Jumping through a bunch of things before I clock out for the festive season! Definitely noted on feedback from folks (hello
@Mangaranga especially!)
I think it's been covered by you but worth people keeping in mind that what was pointed out re QC is correct - comparisons to other versions of the work can be difficult as not always are we given the same materials as the JP homevideo masters. With that in mind though we're going to look over what else can be done going forwards to improve the QC process internally.
The final product matters a lot to us (hence pausing the release for VE) and we've worked hard over the last year to stablise the parts of the workflow we can control (COVID not withstanding) so appreciate the notes
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Then why did anime_andrew made a clear distinction in the PR statement?
No matter how many times you proofread something, there's always an alternate reading you miss!
To confirm - we used a professional studio used to handling general film/TV series for Violet Evergarden's authoring and as observed by
@Mangaranga - we've used them for quite a few projects and things have gone fine. When I refer to a specialist studio I mean one used to the quirks of Japanese animation or more specialist cinema projects. Some projects really require that where others don't and that's usually material dependent.
Your assumption about cost is also off the mark and to be clear we don't use them because they're cheaper than everyone else. Authoring as a whole is not cheap and by-the-by it tends to pool around a certain number. Any higher and you have to know what you're getting is worth it (aka a specialist) and any lower and there is a problem.
Side note but specialist jobs in our field are usually US based, which used to work out comparable-ish (bit higher but still do-able) pricing wise but as Brexit is tanking the value of the GBP generally that cost is now on the rise. That means it is harder than ever to go that route unless the project is of a certain scale, which you won't always know when the decision has to be made.
(Also re KAZE - not sure who reported that but this is a studio that didn't do anime until we started working with them from Amanchu - which is after KAZE stopped releasing titles direct in the UK market. Pretty sure as I recall they authored in-house, but it's been a while for me!)
Hope that all helps folks and again have a great festive season everyone! I'm looking forward to catching up in the New Year in due course
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Andrew
