Tagged With: 4 Decades of Animation Excellence | Animation World Network awn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from awn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
For president and CEO Shūzō John Shiota, what a long, strange trip it’s been… as the famed, Emmy Award-winning Japanese animation studio celebrates four often tough decades building and sustaining a business that shifted from pioneering CGI development to production of a wealth of well-known, visually distinctive shows like the 3DCG ‘Godzilla’ trilogy, ‘Ajin,’ ‘Tron:
Dec 31, 2020
It would be hyperbolic to call this year a great one for anime. But in many respects, 2020 is ending better than it began.
Back in April, the Japanese government’s declaration of a state of emergency raised the specter of 2011, when the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown stopped anime studios cold, forcing many to consolidate for survival and some to close for good. The triple disasters of nine years ago disrupted the industry for at least a month and took three or more to overcome.
“We almost went under in 2011,” said Joseph Chou, the CEO of computer animation studio Sola Digital Arts, when I spoke to him in early May. Work had just been abruptly suspended on major shows such as “Pokemon,” “Doraemon” and “One Piece,” and his own staff were struggling to make progress on their forthcoming series, “Blade Runner: Black Lotus,” due out in spring 2021.