Demon Slayer is one of the most popular animes out right now
and with the Entertainment District Arc currently airing, Demon Slayer’s story,
characters and animation have gotten better and better over time. The incredible animation
is all thanks to Studio Ufotable, who are no strangers when it comes to animation.
Not only have they animated Demon Slayer, they have also worked on the Fate series,
God Eater, The Garden of Sinners and many more. You might expect that Demon Slayer just has a
higher episode budget than everything else, but surprisingly that’s not the case. Any
anime production has to ensure that its budget matches it’s expected earnings.
An episode’s budget ranges from $80,000 to $90,000, however it’s most likely that the budget
for the newer episodes have increased considering the Mugen Train movie had a budget of $15.8
million dollars and made it’s way to now being the most successful Japanese film of all time.
Ufotable which has around 200 staff members and roughly 90 animation staff
are spread over two buildings and divided into about eight divisions.
They pay their animators an actual living wage and don’t overwork them.
They are organized to do as much in-house work as possible and to only focus on few projects at a
time. This way they are able to consistently provide high production quality. They have
not taken on any new animation contracts, only continuing to work on contracts already signed.
Despite being approached to work on new anime projects, they have declined all of them.
Not only do they use 2D animation, they make very good use of CGI, computer generated imagery. For
example, they can have 2D animated characters moving smoothly in a 3D rendered environment.
They are used to create dynamic shots with complex and moving camera angles.
In an interview with some of the key animators at Ufotable,
they comment on the internal structure and work environment: “The studio feels like a second home,
and it is very inclusive. There are no barriers between departments, and they feel that the staff
are able to openly express and contribute comments either casually or professionally.”
Another point brought up is that there is a strong sense of passion and committment
in the company culture, with everyone wanting to do their best and keep on improving,
especially when watching the senior staff work. When everyone puts in their best effort,
it motivates the junior staff to want to improve themselves and give it their all.
Aside from animation work, key animators are also expected to occasionally work on promotional
illustrations for magazines and merchandise that are linked with the studio's projects.
Ufotable's founder has explained that it's difficult to make a profit on every piece of work
they were making. He explained that if an anime doesn’t become a hit, people won’t buy merchandise
or come to the cafes. They have been able to continue their high quality animation
because of these two areas. If their works do not become popular they won't be able to pay
staff salaries or regain the production costs. Usually animators are freelancers and are paid
by the job rather than by a salary. Hikaru Kondo, Ufotable’s founder and company president, felt
that this wasn’t good enough for the work they outputted and thus made everyone who wanted to, be
a full-time staff member of the studio. He states “the base production costs have been gradually
increasing, but that doesn't mean that the money coming from the client side has changed, and I
know that making all the staff full-time employees would be difficult from a management standpoint.”
The quality demanded of anime keeps increasing but because the production costs
offered by the clients are relatively low, every time they produce a work,
they always end up in the red, going way over-budget.
The studio also has a cafe on the first floor, and hold various company events
like welcome parties for new staff, and year end parties to celebrate.
These cafes allow visitors to purchase merchandise based on the series, and order meals inspired by
the characters of their various shows. As one can imagine these cafes are hugely popular,
and visitors often have to rely on reservations or even lotteries in order to get in.
Ufotable also has its own cinema in Hikaru Kondo’s hometown of Tokushima,
where they screen new Ufotable releases and run a school to help train animation students.
Founded in the year 2000 by Hikaru Kondo and 3 other employees of TMS Entertainment,
one of the oldest animation studios in Japan.
Founder Hikaru Kondo was struggling to come up with a professional name for the company
but was inspired by a strange-looking table owned by a Scandinavian interior designer. While at the
time Kondo and company couldn’t purchase the table, they did name their company after it.
Before Demon Slayer, a very popular series for Ufotable has been the Fate
series. The franchise eventually came to them in 2011. The Fate series has also
provided the studio with several unique marketing opportunities.
Kinoko Nasu, the creator of the Fate franchise was such a big fan of the Demon Slayer manga,
a staff member at Ufotable heard of this and they
eventually started working on the anime with a small team.
In 2019, the studio came under fire for tax evasion. They were guilty of evading a total
of $1.2 million in taxes. Kondo, the president of Ufotable, was originally sentenced to spend twenty
months in prison, the sentence was reduced to being on parole for three years, in which time, he
can avoid jail time if he is on good behavior. The president of Ufotable was apparently using company
resources in order to hide income. The president of Ufotable was apparently using company resources
in order to hide income, involving the inner workings of the animation studio.
Ufotable has already confirmed that they have paid back the amount of tax owed to authorities
in Japan, having done so when the charges against the anime studio and founder were laid down.
Kondo, has since stepped down as the company’s president
in 2019. Thankfully, there have been no management issues since June 2020.
Not only does Ufotable accurately animate from the source material, they greatly improve on
it. Expanding and enhancing some of the moments in the manga. Let’s take a look at some examples
so you can better understand the level of detail and effort they put into these episodes.
There’s this moment from the first season.
Just comparing the panel vs the animation really makes a big difference.
There’s another moment I’d like to showcase from the newest season,
again you should look at the side by side comparison yourself.
The anime is almost a perfect replica to its source material,
and they improve on every detail to give us the best experience possible. Ufotable is one
of my favorite Studios and with this video I hope it’s one of your favorites as well.
Thank you all so so much for watching. This is my first ever video on this channel,
feel free to comment down your suggestions or overall thoughts on the video and
subscribe cause I’ll be making more videos like this in the future.