The Production I.G building.

As the final days of my recent trip from Japan drew to a close, I felt a sense of exhaustion that comes with trying to cram sightseeing, visiting friends, and anime shopping into two weeks. The trips to all the various and sundry anime shops in the greater Tokyo area (and the new Mandarake in Osaka) alone was enough to drain the stamina of even the most resolute anime nut. But while there were things to be seen, I persevered. After all, I didn't fly all the way to Japan to rest (and it wouldn't have made for a very interesting article, either).
The visit to Production I.G was one of the highlights of my trip. One of the heavyweights in the anime industry, Production I.G's impressive list of credits include the successful PATLABOR films, GHOST IN THE SHELL, BLUE SEED and PLEASE SAVE MY EARTH to name just a few of their more popular titles. They also worked on the popular television series NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. Scott Frazier had arranged this tour and served as both guide and comedy relief during our visit. He met us at the train station in Kokubunji and led us through the tiny, winding streets to one of the studios of Production I.G. Like AIC, Production I.G is spread out over several floors in several buildings. And, despite the overwhelming sense of conspiracy I began to feel that there is some sort of national regulation regarding animation companies being housed under one roof, Scott assured me that it's simply because space is at a premium. Companies in Japan lease floors in buildings, and when they want to expand they have to take what additional space is available; oftentimes no space is not available in the same building, and the company must turn to neighboring buildings.
The first stop on our tour was the production office, where Scott grinned and told us helpfully,"They produce." Of course, the production office is like the nerve center for a given show, as they track the budget, the progress of the animation, and oversee the entire operation. They also coordinate interaction with the sponsors of various productions.

A work in progress on the drawing board. One of the busiest departments during our visit was the inbetweening department.

We were led into a small conference/screening room where we were greeted by Mr. Ishikawa Mitsushisa, who is the "I" in Production I.G. He welcomed us and invited us to ask any questions we were in the studio. We were then treated to a special screening. Scott said,"We just got this back from the film lab. We don't even know what it is."
It turned out to be the opening animation for an event sponsored by one of the weekly manga companies. Commissioned by the company sponsoring the event, these types of animation range from very good to very poor; I have to say that this one was one of the funniest I have ever seen. It involved these two main characters who had a small string of adventures that seemed to be taken from scenes of popular video games. There were some brilliant parodies of video games, including the "Karaoke Robot" from CHRONO TRIGGER. The end credits were also stills of the characters in various pictures that were obviously video game parodies. The one that comes most quickly to mind is the Castle from CHRONO TRIGGER and another scene from FINAL FANTASY III. This will probably never be seen in the United States, which is too bad, because it was a lot of fun and would be a sure hit with die-hard gamers.
Both Mr. Ishikawa and Scott laughed throughout the film, which leads me to believe that they really do enjoy their work. But not everyone who makes a living from anime is a fan. Scott told me,""When you're an animator, you learn all these production tricks used to cut corners and save money. And it can really ruin your enjoyment when watching shows that use them So a lot of times, I warn fans who are thinking that they want to turn professional that if they do, they can become disgusted with how everybody cuts corners and how little 'pure' animation is done. There are five things I could show you that happen all the time in anime production. But I've stopped telling people because they wind up hating me because I 'ruined anime' for them."
Next door to one of the I.G studios is Xebec, is a subcompany of I.G which produces their television series. Current credits include BAKURETSU HUNTER, BLUE SEED, LET'S GO, and the new series based on the Asamiya Kia manga in SHONEN ACE, NADESHIKO. Right now they are working on the BLUE SEED 2 OVAs, as well as OVAs for BAKURETSU HUNTER. "With the OVA format, we'll be able to do things that we weren't able to do in the TV series," Scott says, but just what, he wouldn't say (continued).