JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Producer Says Overseas Anime Production Hasn’t Impacted the Industry Much

Temuri Niishi has been a producer on some of the biggest anime around, including the fourth season of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Diamond Is Unbreakable. Recently, in an interview with the publication Otaku USA Magazine, Niishi opened up about how the west diving into the anime production game hasn’t impacted production in her neck of the woods, as well as stating what changes she would like to make to the anime industry to increase efficiency overall while creating the best possible product!

When asked about the effects of how anime production overseas has affected the industry, Niishi mentioned that the effects themselves weren’t that far felt:

“We have not felt the effects at all. You often hear about big budgets going toward anime, but I don’t feel like a lot of that money is being spent on great artists. Payment is another challenge. Because of the way that payments are made to the industry, they may be partial payments or it takes a while for payment to happen. When a project is commissioned they say, “Okay make 12 episodes. We will start paying you after you complete 12 episodes.”

Expanding on this, Terumi broke down how the new process for creating anime in general has changed the industry and what decisions she would make to improve efficiency:

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s not the way that anime has normally been made in the past, so that might be affecting the way that budgets are spent now. It’s a new process. Nobody is really used to making anime this way so it might be difficult to manage it.

A good way to do it would be if small teams could make the entire production in-house, without outsourcing, like Mecha Ude. Utilizing small teams that do high-quality work without a bunch of checkers in between would be one way to increase efficiency. But there’s not a good training process to get animators to the level where they don’t need a bunch of quality control.”

What do you think of Terumi Niishi’s thoughts on anime production? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure was originally created by Hirohiko Araki for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1987. It follows the story of the Joestar family, who are each destined to take down various supernatural enemies. The series has been split up into eight parts, with each part following a different generation of the Joestar family. The series has sold over 100 million copies, and has been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media. The series has spawned multiple anime, video games, toys, and even jewelry. The series currently has an anime adaptation that initially began in 2012, and now has run for over 100 episodes spanning the first five major arcs of the series.