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Directors, Screenwriters, Layout Artists, and Editors. These people are the pillars for an anime project. In a lot of cases they are freelancers, so they may or may not be a part of a specific animation company.
- The Director: In general, a Director's job is to either take bids on accepting franchises, such as Mangas, Novels, or Games, to turn them into an animated adaption, or serve as one of the original creative minds of an original animation work. In Japan, Directors are responsible for looking into the media related to their adaption, and working closely with screenwriters to conceive the general outline of the whole series in advance to kick-off the production, then single-handedly producing the storyboards for each episode on schedule. Then, he must have the artistic sense and leadership skills to guide his animation team and cooperating industries to produce the outcome he wants.
- The Editor: A.K.A. The Episode Director in some Japanese terminology. In Japan, an Editor is well... editorial, they must work really closely with the Director, and are technically considered as "Vice Directors," becoming The Lancer of the Director, aiding him in physical animation production. An Editor takes on the combination of inspecting each department's progress (including layout design, animation cuts, color design, and photography), polish up the Director's storyboards to give the story a clearer guideline for the company to work on, personally timing cut scenes, inspecting key frames, and sitting through recording sessions to see what needs to be tweaked. If the Director doesn't like what he sees, they would be the ones to go through hell in reworking the scenes and making sure they patch up nicely with the cuts that don't need to be reworked. Editors are usually assigned to one episode per progression cycle, and it's nearly impossible to have only one Editor handle a whole series within Japan given the vast amount of production work involved. Each company will have at least 2 to 3 editorial staffs on hand to rotate throughout one anime series.
- The Screenwriter: By using only a brain and a laptop, this person uses the fewest tools to produce a project, and yet is the one who produces the soul of the story. Screenwriters must have professional knowledge of storytelling, and the ability to play with words in according to what the subject needs. In Japan's animation industry, one animation project would hire an average of 1 to 3 persons for a series, depending on the length of the series. They must work hand-in-hand with the Director to understand what The Director wants to convey in a story, and interprets the story through words, and eventually turn it into script form. The script will then be delivered to the Director for storyboarding, and the Voice Director and Voice Actors for vocal performance.
- The Art Director: Or sometimes just plain "Art" or "Artist" in Japanese Animation terminology. Normally in Japanese Animation, this person is a thoroughly disciplined Fine Artist who is hired to take charge of the overall visual look and atmosphere of an animation project. Art Directors are normally responsible for hand-painting layouts and producing Scenery Porn using mediums ranging from acrylic to digital graphics. Like The Screenwriter, this is most likely a one-person job, and this person also has to work closely with The Director in order to interpret how The Director wants to visually express the story within an animation project. Once he pulls off some beautifully drawn scenes, these scenes will be sent to the Director of Photography for further production, such as combining them with animated cuts, merging with poster pinups, or being edited for special effects usage.
Seiichi Kinoshita
Position: Director (Exodus! and Third Aerial Girls' Squad)
Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese), Mark X. Laskowski (English)
Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese), Mark X. Laskowski (English)
Director for Musashino Animation's projects seen in the anime, Exodus! and Third Aerial Girls' Squad. Once a promising young talent, his reputation took a hard nosedive following the massive failure of his previous work, Jiggly Jiggly Heaven, and has since been struggling with his reputation and frequent bouts of writer's block.
- Acrofatic: His whole meeting sequence with author Nogame turned him into an absolute badass.
- Big Fun: "Karaage, karaage!" note
- Brilliant, but Lazy: He suffers from frequent writer's blocks (implied to be because of PTSD caused by his last disastrous work) and just loves to procrastinate, so squeezing a current set of storyboards from him is a perennial problem for Honda — who resorts to basically imprisoning him in episode 5.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass:
- Aoi's mind was blown when she found out that he was an editor for Neon Generation Avangaldon.
- Everyone is utterly dumbstruck when he completes the storyboards for the final episode of Third Aerial Girls' Squad in just three weeks instead of the month or more which is a norm in the trade — especially after it took him three months for the same task in Exodus!.
- Dungeon Crawling
- Hidden Depths: For all his childish behavior, he is a fantastic visual storyteller... though he's not very good at conveying it to his staff in time.
- Last-Minute Project: At least twice so far, one in Episode 2 to scrape all previous characterization for the Power Trio of Exodus! because he disliked the original one, and the second in Episode 9 to rewrite the whole ending for the same reason — luckily for the studio, he was finally struck by inspiration there and got out of his Writer's Block.
- Manchild: Kinoshita's general maturity level is roughly about 7 years old.
- Modern Major General: Kinoshita might be very creative, but he has a lot of troubles being a director, because he consistently fails to communicate his thinking and his ideas to others. It also reportedly cost him his marriage.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Kinoshita's talents for directing will always be preceded by his reputation for running his once-promising career to the ground with the shamelessly Fanservice-overdosed Jiggly Jiggly Heaven. To this day people still keep relaying that fact to him, much to his ire.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Being "the Director" makes him the most easiest to spot and remember amongst the long professional terminology list of Boss Subtitles and numerous characters, but not too many people remembers his given name "Seiichi." Even our real ending credits would just list him as "Director Kinoshita."
- Poor Communication Kills: Seems to be a perennial issue for him. The greatest problem is that he has trouble communicating his ideas to himself, and needs to be carefully steered to get his full creative force going.
- Power Glows: When hit by ispiration in the Episode 10, Kinoshita was shown literally glowing as he shot completed storyboard sheets off like a mad printer.
- Redemption Quest: His goal in life is to finally atone for the disaster that was Jiggly Jiggly Heaven by creating a far superior anime adaptation.
- Ridiculous Procrastinator:
- Courtesy of his frequent PTSD-induced Writers Blocks and generally being something of a perfectionist. He will put off finishing storyboards until physically forced to do so, and he delayed the Grand Finale of Exodus until the last month before delivery because he was uncomfortable with the series' originally planned ending, requiring the last minute brainstorm that finally got him out of the dead-end.
- Episode 15 brings up the internet legend that Episode 9 of Jiggly Jiggly Heaven was delivered five minutes before air time. Kinoshita insists that it's not true: it was in fact delivered ten minutes before air time.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: To the perennially suffering Honda, whose hardest task is to squeeze the storyboards out of him so the rest of the studio can get to work.
- Shout-Out
- His appearance is modeled after Seiji Mizushima, director of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 and Fullmetal Alchemist, while several anecdotes about his career recall those of the series' director, Tsutomu Mizushimanote .
- He turns on Gendou-Mode once he's out of his Writer's Block. Ironically, he happens to be one of the Kanno's Episode Directors on "Ava". Which is, of course, taken from real-life: Mizushima did direct Evangelion Episode 9.
- Trademark Favorite Food: His obesity is clearly due to his large fried chicken consumption.
Shimeji Maitake
Position: Head Screenwriter (Exodus! and Third Aerial Girls' Squad)
Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Japanese), Heath Morrow (English)
Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Japanese), Heath Morrow (English)
- Blatant Lies: He's very vocal in his refusal to take up any students, and objects vociferously when Midori calls him "Teacher". After which he immediately starts explaining to her what exactly was wrong with the paper he assigned to her the last week.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He's awed by the thoroughness and clarity of Midori's research notes, and asks Aoi to introduce him to her, as he'd need the help that good pronto, thank you very much.
- The Mentor: To Midori, once she gets hired as a setting researcher. Up to giving her writing assignments and grading them. Even though he insists that he doesn't take students.
- Shout-Out: His name is based on Kinokonote Nasu of Type-Moon fame, while his visual appearance is based off Hiroyuki Yoshino
, who among other things wrote and supervised the script to Mai Otome and Vivid Red Operation. - Team Mom: He's basically the only one who can really fire up Kinoshita's creativity.
Yuuji Atsumi
Position: Art Director (Third Aerial Girls' Squad)
Voiced by: Daiki Hamano (Japanese), Jason Duga (English)
Voiced by: Daiki Hamano (Japanese), Jason Duga (English)
- Ascended Fanboy: Of Art Director, Masahiro Ookura, whom he referred MusaAni to hire as a subcontractor, for the task of painting earthly landscapes.
- The Comically Serious: Interacting with an artist who talks to you with a straight face has proved be quite an amazing experience to an average person, namely Aoi. Even though he's clearly serving his job right.
- Emo: He doesn't have the look, but he does have natural shades of this thanks to his ocean-deep poetical philosophies.
- Hyper-Awareness: Being an observant artist, he pins Kinoshita down to the utmost detail of asking him "What types of clouds" does he want to use for his upcoming 3rd Aerial Girls' Squad project.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Atsumi tries to convince Ookura that he himself is nowhere near in league with him in terms of creation of settings and backgrounds, and that he can't think of anyone else that is more fitting to the task.
- The Stoic
Masashi Yamada
Position: Editor aka. Episode Director (Exodus! note / Third Aerial Girls' Squad)
Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Ty Mahany (English)
Voiced by: Kenji Hamada (Japanese), Ty Mahany (English)
An editor and an old acquaintance of Kinoshita, with whom he shares the indignity in having a hand in the Jiggly Jiggly Heaven fiasco.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Like Kinoshita, he will also forever be associated with Jiggly Jiggly Heaven, in particular its many Off-Model instances. The backlash burnt him so much he never had the guts to read online feedback regarding his works ever again.
- Smoking Is Cool
- Team Dad: Mostly towards the whole company. But since his desk is located in the same office as Kinoshita's, he pretty much has to deal with all of his childish behaviors.
- What the Hell, Hero?: When Kinoshita suddenly pitched to redraw a cut of their character's facial expression midway of production, Yamada is clearly pissed. Because just that one order will have to shed labor and expense within a very tight deadline. Which will result in a very high chance of epic failure for the company.
- Those Two Guys: With Madoka, as these two frequently fork as a one compound character.
- Youthful Freckles
Hironori Madoka
Position: Editor aka. Episode Director (Exodus! note / Third Aerial Girls' Squad note )
Voiced by: Hironori Saitou (Japanese), Adam Noble (English)
Voiced by: Hironori Saitou (Japanese), Adam Noble (English)
Another veteran editor working for MusAni's current projects.
- Blunt "Yes": When Hiraoka protests that his constant retakes will result in people quitting, Madoka says that's fine with him, since Hiraoka's freelancers are doing substandard work.
- Deadpan Snarker: In a humorous way.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: He gets into a fistfight with Hiraoka in episode 20.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's not wrong to point out Hiraoka's shortcomings, even if he doesn't come off smelling like roses, either. Lampshaded when Marukawa suggests that Hiraoka got upset because he knew what Madoka was saying was true.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In Episode 20, his criticism of the freelancers Hiraoka brought on board eventually leads to an angry rant about Hiraoka's attitude and work ethic.
- Team Dad: Specifically towards Kinoshita. Like Yamada, he shares the same office with Kinoshita, so he also has to deal with all of Kinoshita's childish behaviors.
- Those Two Guys: With Yamada.
- What the Hell, Hero?: As the person who has the responsibility to oversee the quality of their work, he questioned Hiraoka's company of choice in support and their work quality, as well as generally being an ass around the studio, which has led to Hiraoka immaturely lashing out at him.
- Truth be told, Madoka himself wasn't a good example of workplace etiquette for that incident either, though he was indeed under a lot of stress for cleaning up the mess that Hiraoka's referred freelancers left behind.
Midori Imai
See the Main Characters section
