Under the Dog Gets Unleashed

Creative Intelligence Arts (CIA) CEO and founder Hiroaki Yura has announced that his company is recusing itself from involvement in the production of the Under the Dog OVA. CIA and animation studio Kinema Citrus jointly conceived the project and launched its 2014 Kickstarter campaign that became Kickstarter’s most successful crowd-funded animation project ever. Yura has announced that the continued development of the original anime OVA will henceforth be handled exclusively by Kinema Citrus with Kouji Morimoto brought on board to produce the project. Morimoto, not to be confused with Studio 4°C co-founder, has produced sci-fi/action anime including Avenger (2003), .hack//Roots (2006), and CANAAN (2009).

According to Hiroaki Yura, “In order to comply with certain requests from members of the UTD creative team, and to deliver an unhindered product to our backers, CIA is hereby removing itself from the UTD project… It is a testament to the enthusiasm the UTD team has that they wished to take over the production and directly handle it themselves.”

I respect and applaud the announcement because it represents an inexperienced producer stepping back, out of the way, handing over creative control directly to the animators who are making the OVA. The transfer shifts creative control from from CIA, which has no experience in anime production, to studio Kinema Citrus, which has successfully produced anime including Code:Breaker (2012), Yuyushiki (2013), Black Bullet (2014), and Barakamon (2014). My expectation is that fewer cooks in the kitchen, and putting the development directly into the hands of experienced artists, will result in a stronger, less adulterated product.