1 - The History of BONES

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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
[00:03] NA
    It's been 25 years since Bones first made
    its mark on the Japanese animation industry.
[00:08] NA
    Breaking through the limits
    of traditional animation,
[00:13] NA
    Bones has created numerous
    original and adapted series
[00:16] NA
    full of breathtaking action scenes,
    creativity, and dynamism.
[00:23] OTSUKA
    Since before I entered the industry,
    Bones was known for its cool action sequences.
[00:29] MIMA
    Especially the sound effects,
    like blood spray or wailing.
[00:32] MATSUKURA
    I suppose I'd describe it
    as stylish and powerful.
[00:35] NA
    Bones has produced over 80
    movies, TV series, and OVA
[00:39] NA
    including* Cowboy Bebop: Knockin'
    on Heaven's Door*,* RahXephon*,
[00:47] NA
    Fullmetal Alchemist,* Space Dandy*,
    Eureka Seven, and* My Hero Academia*.
[00:54] NATSUME
    They take everything seriously.
[00:55] NATSUME
    Every series is handled with
    a straightforward approach.
[00:59] ITO
    They produce very detailed art
    and high quality works.
[01:07] NA
    Bones' high technical skills has
    produced a wide variety of works,
[01:12] NA
    which is achieved by providing creators
    with a place to think and create freely.
[01:18] WATANABE
    If I told another studio
    I wanted to create freely,
[01:22] WATANABE
    I doubt anyone else would let me do it.
[01:27] MORI
    Bones' willingness to boldly produce original
    series is one of their best qualities.
[01:35] MORI
    You can feel the philosophy behind it.
[01:36] MONJI
    Bones is powerful.
[01:41] MATSUZAKI
    Bones has worked on a lot of series
    with a large core fan base.
[01:49] HONMA
    FMA. I can't believe they got FMA.
[01:53] MINAMI
    They must like it.
    No, that doesn't do it justice.
[01:57] NA
    Bones is constantly pursuing
    works that transcend genres.
[02:04] NA
    Metallic Rouge, the series commemorating
    the studio's 25th anniversary...
[02:14] NA
    is a tech-noir science fiction series
[02:16] NA
    filled with spectacular and innovative
    action scenes featuring androids.
[02:23] SPEAKER
    It began with us talking
    about making a proper sci-fi series.
[02:28] NA
    This four-part program will feature interviews
    with founder Masahiko Minami,
[02:32] NA
    as well as industry members and creators
    with deep connections to Bones,
[02:37] NA
    and stories that get to
    the heart of the studio.
[02:46] MINAMI
    We've been asked to resurrect
    memories from decades ago.
[02:51] NA
    Get to know the creators who have been
    providing the world with dreams for 25 years.
[02:56] SPEAKER
    Here we go!
[03:38] NA
    The relationship of the core members of Bones
[03:41] NA
    dates back to the days
    they worked at Sunrise,
[03:44] NA
    one of Japan's leading
    anime production companies.
[03:46] NA
    Sunrise, creator of the popular
    series* Mobile Suit Gundam*,
[03:51] NA
    was known as one of the primary
    producers of robot anime,
[03:55] NA
    but they were also popular
    for their works from other genres
[03:58] NA
    such as* City Hunter and Dirty Pair*.
[04:02] NA
    Masahiko Minami got involved in anime
    production at the historic Sunrise company,
[04:07] NA
    where his talents as a producer blossomed.
[04:11] NA
    Eventually he would meet Hiroshi
    Osaka and Toshihiro Kawamoto,
[04:17] NA
    creators with a strong desire
    to create, and together
[04:21] NA
    they produced* City Hunter*,
    Escaflowne, and* G Gundam*.
[04:24] NA
    They would also go on to create
    the groundbreaking* Cowboy Bebop*.
[04:30] MINAMI
    When I joined the Japanese animation industry,
    there were only TV shows and movies.
[04:41] MINAMI
    A lot of TV shows in particular were
    created to sell toys or plastic models.
[04:53] MINAMI
    When I started, the role of producers
    was primarily to talk to toy makers
[05:04] MINAMI
    and handle project planning.
[05:13] MINAMI
    While working as a producer,
[05:16] MINAMI
    I frequently had thoughts about
    the type of series I wanted to create
[05:19] MINAMI
    or what I wanted to create
    with certain staff,
[05:24] MINAMI
    so Kawamoto, Osaka,
    and I left to make a place
[05:30] MINAMI
    where we could create in a way
    we couldn't at Sunrise.
[05:39] MINAMI
    It was around this time
    that we started thinking
[05:42] MINAMI
    about making animation to be seen
    and not just to sell toys.
[05:48] MINAMI
    We wanted to make a place where we
    could find new forms of expression,
[05:56] MINAMI
    new genres, and new themes through creation.
[06:02] NA
    In 1998, during production on* Cowboy Bebop*,
[06:06] NA
    Minami founded Bones
    with Osaka and Kawamoto.
[06:11] NA
    However, their goal wasn't
    to produce anime in order to sell toys.
[06:18] JULIA
    I'm glad we met.
[06:19] FAYE
    Me, too.
[06:21] MINAMI
    We happened to quit while
    we were working on Bebop.
[06:29] MINAMI
    We were constantly working on something,
    so there wasn't a perfect time to quit.
[06:37] JET
    See you later.
[06:39] WATANABE
    I heard about Bones being founded during the
    final stages of production on Cowboy Bebop.
[06:49] WATANABE
    It was mostly the same group
    that had been working at Sunrise.
[06:57] WATANABE
    It felt like that group had simply
    become a new studio called Bones.
[07:03] WATANABE
    Even Mr. Minami said not much would change.
[07:09] WATANABE
    Nobody was anxious about
    Bones being a new studio.
[07:16] WATANABE
    Bones' first studio was just a room.
    It was a tiny one-room rental.
[07:27] WATANABE
    We were worried it wouldn't be enough.
[07:31] WATANABE
    Nobody thought we'd become a huge
    internationally famous company.
[07:37] JET
    Look at all of this.
[07:40] JET
    Who do they think is gonna fix this?
[07:44] AMANO
    I love the Cowboy Bebop TV series.
    It was one of the reasons I pursued this job.
[07:50] AMANO
    Even while watching the TV show,
    there was something about it that felt really cinematic.
[07:57] AMANO
    When I learned we'd be making
    a movie for theatrical release,
[08:02] AMANO
    I was excited to come to work.
[08:08] NA
    Bones was established to produce anime
    with an emphasis on creativity.
[08:14] NA
    After they left Sunrise,
    Minami, Osaka, and Kawamoto
[08:18] NA
    completed the series with Shinichiro Watanabe
    and began production on the movie.
[08:25] NA
    Yoko Kanno composed the music.
[08:27] NA
    The smooth animation
    was uncommon for the time.
[08:34] MINAMI
    On the Bebop movie, all the staff,
[08:37] MINAMI
    including Director Shinichiro Watanabe
    and Toshihiro Kawamoto,
[08:43] MINAMI
    continuously pursued a high level.
[08:50] MINAMI
    They refused to compromise on anything.
[08:53] MINAMI
    This scene will look like this.
    This shot in this scene will look like that.
[08:59] MINAMI
    The movie is an aggregation of the tremendous
    effort they put into every single frame.
[09:12] WATANABE
    Compared to a TV series,
    you have more time and money available.
[09:17] ALL
    Three hundred million?
[09:20] WATANABE
    You might only get two minutes
    for an action scene in a TV show,
[09:27] WATANABE
    but you get ten minutes in a movie.
[09:29] WATANABE
    We ended up with more shots
    than originally planned,
[09:33] WATANABE
    which meant we didn't have enough animators.
[09:37] WATANABE
    Even while working on the TV series,
[09:39] WATANABE
    we'd end up being off by a minute
    or two in each episode.
[09:42] WATANABE
    We were producing about five episodes
    worth at once, which quintupled the error.
[09:49] WATANABE
    It became difficult to control.
[09:53] AMANO
    There were about a dozen or so
    main staff working out of the studio.
[10:02] AMANO
    Things were quite harmonious
    when production began.
[10:07] AMANO
    In the latter half, as the schedule got worse
    and worse, things became strained.
[10:11] JET
    It's an emergency. Can't you do something?
[10:14] AMANO
    But we had plenty of staff
    focused on the movie,
[10:20] AMANO
    so I'm glad I got to experience all of that.
[10:24] SPIKE
    Hey.
[10:25] ED
    Found you.
[10:27] WATANABE
    The staff were passionate.
    That definitely helped.
[10:33] WATANABE
    People who wanted to animate
    the movie had showed up.
[10:40] VINCENT
    I'm glad I got to see you at the end.
[10:45] NA
    Both the TV series and movie
    were hugely successful,
[10:48] NA
    and* Cowboy Bebop and its unique atmosphere
    established a new trend in anime production.
[10:54] NA
    Bones also became a beacon for rising
    production companies in the anime industry.
[11:00] NA
    The Vision of Escaflowne was the second
    work Bones inherited from Sunrise.
[11:06] NA
    With the aim of creating a robot
    series approachable to women,
[11:09] NA
    Bones began production on a movie.
[11:12] AKANE
    People were starting to say
[11:14] AKANE
    you couldn't produce a hit live action movie
    or drama without a female audience.
[11:22] AKANE
    I didn't understand why anime was the only
    medium producing media just for men.
[11:29] AKANE
    I wanted to create something women would
    watch if I had the opportunity to direct.
[11:39] AKANE
    When we got Escaflowne,
    it was planned for a male audience.
[11:46] AKANE
    I suggested to Mr. Minami
    that going forward,
[11:50] AKANE
    anime would have to tell stories
    for women, too.
[11:58] AKANE
    I convinced him to let me try making
    something like that with Escaflowne.
[12:08] AKANE
    As it turned out, it was watched
    overwhelmingly by women.
[12:12] AKANE
    I personally was really glad about that.
[12:17] NA
    Abandoning the stereotype
    that robot anime are for men
[12:22] NA
    and leaving production up to the creators
    allows a greater variety of stories to be told.
[12:27] NA
    Bones proved that idea with Escaflowne.
[12:30] NA
    The robot genre was changing,
    breaking away from merchandising
[12:37] NA
    and bringing in new settings
    and compositions.
[12:41] AKANE
    Drawing mecha requires special skills.
[12:45] AKANE
    Not every animator can draw them.
[12:50] HORI
    Only a limited number
    of studios can produce them.
[12:55] HORI
    It takes a veteran animator to get the
    action scenes right or express their weight.
[13:04] HORI
    It has to be expressed carefully.
[13:09] OHYAMA
    One of Bones' roots—their identity—
    can be found in their robot series.
[13:25] MINAMI
    I really like robot series.
[13:31] MINAMI
    The robots themselves are interesting
[13:36] MINAMI
    because they're simultaneously
    fantastical and realistic.
[13:44] MINAMI
    They're massive objects operated
    by flesh and blood pilots.
[13:50] MINAMI
    They're simultaneously weapons and vehicles.
[13:55] MINAMI
    They're a space and
    an extension of your body.
[14:04] MINAMI
    The appeal of robot anime is that all
    these things can be expressed by a robot.
[14:12] NA
    Yutaka Izubuchi was appointed as director,
    and the original series RahXephon was born.
[14:20] NA
    With credits on Mobile Police Patlabor*,
    Kagaku Sentai Dynaman,
[14:26] NA
    Dengeki Sentai Changeman,
    and* Kamen Rider Agito*,
[14:31] NA
    this lover of tokusatsu
    and robots is a legendary figure.
[14:32] IZUBUCHI
    Minami asked if I wanted to
    work on an original series.
[14:40] IZUBUCHI
    He said I should make something myself
    since I'm so quick to comment on others' work.
[14:49] IZUBUCHI
    That said, I did want to try making
    something different from Gundam.
[15:00] IZUBUCHI
    Something more like Reideen.
[15:05] IZUBUCHI
    I wanted to take a more occult
    or mystical approach.
[15:16] IZUBUCHI
    I wanted to create a mystical robot series
[15:20] IZUBUCHI
    that incorporated sci-fi elements
    like quantum mechanics.
[15:29] AYATO
    RahXephon.
[15:41] IZUBUCHI
    I was inspired by that sort of thing.
[15:43] IZUBUCHI
    The fossil beasts of Reideen
    were like golems.
[15:48] IZUBUCHI
    Reideen itself seemed
    to be made of stone at first,
[15:55] IZUBUCHI
    but by the third or fourth one,
    it had turned into a kaiju.
[16:02] IZUBUCHI
    It stops feeling like a fossil beast, but that
    made it easy for children to understand.
[16:12] IZUBUCHI
    In that regard, it was doll-shaped.
[16:17] IZUBUCHI
    The fossil beasts were like kaiju made
    of stone, but this felt like a doll.
[16:26] IZUBUCHI
    An unmoving solid chunk.
[16:31] IZUBUCHI
    They were treating it like a clay figure.
[16:41] IZUBUCHI
    It was the Reideen I wanted to see.
    It's a little childish, isn't it?
[16:47] IZUBUCHI
    But surprisingly, sometimes that childish desire
    is what drives you to create something.
[17:07] KYODA
    The series is about what Mr. Izubuchi
    had inside him at the time.
[17:16] KYODA
    I'd known him since we were children,
[17:20] KYODA
    so I had a good sense of what he
    wanted to do and his nuance.
[17:27] KYODA
    It didn't feel new to me,
    but that wasn't a bad thing.
[17:34] KYODA
    I felt like it clearly expressed
    what he wanted to do.
[17:43] AMANO
    The first key frame system
    we first used during RahXephon
[17:48] AMANO
    was unusual for our company
    and the industry as a whole.
[17:54] AMANO
    In simple terms, the first key frame
    is like a rough drawing.
[17:59] AMANO
    The idea was that our internal animators
    would film a bunch of shots,
[18:04] AMANO
    and a select few would improve the quality.
[18:09] AMANO
    Then they'd hand it off
    to the second key frame group
[18:15] AMANO
    to proactively ensure a high level of quality.
[18:17] AYATO
    It's done.
[18:21] NA
    Later, the staff who received high praise
    for* Ouran High School Host Club*
[18:26] NA
    would suggest the idea that lead to the
    production of* STAR DRIVER: Shining Takuto*,
[18:31] NA
    a high school series
    with robot anime elements.
[18:38] OYABU
    Star Driver is a high school robot series.
[18:43] OYABU
    Mr. Minami's stance is, "I don't
    understand it, but it must be entertaining."
[18:52] OYABU
    "If you insist that it's
    interesting, then it must be."
[18:59] MINAMI
    At first, I asked what the point
    was of robots fighting
[19:04] MINAMI
    in a setting as small and limited as a school.
[19:12] MINAMI
    Robots should express something
    by fighting somewhere bigger,
[19:18] MINAMI
    so why would they have these
    nonsense fights in such a small place?
[19:24] MINAMI
    As the story progresses, it moves into
    outer space and the rest of the world.
[19:35] TAKEDA
    Mr. Enokido and Director
    Igarashi worked together
[19:40] TAKEDA
    to create the high school
    series they wanted to make,
[19:45] TAKEDA
    with shaman-like shrine maidens,
    a mysterious and fantastical world,
[19:54] TAKEDA
    and giant robots.
[19:58] TAKEDA
    Mr. Minami is a very interesting man
    for letting them do that.
[20:07] NAGASAKI
    I was a storyboard artist.
[20:10] NAGASAKI
    Robot series typically feature
    a lot of war, battles, and people.
[20:17] NAGASAKI
    I thought I'd be drawing those heavy themes,
    but it wasn't like that at all.
[20:24] NAGASAKI
    I heard they wanted to make it
    a cheerful high school anime.
[20:29] NAGASAKI
    I thought it sounded positive and fun.
[20:34] GODA
    Let's ride, Tetrioht!
[20:39] OYABU
    There are battles, of course,
[20:42] OYABU
    but it's a robot series that makes you
    want to attend that school,
[20:49] OYABU
    visit that island, and be
    the protagonist of that world.
[20:55] OHYAMA
    The original title was Ginga Bishonen.
[21:04] OHYAMA
    Star Driver is a unique combination
    of male idols and robots.
[21:16] OHYAMA
    That may have been the reason
    it entered the world
[21:19] OHYAMA
    as a new kind of robot series
    for women, as well.
[21:32] HORI
    Bones is a studio that carries
    on the traditions of Sunrise.
[21:39] HORI
    They've made traditional mecha anime,
[21:44] HORI
    but I believe they create works
    that feel inspired less by anime culture
[21:51] HORI
    and more by other cultures,
    especially Eureka Seven.
[21:54] NA
    In 2005, Bones produced* Eureka Seven*,
[21:59] NA
    directed by Tomoki Kyoda and
    screenplay written by Dai Sato.
[22:04] NA
    Inspired by seemingly unrelated pop culture,
[22:09] NA
    a unique anime about robot,
    surfing, and techno music was born.
[22:16] KYODA
    Club culture was really taking
    off in Japan at the time.
[22:20] KYODA
    I was in college when Japanese artists
    like Denki Groove and Ken Ishii
[22:27] KYODA
    started selling records internationally.
[22:33] KYODA
    With that background, I started thinking
    about what it meant to surf.
[22:40] KYODA
    When I realized I had to draw a confrontation
    between mainstream culture and subculture,
[22:47] KYODA
    I asked myself what subcultures meant to me.
[22:53] RENTON
    Yes!
[22:54] AMANO
    Mr. Kyoda is seven or eight years older
    than me, but they were subcultures I liked.
[23:01] AMANO
    Not all of them,
    but take techno, for example.
[23:05] AMANO
    I thought the use of Denki
    Groove was really cool.
[23:09] AMANO
    He must have a keen ear, since I didn't
    think they'd be a good fit for anime.
[23:14] AMANO
    When he added robots on top of that,
[23:16] AMANO
    I thought it was unusual,
    like nothing I'd ever seen.
[23:21] AMANO
    Not only that, but they're surfing.
[23:27] SATO
    For Eureka, we mixed in music from
    techno artists alongside my music.
[23:36] SATO
    I avoided electronic sounds and opted
    for orchestral and acoustic music
[23:42] SATO
    to create a sound that would contrast
    with the electronic music of techno.
[23:52] SATO
    I think sound director Mr.
    Wakabayashi did a fantastic job
[23:55] SATO
    applying the music to the animation.
[24:00] WAKABAYASHI
    The music everyone liked so much was the
    product of me supporting the director's vision.
[24:09] WAKABAYASHI
    I handled the music for the Seven Swell,
[24:11] WAKABAYASHI
    the protagonist's sadness,
    and his embrace with Eureka,
[24:16] WAKABAYASHI
    but the director handled
    everything else, like the battle music.
[24:20] TAKEDA
    Mr. Kyoda and Mr. Sato got to do exactly
    what they wanted to do on Eureka Seven.
[24:34] TAKEDA
    It's a painful thing, but it's also fulfilling.
[24:40] TAKEDA
    Not many producers are like
    Masahiko Minami of Bones,
[24:48] TAKEDA
    who lenient enough to let them do that.
[25:00] NA
    Minami's studio Bones preserved
    the traditions of Sunrise
[25:06] NA
    while drawing out the talents of
    creators with groundbreaking ideas
[25:12] NA
    to create novel works.
[25:16] NA
    In just a few years, they were
    providing broadcasting stations
[25:21] NA
    with unique original anime.