When Netflix announced in October that it plans to spend a huge chunk of its $8 billion budget on original anime next year, a lot of heads were turned — and quite a few eyebrows were raised.
Netflix's desire to market itself as the next biggest anime hub drew concerns for many media companies, mostly TV stations.
How Netflix works in terms of anime production is that it directly commissions the studios to create the series for them. This is a totally different level of play for creators to get their projects going as opposed to obtaining it the standard way, which is through production companies.
This takes a huge amount of stress off the studios as they would no longer have to be burdened with production roadblocks such as limited funding and other factors that take away their profit.
In the world of anime production, whatever income the anime obtains gets split between TV stations, advertising agencies, newspapers and other media outlets. These have a share in revenue as they are also contracted by production companies to sell the product to the market.
Netflix offers no such hindrances. Bypassing the production and advertising committees would make sure that the studios would earn a bigger slice of the pie for their efforts. It would also ensure that the studios would get enough funding to ensure the quality of their projects and not have to worry about working overtime in substandard environments just to meet deadlines.
Netflix's four-episode spectacle, "Castlevania," is a prime example of what good budgeting and workplace freedom can do for a project.
Despite starting with just four episodes, and a somewhat rushed pace, the quality of the animation and intricate plot earned the series a lot of fans and now the creators are getting ready for its second season with double the episodes and has promised many more in the third.
If this goes on, we may see the bar get raised up a notch in terms of production quality.
There are some who remain skeptical with the so-called change in the anime landscape, however.
According to ComicBook.com, Yonnkou Productions stated, "Animators need saving. Netflix isn't changing the environment behind anime productions. Just licensing for large amounts of ¥."
