Anime Expo 2023

Production I.G, Studio Wit Share Psycho-Pass, Haikyū, More Project Details

The Production I.G x WIT Studio panel took place on Sunday in the Main Events hall of the convention center, the largest room at the venue for panels. Even the sections in the back were well populated with fans waiting for it to start.

At the top of the hour, the lights shined down on the three-panel guests on stage. On the left was Maki Terashima-Furuta, president of Production I.G USA. Next to her was George Wada, president and CEO of both Production I.G (Japan) and WIT Studio and vice president of Production I.G USA. And on the right was Yoko Ueda, associate producer at Production I.G. Terashima-Furuta led the panel discussion and handled interpreting.

To kick things off, the guests introduced themselves. Terashima-Furuta briefly mentioned that she was heavily involved in the recent FLCL works and Uzumaki and quickly tempered the audience's expectations about news. In short, no news on either of them today, but hopefully some news at Comic-Con.

She also acknowledged that there had been rumors swirling about Uzumaki being canceled because there's been a lack of updates. She assured fans that it's still happening, and any news that it's canceled should only be believed if it comes directly from her mouth. The crowd let out a sigh of relief and seemed buoyed by her confident assurances.

Moving on, the introductions continued with Wada. Before diving into his background, the affable Wada worked the crowd a bit. "Do you like Production I.G?" "Do you like WIT Studio?" "Do you like... Spy×Family?" Each question was met with increasingly intense cheers and applause. In answer to the enthusiastic response, Wada turned to Terashima-Furuta. "Let's do our best for the US!" With Wada riding the high of the moment, Terashima-Furuta reminded him he still needed to do a real self-introduction. "Oh, that's right!"

Wada shared that his first job was with the well-known American company Cisco Systems. "My life was very boring back then." The crowd lets out an understanding laugh. "My only support, my only peace, was anime, just like you guys," he continued. He went on to say that through a friend, he was able to ask the president of Production I.G at the time directly, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, if he could work for them and was lucky enough to get a spot. "If you love anime, don't give up on your dreams. Just come directly to us and talk to us!"

Throughout the panel, Terashima-Furuta encouraged members of the audience to come work for Production I.G, even directly asking some fans, "Do you want to work for us?" after their passionate shouts of support. She later noted that people would have a significant leg up if they had some level of skill in Japanese – a given, perhaps, but worth noting nonetheless – but the tone was genuine and supportive.

Wada shared he helped make Psycho-Pass with Production I.G., but at some point, he decided he wanted to make his very own studio for creating anime and established WIT Studio. WIT Studio made a little show you may have heard of called Attack on Titan.

They then gave Ueda a chance to introduce herself. Similar to Wada's early days, she had a boring job at a printing company but had loved anime since elementary school. The crowd cheers when she says, "I'm a huge otaku, just like you guys." She decided that if she had to work for the rest of her life, she'd rather work on what she loved and applied for a job at Production I.G, and was lucky enough to get hired.

Ueda plays a crucial role at the company, being able to fill different roles as an associate producer. Between marketing and animation production, she's worked on various shows like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Library Wars, as well as several joint projects between Production I.G and WIT Studio, like Great Pretender and Ranking of Kings.

Terashima-Furuta didn't take time to go into her background but did take a moment to share that she was the lead staff behind a special animated commercial they produced for a new fragrance for the high-end brand Gucci featuring Miley Cyrus, which is available to view on YouTube. She jokingly says, “You don't have to buy it. It doesn't help us at all. I have to buy it myself.”

With intros wrapped up, they moved on to slides of the shows that Production I.G has recently worked on.

First, a couple of titles are already out in the wild: Season 4 of Legend of Galactic Heroes is now streaming on Crunchyroll, and the final season of Ultraman is now out on Netflix.

Then the slides showed some key art from The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store, a new feature film in development. Yoshimi Itazu, the character designer for Miss Hokusai, will direct it.

Next was a slide for Haikyu!! Final. Wada mentioned that it's a very difficult property to produce but didn't elaborate on the reason. However, he shared that the producer Keiko Matsushita was passionate about seeing it through to the end, so she pushed hard to make a final movie. “Please stay tuned because you'll get to see the conclusion.”

The next slide showed an image for a collaboration between Production I.G and SEGA that combines Phantasy Star Online 2 NEW GENESIS ver.2 and Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045. “Have you seen the ads around the convention center?” they asked the audience. There's no doubt they recognized it – among the ads adorning the structural columns inside the convention center halls, these were the most numerous. What is it? A variety of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045-themed items you can acquire in Phantasy Star Online 2.

Ueda smoothly transitioned to mention that there's a movie compilation of the second season of the Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 series coming out in Japan later this year. There's no news yet for a release in the U.S., but fans were encouraged to express their desire to see it on streaming platforms to increase the chances.

The presentation then transitioned to a full trailer for Psycho-Pass: Providence. Wada stated that it would be the last movie in the series. They have worked on the series since 2012, so for roughly a decade, and this movie will be the culmination. Wada took a moment to express his deep appreciation to fans: “We have only been able to keep making Psycho-Pass for so long thanks to your support.”

The series is the last show Wada produced while at Production I.G, so he was very happy about how it was received. Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll will screen the Psycho-Pass Providence film in theaters in North America on July 14.

Next, another trailer was shown – this time for a show being produced for Disney+ called Tengoku Daimakyo, or Heavenly Delusion in English. They paused to ask how many in the audience subscribed to Disney+, and they were pleased to see a number of hands go up. However, there were also some groans, and they sensed that the crowd perhaps wasn't entirely on board with the streaming service. “[The show] is really good, so we will consider a different way to present it to you for those who aren't on Disney+.” While the panel focused on the Disney+ service, Tengoku Daimakyo streamed on Hulu in the U.S.

Terashima-Furuta decided to ask the crowd directly: “Where do you want to see it?” and she was met with shouts of “Crunchyroll!” A few voices called out for Netflix, but Crunchyroll received the most support.

“Crunchyroll? Raise your hand for Crunchyroll. Okay, Netflix. HBO Max? Hulu?” Crunchyroll once again emerged as the clear winner, but there was support for all of them.

Wada seemed satisfied with the impromptu survey results. “I suspect there are some representatives from Japan, so that was probably very useful information for them.”

Next, a trailer for Kaiju No. 8 was shown. Wada expressed great excitement about this series and shared that he had wanted to create it since becoming President of Production I.G. He assured the audience that they were putting all their energy into this project. The show's producer is the same as Heavenly Delusion, so it's “content-heavy.”

There was no new information to share about the anime during the panel, but the team is planning a big reveal on August 5 through the official Twitter account (@KaijuNo8_O_EN).

With the Production I.G titles covered, it's on to WIT Studio's recent and upcoming projects. To start, they show off a trailer for Ranking of Kings. After some back and forth with the audience to see how much support there is for the show – it's a lot! – they then confirm that a Ranking of Kings movie is officially in production. No details were shared except that it's happening, but Ueda assured fans that the staff is hard at work on it, and she can't wait till everyone gets to see it.

That was followed by a trailer for SPY×FAMILY Code: White, a brand-new film scheduled for release on December 22. Wada said he's very excited to know how popular it's become in the US.

With that, the panel transitioned to Q&A:

Q: Are there any plans to remaster the original Ghost in the Shell game that came out on PlayStation in the 1990s?

Ueda: There aren't currently plans to do so, but please make your desire to see that happen known to us and others involved. But it's not just a Production I.G decision. We work closely with Kodansha, so we will bring it up to them.

Q: Will we hear more material from The Pillows in the next FLCL?

Terashima-Furuta: Yes!! Yes, yes, yes. Oh, and one other thing I forgot to mention is that I not only produce, but I also license shows. There's a movie that sort of features The Pillows, so I was able to find a home for that movie. It's live-action; it's got nothing to do with anime. But that's supposed to be coming up soon. I wasn't able to announce it quite yet, but I'm handling that, and it's The Pillows movie, so make sure to check it out.

Q: Any plans to continue Great Pretender?

Terashima-Furuta: We were just talking amongst ourselves about doing a sequel, so we are seriously thinking about it.

Q: How do you think AI will change the anime industry, and is Production I.G thinking of using AI?

Wada: At Production I.G and WIT Studio, we think maybe we can collaborate with it to do our work. The industry is overworked, so if it can provide some help to keep us from being overworked, maybe it can help change the working environment for the better.