Category
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Court métrageTranscription
00:00:00 [Silence]
00:00:07 Bonjour, bienvenue à tous.
00:00:10 Nous allons commencer. Nous attendons quelques-uns de plus de gens pour se joindre.
00:00:14 Mon nom est Stuart Massey, par ailleurs,
00:00:16 je suis le producteur de la partie de la campagne Kickstarter d'Under the Dog.
00:00:23 J'ai hâte de faire plus.
00:00:25 [Silence]
00:00:34 Hello?
00:00:35 Oh, there you are.
00:00:37 Oh, wow, wow, wow. OK, you got it.
00:00:40 Great. How does my room look?
00:00:43 [Rires]
00:00:45 It looks good to me.
00:00:47 Lots of wallhammers, wallhammers, wallhammers, wallhammer, wallhammer,
00:00:51 Halo, Warrior, and anime stuff.
00:00:58 [Silence]
00:01:00 Yep.
00:01:01 [Rires]
00:01:02 Good morning.
00:01:03 [Silence]
00:01:09 Hum, can you hear me?
00:01:13 Yeah, I can hear you.
00:01:15 OK.
00:01:16 Should I use a headset?
00:01:18 [Silence]
00:01:22 Should I do the headset?
00:01:24 [Silence]
00:01:32 Let's do it.
00:01:33 [Silence]
00:01:37 Can you hear me? Hello?
00:01:39 Yeah, I can hear you.
00:01:40 Oh, OK.
00:01:41 It's just going to be us on this, so.
00:01:43 Oh, OK. Cool, cool, cool. Are we live?
00:01:46 Yeah, I believe so.
00:01:47 OK.
00:01:48 I've never done one of these before, but from what it looks like...
00:01:53 OK. So, I guess, yeah, we have a very successful Kickstarter,
00:01:58 but I guess we need to put an update out saying that we're live on live.
00:02:03 Hang up live.
00:02:05 Yep, let me do that right now.
00:02:06 OK.
00:02:07 [Ring]
00:02:08 [Silence]
00:02:11 So, Hiro, if you want, go ahead and talk about Under the Dog
00:02:16 and how we've got to where we are or anything else you want to share.
00:02:20 OK. Well, we could wait for viewers and ask questions or, you know...
00:02:29 OK, well, to give you a rundown of what Under the Dog is all about,
00:02:37 it all started when me and Ishii-san, the original story writer,
00:02:43 basically got together in winter and he had two stories which were kind of unpublished.
00:02:51 And one was called End of the World and the other one was Under the Dog.
00:02:57 And when he showed it to me, I was very impressed with both,
00:03:02 but I really felt that Under the Dog could really make a good anime out of it.
00:03:09 So, I suggested that and basically we got to work on how to get a anime going.
00:03:17 Kickstarter was our first option of the anime.
00:03:25 So, basically what we needed was a trailer and some concept art
00:03:30 and the critical concept for that and Under the Dog actually would work.
00:03:36 So, basically we got going with all of that.
00:03:40 We actually got Kozaki Yusuke-san. I mean, all of this is on the Kickstarter page, of course.
00:03:44 And Kozaki Yusuke-san, the illustrator for basically stuff like Fire Emblem,
00:03:53 Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, he's done No More Heroes, a lot of manga and video games.
00:04:02 So, his illustrations were very, very beautiful and sexy and clean.
00:04:10 And I thought that would really benefit the project.
00:04:13 And basically we got him going. He said he was interested.
00:04:19 He met up with us and basically explained to him how crowdfunding worked.
00:04:25 I don't think he ever understood exactly how it worked until a few days ago.
00:04:32 But he jumped on board and we got Cinema Kitrus, the anime studio who's worked with Ishii-san before,
00:04:41 along with the director Ando-san.
00:04:45 So, I guess that's how we started.
00:04:49 And then we can get into the story and stuff like that.
00:04:53 But Giro's not here. He's very busy with his family right now.
00:04:59 So, it's unfortunate that he can't come.
00:05:03 But yeah, that's about the gist of how this project started.
00:05:12 Yeah, we're live streaming and we are taking questions.
00:05:16 If you hashtag UnderTheDog in one word, we will be able to see your questions.
00:05:23 I'm just going to add a column to my Twitter.
00:05:29 We're here to take any questions we've asked already.
00:05:35 My Calpico grape juice.
00:05:41 And, yeah.
00:05:43 Alright, I just posted the update.
00:05:49 So, let me head over to Facebook and Twitter.
00:05:53 Great.
00:05:54 Maybe I should go get UnderTheDog banner.
00:06:09 [Pause]
00:06:17 Sorry, lots of multi-tasking right now.
00:06:20 [Pause]
00:06:29 Well, oh, by the way, you know, you can kind of change the main camera view as well.
00:06:36 Yeah, I know I had it on you for a long time.
00:06:39 I don't know who you have it on, but yeah.
00:06:44 It's okay. People want to see you better, I think.
00:06:47 Oh, no, no, no. It's just that we're just listening and nodding and not saying anything for a while.
00:06:54 Right, right. Yeah, I'm trying to do the Q&A option, but it says features disabled for whatever reason.
00:07:01 Right. Well, we could just take questions from...
00:07:04 From Twitter? Twitter or Facebook?
00:07:08 Sure. Let me do the hashtag search.
00:07:13 [Pause]
00:07:18 We'll see if anything's popping up on Facebook here.
00:07:21 Oh, we have our first question.
00:07:23 What can we expect in the pipeline for the project from now on?
00:07:27 Well, firstly, we will need to do a script writer's meeting and how we deal with telling the story.
00:07:38 Right now, we are kind of getting ready to do just the first episode.
00:07:43 It's going to be a small part of the big storyline.
00:07:50 That's how we're going to start. And then we're probably going to start with how everything works with the storyboarding
00:08:00 and then start drawing the game guys and stuff like that.
00:08:04 And in every single little milestone, we're going to have meetings to make sure we're going the right way.
00:08:11 I will primarily be there to be kind of like the representative of the voice of all the Kickstarter backers.
00:08:20 And I'll make sure that the Western functionality actually works with the Eastern or Japanese aesthetics.
00:08:29 And we're going to go through voice recording, music, sound effects, and putting it all together.
00:08:39 So that's just a really rough and very fast example of the pipeline.
00:08:44 But of course, we'll be giving you plenty of updates on exactly how things are made in Japan.
00:08:51 And yes, how do you feel about the level of support you've got from your backers?
00:09:05 Will you be coming back for episode 2? Absolutely. We'd love to.
00:09:10 The problem with everything related to anime is we have production lines and a lot of scheduling way ahead of time.
00:09:23 So actually, Ando-san is scheduled for a different anime season from 2016.
00:09:31 And he has the whole of next year to do the 24-minute episode or two, basically.
00:09:39 So depending on how fast we can make the first episode or maybe some negotiations with other companies to make a longer episode or two episodes or whatever,
00:09:52 we still don't know the exact scope and how we're going to actually do the crowdfunding and how we're going to present Noblet's dog.
00:10:07 So MrBenAdams from my company, could you summarize the plot of the other IDE that wasn't used yet?
00:10:17 I don't know. I don't think I'm legally allowed to tell the story.
00:10:24 I haven't signed a non-disclosure agreement, but I think I'm obliged to keep my mouth shut when the timing is right.
00:10:31 And if Ishii-san wants to put it out, I think we'll be going to show everybody.
00:10:43 Simon from CYMON, congratulations, we'd like to know more about End of the World.
00:10:49 Okay, it's my mistake for saying the second stuff from my DRHU, but sorry, again, I'm not obliged to say at the moment.
00:11:02 Ibsen, awesome job guys, congrats on getting the funding. Thank you.
00:11:08 What is the first thing you are going to do now?
00:11:10 The first thing I'm going to do now is finish my hangout, drink my Calpis, no, not Calpis, but the Japanese drink, go to bed and I have a meeting with the audio director Morimosa and a tenant in the morning.
00:11:29 That's what I'm going to do. Ogasawa-san is probably going to have a production meeting and start setting up the milestones.
00:11:36 That's what I'm guessing he will do. Ishii-san will probably start thinking and planning out how to present Episode 1.
00:11:44 Okay, next question.
00:11:50 Mr Ben Adams again, how has the project evolved since 1992? I think it was 1997 and he was kind of collecting dust in Ishii-san's house until his wife decided to throw it away, which Ishii-san quickly stopped and he kind of brought it to Level 5, his company that he used to work at.
00:12:15 And then he brought it to me. I guess that's how it has evolved. But how it's going to evolve is what we're doing now and I think that's on the lines of basically making the anime for the entire world, not just Japan.
00:12:38 And that's what we're all about. Same with the other project we've done, Project Phoenix. That's about making ARPG for the entire world, not really just Japan.
00:12:48 I mean, I'm not against Moe. I do like Moe to a certain extent but I'm not heavily into Moe and I think those are the stuff that's really getting to people, just too much saturation of Moe that's really getting on some people's nerves.
00:13:06 And animation, as you know or know it, is not 100% of Moe. It's about great animation.
00:13:14 Would there be some ways to fund outside Kickstarter? Yes, there will be some ways. There will be PayPal ready on the 11th of September. Am I right, Stu?
00:13:27 Yeah, that's what we discussed.
00:13:29 Yeah, 11th of September. We will have PayPal links for Snacker backers to our official website at under-the-dog.com.
00:13:41 Next question.
00:13:43 Our enemy is the light of humanity. What does this quote mean and who does it represent?
00:13:50 So basically, the people who have evolved using this virus is the light of humanity and our enemy is people who have basically evolved outside of government, what you call it, sanctuary or control.
00:14:11 I can't really get into any further details because that's not what it's really about.
00:14:20 I hope there will be other subtitled languages, not just English. Anyway, congrats, thanks.
00:14:27 So yes, there will be German and there will be other European languages subtitled professionally so please don't worry about that.
00:14:35 We have a break from our Nobby dogs.
00:14:42 When you first started Kickstarter, how did you think you would end up?
00:14:47 Well, when we started, that was at Vodacon at the beginning of August. We didn't have a huge spike of going up on support and we thought this is not going to end well.
00:15:02 I started thinking of other ideas of how to try to get the word out but I think it really worked out as you can see in the end we had a huge spike in the last couple of days of Kickstarter.
00:15:16 It was very successful so we're very, very happy with what happened. I'm pleasantly surprised.
00:15:23 I have a message from my executive producer.
00:15:32 Okay, and I am going to send an invite.
00:15:36 Yes.
00:15:49 Okay.
00:16:09 Steve, do you want to talk to me?
00:16:13 Sure. Sorry, I've been multitasking. This has been the case for all of the Kickstarter campaign.
00:16:22 I have all these tabs open and I switch back and forth Facebook, Twitter.
00:16:27 The Kickstarter campaign itself has a few tabs open for the dashboard, the comments, the inbox.
00:16:33 I also have the email inbox open and chat work is a program we use to coordinate with the team.
00:16:43 And then of course there's Skype and personal email and all of these things and I've just sort of been going furiously back and forth between them so that I can answer everybody's questions.
00:16:57 You have to put up as much content as you can in the time. So it's been good but I'm very tired.
00:17:05 And we've got little kids so as you can... Can you hear my son?
00:17:11 Yeah, we can.
00:17:14 It's like 1.30 in the morning and daddy's not back in bed so my son's getting really desperate.
00:17:24 So next question.
00:17:27 Sure, go for it.
00:17:29 Do you think there will be more animes in the future which are funded by Kickstarter?
00:17:36 Yes, I hope so. I hope we are the vanguard.
00:17:40 The first thing is to actually do it without any backing from huge companies or backing by any kind of government.
00:17:52 And I hope other companies or other small indie groups follow suit because I feel that there are huge possibilities in crowdfunded animes.
00:18:04 Sorry, my son is so crying his head off.
00:18:08 If we ever need some sound effects for the episodes I think we can use him.
00:18:14 Yes, absolutely.
00:18:16 I relegated my family. They're stuck upstairs so I can't hear them down here.
00:18:23 But I don't think my daughter's screaming right now.
00:18:26 Japan is so small. I really can't get away.
00:18:32 Yeah, and for those of you who don't know, I'm in California, US and Hiro of course is in Japan.
00:18:39 And we have Nadia if she's going to join us. She's in Switzerland.
00:18:46 And we've been communicating with people in New York and Australia.
00:18:51 And it's really quite something to try and coordinate all these different time zones.
00:18:57 It's been interesting.
00:19:00 Exactly.
00:19:03 We have a question from Katsura76.
00:19:09 Describe the three episode arc, especially since the main character won't be the focus of episode one.
00:19:14 So we didn't really explain episode one and who the main character is.
00:19:19 In effect we are focusing on Hannah.
00:19:22 She's supposedly the main character but the main character is actually Anthea and how she deals with the whole story arc.
00:19:30 So it's kind of wrong to say Hannah is the main character.
00:19:35 It's just she's the focus of the first episode and you see how Anthea would react to what happens to Hannah.
00:19:44 So I don't know.
00:19:47 I would say the correct thing to say about Hannah is she's the main focus but not really the main character.
00:19:54 The main character is really Anthea.
00:19:58 Right, right. And that's been something that we wanted to put out more content for Hannah.
00:20:05 We haven't been able to do that just yet.
00:20:09 And without giving away spoilers for the episode, I want to say the focus really will be Anthea.
00:20:16 But we get to see it through Hannah's eyes so that we can sort of get this, the foil aspect of Anthea.
00:20:26 So we see how she reacts to what's going on and sort of what background we're coming into with Under the Dog.
00:20:32 So it really serves as more of a springboard for the universe and the episode as a whole so that we can focus more on Anthea.
00:20:42 Okay.
00:20:45 Okay.
00:20:47 When will the forums be live on the site?
00:20:50 So the forums should be live by the end of the month.
00:20:53 It takes for a while to kind of process all of this.
00:20:57 We do have 12,000 backers which is not a small amount of people.
00:21:01 And we need to kind of get a system running and operational that we can verify people with their accounts.
00:21:08 So if you could just give us a bit more time, we will be able to help you get onto the forums.
00:21:16 Next question, we hope there will be others.
00:21:20 Others, okay, we've done that.
00:21:25 Some video game funded projects ended in nothing.
00:21:29 Aren't you fearful of that happening with Anime Include?
00:21:32 Yes, we are fearful.
00:21:34 But the problem, the thing about what Creative Intelligence Arts, our company, does is that we kind of --
00:21:45 the people who are working with us are people who are extremely well-known and have a reputation.
00:21:51 And if people flake out, I'm going to be -- me and Stu will be writing a detailed report on what's going to happen.
00:22:00 I don't think anyone wants to flake out because we are very transparent in what we're doing.
00:22:06 And everybody has a reputation to live up to.
00:22:10 It's just not good for your career.
00:22:12 Especially a Kickstarter that's number one on the animation category right now.
00:22:18 And it doesn't work because of whatever.
00:22:22 So we will be extremely transparent.
00:22:24 We will tell you exactly what's going on.
00:22:26 We'll be very truthful.
00:22:28 And you guys will basically know what's going on.
00:22:31 Right, definitely.
00:22:33 And I think that's something we've tried to do with the Kickstarter campaign so far anyway.
00:22:37 I mean, if anything, it's information overload.
00:22:41 It's more of a dump.
00:22:43 Which, I mean, to be honest, even traditional investors don't necessarily see this amount of transparency into the creation process.
00:22:56 Because, you know, they're more interested in sort of dashboard updates.
00:23:00 They want to see what the numbers are and, okay, what's been going on?
00:23:03 Give it to me.
00:23:05 Give me sort of a five-minute spiel as opposed to what we've been doing with Kickstarter, which has been great.
00:23:11 And so being able to share all of that information has its pluses and minuses.
00:23:18 But we'd rather err on the side of more information rather than less so that we can provide you guys with, you know,
00:23:26 as much as you can to both be excited about the project and provide comments on what you like and don't like.
00:23:33 In a constructive manner, of course.
00:23:35 You know, we've been pushing that.
00:23:38 But, yeah, we really want to make something special and we want to do it all together.
00:23:42 And we hope you guys will help us do that.
00:23:47 Cool.
00:23:48 All right?
00:23:49 Cool.
00:23:50 Perfect answer.
00:23:55 It's what I do.
00:23:59 Okay, tell us about the baby in the background and the guy multitasking.
00:24:03 Okay, the baby in the background is my son.
00:24:06 Oh, wait, me or him?
00:24:07 This is mine.
00:24:09 And Hiro's is out of frame.
00:24:11 Can you see mine?
00:24:13 Okay, why don't you --
00:24:16 So my wife's a photographer and she took these great pictures of our seventh-month-old.
00:24:21 I forget, when was this one taken?
00:24:25 The first one?
00:24:27 Oh, that was --
00:24:28 This was when she was two months old.
00:24:30 Her name is Isla, by the way, and this is her more recently.
00:24:33 This was five months, and she's seven months right now.
00:24:38 So that's our first child.
00:24:41 And then for those just joining in or maybe missed my introduction, I'm Stuart Massey.
00:24:47 I'm a producer on the Kickstarter project for Under the Dog.
00:24:51 I've worked at Blizzard Entertainment, first and foremost.
00:24:55 I think probably that's where most of my primary credits are going to come from,
00:24:58 where I started in quality assurance and then I moved into a producer role for the creative development team.
00:25:06 And that team handles pretty much everything that is not directly tied to the game.
00:25:11 Well, it's all tied to the game, but what ended up happening was, you know, PR and marketing and events
00:25:17 and, you know, people wanted to do all these licensed products,
00:25:20 and so Blizzard wanted to create a team, a creative team, where we could do writing and artwork and all these ancillary things.
00:25:30 And instead of taking the time away from the developers that are working on the video game themselves,
00:25:35 they were working on all of these extra products.
00:25:37 And so that was the team I was a part of, and really proud of what we were able to put out in that time.
00:25:43 I love the people I work with there.
00:25:46 I'm not currently there right now, I'm actually working for a software consulting firm,
00:25:52 which make a lot more money doing, you know, video games don't pay the best,
00:25:56 but I really enjoy working in creative works, video games, anime, film, and those types of things.
00:26:04 You guys can look me up on LinkedIn and see what all I've been a part of.
00:26:09 I think I have all my projects listed there.
00:26:12 And so yeah, that's sort of a brief history on me.
00:26:16 Cool.
00:26:19 Anything else? What do we got?
00:26:21 More interrogations.
00:26:23 Who's your favorite character from Fire Emblem Awakening?
00:26:28 Steve.
00:26:29 Steve?
00:26:30 Who's Steve?
00:26:32 Is there anyone called Steve here?
00:26:38 Maybe they were referencing themselves?
00:26:42 Maybe.
00:26:43 But this guy's name is called DavidRestrepo95, so he's not Steve.
00:26:49 Maybe me? I don't know.
00:26:53 Oh, Steve.
00:26:55 I don't know.
00:26:57 Fire Emblem, well...
00:26:59 I can't say who's my favorite character, it's just...
00:27:05 I think I'll stay out of politics for this one.
00:27:11 Have you played Fire Emblem?
00:27:13 Me personally? No, I have not actually.
00:27:16 It's one of the games that I would really like to play.
00:27:19 From what I've seen of it, I'm reminded of the Suikoden games, which are really fun.
00:27:25 I really love those aspects of all the different characters and sort of getting to see their backstories and the artwork and all that.
00:27:33 So I look forward to playing it at some point, but I haven't played it.
00:27:38 I'm trying to do Fire Emblem, I think it was here somewhere, but my desk is way too messy.
00:27:47 Next question.
00:27:49 How quickly will this project change animation in Japan at a global level, in your opinion?
00:27:56 We made a lot of bracket in Japan.
00:28:02 They're probably talking about this with Framing Ray's crazy Japanese dude who's trying to break all the rules in Japan, which is not really smart of him.
00:28:14 So I don't think it's going to change tomorrow.
00:28:19 Nothing's going to change tomorrow.
00:28:21 But I think we've definitely created a spark in which young animators can look up to and want to be part of.
00:28:31 So maybe, I think the results of our actions today will be reflected on the industry.
00:28:42 Ben Adams just chatted me and he said I look quite different than my profile picture.
00:28:55 If you looked at my picture on LinkedIn, for example, I'm sitting in a chair, it's actually right over here.
00:29:01 But the sunlight probably won't let the camera see it.
00:29:04 But I have long hair and a beard and all that, so I've definitely cleaned up a little bit since that photo.
00:29:11 Are you looking at the hashtag under the dog feed, Stu?
00:29:23 I was, I wasn't able to see the questions.
00:29:27 Okay, I have another one from Yonko Production.
00:29:36 What kinds of things will you be able to do now that you're free from the controls of production committee?
00:29:43 Well, I mean, we can do a lot of things.
00:29:47 I mean, we're not tied into being told what to do exactly for a certain commercialism or advertisement or whatever.
00:29:58 So we're kind of free from doing that.
00:30:01 But it's too difficult.
00:30:05 I mean, we are dealing with animators who are people and there are a lot of people involved in this project.
00:30:13 And how they think and how they do their work, it really affects everybody else in the project.
00:30:25 So I think it's going to be very hard to get used to that they actually have a voice now.
00:30:34 But once they get used to it, I think they'll get into the groove.
00:30:40 I did see a follow up from the guy asking about the baby, actually.
00:30:44 Who's he?
00:30:46 Nitsan Dane. He was actually asking about Seiji.
00:30:50 Oh, okay.
00:30:52 He's my son and he really misses me. Maybe I should bring him along.
00:30:59 Alright. We'll get to see one of Hiro's children. He has three.
00:31:08 [Hiro's baby crying]
00:31:12 [Hiro's baby crying]
00:31:16 Alright.
00:31:18 [Hiro's baby crying]
00:31:27 So while we're waiting for Hiro, I'll try and find some questions to answer.
00:31:34 [Hiro's baby crying]
00:31:40 Alright. Here he is.
00:31:42 Hi.
00:31:44 And this is Seiji.
00:31:46 Hi.
00:31:48 And now he likes streaming. Now he's happy. Look at him. He's crying all the time.
00:31:55 [Hiro's baby crying]
00:31:59 Awesome.
00:32:02 Alright. Did you find some other questions?
00:32:06 Yeah.
00:32:08 Congrats on the successful funding. How do you guys feel right now? Any voice actresses and actors in mind at the moment?
00:32:23 Very elated. Very happy. Oh, there's Nadia. Very elated, very happy, very shocked to see such a huge rise, rise and end. But very pleasantly surprised.
00:32:36 I don't know. It's wonderful to... It's difficult for me because... Hang on. Stop crying. Okay, okay. You want drinks?
00:32:51 Yeah, I described Seiji earlier. He displays much character.
00:32:57 Yes, he does.
00:32:59 So no matter how much Australian-made I may be, I am still Japanese. I do feel a lot of responsibility that comes with all the support that we receive from the backers.
00:33:16 We have over 12,000 backers that back this project. I do feel very responsible for what I am going to do in the future.
00:33:23 So I'm very happy. At the same time, I'm very worried about the future. But we'll make it through. How do you feel, Steve?
00:33:34 Sorry, what was that comment? I missed it.
00:33:40 How do you feel, Steve?
00:33:43 I feel good. I feel tired. I feel like we're in a good direction. We had some awesome support through Kickstarter and that's been really great.
00:33:56 So yeah, it'll be awesome to see where we can take it from here. Was there a specific point I should be answering in that? Could you read the question again?
00:34:07 No, this dude asked how do we feel right now and any voice actors in mind at the moment.
00:34:17 As far as the voice actors, I know people have provided some suggestions and we'll definitely keep those in mind as we start looking. But of course, it's also going to be up to the actors and actresses themselves.
00:34:30 They're going to have to audition and then of course we're going to do the pre-selection of the list after that and then we'll provide the list to our backers that pledged at the respective tier so that they can help us decide who they want to voice which characters.
00:34:47 And I think that'll be a really fun process. And really, I can't think of anybody else who's done something quite like that.
00:34:54 We really want to involve you guys as much as possible. So any ways that we can think of that within reason where we can involve you in the development process, we really want to do.
00:35:05 And Nadia was joining us now. Nadia, are you camera ready?
00:35:11 Can you guys see me?
00:35:15 Yes.
00:35:18 Hi guys! I'm Nadia. Nice to meet you all. I'm trying to figure out how to see the questions. I want to see all of your questions.
00:35:27 Go ahead.
00:35:31 If you search #UnderTheDog, you should be able to see the questions.
00:35:39 Ok.
00:35:42 On Twitter. So unfortunately, we're not familiar with Google Hangouts on air specifically.
00:35:48 But I realized the Q&A app that we have here available to us is not actually available unless we started it before the broadcast.
00:35:58 So I'm not sure if we could stop the broadcast and then restart it again with the Q&A enabled, but next time we'll definitely do that.
00:36:08 So Nadia, did you have anything you wanted to say or are you looking for questions to answer?
00:36:13 Or not. Hiro?
00:36:16 Just in general, I'm really excited about #UnderTheDog. It was just such a kind of climax going on right now when Kickstarter was ending.
00:36:28 Just like the comment by Ogasawara-san and the team, everyone was kind of nervous and thinking "Oh, how is it going to end?"
00:36:39 But towards the end, all our friends just really came together and just really showed us their support and I really appreciate that.
00:36:47 It was so cool. This anime is going to come together and that's just awesome.
00:36:53 And for those of you that don't know, Nadia has been helping us out with a lot of the copy, especially translating Japanese to English and English back to Japanese.
00:37:03 She's been pretty instrumental in communicating back and forth with the team.
00:37:07 Thank you, Derek!
00:37:09 No problem. I have some rudimentary Japanese. I've studied it for a while, but of course it's always so hard when that was several years ago and I don't use it on a day-to-day basis.
00:37:21 But yeah, it's helped me a little bit.
00:37:24 People may know Nadia from Project Phoenix as well.
00:37:30 She's also the liaison person, so she's there and she's here.
00:37:35 And if they have hero needs, I support!
00:37:40 And it was so fun. Towards the end, there were so many comments to translate from all our developers and everyone just had so much to say.
00:37:49 It's always so fun between Japanese to English. I'm really crazy about translating. I'm sure you figured that out, Stu.
00:37:56 I'm really crazy about getting it correct. I get very "uh" about that.
00:38:04 Yeah, I think that's great. That's actually something I studied as well. I did comparative literature for a while at university.
00:38:13 So with that, you end up studying foreign language as well as works in translation and then you end up reading it in the original text itself.
00:38:21 So with that, I had done Japanese and Spanish. But yeah, it's definitely been a while.
00:38:27 Okay, so voice actresses and actors, we don't really have anybody in mind yet.
00:38:39 We've actually received several emails from voice actors and actresses wanting to audition.
00:38:46 And some of them were bilingual, which is fantastic because some of the characters in the settings are capable of speaking fluent English and Japanese.
00:38:57 And I know there are very few people who can act and act in both languages.
00:39:03 But if they can, well, fantastic. We'll definitely audition people and see how it goes.
00:39:09 At the same time, obviously we're going to be auditioning people that you may request.
00:39:14 Big names in the anime industry, some of them who are friends with my wife.
00:39:23 So we'll see how everything goes and make sure we get the hottest and the best actors and actresses that we can get for the project.
00:39:33 Okay, let's go to the next question.
00:39:35 Will the premier in Japan have English subtitles?
00:39:38 If there are a lot of English speakers, I might put the subtitles on.
00:39:45 But if there isn't, there's no point putting subtitles on.
00:39:49 So if some of the 10K backers would like to come to Japan, obviously we'll put the subtitles on.
00:40:00 Okay, next question.
00:40:03 Daniel Sato, question from Google Hangouts.
00:40:10 Can we buy the 1H scale figure of Anthea later on?
00:40:14 Yes, you may. On the 11th of September?
00:40:18 Oh, okay. That's not a nice day.
00:40:22 But anyway, we will have a PayPal ready on the official website.
00:40:30 Yes, don't get too excited.
00:40:32 Okay, okay.
00:40:35 Maybe you can say it for me too.
00:40:43 Yes, under-dog.com
00:40:48 I believe you can also put in underthedog.com.
00:40:57 I'll verify that right now.
00:40:59 Okay.
00:41:02 Not a question, but I would like to say hello from Italy.
00:41:08 Hello!
00:41:09 So actually...
00:41:12 Oh, that's got to hurt.
00:41:14 So actually, I'm from Japan, I live in Tokyo.
00:41:19 Stuart's from California, he's close to LA.
00:41:22 And Nadia is in...
00:41:25 I'm in Switzerland.
00:41:27 Europe?
00:41:28 Yes, in Europe.
00:41:30 Yes, exactly, I'm in Switzerland.
00:41:32 And I'm half Japanese, half American, born in Boston, raised in Japan.
00:41:37 So for me, Japan is my home, I can proudly say.
00:41:42 And I'm California, Southern California specifically, born and raised.
00:41:50 And it's the desert, so whatever can be said about that, it's hot.
00:41:56 So there's a really good question talking about where we're born and where we're from.
00:42:04 Hoken right here is asking, "What made you pick Sweden as Anthea's birthplace or home country?"
00:42:11 Good question.
00:42:12 Why Sweden?
00:42:14 Why Sweden?
00:42:15 That's a saying I made.
00:42:17 Actually, I made the names of almost all the characters, except for the Japanese ones.
00:42:23 And also the settings of these characters in discussion with Giro.
00:42:29 So, because he just didn't have enough knowledge about outside of Japan.
00:42:35 Ouch!
00:42:36 He's so excited!
00:42:41 Why...
00:42:45 Why dare you...
00:42:47 So, Anthea is the result of human trafficking, basically.
00:42:57 From a country that's not known for human trafficking.
00:43:01 So there's a huge contrast in what you expect from that country and what's actually happening.
00:43:11 So that's the first thing we wanted to do.
00:43:14 Second thing is, you know, people are very beautiful people.
00:43:18 I'm not saying the rest of the world isn't, but you know,
00:43:23 Ishii-san wanted straight blonde hair and...
00:43:27 That was typical. Beautiful Swedish girl.
00:43:34 Exactly.
00:43:36 So that's how we came up with the setting.
00:43:39 And then basically, Kozak-san worked on the design of Anthea and here we have it.
00:43:49 Alright.
00:43:53 Did I answer the question, Ishii-san?
00:43:57 Alright.
00:43:59 Well, under the dark.
00:44:02 So, do you think more Japanese companies are starting to see the potential of crowdfunding sites and might use them in the future?
00:44:09 I hope so.
00:44:13 And I hope so in a good way.
00:44:15 In a positive way.
00:44:17 Otherwise, you know, our efforts here will be for nothing.
00:44:21 I would like to guide those companies into how to use Kickstarter effectively and for a good purpose.
00:44:31 But for now, I think a lot of people are too scared of using Kickstarter to make this happen.
00:44:37 We're the only small company to succeed in an anime Kickstarter.
00:44:49 We're not like huge like Production Aji or having a lot of large backers like Trigger.
00:44:54 We're just a bunch of people who wanted to make good anime.
00:44:58 So, it's a bit different.
00:45:01 But hopefully we've given the courage to a lot of other companies to challenge their work on Kickstarter.
00:45:11 Alright.
00:45:14 Another question.
00:45:16 From Garlock.
00:45:19 What's been the Japanese response to the Kickstarter, both corporate and fans alike?
00:45:25 Corporate will probably keep their words to themselves.
00:45:28 It's very hard to guess what they will be thinking.
00:45:31 And the word will come around.
00:45:33 I'm going to take him away.
00:45:38 Sure.
00:45:39 Seijun is so cute.
00:45:42 He was so tiny when I first saw him.
00:45:45 He was that tiny.
00:45:46 Like a mini me of Hiro.
00:45:51 No?
00:45:52 Yeah, they definitely share their characteristics.
00:45:55 Are there any questions right now that either you and I would be able to potentially answer?
00:46:01 Let's see.
00:46:02 So there's one question by Rakan.
00:46:08 Congrats on getting the project funded.
00:46:10 Thank you.
00:46:11 Just wondering if maybe sometime in the future we could see a TV version of the 12 episodes.
00:46:17 Okay.
00:46:18 Yeah?
00:46:19 Yeah, it's definitely possible.
00:46:21 What we want to do with the project is first and foremost we want to get to the film.
00:46:26 And specifically the film trilogy is what the team is after.
00:46:29 As far as the TV series, while we have 26 episodes concepted out,
00:46:37 the series itself, we would want that to come after the film trilogy.
00:46:44 So if there's still interest for the IP and people want to see it,
00:46:49 I'm sure we'd be more than willing to work something out.
00:46:52 Okay.
00:46:55 So also again, Garluk says, "Aha, yeah, I was wondering if crowdfunding is even a thing in Japan."
00:47:01 But actually, yes, it is.
00:47:03 There are several other Japanese versions of Kickstarter, you could say.
00:47:07 And yeah, it's been done, but it's just not as big as Kickstarter for sure.
00:47:12 And to get to this scale, it's just, yeah, it's not possible, I'd say.
00:47:17 And I mean, if you want to target the world, we think Kickstarter is great.
00:47:22 Also, Japanese crowdfunding, there's a limit to how much you can give.
00:47:26 I think there's a limit on $5,000 per person.
00:47:30 And a project can only collect up to a million dollars.
00:47:35 So I think that's a reasonable amount for some of the projects.
00:47:42 And also, a lot of the crowdfunding is a bit wrong.
00:47:48 Some companies, I'm not going to mention any names, but basically say,
00:47:55 "Oh, if you crowdfund over X amount of money, then we will buy your idea."
00:48:01 And it's like, why do you want to buy the idea?
00:48:05 It's theirs, not the company's.
00:48:08 I think crowdfunding is taking the wrong way in Japan.
00:48:12 But people do--I mean, the Internet does live in Japan,
00:48:16 and people do have information about Kickstarter and Indiegogo and stuff like that.
00:48:21 I'm pretty sure people have their eyes set over there instead of domestic.
00:48:26 Right. And I think, just if I can add to that,
00:48:31 we had an ambitious budget with this project,
00:48:37 especially--well, as far as Kickstarter goes, setting it at $580,000.
00:48:42 And Hiro and I had a lot of discussion about that beforehand,
00:48:45 and I kept telling him, "Hiro, you have to lower this budget.
00:48:48 "We can't go live with $580,000 as the goal.
00:48:52 "People are going to see it as unachievable," and so forth.
00:48:57 And he was really adamant, saying, "This is what it costs to produce anime,
00:49:01 "and this is what we need and where to make what we want to make."
00:49:05 And I think people have seen that,
00:49:08 and they supported us beyond a reasonable doubt,
00:49:12 where just last week, even three or four days ago,
00:49:17 we were looking at the project, thinking, "I'm not sure it's going to get funded."
00:49:22 So we were scrambling, thinking about other contingency plans
00:49:27 and ways we could get this to work.
00:49:30 And so we definitely did have some offers on the table,
00:49:33 and thanks to you backers, we haven't had to take those,
00:49:38 and we haven't had to sacrifice anything.
00:49:40 And what we would have been sacrificing is not the creative freedom,
00:49:45 but definitely the revenue stream.
00:49:48 Most creative works in Japan are IP buyouts,
00:49:53 and that means that the creators themselves,
00:49:56 they get paid a small salary in most cases,
00:50:00 and then they don't see any return on their projects afterward.
00:50:04 So it's the company that purely profits after whatever it is they produce after the initial run.
00:50:10 And so that's something we really want to change as well,
00:50:13 where Hiro was talking about the Japanese Kickstarter,
00:50:17 if it gets funded, the company wants to do a buyout.
00:50:20 And essentially what that means is that all future profits go to the company,
00:50:25 and they're no longer with the creator.
00:50:27 And so that's something we want to change,
00:50:29 and we're happy that we didn't have to compromise on that aspect,
00:50:33 although that was probably the one we were most willing to compromise on,
00:50:36 because any change in this direction is a good change,
00:50:40 and we want to help promote that.
00:50:42 So we're very happy you guys helped us meet our goal,
00:50:46 and that we didn't have to take on any additional investment at this time.
00:50:50 Yes, absolutely.
00:50:53 All right. We have our next question.
00:50:57 Do you guys have plans of turning Under the Dog into a manga?
00:51:03 This is by David. David_Rest_Triple95.
00:51:07 None at the current moment.
00:51:12 Kouza Kiyosuke-san is a manga artist,
00:51:15 but manga artists usually can provide themselves with the original story.
00:51:20 The original story is done by Jiro, so I'm not too sure.
00:51:23 Maybe we'll do some publications, or maybe Kouza-san will do it,
00:51:28 but right now, anime first.
00:51:31 Anime first. How about the music?
00:51:34 We have a question from Askun.
00:51:36 So have you thought about who will make the OST, or is it already made?
00:51:41 That's a perfect question for Hiro.
00:51:43 He's our musical genius here, so let's ask him.
00:51:46 We've already made an announcement that Kevin Pinkton will be doing the music.
00:51:51 Kevin is a very skilled composer.
00:51:55 He's worked with huge stars like Nobuo Uematsu on arrangements of his melodies,
00:52:02 and he worked directly with him on several other projects as well.
00:52:07 So I think he's going to do a good job.
00:52:09 I think he did a very good job for the trailer,
00:52:11 but of course the episode is going to be a far harder task to actually write the music for,
00:52:17 but he's going to get it.
00:52:21 But one thing for sure is with Hiro as a producer,
00:52:27 you're guaranteed with one of the best quality music.
00:52:30 You will have a superb OST, so really, don't miss that.
00:52:35 Really look forward to that, I would say.
00:52:37 Thank you.
00:52:38 Alright, for our next question.
00:52:40 This is for Hiro.
00:52:42 Will you let your kids watch Under the Dog?
00:52:45 Does being a parent influence the way you perceive multimedia like anime?
00:52:51 Well, that's really hard.
00:52:54 I mean, you guys have seen the rating of a commercial by Samuel Jackson, right?
00:53:03 It's like, "You let your kids see Django?"
00:53:07 Like that, you've got to be responsible about what kind of things you let your kids watch.
00:53:15 I mean, I'm pretty sure it's not the wisest thing for people to let your child see Jojo,
00:53:23 Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, but there's some sort of comedy into it.
00:53:29 Some of the episodes I'll let my sons watch, but these things are so hard to control
00:53:35 and sometimes it's just better off not to watch it anyway.
00:53:39 Under the Dog will feature a lot of violence and adult-themed material.
00:53:44 I don't think I would like my sons to see it, not that my younger sons,
00:53:49 who are just almost two, would understand, but especially my son who's seven, my stepson.
00:53:56 I don't think I would like them to see Under the Dog just yet, maybe when they're 15.
00:54:03 Yeah, when they're older maybe.
00:54:06 For now, Saint-Jean and everyone else in the family, they get to see the more kiddy anime.
00:54:11 And I'll go ahead and add to that, that I think each child should be treated as an individual person,
00:54:21 and so you need to be aware as a parent where their mentality lies
00:54:27 and what they're able to reason with and cope with and be available to foster that with them.
00:54:33 So if they see something and they have questions about it, then you're there to answer with them
00:54:38 whatever thoughts they might have about it.
00:54:40 That's if they see it in your absence.
00:54:43 If they're seeing it with you, then you should be really ready to have those conversations with them
00:54:49 about what they're watching and what the implications are and what the meanings are.
00:54:55 And that's coming from, you're also a new father?
00:55:02 Oh, absolutely, yeah. My daughter's under a year. I was explaining these pictures earlier.
00:55:08 Her name is Aila.
00:55:12 Such a cute girl. I've seen some photos.
00:55:16 Absolutely. All right. Here's one comment by Rich. "I'm so glad that Kozak-san is designing the main character."
00:55:27 We are too. "I love his work. Will the art book feature a lot of his art?"
00:55:33 Absolutely. Most of his art, mostly his art and his designs and illustrations.
00:55:42 That's pretty much a given at this point.
00:55:46 All right.
00:55:48 Okay. We have a question from Christina. So let's see. Hello.
00:55:53 "Will the first 24-minute episode reveal all the main characters we expect to see in the film?"
00:56:00 No. We can't reveal all the main characters.
00:56:05 Well, this is the plan I have. I'm not sure if we can execute it.
00:56:10 I mean, it's very hard to continue an anime, but if we are able to continue and make the whole thing,
00:56:17 I would like to make three OVA at least, to kind of introduce the world and introduce actors and everything.
00:56:27 And then we go into a trilogy of feature films, which would pan out and show the whole story of Under the Dog.
00:56:36 So the first OVA basically would introduce you to Anthea and Hannah as well.
00:56:46 And the situation that these girls are in, you get to see piece and piece of it.
00:56:54 And then you guys will have to piece it together when we have a full OVA.
00:57:04 Yeah. And I don't know if people have read the text, but what we do actually specify for the stretch goals for the OVAs
00:57:11 is that these will be prequel episodes, in that they're helping explain the backstory of Under the Dog,
00:57:18 so that we can really hit our stride in the films, which we will make at some point.
00:57:25 We want to be able to have a good backstory for that.
00:57:31 Alright. On to the next question.
00:57:35 How long do you think it will be before fans start cosplaying the characters?
00:57:41 I think actually some people have already begun.
00:57:44 Wasn't there some kind of gun that was already recreated by one of our fans?
00:57:50 Yeah, a pistol one.
00:57:52 Even art.
00:57:53 Even art, yeah.
00:57:55 I think people have already started.
00:57:59 Anthea's design, her suit is very cool, so I'm pretty sure somebody will dress up as Anthea sometime next year.
00:58:11 Alright. So, here we are.
00:58:18 I've got... let's see.
00:58:21 So, Hiro, how did you get connected with Penkin, Kevin Penkin, for the music?
00:58:26 I don't believe he's based in Japan.
00:58:29 I don't believe I was based in Japan when I was younger as well.
00:58:34 I actually used to live in Sydney from the age of 6 to 28.
00:58:40 We used to do a lot of musical recordings and do concerts.
00:58:48 One time we went to Perth in Australia to do some recording, I mean performances at an anime convention.
00:58:58 And basically Kevin kind of like tied it along and said hello and tried sitting with us.
00:59:05 We thought, you know, what's this kid doing?
00:59:08 But then he came to Sydney to see our concerts and he kept on giving me demos.
00:59:13 He said he wanted to be a composer and eventually we got to a point where I was like,
00:59:20 "Okay, okay, let's work together."
00:59:23 And we've been working for a few years now, doing well.
00:59:29 Alright. Here's another question from Anthony.
00:59:35 What are some types of creative input that backers will get?
00:59:41 Well, like Anthony's design of the suits, we have the old design and the new design.
00:59:50 And we want people to feel that they have a say on, you know, we'll have a poll on which one they prefer.
00:59:59 And say you too.
01:00:02 What does it put you back?
01:00:04 That I'm not sure what it puts me back.
01:00:07 Here's a question for Stuart then.
01:00:12 So do you have any tips or advice for an aspiring animator?
01:00:17 It's from the same guy. So this guy, Anthony, he must be wanting to be an animator.
01:00:22 Sure. I'm not an animator myself so I couldn't specifically say.
01:00:27 But I know just in trying to get into the creative industry, whether it be video games or anime or whatever,
01:00:34 it's really important to have a solid portfolio.
01:00:38 If you're not already connected with a good company, giving you works to put on your resume,
01:00:43 having something that showcases your best work first and foremost,
01:00:48 and then the rest of your work after that if you still need to fill out minutes on your portfolio.
01:00:54 But yeah, definitely you want to immerse yourself in what it is you're interested in.
01:01:01 So if it's animation, you want to continue to watch animations like Pixar, Wizard Cinematics, anime,
01:01:08 anything that really interests you because you're going to soak that up and you're going to express that in your style,
01:01:16 either consciously or subconsciously.
01:01:18 It's the same thing as a writer. You can see my tons of books back here, which kind of drives my wife a little crazy.
01:01:24 And we have books all over the place and other places as well.
01:01:29 I studied English at university, and so as a writer, it's the same thing.
01:01:34 You want to continue to read works from authors that you love, read works from authors that you're unfamiliar with.
01:01:42 You just want to continuously read and input that into yourself.
01:01:46 And then once you sit down and you're actually trying to put that out on the page,
01:01:51 is what comes out as part inspiration from other people and then part of yourself and what you're going through.
01:01:58 And so continuously writing or animating, whatever it is, to improve yourself further and further, I think,
01:02:05 is the best way to put that forward.
01:02:08 And eventually, you're going to land on somebody's desk and they're going to like what they see and they'll take you on their project.
01:02:14 Barring that, hey, there's always Kickstarter.
01:02:18 So if you make something yourself and people like what they see, they'll support you, and that's great.
01:02:24 Yeah, and Hiro, do you have any tips for an aspiring animator?
01:02:28 Oh, he's munching away at something. Sorry.
01:02:34 It also depends on what kind of animator you want to become, like a 3D computer graphic animator or Japanese anime animator or drawing animator.
01:02:48 But whatever you do, you just have to work hard at it and try to go for the dream job.
01:02:56 You have to think about what you have to sacrifice in order to get there and really work hard at it because everybody else wants to go there as well.
01:03:08 And then that's why I like to get into the companies that you want to get into and get a lot of experience
01:03:14 and then move on to get other kinds of experiences too because each company has their own pros and cons.
01:03:22 And I would... Oh, yeah, go ahead.
01:03:25 No, go ahead, Sip.
01:03:27 I was just going to say from my experience working at Blizzard, my thought was,
01:03:35 what am I going to do when I get out of college and graduate as a career and what's that going to look like?
01:03:42 And I said, well, I love video games and people make video games, so somebody is getting paid to make these.
01:03:49 This is what I should be doing.
01:03:51 And I think what I learned when I actually did begin working for Blizzard was that there's lots of other...
01:03:59 What's the right word I'm looking for?
01:04:02 Not idiosyncrasies, but there's a lot of different information and positions that you're not even aware of when you're not in the industry,
01:04:10 the different positions that are available to you or the types of work.
01:04:14 And so thinking I might be a writer or a producer someday, or sorry, designer, not producer,
01:04:22 led me to the path of working at Blizzard and then eventually learning that I actually love producing.
01:04:28 I like being able to facilitate the creative process and make sure people have what they need to be creative
01:04:35 and make those cool things that we all love.
01:04:38 And somewhat being a part of that, but each person is going to find their own niche in their environment and their industry.
01:04:48 And it takes practice and just doing it to know what those options are, I think.
01:04:54 All right?
01:04:56 All right.
01:04:57 Then another question from Ben.
01:05:00 Do any of you already have a favorite character?
01:05:03 That's a hard one.
01:05:07 I actually like all of the characters.
01:05:09 But if I were to say, I'm very much looking forward to Estella because with what I've read so far, she's a very spicy girl.
01:05:18 She has a lot of character and a lot of humph going on.
01:05:22 I think she's really, really, I don't know, a very strong girl and just very sarcastic.
01:05:27 I love sarcastic humor, so I'm really looking forward to that.
01:05:31 You know, when we discussed Estella, we were discussing in a way that, you know that chick that's always in those action movies and she's like Latin American?
01:05:44 She was also in like Biohazard and I think she got wounded or died in the end or whatever, but she's always in that.
01:05:53 That's Resident Evil for us.
01:05:56 Yeah?
01:05:57 Do you hear me?
01:05:59 I said that's Resident Evil for us.
01:06:01 Oh yeah, Resident Evil. You know the girl I'm talking about?
01:06:04 Yes.
01:06:06 She's always in one of those, like, you know, spec ops type and she's like a hardcore female operative type girl.
01:06:14 So we were trying to get to that. That's how we thought of Estella.
01:06:20 Yeah, it's Michelle Rodriguez, who's that.
01:06:23 Yes, yes, that's right.
01:06:25 Michelle Rodriguez, perfect.
01:06:28 Wasn't she in SWAT or something as well?
01:06:31 Say that again?
01:06:33 Wasn't she in SWAT or something?
01:06:36 Yes, she does a lot of action type stuff.
01:06:39 A lot, yeah, a lot of action.
01:06:41 How about you guys? Do you guys have a favorite character already?
01:06:45 I like Anthea.
01:06:48 Anthea's cute.
01:06:50 I was speaking to Kozak San today and I was like, Anthea reminds me of the cheerleader from Heroes a little bit.
01:07:01 Oh, yeah, maybe.
01:07:04 But, you know, she's got the Claire's feel but it's not quite her.
01:07:12 So, you know, it's more on the European side, I guess.
01:07:16 But, yeah, I was just talking to Kozak San.
01:07:21 He loves American films. He loves Hollywood films.
01:07:25 So, I don't know, he buys everything and he gets really upset when Japan don't get those, some of the Hollywood films.
01:07:34 We just don't get like, He Can't Train Your Dragon 2, never came in Japan and they're trying to do a petition.
01:07:42 So, when we went to Otakon at the start of last month, we just went to, well, I got sick, but he went to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 with our assistant.
01:07:56 So, yeah, that was cool.
01:07:58 [English translation]
01:08:27 [English translation]
01:08:50 Cool.
01:08:52 Alright, well, moving on, we have another question from Chad.
01:08:57 Chad Kite.
01:08:59 How will you use the extra funds that you got after the first goal?
01:09:03 Okay.
01:09:06 He's me coming out.
01:09:11 Is it okay to say the truth, Shu?
01:09:15 Well, of course.
01:09:18 I think people want to hear the truth.
01:09:20 As long as, I don't know what we're under wraps that we can't say.
01:09:26 Well, basically, we said we need $580,000 to have a successful Kickstarter.
01:09:33 But actually, that was quite short.
01:09:37 We're actually putting a lot of our own money to make sure that the project works.
01:09:41 And to be honest, I wasn't confident to set the minimum goal above $580,000.
01:09:50 So that's how we set it.
01:09:52 It's actually more expensive.
01:09:54 And basically, we don't have actually a lot of spare money.
01:10:01 But when we do have spare money, we are going to put it into research and development for the film so that it gets better.
01:10:08 However, if we have a lot of spare money, like 1.8 times the amount of money from psychobackers, from PayPal, whatever,
01:10:19 I wish to make this OVA, not a 24-minute OVA, but a 40-minute OVA.
01:10:24 So that we can delve into the story of Hannah a little bit more.
01:10:29 And that might make you guys start to guess what really happens to Hannah on the first episode.
01:10:39 Ooh, suspense.
01:10:43 So I've got a personal question.
01:10:47 I'm from Rochelle.
01:10:49 Question for Nadia.
01:10:52 What are you most excited about under the dog?
01:10:56 Oh, and he wrote a very nice thing. So thank you very much.
01:11:00 Yeah, so, yeah, with under the dog, it's just, I mean, have you seen the trailer?
01:11:05 It's just looking so awesome.
01:11:08 It's really just the whole characters, the storyline is so deep.
01:11:12 And that's really, really cool.
01:11:14 There was one thing I was writing and translating and reading again and again.
01:11:19 And it was, you know, people think about death and life.
01:11:23 And it's so deep.
01:11:24 And I feel that not a lot of anime is having that kind of depth.
01:11:27 Really thinking about what would happen if your friends and your family is taken hostage in such a way.
01:11:35 And you are really going to be responsible for their demise.
01:11:40 I mean, I would not be able to handle that at all.
01:11:43 These characters are going to go through a lot.
01:11:45 And I think the storyline that Ishii-san wrote is just going to be impactful.
01:11:51 Knowing that, it's an amazing team.
01:11:55 I think the entire anime is going to be fantastic.
01:11:58 And knowing us and Hiro, we're going to make sure that the whole world sees this.
01:12:04 And I just feel that this anime is just going to get bigger and bigger.
01:12:07 And I'm just so excited to see what people are going to really feel when they see the film, the actual thing.
01:12:12 I'm so excited.
01:12:13 That's, I think, the most thing I'm excited.
01:12:15 Everything I'm excited, but that the most, maybe, to see everyone's reaction.
01:12:20 That's going to be really cool.
01:12:22 Absolutely.
01:12:25 All right.
01:12:26 Here's a question from Angel.
01:12:28 Oh, sorry.
01:12:29 Go for it.
01:12:30 I've got a question I want to answer.
01:12:32 And this is very important.
01:12:34 Noblesse Oblige, I bet I didn't say that right.
01:12:39 But he says, or she says, "Will you skew the current industry standard of casting idols as voice actors and actresses?"
01:12:49 This is one of the biggest problems in Japan.
01:12:53 "Sold as a Stranger" by Ando-san was marred by the fact that they used Japanese actors, voice actors, for the male cast.
01:13:07 Japanese is like your...
01:13:09 Johnny's.
01:13:11 We pronounce it "Jah-nee's", but it's actually called Johnny's.
01:13:15 Johnny's.
01:13:17 And Johnny's are not very well known for good actors.
01:13:21 They're basically idol pop boy band groups.
01:13:25 And I'm pretty sure there was some politics behind that.
01:13:29 Those kind of stuff is something that we want to get rid of.
01:13:33 I'm sure they might be talented as a singer or as an idol, but we want actors and actresses.
01:13:39 They don't need to be an idol.
01:13:41 If they're an idol and they can act, yeah, sure, why not?
01:13:44 But if they can't act, if they can't do the main job properly, then we're not going to consider them.
01:13:50 So everything, we want to keep as much of everything as pure as we can.
01:13:57 It's all about the talent, and those talented people should be out there for the right reason, will be out there in our anime.
01:14:05 Sorry, that's just my little rant.
01:14:11 Alright, then let's go for this one from Anhul, An-in-jul.
01:14:19 Will there be any difference between PayPal Tires and Kickstarter?
01:14:26 PayPal Tires?
01:14:27 Yeah, for those out there who want to pledge by PayPal.
01:14:31 We haven't totally decided, but I was going to ask you if it's okay to do just one digital tier at $25 or $30 or whatever,
01:14:41 and then have another tier at $60, and then you can just add stuff on.
01:14:45 Well, yeah, it'll be a discussion we have to have.
01:14:49 What I've been telling people so far is that the tiers will be the same.
01:14:52 I think that's the most fair way to do it, so people don't feel slighted in any way.
01:14:58 The people that pledged on Kickstarter, you guys were pledging towards funding the project specifically,
01:15:09 and so I think we want to continue that on PayPal.
01:15:12 So Hiru and I will have to have discussions about that, but yeah, I'm pretty sure that it should be the same at this point.
01:15:20 If we make any thoughts about doing something else, then we'll certainly bring it up with the community
01:15:26 and see what they think, because we want to respect the factors so far.
01:15:31 Okay, and Cage Alchemist is asking, "Are there going to be more PVs, promotional videos, coming to Keep Our Mouths Watering?"
01:15:43 No, I'm sorry.
01:15:45 The reason why we want to make more PVs is because promotional videos tend to be a lot of resources on our staff,
01:15:53 and every time we do a promotional video, the main anime doesn't get made,
01:15:58 and it's going to eat away at the budget of the main anime.
01:16:01 So I just really want to concentrate on the anime.
01:16:04 There will be a trailer for the first episode, but that's about it.
01:16:10 We don't want to make too many PVs, it's just going to chip away at the main thing that we really want to do.
01:16:16 Yeah, definitely.
01:16:18 And I think you see the same thing in video game development with events like E3,
01:16:24 where we're all working on a big project that we want to release at the end of the new year,
01:16:29 or say November sometime, and E3 is always much earlier than that.
01:16:33 And so everybody's trying to hit these milestones and goals so that we can have something stable to show for E3,
01:16:39 and what ends up happening is that pushes back the overall goal,
01:16:44 which is we all want to release our actual project as opposed to all the promotional stuff.
01:16:50 So I think with Under the Dog, as we develop it, what we'll be doing is trying to share a little insider sneak peek,
01:16:59 some developer diary type stuff, maybe some early animation and clips,
01:17:06 but it won't be a promotional video per se like we've seen on the Kickstarter page.
01:17:11 But yeah, we definitely want to keep you guys interested and informed and updated on whatever it is we're working on,
01:17:18 so that you can see our progress and continue to be excited about the project. I think that's important.
01:17:23 All right. And we have a question from Joel. This is a fun one, I think for Hiro.
01:17:30 I think he'll have fun answering this one. So for Hiro, nice one you have there. Are you a fan of Airsoft?
01:17:37 Oh, oh. I used to play a lot of Airsoft with the US Marines stationed at the embassy,
01:17:50 so that was cool, but those friends, a group of friends just kind of left, so yeah, I guess I'm a fan now,
01:17:57 because I don't really use it anymore. Yeah, it's a mess, it's not a real gun.
01:18:04 It's actually a handgun.
01:18:08 All right, and we have… Yeah, go for it.
01:18:13 I was just going to say, I don't have any assault rifles, but I do have my first handgun.
01:18:18 I got a Springfield XD .40 caliber, so I do have a real gun. I don't have any Airsoft guns.
01:18:28 Well, I have seen the past, so I think you should be afraid.
01:18:34 We're an ocean apart, so I'm not really worried about it.
01:18:39 All right, and another question. This is from Risk Monk.
01:18:50 If you guys were going to make merchandise, what type of stuff would you guys sell, such as shirts, posters, what else?
01:18:57 Maybe rings, maybe tracks, maybe… I mean, licensed product can be video games as well, right?
01:19:06 It could be video games, it could be anything, whatever goes.
01:19:12 But the main thing about merchandising is it only works when the anime is successful.
01:19:19 We only want to make merchandises if people love the character or love the world, etc.
01:19:28 So that's about it. Nadia, I just want to tell you, I probably have 5 or 6 more minutes to questions,
01:19:36 because I'm in tour with Ben and I, I've got meetings in the morning.
01:19:41 Sounds about right, because we don't have so many more questions left.
01:19:45 Just one, by Ebichu, the most recent one.
01:19:49 What do you think about the future of cyberpunk genre?
01:19:53 Cyberpunk. I love cyberpunk.
01:19:58 I mean, yeah.
01:20:01 Okay, well, this is a huge topic for me, because I think James Cameron is going to do Battle Ranger Alita,
01:20:13 and I think cyberpunk is going to come back. It's something that we're actually working on as well.
01:20:21 I actually have another IP for anime, and it's all about cyberpunk.
01:20:28 So I think those kind of things are going to be back in fashion, but it's not just good enough to be back in fashion.
01:20:38 We need to advance as an entertainment and as a culture, it needs to get better.
01:20:44 So I think the question is, what do you think about the future of cyberpunk?
01:20:50 I think it's going to come back very soon.
01:20:52 I think, weren't they doing a remake of Blade Runner or something?
01:20:57 Have you heard of the...
01:21:00 Of a remake? I think I might have heard something about it.
01:21:05 I don't know that I heard anything definitively.
01:21:08 But yeah, I...
01:21:10 Oh, sorry, go ahead.
01:21:12 Yeah, I think, well, I'm just saying, I think the era of cyberpunk is going to come back again,
01:21:17 but perhaps not in the same form it was when we experienced the 80s cyberpunk hugeness.
01:21:24 Alright, well on that note, Hiro, would you like to say some final note, comments, thank yous to everyone?
01:21:36 Thank you everybody for supporting Under the Dog.
01:21:40 Again, we're kind of a very mixed bag of feelings, we're happy and we're joyous and we're shocked pleasantly,
01:21:50 but we also have a huge burden ahead of us, because we do want to do our best to make a very good piece of anime.
01:22:00 And...
01:22:02 And it's my son.
01:22:05 He's filming his time.
01:22:08 But it's fantastic that we got funded really well to make this anime.
01:22:17 And I feel this is a very, very precious chance that we have, that we really need to take care of,
01:22:25 and we really need to treasure.
01:22:28 So thank you for the chance, and I really hope that we can make the best use of it.
01:22:34 Alright, and on that note, shall we close the hangout for tonight?
01:22:42 Oh, certainly.
01:22:44 Everybody, thank you so much for joining us.
01:22:48 It's been quite the trip, we've really enjoyed seeing all the interaction and the comments from you guys,
01:22:55 and we look forward to producing an awesome anime.
01:22:59 Thank you.
01:23:01 Thank you very much.
01:23:04 Bye bye.
01:23:06 Ciao, bye!
01:23:08 Bye!
01:23:10 [SILENCE]