Tokyo Branch Studio, Sakura City.
The voice actors and sound engineers looked at Rio and waited for her to continue speaking, but she just smiled and pointed at the big screen behind her.
"There's a person who can explain everything to you guys." Rio simply said before the screen lit up and showed an image.
The image was of a conference room just like the one they were in at that moment, and there were also people sitting around a table. But the camera mostly focuses on two people. One was a silver-haired man and the other was a blue-haired woman. It was only when they saw Theo and Ryoko that they recorded seeing the two of them during the auditions.
"Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Theodore, I'm the Creative Director of [SAO] Anime Production." Theo smiled as his voice sounded in the two conference rooms.
He figured that it wasn't necessary to tell them that he was the owner of the studio as well.
"Good afternoon! My name is Ryoko Riverdale, and I'm the Head Director of the studio." Ryoko introduced herself as well.
The voice actors were caught by surprise when they heard how important the two of them were.
Well, except for Nana, as she already knew that.
"You guys may be confused why we are having this conversation through a screen. But the studio where you are now is only a branch studio of ours. We are producing the animation in another city, which means that during the production you'll constantly have discussions with our animators and sound engineers through video calls." Theo explained.
The voice actors had a look of realization when they understood everything. They were a little surprised, but they did not question much this configuration. They would do what they were told, and if their boss found it was possible, they just had to follow their instructions.
"Our sound engineers here will now show a short animation of each character." Theo said as he passed the turn to the sound engineers beside him.
Just as that meeting went by as the voice actors got to see the animation of their own characters, they were also able to hear the input from the sound engineers and Theo about the characters' characteristics.
The voice actors were completely focused on the explanation and inputs they heard from everyone, they even asked about some doubts they had about the characters.
Briefly, they were able to see how the character should be played.
The meeting only ended an hour later when all the basics were laid down for them.
"That's all, guys. Today's meeting was only to introduce the characters to you all. We will have a break for the New Year Holidays, but production will come back at full speed on January 4th, next Monday. This means you will start your work on Monday as well." Ryoko explained.
"Last but not least, welcome to the [Sword Art Online] Anime Production!" She said with a bright smile.
Theo started clapping when she finished, and everyone started clapping as well.
The voice actors also clapped as they were excited to be part of another anime production. They couldn't wait to start working next Monday.
The meeting ended shortly after.
Theo looked at Ryoko and said, "That went well."
"Thankfully it did. By the way they acted during the meeting, they are professional enough, which will make our job to manage them much easier." She commented.
Theo nodded in agreement.
He and Ryoko spent some time talking with the sound engineers about their intake of the voice actors before they left the Sound Department.
The two of them had another meeting to attend shortly.
The last creative meeting of the year.
Communication between departments was extremely essential in anime production, as it would lower the possibility of errors.
Theo and Ryoko arrived at the conference room where the creative meetings were held so far, and almost everyone had already arrived.
The two of them greeted everyone with smiles as they took their seat at the head of the table.
It wasn't the time that the meeting was scheduled to start, so they just waited as they made small talk with everyone.
When the time arrived and everyone was present in the conference room, Ryoko started, "Okay, now that everyone is here, let's start the meeting."
Everyone got silent when they heard her.
"As it was announced before. In this specific meeting, we will not discuss what we worked with the last few days, instead, we will discuss the production plans for the new year." She explained as she looked at them.
Everyone nodded in understanding, they already knew about that.
"As always let's start with the In-Between Animation Production. Who among the team leaders can tell me about your plans?" Ryoko asked as she looked at the team leaders of the in-between animation teams.
The meeting went by as the team leaders explained their plans for the new year, and how they would be able to increase the speed of production through these new plans.
Everyone was determined to perform perfectly to earn a better position in the studio, so they did not measure their efforts to be able to help the anime production.
For example, Brianna talked about how her team would be able to design faster and more aesthetically accurately with the [SAO] anime designs.
"I asked all my teammates to read the [Sword Art Online] Light Novel so they could be able to imagine better the universe where the anime is located. And I'm already seeing an improvement in their designs, with the help of the storyboard and script as well we can produce much better designs." Brianna explained her plans with a calm face.
The others had a look of realization when they heard that, they hadn't thought about reading the light novel, but if they wanted to prove themselves to their bosses, they had to put their teams to read the light novel as well!
They couldn't be left behind by the other teams!
Theo and Ryoko were satisfied when they saw that happening.
The meeting went by until everyone explained their plans for the new year. Some plans were similar, but that wasn't a problem as the goal was to produce a good anime and not compete with each other.
When the last person finished talking, Ryoko said with a satisfied smile, "I'm very happy that everyone here already has a plan for the production next year. The sooner we finish the production of the [Sword Art Online] Anime, the sooner we can get the studio in its permanent configuration. And I'm sure you'll all like what we have in the plan for the studio. But, we will only end the production if Theo and I deem that your work was enough to please us and the public. So, work hard!" She finished with an encouraging smile.
The team leaders nodded in understanding while their eyes shone with determination to finish the production record time!
Would they be able to pull that through?
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