AnimeCorner had the opportunity to talk with producer Federico Antonio Russo (FAR) about his and fellow producer Blou‘s new venture into anime production: the founding of their own animation studio, Buta Productions (ButaPro), of which FAR is the president and CEO. The two of them have been working in the anime industry for 4-5 years by now, helping with overseas translation work generally for production materials and communication between animators and production staff, as well as generally working as production assistants. Originally, FAR was only helping out as a side gig with otherwise minor work and didn’t take credit due to his belief that it was too minor to warrant credit. Both he and Blou became more known in the industry through Wonder Egg Priority (2021) when they started to receive credits and become more involved (in thanks to animation producer Shouta Umehara) and have since participated in various television anime works and other indie productions as credited staff.
Sarca: You’ve been in the ‘sakuga community’ for a while and started helping overseas animators in 2019. At the time, before working with Shouta Umehara’s Wonder Egg Priority team, did you have any particular motivations or ambitions for yourself in animation?
FAR: Not really, I wasn’t really seeing myself as a producer, nor as a business owner for that matter. It was definitely a gradual process, an Eden’s Apple-type thing if you will. The more you get involved, the more the more you have fun, so the more you have fun, the more you want to get involved. Only later on I started thinking seriously about starting a business myself, mostly for convenience reasons as handling animators and production aspects from a freelance standpoint often times leads to inadequate compensation and abuse.
Sarca: In that gradual process, were there any specific moments that stuck with you and influenced these ideas? Or was it more general as a development of your own experiences and as an observer of the industry?
FAR: The first time I felt like working as a freelancer was detrimental to my negotiating ability was while working on A Couple of Cuckoos, where we ended up receiving way less money compared to what we were promised to, citing “poor drawing quality and slowness” as a factor for that decision while the production desk of that show tried to recruit pretty much all of our animators that he was aware of for his subsequent production (Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation).
[The second season of Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, specifically.]
Later, we had similar issues with WIT Studio, where after working on a Tales of opening animation sequence, the seisaku [production assistant] begged us to help “as a volunteer” to find animators to finish the Ranking of Kings spin-off. We had another couple of similar experiences that really forced us to rethink our strategic approach to clients and ways to retain our animators’ contacts.
Sarca: Compared to working freelance, how is working as a production company benefiting you and the artists, both in and out of potential scenarios like you described? And what new challenges does it bring?
FAR: The most immediate benefits are definitely higher unit prices we get offered. We definitely also experience more trust from the Japanese side. From a production standpoint, having the ability to hire animators using restrained contracts also helps with stability and always being able to find enough quality staff for a specific project. The new challenge is definitely being able to streamline our cash flow in a way where we’re always able to pay everyone constant and fair rates every month, which is somehow of a new experience for me since before we were just interested in high enough unit prices and interesting projects.
[The most well-known problems in the anime industry, and animation industries across the world, continue to be that of labor (overwork) and pay (lack of decent payment). In the anime industry, animators continue to be significantly underpaid for a variety of reasons. It’s not a new issue, nor is it an issue that only affects freelancers or domestic workers, as this also affects overseas animators (who may be oblivious to negotiating or being swindled, for example) and overseas subcontracting companies in South Korea and China who tend to receive outsource work in a rush (less production time) and for half of the price of a domestic outsourcing studio, as noted by Aki Koike and Daisuke Okeda in the Creative Industries Journal Volume 3, No. 3, in 2011.]
Sarca: You made a post about individuals who work in anime for base unit prices while living in low-income countries and that it’s reasonable to ask for higher unit prices—not just to the effect of proper compensation for labor, but also to adjust per the value of the Yen itself across borders and the economic situations for different countries. One way of addressing issues like this for contracted work is setting ButaPro’s minimum price at “10k 10k”. Could you explain what this means and how it helps the artists you work with?
FAR: Base prices for genga and layout start around 2000 yen, for douga they go 100-200 yen per frame. With character designs getting more and more complex each year, animators aren’t able to draw as many cuts per month as in the past, so in order to be profitable we absolutely need higher unit prices. 10k 10k is a bare minimum really, we try to aim for way more than that in order to give our animators livable wages.
Sarca: You’re also responsible for developing a production pipeline, system, and ‘philosophy’ especially for your own productions as a studio. ButaPro is utilizing the Japanese production model (or parts of it), but is there anything that you’re approaching differently in this regard or that has been influenced from other models?
FAR: We really like the Japanese production model for how much freedom and responsibility [it] gives to individual players, whether they are animators or designers or even compositors, that’s for sure. But we also like the more horizontal decision-making process more typical of communities and indie spheres. I personally, as a producer, feel very inspired by Rick Rubin and his almost maieutic way of helping artists realize their best selves through communication and proper interlocution.
Sarca: I think it’s good to see producers and studio managers invested in not just the product itself, but the creators and their individual processes as well. With that said, you’ve been working as a web-based studio which can have its own limitations with communication and workflow; and it might be too early to ask, but do you have any interest in one day opening a production office?
FAR: Yes, we will do so eventually when the revenue goes up enough!
Sarca: Out of curiosity, would you like to set it up in Japan or somewhere else?
FAR: For now, we’re 50% set for Japan and 50% set for Ireland or Luxemburg given that half of the ButaPro people are from Europe, and having an EU location as well might be useful.
Sarca: A lot of studios in Japan are in metro areas, famously Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, but some studios are recently expanding to or being formed elsewhere like Shizuoka. If you had the opportunity to start an office wherever you’d like, is there a particular city or region (Japan, Europe, or elsewhere) you’d think would be cool to be in?
FAR: Personally, if it was just for me, I would go for Chichibu. It’s just 1.5 hours from Ikebukuro Station, the rent there is pretty cheap, and it’s pretty chill in the summer. On the other hand, Suginami Ward in the summer is just unbearable, I don’t even know how people are able to stay productive during the heat.
Tamara: Because they’re set there.
Sarca: As someone who lives in a very hot summer environment, I don’t know how we do it either.
FAR: Yeah I know! Another area we might want to explore is the surroundings of the city of Utsunomiya for pretty much the same reasons.
Tamara: It would also be much more employee-friendly, no commute, cheaper rent (probably), etc. Sounds so idyllic.
FAR: Yeah, the biggest issue is that most people wouldn’t probably like to commute that much every day.
[In recent years, studios like SHAFT and Eight Bit have opened branch offices in other prefectures like Shizuoka and Niigata where the cost of living is less than that of metropolitan Tokyo, where the main branches are located. In an industry where underpay and overwork are common, one attempt at curbing part of the problem is by expanding to or moving to areas where the high cost of living of areas like Tokyo aren’t as much of a problem. The majority of animation studios in Japan are located in Tokyo.]
Tamara: I’m curious about the name, why Buta? Also, was your logo inspired by Hawks from The Seven Deadly Sins? It reminds me so much of that one episode where he eats something weird and starts flying.
FAR: There are two reasons: the first is that in the sakuga community, the community of animation fans, it is common to replace the term “otaku” with “buta”, which means “pig” in Japanese. It is a practice borrowed from the alternative idol community, in which certain artists affectionately call their fans “little pigs” (kobutachan). In a way, it is a bit like saying “animation made by fans for fans” or “animation fans turned professionals.” The second reason is that many of the current members of the studio come from the amateur animation circle “Studio Tonton” and the “ton” of Tonton is nothing more than the onyomi reading of pig, where “buta” is the kunyomi reading.
[Studio Tonton is the animation circle Blou worked with prior.]
FAR: I see the resemblance between the two, but I don’t think the person who made the logo thought that much about The Seven Deadly Sins given they’re not particularly shounen-pilled. I like the idea of a flying pig though! It’s either flying or jumping, that’s for sure.
Sarca: Tamara is the only person I know who has The Seven Deadly Sins brainrot. It’s rather impressive. I didn’t really make the connection between the name and ‘sakubuta’ or Tonton, so I just sat here thinking “It’s like Porco Rosso (it’s nothing like Porco Rosso).” In retrospect, that is more obvious than I thought.
FAR: That is super cool actually. I like the idea; I will steal it.
Tamara: How many members do you have currently? Also, the first season of Seven Deadly Sins was peak.
FAR: Currently, we have around 15 main people including me and Blou, and around 65 people are involved in our current productions (outsourcing excluded).
There were some excellent episodes from the first season, I agree, but I was more into the manga. I really liked the way [Nakaba] Suzuki handles the hatching without the screen tones. It feels very rustic and a bit retro too.
Tamara: During the pandemic, we saw so many delays because of the production process that required people to be on-site (among other things). ButaPro is quite specific and non-traditional in many ways, but do you see it functioning with fully remote employees even if a physical office was opened?
FAR: Yeah, the physical space is mostly just for bonding and social needs purposes that some people might desire from the experience working at the studio, but we totally believe everything can be done also directly from home if a staff member so prefers, given that certain tasks require powerful computer specs (such as compositing for example).
Sarca: I saw you looking for screenwriters the other day for original IPs. What kind of works are you interested in developing?
FAR: Interesting stuff, that’s my only criteria. We’re currently developing two pitches, one for a Nichijou-kei anime involving nurses and the other for an action yuri comedy with sci-fi FLCL-esque elements. I don’t really want to interfere too much when it comes to concept making, I really just want to help creators make their own ideas come to life and make sure that their concepts are powerful and well-rounded enough for a professional production.
Sarca: Thank you for your time in speaking with us, I’m looking forward to the projects and creators ButaPro are able to conjure and work with.
You can find out more about Buta Productions through their official website. You can also directly support the studio and the creators in developing original animated works through their Patreon.
Editing note: As this was a text-based conversation, there are minor edits for consistency and clarity that do not change the meaning of the text such as the use of English-language titles for anime (rather than the Romanized Japanese titles), as well as for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Credits
FAR: Twitter
Editing: Sarca
Assistance: Tamara Lazic