If you were ever confused when the name “Henry Thurlow” popped up in the credits of NARUTO SHIPPUDEN, TOKYO GHOUL or other Studio Pierrot projects, wonder no longer, because the man has finally stepped up and re-introduced himself to the American otaku community.
Over at BuzzFeed, Thurlow participated in a very.... BuzzFeed-style interview (replete with gifs) about his experiences as the only American animator currently working in anime. Inspired by the R-rated SPAWN animated series that ran on HBO in the 90's, he sought out a career as an animator in New York City, but wound up feeling stifled artistically. Aside from the Adult Swim show, SUPERJAIL, the only projects available were either short-form (the occasional Ke$ha and MGMT video) or safe and educational (DORA THE EXPLORER and DIEGO). So, he finally decided to travel to Japan with the hope of working on the kind cool, adult-oriented material he'd first been inspired by.
== TEASER ==
My friend, Felipe Smith, is one of the only Americans to ever work as a mangaka, and his experiences mirrors Thurlow's quite a bit...
Artists in anime and manga work long, grueling hours for low wages, with their only carrot being the pride of working on artistically-fulfilling material. Thurlow makes a point to stress that he really does enjoy all of Pierot's various projects, having previously had to work for a lesser-known studio that paid much worse when he was making his transition from English teacher to animator. Even if he's learned the language, there's still a major culture clash. The studio environment, where animators work all day in silence and don't even speak to each other during lunch, is an aspect of the job he especially dislikes.
It's hard not to see these conditions being the long-term results of Tezuka's tactic of vastly under-reporting production costs when he was directing the first weekly anime series in the 50's. Either way, hopefully we all have a little more appreciation for the staggering amounts of hard work that go into the shows we take for granted every week. If you want to get more Thurlow's perspective on the business, check out his Tumblr, Twitter and a very eye-opening AMA he did on Reddit recently.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1Gk2DQn
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