The process through which anime is produced is smoke and mirrors to most people who are only interested in watching the content and not how it is put together into a movie. However, it doesn’t hurt to learn something about the production process from the time a concept is conceived to the time the finished masterpiece comes out. Typically, the distance between the two is 12 weeks or even more. If we are being truthful, you should know that the production process that governs Japanese animation requires you to be fluent in the Japanese language.

Any attempt to look further into the production of anime will lead you to terms that are only familiar to animators. You will encounter terms such as key animator, animation director, character designer, art director, episode director, and in-between animator among others. The Japanese have made the process of production of nonton anime very fluid than most people would normally think.

Pre-production

The process of production of anime is often divided into parts and one of the most initial steps is pre-production. This stage involves planning and financing of the project. Usually, there is a company that takes charge of fronting costs for broadcasting, distribution, and staffing. What these companies do basically is just to make payments to the companies that actually do the real work. For instance, they pay studios to produce the anime and when the content is created and ready, they pay TV stations to air the content. Lastly, they pay the licensor to distribute the content nationally and internationally. All the profits that are made from the sales are then collected by them. In some cases, several companies are usually involved in the production process. If that is the case, the companies decide what parts of the production process they will be financing.

Assembling the team

The director of the anime is usually the one in charge of almost everything that has to do with the staff. Thus, they choose who will be part of their team. However, it is also important to understand that studios work differently. Some studios often opt for in-house animators, production desks, editors, and colorists whom they retain on a full-time basis. Other studios on the other hand have always settle for freelancers who work alongside a full-time team of core people from different departments within the studio. Lastly, there are studios that outsource the entire production process to freelancers in its entirety.

Storyboards

Just like the director is responsible for staffing, they are also responsible for storyboards. This is usually the case if the anime is only meant to last a short period of production. However, if the anime lasts several episodes, the responsibility of handling the storyboards usually falls on different storyboarders. If we lived in a perfect world, storyboards are supposed to be finished by the time an episode it put into production, but that never happens. Storyboards are usually still in production while episodes are still being produced.