Global Anime Challenge is a three-year program funded by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs. Its goal is to nurture the Japanese anime industry’s next generation of creators. The program participants aim to develop brand new and exciting contents for the ever increasing global anime fans. We had the chance to sit with the selected creators of GAC to ask them about their experiences and hopes for the program.
In this panel we spoke to the creators about their works and what they hope the GAC will accomplish for Japanese creators overseas. Read on to find out!
Kawaii Kakkoi Sugoi: Saito-san, your work on Bocchi the Rock and Frieren has earned you many fans across the world, do you often check SNS to see what kind of fan content the internet creates?
Saito: I do check SNS such as X, and while my work is being broadcasted I do check to see what fans are saying in real time. As far as the fan-generated contents are concerned, it’s sort of a gray area with the copyrights concerned. However, I do keep that in mind, but I still do enjoy seeing what the fans have come up with as their fan activity.
I’m not too deeply involved with the meme culture, but as I do my work as a director, I do become more and more aware of this meme culture and implant the seeds in my work, such as Bocchi the Rock or Frieren. So now I am more aware of this particular culture on the net. So when the meme goes viral, I feel like it’s something that I sort of did intentionally.
KKS: Nakame-san, there is a belief that there is not enough proficient talent in the industry to satisfy the increasing demands of more anime production. As a production manager, what do you hope GAC can do to address this issue?
Nakame: That is correct. There are many talented people out there, thanks to the Internet. But also at the same time, we do have an increased amount of works, anime titles, that are out there too. So the situation is that the resources are not catching up with the increase of the number of titles. What I hope for the future, for the industry, is that as we have more titles that are being made, there will be more increase in the number of people who are watching anime. That eventually leads to an increase in the number of people who are producing anime. In terms of how GAC can contribute, I actually think that GAC is already selecting very talented people. You can expect a lot from these people in the near future. So like I said, if the overall population of creators increases, I think there will be more people with talents who get selected for programs like GAC.
As the GAC program itself, it’s nearly impossible to solve all of the industry’s issues, however through contacting overseas creatives who are really talented it might be even possible to create something together as a co-production. So what I’m hoping for is through the GAC program, we can also increase the overall worldwide talent pool and to work with them while cherishing and nurturing their talents.
I personally do think that even though the selected participants are really, really talented already, this program can influence us in a great way. That’s just my personal opinion. In terms of creative population, I think this program and overall industry will be boosted in the future.
KKS: For the group members, what do you hope to bring back to Japan through your experiences traveling to events around the world through GAC?
Tanimoto: I do realize that all the cultures and backgrounds are different, varying from country to country. So even if you watch the same animation work, you get different reactions. And this is something that I have seen through GAC programs. So I am now more aware of this variety and different cultures and backgrounds.
And people are very, very different from one to the other due to the cultural differences. So I would like to keep learning about these things and noticing these differences. So that’s what I hope to take away from the GAC program.
Kudo: Seeing the overseas fans, the fans have so much passion about the works that they like. And they watch my work very closely.. That gives me energy to work harder and learning through GAC.
Saito: So normally I stay in Japan and work from home. So I don’t get to really go outside and see the world, but coming to conventions like here gives me an opportunity to see how fans are reacting to my works. So it gives me all the information and I get stimulated by the creatives for my next work. And that’s one thing. And then the second thing is that you can sort of notice how big your work is in Japan with the title itself. However, it’s kind of hard to see how, as an individual artist, how big you are outside of Japan and even within Japan. So by coming over here and then seeing people come to see me gives me encouragement to know that as a creator myself, that my people are noticing my name and who I am. So I am very, very excited about that.
Nakame: I agree with Saito-san if I may add to it. We have events like Comic Market and Comitia and cosplay. It’s not exactly the same as the conventions in America, so I have seen fans getting excited and having all the fun here, so my hope is that maybe we can bring this exciting event style to Japan, and maybe create similar events.
KKS: Thank you everyone for your time. I look forward to the fruits of your learnings!
Global Anime Challenge
Official Website: https://www.global-anime-challenge.com/
Official X: https://x.com/globalanimePR
Thank you to Anime Central for facilitating the interview and interpretation.
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