> The process doesn't so much start again, as it continues. As the production ramps, multiple episodes are in development at once, with every step of the process constantly overlapping. You understand why the writers — and everyone else involved — would need a retreat.

The Japanese animated series Shirobako is an excellent depiction of this phenomenon, and it details almost every aspect of the OP's article - an anime about making anime, it follows a project manager at a small studio needing to make tradeoffs between allocating resources to the current deadline vs. falling behind on the next one. (Which should be familiar to all of us!)

The tightness of this pipeline is much more aggressive than many might realize: this diagram https://i.imgur.com/xRVd3xW.jpg (translated supplementary material for the show) depicts an ideal situation.

For any fans of animation with sufficient time, I highly recommend watching the show itself; it's highly illuminating and entertaining: http://www.crunchyroll.com/shirobako

As a side note, the supply and demand for labor in the anime industry is at a very interesting point. There's a significant bubble keeping animator salaries essentially at the poverty line in Japan: animators do the work for such low prices out of passion for the art, but in turn fewer individuals are training for the positions while demand for production is at record levels, so there may be a crisis that changes this pattern. As in software, offshoring can only go so far when end users demand a certain level of quality and consistency with prior work. See: http://goboiano.com/anime-industry-faces-animator-shortage-c... and another salary comparison chart from Shirobako that demonstrates how deep the problem goes: https://i.redd.it/uwirci3iubvx.jpg

This is fascinating, and nice timing. I'm doing a production schedule of a live TV series as I type this. It's somewhat similar.

Looking at those salaries, up to episode director's one, can one live with that at all in Japan? I've been there on a few occasions and I know 'shit's expensive, yo'. These salaries are comparable to Eastern Europe, more or less.

edit: ah, STARTING salary.. not average. Makes more sense.

Nope, NOT starting salaries. More along the lines of microwave dinners and closet-sized rooms. See:

https://twitter.com/kenarto/status/848182329566560257 : equivalent of 1050 euros per month

http://kotaku.com/being-an-animator-in-japan-is-brutal-16902... : At Nakamura pro we were paid $1 per drawing, meaning you earned between $5 and $25 a day. At Pierrot it`s way better... but still pretty bad. 1 drawing = $2-$4 .... so on any given day I can earn about $40. (HORRIBLE by anyone's standards.... but, if you want to work on cool anime, there's not much choice.) ...Each month at Pierrot I earn about $1000. ...... each month at my previous "slave-labor" studio, I earned about $300 a month... The less-busy periods are six-day work weeks, ten hours a day.

http://kotaku.com/the-average-anime-salary-in-japan-is-shock... : According to a Japan Animation Creators Association survey of 759 animators, the average yearly income is 1.1 million yen or approximately ten thousand dollars. Which is less than a thousand bucks a month. And that’s working, again, on average, eleven hours a day.

I really should have said "exploitative" instead of "interesting" in my first post... And my understanding is it's not really the studios' fault either, but more systemic: studios rarely have the capital to bankroll a show over a 2-year production cycle, so "production committees" of manga/novel publishers, distributors, music labels, toy companies etc. (all of whom treat modern anime as a glorified advertising campaign) capture all the upside from any funded show, and studios need to race to the bottom to compete for their business. Sad to think that individual pieces of art are treated like widgets on an assembly line.

Graphic said starting though, but I see. That's just sad. In Eastern Europe ~1000 Euros per month is ok-ish to good salary, in some countries in EE it's a great salary. Lots of talent as well, as demonstrated by a large number of small to medium companies providing outsource work. Especially in poorer countries in EE where salaries for 2D and 3D work are between 300 and 500 Euros per month on average (Serbia and Macedonia, namely). In Japan though, that's borderline poverty.

I had alway wondered how they did topical inserts, glad to know its how everything else last minute comes together: lots of hectic running around...

I haven't watched regularly in quite a few years, but there is something very nice about the constancy of it being around, always there should we need it.

What's amazing to me is that the process sounds like there's a lot of rushed deadlines, sprints, etc. Yet the simpsons has had decades to hire and smooth the entire process out. You'd figure it'd be more rinse and repeat.

Hm... For almost 15 years the writing of The Simpsons feels more like production, not creation. According to the article it should be quite opposite.

It's a shame that the writing quality has been in steady decline. It really became apparent when the sister show "Futurama" was brought back in 2010. Mostly the same writers, but not even remotely as funny or interesting as 1999-2003, with zero subtlety in the humor.