The Making of Little Witch Academia 2 aka Shirobako 2: The Suffering
That realization that dawns on his face when he realizes how screwed he is.
So this is the 3rd documentary coming out of Trigger on the production of anime. They produced one for the first LWA and two separate ones for KLK. While I don't think they're necessarily reflective of the industry as many studios operate differently, Kyoto Animation for example operates somewhat uniquely partially due to how effective their production scheduling is, they do give a glimpse into general practices of studios. So unlike the previous ones, this was almost exclusively focused on the storyboard and keyframe side. It felt a bit more 'advanced' than the other ones as the explanations were more complicated in explaining what separated good animation from great animation.
For example the above sequence was Yoshinari explaining why a rough version of the tomato fight in LWA2 wasn't conveying the proper force due to things such as a shift in the center of gravity. The video later breaks down the center of gravity shifts, and compares it to the original version. This is much better than the previous documentaries as it increases comprehension with the audience as to the improvements instead of the usual overlapping or splitscreen comparisons. It also served as a good insight into what high level animators look for.
I found the 'Yoshinari Animation Meetings' aspect very interesting as it looks closer to a traditional class/lecture which is something I would have expected him to do during the first OVA due to the Anime Mirai aspect. Instead, he starts it now when there are no teaching pressures for him to fulfill. It's possible the first LWA pushed forward his drive for instructing. I was happy about the fact that they used newcomers for the sequel as it keeps in the learning spirit of the first LWA.
This dude looked like he was doing a little puff puff on the side though.
The documentary gives a little glimpse into the making of the storyboards and there were no jails involved! I wish this segment was a bit longer but I understand it's mostly a mental battle on Yoshinari's part and isn't exactly exciting to watch. Still though it's spellbinding as the storyboards are in many ways the foundation of an episode. The artist is turning a bunch of words into visuals and by doing so, can control the direction and flow of the work. I feel like this is one of the harder things to do in anime production as the animator is in some ways creating something from scratch.
This bit was engrossing but it ties into one of my larger issues with LWA2, Akko's tantrum. The way it's explained here made me come to grips with it in that Akko isn't bailed out and even the conversation with Diana isn't so much a pep-talk. Akko kickstarts her own engines and comes up with a solution on her own. I really didn't appreciate that aspect when I first watched it. I'm guessing the Diana and library scene were somewhat late changes but they are critical for character development.
So Kaneko painted the storyboards for the first LWA and he did so for the 2nd one. This is highly unusual inside the industry but I guess it helps the animators and possibly other staff to know what feelings the director wants out of a scene. The emphasis on colors for the lighting gave me a greater level of regard for certain scenes such as Lotte in her room. I really wanted the cameraman to spend more time on Kaneko because of how great he is despite Yoshinari's quibblings. He's a fantastic art director and continues to do amazing work on the backgrounds. This will almost certainly be a highlight in whatever Trigger's next work is.
The next segment was pretty funny as it's mainly most of the animators hitting different roadblocks creatively. It was neat catching up on the old ex-newbie animators and seeing their progress. Both Yuto Kaneko and Shuhei Handa look much more confident and skilled compared to two years ago, which is to be expected considering the number of projects they've worked on since. Of course Little Witch Academia wouldn't be Little Witch Academia without massive amounts of suffering on the parts of the animators so they weren't exactly in the best of spirits.
Everybody getting snippy. lol
The final part was the last minute rush to deliver and it really did seem like a last minute rush. This part stood out in contrast to the first LWA, in that seemingly everybody was being brought in to finish the movie. This is different from the first LWA as Anime Mirai put in a restriction that the work had to be done by a fixed number of people. I remember Yoshinari was concerned during the production of the first one, as to whether they would finish on time because they couldn't do the usual process of bringing other people in at the end, so I guess it forced better planning compared to this one. LWA2 had a much more traditional production in this regard. There was even a driving segment ala Shirobako to deliver the finished key animation. I wanted them to delve more in the outsourcing side and see how they dealt with outside key animators though. It also would have been nice for them to follow up with post premiere changes and how that was handled.
As an aside, they brought up Tadashi Hiramatsu who I wasn't particularly familiar with. I had seen cuts of his before, such as the above scene, but I didn't know that he was that highly regarded. He was mentioned as a mentor to Imaishi and Yoshinari which was good to know as I wasn't knowledgeable on who influenced both of them in Gainax itself. You can also see Sushio has picked up elements of Hiramatsu's animation such as the thick lines and 'roughing up' the genga. This must have been a big moment for Yoshinari in that he was having his mentor help Yoshinari on his own production.
It really does seem like most of these stories in creative industries turn out to be about the suffering of the creators doesn't it?
