\u2015\u2015What are the main responsibilities of your work? Additionally, what form does your work take?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I work for Production I.G as an employee. I am in charge of archiving the works that we have been involved in. My work is quite flexible. Since the COVID pandemic, I have had the option to work from the office or from home. I choose according to my needs. I appreciate being able to work from my home computer even on days when I am not feeling well. On the other hand, I feel that there were some tasks that I was able to make progress with specifically because I came in to the office and worked energetically alongside everyone else. There was work that we were able to make progress on by sharing our problems while chatting and coming up with solutions together, but now that the chance to chat with one another has disappeared, I find myself working only on monotonous and easy tasks. However, as a woman whose health has a tendency to be unstable, the fact that the company allows me to work from home is a very welcome situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015How did you get into the anime industry?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I loved anime when I was in elementary school, so I joined the animation club when I entered middle school. I wanted to draw animation cels , so I bought celluloid paints at A nimate (a major anime merchandise chain store found across Japan) and drew cels on my own. I felt that I wanted to be involved in some kind of animation work in the future, but I was convinced that the only jobs I could get were as an animator or a voice actor . R eading d irector Satoshi Kon’s blog and learning about the role of the production assistant, I decided to take the employment examination because I was told that I could enter the company if I submitted a driver’s license, a resume, and a short essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015What was it about cel animation that appealed to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that time, cels seemed to shine like jewels to me. Perhaps it was the unique way the paint shone on the celluloid after being applied, but I also got a sense of aliveness from this supposedly unmoving paint . As a result, I wanted to paint cels myself , so I went to A nimate and bought art supplies. I used an airbrush to add special effects. Now, I am happy to be involved in preserving animation cels as my work. I am very intentional about it because it was something that I admired during my school years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015I definitely see a connection between your initial motivation to enter the animation industry and your current archival work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than that, I feel like I might still be holding onto the feelings that I had when I was in school. Up through middle school, I drew because I wanted to draw , but when I became a high school student, I found myself surrounded by people who were much better at drawing than I was. So I began to feel that I wanted to help make people who were good at drawing feel comfortable expressing themselves. At the same time, there were kids who were bullied in class who were actually very good at drawing and shined in their club activities. I wanted lots of people to know how wonderful these kid ‘s abilities were, and I did not want their lives to be denied value because they did not fit in with the other kids . So, communicating the appeal of their art and letting people know who made the art became my main motivation when I was in high school. I am aware that, even now, I am still working with that same motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015So it\u2019s like the job as an archivist was waiting for you as if by fate. Could you provide us with a reflection on your career from when you first got started in the industry up until you started your current work as an archivist ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I started as a production assistant. After less than a year, I realized that production wasn’t for me, so I took a position as an editor at AVID for a few m o n t h s . When the company started up a public relations department, I was transferred and was assigned to search the company’s warehouse for materials needed to create an event and book for the company’s 15th anniversary project. Later, while working as a publicist, I organized the company\u2019s materials in order to smoothly respond to requests for retrieval, which served as the beginning of my current work as an archivist. In fact, in 2003 and 2004, I had the opportunity to work with Studio Ghibli on the publicity campaign for the movie, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. At the time, the materials at Production I.G required for Studio Ghibli’s publicity campaign were not organized at all. From there on, there was a push within I.G to create a press department to promote the company over the next several years, and I thought that this was a great opportunity for us to organize the materials in a systematic way so that they could be used immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although I liked the work of public relations such as communicating with the mass media, I left my role as a publicist for the 2004 anime TV series, Windy Tales, midway through production to conduct a project organizing the company\u2019s warehouse. At the time, I would work at the reception desk and answer the phone while I organized some of the materials I had at hand, and, when it became evening, I would go to the warehouse to organize .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Around this time, the NHK archives had just started to be broadcast on TV, and someone said to me, \u201cthe work you\u2019re doing is archiving, right?\u201d And that was when I first became aware that I was working as an anime archivist. We had several warehouses in the company, and I basically worked on the paper materials in the warehouses while organizing the video footage and data at my desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even before I joined the company, there were several employees who had a collector’s temperament. There were archivist pioneers who picked up materials that the production assistants threw in the trash or kept materials hidden in lockers to protect them from producers that might throw away the materials that had been used in the intermediary step of production . While communicating with the people who had already been storing materials on their own, I shared information with them about what kind of things should be kept and how they should be stored. By proactively sharing information, I was able to gain their trust, and in later years they began to hand over materials to me. Also, I usually worked alone, so for a long time I had to ask the new hires in April to help me with tasks that needed people. In 2014, we were going to hold an exhibition for Ghost in the Shell and needed scanning for it. Since w e were also going to publish a collection of the key frame artwork, there was talk about wanting to scan the series in its entirety, rather than just a single episode at a time . It was too much for one person to handle, so we created a scanning team by making arrangements for extra staff within the company to join the team and hiring from an outsourcing company. This approach became the groundwork for hiring outsourced workers in our current archival work . The scanning team itself was disbanded after about a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hypothesizing that the amount of paper used for drawing itself would decrease as it would be replaced by digital drawing from then on, the upper management decided it would be better not to throw away key frame drawings following the Ghost in the Shell exhibit since these papers would become valuable , and they temporarily suspended the destruction of key frame drawings, which had been done regularly until then. Therefore, we decided to allocate more staff to their organization , and borrowed some extra staff within the company for the archive. Even so, we still did not have enough staff, so we started a process of increasing the number of outsourced workers to do the work. We had a maximum of eight people, including seven outsourced workers and myself, but we currently have three outsourced workers and two in-house employees working in the archive due to former archive workers being hired elsewhere, among other reasons. Since the outsourced workers are not full- time, I believe that their total worked hours equal to that of about one full-time employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015As you are a pioneering archival practitioner, I assume that you must have thought this was a great job from the very beginning . Where specifically do you find joy in your work, or what effect have you felt from it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I used to draw pictures during my school years, so there was a time when I had a sense of superiority, thinking that I must be the only one in the world who got to be in an environment where the original drawings for Production I.G\u2019s anime could be viewed . At the same time, though I was told, \u201cYamakawa, don\u2019t be too hard on yourself. I t\u2019s okay to just stop there if you can\u2019t handle all of the organization ,\u201d I had the joy of knowing that if I worked hard, I would be able to leave the art behind for future generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015That makes sense. It\u2019s the determination of \u201cif I don’t do it now, then who will do it and when?\u201d On the other hand, I imagine that the pressure must have also been intense, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That’s also partly why I got sick a few years ago. My family and other people around me told me, \u201cIt\u2019s okay to quit,\u201d but I felt that if I quit, I would have not yet fully grown into an anime archivist , so I felt that I couldn\u2019t quit just yet. I wanted to make friends in the anime archive community, so I stormed into Niigata University on my own accord. In February of 2017, I heard from an acquaintance that a symposium was going to be held at a university that was working on an anime archive, and I went to the symposium on my own initiative . And at the conference venue, I raised my hand and asked questions, saying how I would love to learn more about the topics being discussed. I felt that I had to make friends any way I could. Today, I am here in Kyoto, invited by Kyoto Seika University, and I deeply feel that the number of my friends has been increasing. So I feel that the pressure of being alone is starting to decrease year by year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015Your activities have been steadily producing results. What direction are you aiming to take your work going forward ? Do you have any ideas for what you would like to achieve or any other plans in mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think there is definitely no doubt that anime archives them selves are in demand worldwide. However, it is only one company and collectors who are responsible for them at the moment. The families of collectors often destroy their collection after the collector has passed away, and companies also have a large amount of materials that are generated during the intermediary steps of production , so it is difficult to keep all of them if they do not turn a profit. Since anime production is shifting to digitalization, the volume of data is in turn increasing and data management is becoming more expensive. In any case, I think we are now at the stage where the government will be tasked with providing more concrete support than a single company or individual can handle. Specifically because this is an active industry, even if the government provides support, I think that companies will not feel comfortable cooperating with archival projects unless we create policies that include measures in accordance with the companies\u2019 interests. Therefore, I believe that the animation industry needs to remain in a position where they have a say in the content of any imposed rules before said rules are finalized. Moreover, the way animation is made changes constantly with the times, so it is definitely necessary to have a proper understanding of the production process for archival work. In order to understand the production process, I think it is necessary to have someone in the company who can archive the latest information, so I feel that it is important to consider my anime archival work as akin to gathering referential information for the production process instead of just as organizing materials. I mentioned about the role of the country in archival work earlier, but the question of what I want to do in the field is something that I\u2019m also having a hard time with. I\u2019ve been asked the question, \u201cDo you have any role models?” before , but I don’t have any role models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015There definitely aren\u2019t many role models to take after. After all, you\u2019ve led the charge in bringing the field of archival work into new territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you say, “I want to be like that person,” then you have to think about what you need to practice, what you need to study, in order to become that person, right? In the absence of a role model, I have just been doing the extent of what I can as a member of society, as an archivist, and as an individual woman, which has all coalesced in bringing me here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015You just mentioned the idea of \u201ccoalescing,\u201d and I imagine there will probably be others who will follow in your footsteps. In fact, it would be a problem if someone does not follow in your footsteps. As I imagine that archives need to be thought of in the span of ten, twenty, or even fifty or one-hundred years, what kind of person would you want to continue your work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since there are various tasks involved in archival activities, I think I would like it to be someone who can carry on with whatever archival work they are doing, no matter the task, without experiencing distress in doing so. I would definitely like someone to enter the field of anime archiving who can do the work without feeling distressed because I think that, i f you carry out your tasks while hating your job, it will probably bring about some kind of tragedy, or your life will lose its meaning. If you were to say that an archivist is someone who holds qualifications for work as a curator or a librarian, the job becomes pretty easy to understand, but I think that ‘s probably not quite accurate. I don’t have any qualifications of any kind. I didn\u2019t enter Production I.G. thinking that I wanted to work in an archive. I just felt that I wanted people who draw the art for anime to be happy, and I wanted everyone to know how talented they are. And the results of my efforts have brought me here. That is why I want it to be easy for people to participate in archival work even if they don’t have any knowledge of the archival process . On top of that, considering the demand for anime outside of Japan, I think I would like people who can disseminate information outside of Japan to join us. Since I think t here is probably a difference in personalities between someone who can work eight hours a day in a warehouse and someone who does not mind traveling overseas, we need people who can complement and support each other. I would definitely like to have those kinds of people involved with the archive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015I remember you mentioned earlier that the personal collectors at your company taught you a lot of know-how. At that time, did you talk about what kind of things should be preserved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One person who has already left the company told us that they wanted us to preserve the names of the people who drew the key and in-between frames. Beyond just preserving their names due to their talent as illustrators, the way that this former employee said the names of the artists written on the front cover of the bags containing the drawings for a cut were essential left a deep impression on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015Can you immediately identify the person who drew the cut from that system of writing the names on the cover of the bag ? If you had the signature of the creator in the bag, then wouldn\u2019t the bag be in a state where by preserving those key frames, you would also properly preserve the artist\u2019s name?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly, in the early days, it was often the case that the person whose name was recorded in the bag was, in fact, the person who drew those frames, so I think the value of retaining the front cover of the cut bag was very high. Since the switch to digital coloring, the production process has been sped up, and it is quite common that people whose names are not recorded in the cut bag are actually drawing the key frames, so I think the value of the front cover has slightly decreased. As a result, I am aware that it is more important to preserve who drew the art than it is important only to preserve the front cover. It\u2019s a question of w ho made it, where it was made , and what kind of people were involved in the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015Those are definitely difficult questions to answer, since they’re not something that an outsider would be able to look up after the fact, as they involve information that only those working on-site in the studio can understand. That specifically is why it is important work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much of the information can be traced from the ending credits, but that is not always the case. As for directing instructions or instructions given by the animation director, sometimes the person’s name is written on the correction sheet, so it can be traced from there. As for the Niigata University database, if there is a note on a drawing and it is recorded in the database that there is a note attached to it, information about the drawing\u2019s production can be traced back to “instructions from the director” or something similar. Then, we would check to see if the name found in the note is in the credits or not. If not, we can assume that the person may have participated in the project up to the point where the note was written. Also, if there is a record of who was drawing before the retake, we can find out who the note was addressed to. Whether or not you can remember the situation on-site in the studio is also a factor in whether or not you will be able to search for information about the production process , so I think this kind of know-how for tracing the dynamics of the production needs to be passed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015I would like to ask you a question related to your identity as a woman in the workplace. Have there been any instances in which you\u2019ve felt that your work has either benefited or been hindered due to your gender?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, I did. Although it\u2019s not always easy in this day and age, I tried not to refuse to go out for drinks with co-workers after work . I was married early. I got married at the age of 22, and when I announced that I was married and said I could go out drinking, I received quite a few invitations to dinner. There was no sexual harassment when I went out with co-workers or anything like that at all. However, when I was one of the few women in a predominantly male environment, they often talked to me. They talked to me in ways that came off somewhat boastful, like “I was the one who did this thing at that time,” but for me, as an archivist interested in the production and the history of anime , there is no information more important for organizing the production materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was very grateful for that. I, myself, had joined I.G. just before the company’s 15th anniversary, but I was able to meet with both the background artists and the directors, and was able to hear information about the establishment of the studio, and getting an understanding of the timeline of the studio in my head was very useful in organizing the materials. I was able to have these experiences largely because I was a woman who went out with everyone for drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015On the other hand, d o you think that there have been any detriments to your work because you are a woman?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I got married, I was told, “Mrs. Yamakawa, I know you must have a lot on your plate after getting married, so we\u2019re going to transfer you to General Affairs. We\u2019re currently setting up a desk there for you, so just wait until everything is ready for you to transfer.\u201d In the end, I did not have to go to General Affairs because there was no physical desk available, but at that stage I was working on the archives. And I want to do archiving. I never told the company that I was having a hard time at home. Still, I was surprised and scared by how they were going to transfer me to the G eneral A ffairs department without consulting me first. I am grateful to the company for offering me a more laidback job because they thought that my situation was tough, but I felt a strong sense of impending danger that I would be forced to quit my job at the archive at any moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015Lastly, do you have a message for those who aspire to become archivists in the future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think that the fact that someone is thinking about wanting to do archival work means that there is something in that person\u2019s heart that felt that something should be preserved. I think they felt that this something has value and should be preserved, and want to pass it on to future generations as a result. I think that, i f there exists one person who finds value in this thing, then, on a global scale, there is bound to be many more people who also find that thing valuable. Therefore, even if the people around you say, \u201cI\u2019m not interested. There\u2019s no need to preserve that,\u201d I hope you will continue to search for like-minded friends. Of course, there are times when people feel a lot of regret when they, for whatever reason, throw away what they want to keep. It is specifically because of that feeling of regret that I think we are able to come up with the next steps to find a way to preserve these objects, such as securing a budget, increasing our number of like-minded friends, or dedicating more of our time to preservation. When you feel regret about the idea of these objects being lost , I want you to feel that regret to the fullest and use it as a springboard for the next step, and when you encounter something that really needs to be saved, I want you to have the determination to save it. All of these experiences will benefit you in the future as an archivist, so I would like to tell any aspiring archivists that they should not be discouraged by the people around them and should keep working hard to achieve their dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2015\u2015That is such a heart-warming message. I sincerely hope that the archive will take root and be recognized by the world as a testimony to the value of anime\u2019s production proc . Thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-207","wija_creator","type-wija_creator","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wija_creator\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wija_creator"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/wija_creator"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wija_creator\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":673,"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wija_creator\/207\/revisions\/673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dock.geidai.ac.jp\/wija\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}