Outsourced Return

Animation cannot be produced within a single production company.

Key animation, in-betweening, background art, coloring, editing, photography, and so on...

With so many processes, it is certainly impossible to complete everything in-house.

Many small-scale companies lack the capacity; some animation production companies only have an animation department and a planning department, while everything else—such as coloring, in-betweening, or even key animation—is outsourced, either partially or entirely.

Even large-scale companies have outsourcing to varying degrees.

In this regard, it is just like on Earth; the only company that truly has the ability and the confidence to handle every single step of the animation production process entirely in-house is that Kyoto Animation studio everyone is so familiar with.

While some companies choose to outsource because they lack the ability to establish these departments, many others have the ability but are unwilling to do so.

Take the coloring department, for example; the work is tedious but low-difficulty. Give someone a color palette, and after a short period of practice, anyone could probably do it. If you really wanted to, you could do it too.

Outsourcing this process to countries with lower labor costs saves a significant amount of money.

Otherwise, it is a matter of being overwhelmed. When several new shows are lined up for a single season, the company doesn't have enough key animators to draw the key frames or enough animation staff to handle the in-betweening, so they have no choice but to outsource some of the work.

When the entire animation portion of a single episode is outsourced, it is called "animation outsourcing," and when only the coloring portion is outsourced, it is called "coloring outsourcing."

There is another, more specific type of outsourcing called "wholesale outsourcing."

Wholesale outsourcing occurs when the animation production company that accepted the project knows full well that their company's scale cannot handle the production of the entire series. Therefore, they take a 12-episode series, for example, and carve out a few episodes—say, episodes two and three—to give to another company. The company that accepts this work must then be responsible for the entire production of those specific episodes.

Since there is a wholesale contractor, there must naturally be a subcontractor that accepts the work...

"The company has accepted a commission from CDD Animation Workshop to help produce episode eleven of Invasion."

Seeing that Gu Xue's emotions seemed a bit agitated just a moment ago, Misawa Hiroshi lowered his voice. Feeling awkward, he picked up a script from the table, sighed, and said:

"After the production of Ore-sama was completed, our company didn't receive any new projects, aside from that manga adaptation You Are My Hero, which is a half-year series still in production. We had a gap period where some staff had nothing to do. I don't know how it happened—perhaps the higher-ups felt we were too idle, or they felt that the animation staff who were forcibly promoted had matured after the trials of Ore-sama, or maybe it was because they thought the finale of Ore-sama turned out well... Regardless, the company accepted this outsourcing job. Mihara will continue to serve as the production manager, and I will serve as the director."

"..." Gu Xue's expression was very unpleasant.

Of course, she had heard of wholesale outsourcing. The wholesale contractor is also called the prime contractor, and the company that accepts the wholesale work is called the subcontractor. This is nothing rare; many anime end credits list "production cooperation" followed by the name of an animation production company, which is exactly what an outsourced episode is.

Outsourced episodes are divided into reliable ones and unreliable ones. A reliable outsourced episode is basically on par with the quality of the animation produced by the main studio; many people won't even notice it's outsourced if they aren't paying attention.

As for the unreliable ones, that's when the subcontractor that accepted the wholesale work continues to outsource it further, which becomes a sub-subcontract. If it gets even less reliable, you might end up with a third-tier or fourth-tier subcontract...

If you're bold enough, you could make anime too.

Bullshit.

Gu Xue really disliked this method of outsourcing, but she had to admit that it is indeed a necessary path for many small animation companies.

Newly established animation companies accept outsourcing work to gain experience. Once they have a bit of a foundation, they start taking on their own animation projects. After taking on a project, if they can't handle the production of the entire series, they outsource it... until they finally have the ability to produce animation independently.

Many animation production companies have followed this path.

But the Snakehead animation production company where Gu Xue works has already passed that stage, so why the hell are they still taking on outsourcing work? Even if they were going to take it, they should have looked at the timing! The Anime Mirai project had only just begun, and Ore-sama had just wrapped up. Many people hadn't even rested for a few days. Taking on outsourcing at a time like this—are they crazy for money, or just brain-dead?

Seeing that Gu Xue remained silent for a long time, Misawa Hiroshi smiled bitterly: "I'm just letting you know that the Anime Mirai project will be pushed back slightly. I'm not forcing you to help us complete this outsourcing work, although the client's requirements are quite strict..."

Gu Xue interrupted him. She finally spoke, but her tone was not very pleasant.

"Even if I have already finished the storyboards and character designs for Little Witch Academia, and you don't intend to make any changes, leaving a month and a half of free time, are you sure there won't be any problems later? Even if the Anime Mirai project doesn't have issues, are you sure the production of episode eleven of Invasion, which you just mentioned, won't have problems? Can you really get it done in a month and a half? What if you can't? Push Little Witch Academia back even further? And then we use the schedule of a regular TV anime to train newcomers? Do you really not care about the government's project at all?"

"Although it might be arrogant for me to say this, I am the animation supervisor for Little Witch Academia. Since you entrusted me with the work, I must be responsible for my own work."

"...I'm sorry."

Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a long time, then said softly: "But this is what an animation production company is. Often, before one project is finished, another is already being prepared. A company like ours, stuck in the middle, cannot afford the risks. We can't get into the production committee and can only take a tiny bit of the production fee. If we don't take projects when they come, we really won't be able to survive."

"Although it is indeed unreasonable and annoying to have an outsourced episode dumped on us just as the Anime Mirai project is starting, I really can't refuse, because this is the style of companies like ours."

"..." Mihara did not refute what Misawa Hiroshi said; she just remained silent.

Having been in the industry for so many years, she had seen it all.

The high degree of commercialization in animation production has brought many projects to animation production companies, but it has also pushed them into bottlenecks and even toward the abyss.

"Ah..." After hearing Misawa Hiroshi's words, Gu Xue sighed. She wasn't some novice. Although she had chosen to forget many things from the past, her experience and the things she had seen were more than what Misawa Hiroshi and Mihara had encountered. She just hadn't seen anything quite this absurd—squeezing in extra work during the preparation phase of a project, that was a first.

However, one thing at a time. Once Gu Xue calmed down, she knew that blaming Misawa Hiroshi was meaningless.

"Tell me, what is the situation with this Invasion you're talking about."

Thanks to genius shochu Mushroom Meow for the 1000 reward, Peak of the Indigenous God for the 100 reward, Mo Yan for the 500 reward, akatsukiryuu for the 100 reward, Book Friend 2575 for the 500 reward, Color Meijunwang for the 1000 reward, TCY4507 for the 100 reward, and Xian Kai for the 500 reward.

Thank you...