very difficult to find right now and we value those skill sets.

From the anime in which you guys were involved, we’ve seen that an Indonesian animator, GitsAsh, was involved in your project before. What do you think about the prospects of Indonesian animators working for ButaPro or the anime industry in general?

Okay, this is something interesting about our animators: When it comes to nationality, Indonesia is one of the nationalities that have the best track record. Like in our studio, all the Indonesian animators are really good. This is maybe just my experience so it might not be so statistically relevant but they’re very serious, probably the most serious nationality when it comes to making sure that their work is delivered on time and achieves the necessary result without being particularly negative. 

Of course, I understand this level of quality may also come from the fact that the standard living cost in Indonesia is generally lower. Because Indonesians consider our normal pay good, they pay more attention to detail compared to animators from other countries as they feel like working with us long term might be a good way to make bank. But ultimately, I only have good things to say about Indonesians. 

I think GitsAsh is a very good example. When we first worked with each other, I’d say he was an average animator. He was good enough to get the job done, but he wasn’t really super good. But little by little, he improved. He became stronger and reliable as an animator in the last three years, as well as being better at drawing in general. He ended up becoming one of our main animators, someone we can depend on in this studio. In general, I’m very interested in animators from Indonesia because I feel there’s a lot of good talent coming from the country, I’m thinking of Road Sign, Housein Untoro, or Guzzu. Guzzu is not even working in the anime industry anymore though. He’s a storyboarder for video games now, I think. 

Gits also told me that there were already a lot of people from Indonesia who work in the anime industry since way back. For example, I remember that there was an animation studio in Indonesia back in the 90s called BJCF (PT. Bintang Jenaka Cartoon Films, a subsidiary of an animation production company called E&G FILMS Co., Ltd. in Japan) who were working on douga or shiage for studios like Gainax. I also think that there’s a shift among Indonesian anime workers. Initially, they see themselves as an outsourcing talent for in-betweening or animation positions. Now, they are starting to work in the higher position as Guzzu does. I think that with the current level of Indonesian talent, they can create their own high-tier studio, a physical studio where people can work together in the same space, not just work remotely like Buta Production. 

If any Indonesian animators want to work for Buta Production, what should they do to apply for the studio?

They can send their CV and portfolio to Buta Production. In general, I’m very interested in working with Indonesians. This is not completely related to Indonesia itself, but we always try to have a basic unit price that is way higher than what a normal anime production work would give you. From what I understand from current currency rates, Indonesian animators need to make 10 cuts per month in our base price to make good money. Of course, you can do way more than that if you can work fast enough.

Do you have any tips for Indonesians who want to work in the anime industry, whether it’s as an animator, producer, translator, or any position in general?

Each position is different in this regard. The easiest position is an animator. If you have any confidence in your skills, feel free to join our studio. If you’re not confident enough, you can learn from sources like video tutorials or books and then practice until you’re confident. After that, just keep posting your work until a studio contacts you. It’s that easy now. The production assistant actually can contact you if you’re being consistent in posting your work on social media. 

Another option is contacting the studio directly and showing them what you already made. Some of them have their contact available online so you can get in touch with them. Ultimately, they’ll check you out if they need an animator and think you’re suitable for the job based on the portfolio you sent. You can do the same thing with Buta Production as well.

If you have enough money and willpower, you can go to Japan as well. There might be a visa issue. You can start as a student first, learn with a student visa, and then transition to a working visa. To do that, it’s important to plan your life as well because it’ll take time and some money. It’s not impossible and it’s not particularly difficult as well, as long as you are prepared.

For working as a producer, the only way that I can think of right now is by applying to studios like us or Shinobi Creative which are open to those who want to work remotely, but the position is rarely available. It’s more complicated compared to animation because not so many people work in this position compared to animators. You can directly apply to a studio in Japan too, but you need to learn the language. Unlike the animator’s position, which doesn’t require you to speak that much Japanese, the production position requires you to speak in Japanese a lot throughout the day. You don’t need other skills, courses, or certain degrees in this position, but there is a lot of communication in this position. Being able to speak in Japanese is a must.

Translators? I’ll say something painful: I think there’s not that much need for translators anymore. Back then, studios needed people who could help them connect with international workers. Now with so many foreign animators, studios usually rely on their own internal teams to get the communication job done. It’s hard right now to work as a freelance translator for anime productions. That’s a bit unfortunate, but that’s the reality right now.

That’s all of our questions for the interview, thank you! Thank you very much for so many interesting stories about your experiences and the situation in the anime industry.

The Indonesian Anime Times | Interview by Alif Naufal Hakim, Dany Muhammad, and Halimun Muhammad | The interview is edited for clarity & conciseness with a focus on interview questions