Chapter 341 3-Week Reports

Conference Room 1-A, Tokyo Animation Studios.

"Now, if no one has any questions, ask now." Ryoko said calmly as she observed the animators in front of her.

The animators looked at each other, but no one said anything, they all understood perfectly what their boss has just said.

They would get 4 days off from work!

And that couldn't be any clearer for them to understand.

"Great! Now we can start the meeting." Ryoko said with a smile.

"Theo will preside over this meeting, so he will access your progress." Ryoko added as she looked at the silver-haired man seated beside her.

This meeting was mainly to expose how the anime production is going to Theo.

The animators became a little nervous when they heard that, after all, Theo's opinion was too important.

Even Ryoko was a little nervous as she also wanted to impress him, he had given her so much that all she wanted was to give her best to his studio.

"Hey, guys, Ryoko already briefed me on how your progress is going. But I want to hear from you how the past 3 weeks passed. Don't be afraid to expose your ideas and comments about what you think about this production. This is my first time producing an anime and I'm open to suggestions." Theo started with a gentle voice and an amicable smile.

He didn't want his employees to be afraid to expose their ideas to him, he was open to critics and contrasting ideas, as only that way his studio could become better.

That's why he wanted to pass a friendly feeling to him, this way these people could become more open with him.

It could be said that his strategy worked because as soon as he said that, the animators relaxed a little.

"Let's start with the backbone of the studio, shall we? In-between animators, how's the work going?" Theo asked as he looked at the in-between animators' team leaders.

It was common knowledge that in-between animation was the most basic but also the most essential part of an animation, without this process, the animation wouldn't come to life.

That's why Theo started with them, their work was the most lengthy and could affect how much the production progressed.

"Boss, we just finished the in-between drawings for the first two episodes. We are currently working on the third and fourth episodes animations." One of them replied with a slightly nervous voice.

Theo nodded in approval when he heard that as he was satisfied with their efficiency.

Currently, there were more than 300 in-between animators in the studio, which was much more than a normal studio would have as a normal studio would employ freelancer animators to draw these in-between animations, that made Theo's studio one of the rare studios that employed in-between animators.

The others studios thought it was a waste of money to hire in-between animators, but Theo thought differently.

He didn't want to depend on freelancer animators, he wanted to be self-sufficient.

Especially because Theo would release several animes and movies, and he wanted a stable amount of people to work on these projects.

350 in-between animators working in a single anime was an extremely exaggerated number as a normal anime production would only employ around 30 in-between animators.

Theo had 10 times over the standard number!

That's why Theo was not surprised when they said that they finished drawing the in-between animation of two episodes in only 3 weeks, and they would probably finish the third episode before the end of the month.

That's also why Theo was not worried about the deadline.

In all departments of the studio, there were more people than a normal anime production would have, this way they would be able to finish in no time as the animators became even more used to working there.

Their efficiency would increase, and Theo predicted that they would finish the 12 episodes before April.

Some people may be asking why the others would not do the same as Theo, after all, the anime production timeframe could be considerably reduced, but what Theo did was extremely expensive.

Theo hired 850 animators, and he even gave them bigger wages than the other studios offered.

Theo was prepared to spend more than 2 million dollars on costs every month.

Who would be crazy enough to pay more than 2 million dollars every month, if they could pay less if they extended the timeframe of the anime production?

Especially when the success of the anime was not guaranteed.

What if they spent all this money and the anime was a failure?

They would have a huge deficit and in the end, they would have to fire the extra animators.

Only a person like Theo who didn't care about money would be able to do that.

Theo didn't fear his animes being a failure, he knew for a fact that all of them would be successful, so another reason for him to not care about the money he spent.

Theo asked some other questions to the in-between animators' team leaders, questions about the drawing style, their difficulties, and others.

In the end, Theo felt like he knew better how the in-between animation was going, he predicted that their efficiency would only increase in the next few months.

"Keyframe animators, how about you guys?" Theo asked as he looked at the keyframe animators' team leaders.

Keyframe Animation and In-between Animation were similar, but the Keyframe animation was slightly more important as these keyframe animations were what defined the animation.

"Boss, we also finished the animations for the first and second episodes, we are currently working on the third episode. As soon as the animation supervisors give us the okay, we will start drawing the fourth episode." One keyframe team leader replied.

Keyframe and In-between Animators worked closely with the Animation Supervisors.

These supervisors would inspect each drawing that the in-between and keyframe departments would produce, and if they found any errors and mistakes, the respective departments would have to redo it all over again.

It was only with the supervisors that an anime could be made, these supervisors needed to have an acute vision to detect any mistakes in the drawings, if they let pass any errors, the anime could be seriously affected.

Theo nodded in approval when he heard that, again he was not surprised by their efficiency as they had much more keyframe animators than a normal studio would have.

So, it was obvious that they would be able to produce the drawings faster.

Theo asked them several other questions just like he did with the other group.

Soon after, it was the supervisors' turn.

Theo talked with them and asked about their opinion on the anime production, as supervisors they should have a sense of judgment, so Theo wanted to see if they had their own opinions and if they were bold enough to express them.

Surprisingly, Mitsue was one of the people who expressed her opinion and her view about anime production.

The shy girl was a little afraid, but she was talented, she just need more time to develop.

And Theo was able to see a rising star in her in the future of the studio.

The ones who knew Mitsue were baffled when they saw the shy girl talking so confidently with Theo.

They couldn't help but feel proud of her and how far she had come.

The creative meeting had a light mood as they exchanged ideas, they even forgot that Theo was the studio owner.

Theo achieved what he wanted.