Inside CoMix Wave Films: The Studio That Made Your Name.

On the Eastern fringes of Suginami Ward of Tokyo rests Ogikubo. A well-known hub for the development of Tokyo ramen, the town is home to one of the most creative modern anime studios. That studio is none other than CoMix Wave Films. Known for producing all of Makoto Shinkai's films, Anime News Network was invited to look behind the scenes at the now legendary animation studio and speak with some of the staff about their work.

A short walk from JR Ogikubo Station, the CoMix Wave Films office is nestled inside a rather stunning building. Upon entering the office, guests are greeted with a real-life pink and white Honda Super Cub 110 from Weathering With You. It's a wonderful display piece, but sadly doesn't run. If the Honda moped isn't enough, though, the reception area is also filled with pop-up stands and posters from several Shinkai films. The colorful scene is inviting and gives the studio an aura of comfort.

Before the tour of the studio, we were taken to a meeting/break room to store our belongings and set up for interviews with CoMix Wave Film staff. This allowed us a moment to explore the meeting room, and it is fascinating. The room is quaint, with a kitchen area and a tatami room in the center. At the same time, though, the room is deceptive as it appears deeper than it is. This is thanks to the mirror on the back wall of the tatami room. However, what really catches the eye are the manga-laced bookshelves surrounding the room.

While most of the shelves feature popular works, the shelf dedicated to Horror News Paper's creator, Jirō Tsunoda, and the section with foreign authors were the standouts. When speaking with the CoMix Wave Films staff, apparently Tsunoda has been involved with the company for quite some time. This explains why he has his own dedicated shelf space within the company. And with the foreign section, one book that stood out was Indonesian author Dee Juusan's Grey is…. While I am not familiar with the author's works, I've had the pleasure of interacting with them in the past. Hence, seeing works from around the world and across time gives the studio a sense of history.

After exploring the meeting/break room, the studio tour began. Entering the studio is a bit surreal for an outsider, as the staff are working on top-secret productions. When you turn a corner, you'll find something like a stack of cuts for an unreleased film project, or an animator coloring a character for a future work.

Beginning in the animation section, the section is split into several departments. These include the Animation, Finishing & Color Design, Background, 3D CG and Photography Departments. Each department has separate responsibilities within each production, with some more obvious than others. For instance, the Background Department works on backgrounds, while the 3D CG Department works on CG animations. But even then, the duties aren't as straightforward as one would think.

Starting with the Animation Department, the staff creates the layout and key animation as well as the character keyframes. So, the department doesn't animate, so much as create the skeleton for the Animation Department to create the insert animations. However, within the Animation Department you'll also find an animation inspector, called the Douken, whose duty is “checking and inspecting the finished animations to see if it is in line with the director's instructions and if the quality of the art is maintained.”

During our tour of the animator's section, we were able to speak with animator Minoru Ohashi. Ohashi, a veteran of the anime industry, began his career at Studio Ghibli. After his 10-year tenure at Studio Ghibli, he joined CoMix Wave Films, where he has worked as an animator for numerous Shinkai films.

As we approached Ohashi, he was reviewing some animations. Looking over some animations from Suzume, we asked about the process he would normally go through at this stage. For this particular cut, Ohashi said he had come from a meeting with the directors and was using their feedback as the basis for the key animations. When asked if he would make any corrections on the animations at that point, he stated, “The corrections are made by the higher-ups and returned to me, so I follow their instructions and don't make any corrections at this point in the process.” He briefly showed the animations, and there were several colored notes written on the pages. Notably red, blue, and green. Curious about the colored notation, Ohashi explained:

We thanked Ohashi for his time and continued the tour. While still in the animation section, we came to the Photography and Background departments. The Background department is rather self-explanatory in that the staff creates the backgrounds seen in animation productions. In turn, the Finishing department applies color to characters and checks if the coloring for other aspects of the animation is correct. The example given was for evening colors. “We will also check here whether the colors we have applied are the correct colors. For example, whether evening colors are properly evening colors.”

Like with Ohashi, we were able to speak with two staff members from the Background and Photography Departments. We spoke with Hiromi Yamashita from the Photography Department first. Yamashita has been involved in Shinkai films such as Weathering With You and Suzume. When we talked to her, she demonstrated the film processing for Suzume to us, and she explained she receives orders and out-of-stock-shooting data from Shinkai. She then uses the out-of-stock-shooting data to create the images in Shinkai's orders. The Photography Department composites the character animations, backgrounds, and 3D into one image as well as “Creates the final image by processing the lighting and other camera work.” As such, they finalize the vision of the directors they are working with.

We then talked to background artist Yuna Murooka. Since joining CoMix Wave Films she has created backgrounds of your name. and more recently was the art director for The Colors Within by Naoko Yamada. While Murooka showed us the background from Suzume, our eyes were drawn to the many reference books surrounding her desk. Notably a dictionary for architectural terms. Murooka noted the book is “really convenient to be able to check things like floor plans and dimensions…” This makes sense as Shinkai tends to use urban areas in his films. So, having those types of references are a boon to Murooka's work.

After speaking with the creators, the hoods on most of the work areas caught our attention. Inquiring about them, we were told they are to prevent any glare from fluorescent lights and to ensure the colors look accurate from each staff member's perspective. This is similar to when someone color-corrects an image. In a brightly lit room, the colors can appear muted. However, in a dark room, it's far easier to gauge the colors in an image. Thus, a similar principle applies to CoMix Wave Films' Finishing and Background departments.

Most of the Animation section at CoMix Wave Films is one long hall leading to Makoto Shinkai's corner cubicle. Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to speak with the director or explore his cubicle. However, sneaking a quick glimpse at his workspace, the director appeared to be working on a super-secret project or possibly his next film.

Turning the corner at Shinkai's cubicle, we were guided to the 3D CG Department. The 3D CG department is another relatively self-explanatory department. Focusing on CGI animation, the department “uses 3D to create new perspectives in 2D animation, such as creating backgrounds, moving characters, and moving cars.”

Near the CG Department was also a row of empty shelves. Since CoMix Wave is currently in between productions, the shelves were empty. But when production ramps up, they are apparently stacked with finalized cuts for the project. The shelves are impressive, to say the least, and one can imagine how full they become when filled to the brim with finished cuts.

Although not part of the animation side of CoMix Wave Films, we were shown an integral part of the studio, the Business division. While the division is in the same building as the Animation Section, the staff of CoMix Wave Films affectionately refer to the Business division's area as the Hanare (離れ Annex). Split into multiple departments, the Business section focuses on domestic and international sales, supervision and designs of merchandise, public relations, accounting, labor, and other behind-the-scenes work.

One of the standouts of the Business section, though, is the availability of numerous reference materials. These aren't business reference materials or industry magazines either, but rather a collection of magazines and even manga that are currently popular or suggested by the staff. We were told, “We sometimes buy works to use as reference, but we also want to know what kind of works are currently selling well. So, we will make announcements about recent best-selling works saying, 'We've got them in, so please take a look.'”

These types of reference materials are generally standard in manga editorial departments (of which I have served in two), so seeing an animation studio follow a similar practice is heartwarming. It's also an amazing way to be introduced to a work you may have never heard of. Thus, when asked what our tour guide's current recommendation was, she stated, “I haven't looked around here recently, but the most recent one is Jimoto Saiko [by usagi].”

After the CoMix Wave Films studio tour, we had another opportunity to speak with Ohashi, Yamashita, and Murooka about what interested them in the anime industry and what advice they have for joining the industry.

Each creator had a very different interest in anime, but there was one constant: there was an anime film or series that changed their outlook of the medium from entertainment to a prospective career. For Ohashi, he noted Studio Ghibli's Whisper of the Heart as his first favorite anime film, but explained, “After watching Princess Mononoke, by Hayao Miyazaki, I started considering animation as a career.”

In a similar vein, Murooka has watched anime since she was a child. But it was her exposure to the 2006 film Tekkon Kinkreet when she “realized how amazing anime can be.” She further elaborated, “I was shocked, and that's when I first became interested in anime and in the creation of anime itself. Later, when I was a university student, a friend lent me The Garden of Words, and I realized, 'Oh, anime can make even more beautiful pictures like this.' And I became even more interested.”

Yamashita, in turn, said she found a natural progression from fan to creator. “My parents probably showed me a lot of anime from a young age, so I've always loved and been interested in it. So, it was only natural I wanted to make it myself.” Yamashita said.

When asked about joining the anime industry and what advice they have for those considering a career in the field, their responses were fascinating, to say the least. Yamashita and Murooka imparted the following advice:

The senior of the three staff members, Ohashi, took a different approach to the question. Rather than the work itself, he wanted potential aspirants to take care of their physical and mental health. “I want people to take care of their mind and body,” Ohashi said. “At work, you have your colleagues, so you can manage anything. So, I hope you don't overwork yourself.” And considering some of the hours and production crunch, it's very sound advice.

It's not often anime fans get to see the behind-the-scenes work of an anime production, so CoMix Wave Films allowing us to tour their studio was a real treat. And the insights gleaned from the handful of animators shined a light on what goes into the different areas of production for an anime project.