Studio Bones Looks Back on 25 Years of Anime

ANN's coverage of Anime Expo 2023 sponsored by Yen Press!

In the 25 years since its inception, Studio Bones has become synonymous with quality. The studio has an incomparable amount of hits under its belt that appeal to a broad audience. Cowboy Bebop has earned its status as a certified classic. While credited to Sunrise, many of the staffers, including producer-turned-Bones-president Masahiko Minami, would go on to found Bones after its success. That decision culminated in an impressive line-up that includes the likes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Bungo Stray Dogs, The Case Study of Vanitas, Eureka Seven, Mob Psycho 100, Soul Eater, and of course, My Hero Academia.

Minami and long-time animator and studio co-founder Toshihiro Kawamoto greeted fans at Anime Expo to celebrate the studio's beloved titles and newest project. A sizzle reel drew whoops and screams from the packed room. Minami noted he was most surprised by the enthusiasm for Ouran High School Host Club, a rom-com that wrapped up 15 years ago.

With so many years in the industry, Minami and Kawamoto reflected on what advice they'd give their past selves. Showing a bit of vulnerability, Kawamoto remarked that he watched Minami's "suffering and hard work to move the studio forward" while as an animator, Kawamoto "focused every single ounce of my energy to finish title after title." He shared that he was truly grateful for being able to do that with the same company president for 25 years.

"I hope I can continue to produce anime with Minami for another ten years and deliver those [series] to your screens," Kawamoto said.

Minami added that looking to the future, he "thought I really need to make sure I take care of my body. Since he says he wants another ten years, I better do a better job taking care of myself." Kawamoto chimed in with agreement.

"Please do. I'm serious about this."

The pair shared some of their favorite memories from the last two decades, including their bewilderment when Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist blew up internationally. Minami said that when a staff member initially shared that the series was a success, he thought they were blowing it out of proportion. He noted that there was no social media at the time to track audiences' responses like there is today.

"I wanted to see a screening of Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and only 2,000 people were supposed to come, but the demand was so high that they had to do more screenings. That moment for me led to today and other anime we were able to make," Minami said.

Kawamoto has a storied career as an animator, even prior to his work at BONES. His work dates back to the original Gundam television series and Dirty Pair and extends to Macross Plus and Katsuhiro Ōtomo's Memories anthology. Kawamoto offered up fan-favorite Wolf's Rain when asked about which show or scene he's most proud of.

"The reason is after Cowboy Bebop, we were known for mecha anime, but we wanted to try something different, and that was the project where we had the most overlap of Cowboy Bebop team members. This sound like bragging; we had [series director] Tensai Okamura, [scriptwriter] Keiko Nobumoto, and composer Yoko Kanno. To be able to work with that team on an original anime was fantastic," Kawamoto said.

At the time, BONES could only work on up to three anime simultaneously. It was a close-knit team with a fantastic relationship. "That was the last time we were able to make that happen before we scattered to different projects."

The Nobumoto was instrumental in getting Wolf's Rain off the ground. According to Kawamoto, the whole idea started with her.

"We were filming on-scene in Morocco, and I got this request to draw a wolf. I had no idea what was going on at the time," Kawamoto said.

The studio is looking toward the future with its new project Metallic Rouge. Production started four years ago with a proposal from mechanical designer, director, and scriptwriter Yutaka Izubuchi. Fuji TV and Crunchyroll were also crucial to getting the project greenlit. The story follows Rouge, an android girl, on a mission on Mars with her partner Naomi. The mission is to murder nine artificial humans who are hostile to the government.

Anime News Network met with Minami and Kawamoto to discuss the upcoming project, the studio's love of 2D hand-drawn animation, and reuniting with Yutaka Izubuchi.

So, to start with, one thing I noticed at Studio Bones' panel earlier is that the studio has developed a strong female fan base. Was the decision to go forward with a female protagonist for Metallic Rouge influenced by this? 

Masahiko Minami: I'm aware that we've been increasing the number of female fans in terms of adapted works.  But on the production side, it's not that we're specifically targeting female fans. It's just that we want as many people as possible to see what we're working on. 

But at the same time, one of the reasons why both protagonists in this are female is because both myself and also [Yutaka] Izubuchi-san have seen, I guess you can say, strong female personalities and strong women and the things that they've done and the actions that they've taken. And it's interesting, and it's unique for us. So we wanted to reflect that. We thought that was a very interesting angle for this [series]. 

I get the sense that recently women are prospering more freely and contributing more powerfully, and I think that's great.

The main character has a very interesting mechanical design. What feelings did you want her robot form to have compared to her humanoid form?

Toshihiro Kawamoto: So honestly, the mechanical character designs and the main character designs were developed in parallel. That was our process. And so once, for example, they transform into battle mode, right? We didn't do anything to try to reflect the mecha characters' characteristics on the main character. There was nothing really done about that. However, the character Naomi, right? In developing her, we tried to make sure that we referred back to Izubuchi-san's ideas, who is the chief supervisor.  And there are a lot of opinions. We got a lot of opinions from other people as well since this was an original work. 

However, we also tried to make sure that we tried different types of designs. We would submit those, get different people's opinions, and then we would make a judgment call on what we wanted to keep and what we wanted to throw away. And then, with what was left over, we would make further improvements. It was kind of a trial-and-error process, right? So that's how we tried to make sure that, being in the original work, the characters' designs were high-quality. 

You mentioned during your panel that Bones is a 2D-focused studio. Many studios have moved to CG specifically for animation that has mechanical elements. In your opinion, what sort of skills does an animator need to be able to bring those sorts of designs to life in 2D? 

MINAMI:Well, the first one is, do you have someone in your studio who can draw really well? You know, mechanical-type stuff? 

There are a lot of 3D companies, and 3D animation is something that is increasing. It's becoming more and more prevalent. And because of that, the flip side is that there are fewer and fewer people who can draw mechanic-type anime in two dimensions, right? However, at Bones, we do have a solid staff. We do have several people, several animators, who can draw that stuff in 2D. And so we're quite lucky. 

KAWAMOTO: But at the same time, from the perspective of a professional animator, there are a lot of people who are feeling some resistance to 3D. They want the level of skill development that's required. They want that not to be messed with in a way, right? So, I mean, there are a lot of people that don't want everything to switch over to 3D because there's a certain skill to that. There's a certain level of refinement to that, to the 2D technique. And so a lot of people don't want to go away from that. 

MINAMI: Honestly, though, it's about what the end product looks like. That's the biggest thing for us. So if drawing everything in 2D is going to be best for the anime, then we'll go in that direction. If 3D is going to be what's best for the anime...it's not that we're stuck on 2D no matter what. If 3D is best, we will definitely use that method and go in that direction. But at the same time, we do absolutely love hand-drawn 2D. It's what we love. 

So Metallic Rouge is like your 25th-anniversary project. What is it about that series that you feel represents where your studio is now after 25 years? 

MINAMI: We have a lot of original anime that we've done, like Wolf's Rain and other fantasy titles. There's Ouran High School Host Club. But then we also have our more robotic ones like RaXephon, which is more of a robot anime, and Izubuchi-san directed that. We feel like there's kind of a progression or a continuation, right? We went from there. Then we did Eureka Seven, Star Driver... so there was a continuation of all these robot-type anime. And then we had something like Towa no Quon, which was another one that goes a little bit different direction. 

Then we have our other similar original hero action anime. So we felt like all of those, the robot anime, that progression, and then the hero action anime, they converged, and all of those are what made Metallic Rouge possible. All of that goes into this. So we feel like it's a convergence of everything. 

Izubuchi has been involved in the anime industry for a very long time. Can you talk about your previous work with him and his contributions to Metallic Rouge? 

KAWAMOTO: I first worked on the Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 project with him to some extent in 1989. That was my first job working with him, and he's specialized in mechanical type design since that time.  At the same time for me, the way that he expresses himself and just the words that he uses and everything, it's easy for me to understand him. He also takes into account my opinion when I communicate with him, so there's this good communication there. Of course, there was some back and forth when decisions were being made, and my opinions were respected. That is, I guess, a part of his personality, just the way that he is. But all of that led to the Gundam project and Towa no Quon.

We had the opportunity to get a little bit of his help as well on Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which is TV series that Izubuchi did that I was able to be a part of. I was really interested in Izubuchi's work, I thought it was interesting. I loved the way that he worked, the way that he designed. And I thought, at some point, I'd like to do some work with him closely on a project. And so when Bones started this project, and I was approached about doing character designs, and he was involved, it was a no-brainer for me. I just absolutely had to accept, and so I did it. 

Translation courtesy of David Higby.

Metallic Rouge will stream on Crunchyroll in January 2024.