There is no longer any rejection of CGI, says Orange

Over the past few decades, anime studio Orange ("BEASTARS," "Trigun Stampede") has become one of the leading Japanese creators in the CGI anime scene. According to Eiji Inomoto, Orange's chief director and representative, his team had to overcome several major hurdles before achieving success: first and foremost, that audiences used to be much less accustomed to CGI animation.

Orange opened its doors in 2004, a year when studios were increasingly turning to CGI to facilitate the production of their anime. However, creating a CGI anime studio was still relatively risky, given that most only did commissioned work for other major studios. However, Inomoto believed that there were certain things that his team could only achieve effectively using CGI. During a recent interview, Inomoto explained why he decided to throw caution to the wind and start building an in-house team to create original productions with CGI animation.

Inomoto began his career in CGI production as a freelancer in the video game industry. In 1999, he began applying his talents to anime production. One of his first projects was "Zoids," a mecha sci-fi anime that became a huge national hit. He was also responsible for the animation of the Tachikoma robots in "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)". These series opened Inomoto's mind to the possibilities of CG animation, but he still had some reservations about opening his own studio.

"In the anime industry at the time, the demand for CGI was increasing from the perspective of compensating for hard-to-process parts in animation," says Inomoto. "Due to this unstable situation, the production companies specializing in CGI animation were able to continue generating profits. But, to be honest, I didn't know if I would be able to continue producing... I didn't know if a CGI company could work as a business."

In the beginning, Orange began doing outsourcing work for studios such as Satelight (Genesis of Aquarion) and Kinema Citrus (. Hack//Quantam). In 2017, the studio was selected as the prime contractor for an anime called Land of the Lustrous. This meant that Orange was in charge of almost every major aspect of the production, including the script, storyboards, and animation.

Inomoto saw this as a golden opportunity to start using CGI for things that audiences were less used to at the time. "I made this work with the idea that I wanted anime fans to embrace CGI, and it was great that this work finally achieved that goal. Until then, robots and other devices had been successful, but in Land of the Lustrous, the CGI drawn characters were well received," Inomoto explained.

Although Inomoto was actively trying to make CGI more appealing to the general public, he admits that the attitude of the 2017 audience influenced the way he designed the series. "When I was working on Land of the Lustrous, my goal was to get a line that looked like both animation and CGI. The other day, by chance, I saw him again and thought, 'at the time, I thought this was the best.' But if I had to do Land of the Lustrous now, I wouldn't do it like that. It's been seven years, and both the public's tolerance for CGI and my own tastes have changed, because the parts of CGI that make people feel comfortable have changed."

Inomoto realized this shortly after the release of "Trigun Stampede (2023)," which quickly gained a devoted audience. "We created Trigun Stampede anticipating that there would be negative reactions such as 'too much movement'. In fact, there were a few people who said that in the early days of the broadcast, but the broadcast ended on a much better note than I expected."

Currently, Orange is working on the long-awaited final season of "BEASTARS." In addition, Orange is also developing a new anime inspired by historical events, which Inomoto describes as a "new challenge" for his studio. However, Inomoto faces the challenge with optimism and high hopes for his team's future. "Orange's next goal is to make a 'big hit' with full CGI, so I hope we can achieve that and even more people will accept CGI works."

Source: Comic Natalie