By:Peggy Sue Wood

In March, Crunchyroll created a series of articles breaking down how anime is made, from pre-production to localization. I waited to recommend this series as I wanted to be sure that all the features would be posted* prior to recommending it and because I wanted to see how much information overlapped with some of our previously posted content.**

After reading, the materials seem pretty consistent with other break-downs that I have seen and read before, although with a lot more context. Remember that this coming from one of the largest anime distributors in the West (if not the largest), in addition to their own studio work. This means that, as a publisher, liscencer, and distributer, they have more experience with things like funding, marketing, and planning.

I think that Cayla Coats (the writer of this series) has provided one of the most thorough pieces describing how anime is made from a producing company’s standpoint to date. The only thing better might be working in the industry already or reading a book on the subject though, from experience, I can tell you that reading these posts is far less boring than a full book on the topic. Plus, the image choices are fun!

If you like the business side of anime or just want to better understand how it is made and how it works, I highly recommend reading this series. You can do so by clicking here.

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Author Note:

* Those not very familiar with Crunchyroll and its blogging content probably have not noticed this, but sometimes Crunchyroll will promise content is up, like a blog post on new releases, and then actually post it sometime later. I think the longest I have waited for a promised post was close to four months. This is definitely not standard to Crunchyroll, but it has happened enough that I wanted to hold off recommending the series until all articles were posted.

** We have done a number of animation production posts thus far and will continue to do so in the future. Here is a short list of some such posts, though certainly not all, from the different conventions we’ve attended (online or in-person):

• Funimation Con (2020) – Adventures in Translation with Industry Expert
• Anime Expo Lite (Anime Expo 2020) – Production I.G. USA Industry Panel
• Crunchyroll Expo 2021 – Behind-the-Scenes Story of “The World’s Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat” (ft. Masafumi Tamura, Katsuhiko Takayama, Satoshi Motonaga) – Notes
• Aniplex Online Fest – How to Produce an Anime – Notes!
• [Review & Recommended Watch] A Belated Look At MAL Expo Lite 2022 + MAL Academy Production I.G / Q&A with WIT STUDIO