The Anime Blog - We Go Beyond Anime!

Hellsing: Ultimate producer Satoshi Fujii has worked on a variety of high-profile English anime projects for Geneon Animation such as the original Hellsing, Black Lagoon, Ergo Proxy, Fafner, GUNxSWORD and Paranoia Agent. His latest productions are the insanely popular Hellsing: Ultimate and Black Lagoon. Mr. Fujii was kind enough to sit down with us during Anime Expo 2007 to discuss his latest projects (Hellsing: Ultimate and Black Lagoon), the current state of anime DVDs, digital downloads and more!

Rachel: So about the Hellsing you worked on. You worked on the previous one, and obviously you’ve worked on the new one that’s now in production. What sort of challenges do you face when you basically reboot a series? The first one was so well received. I mean, there were some critics, but at the same time, now you’re re-inventing it. Not really ‘reinventing’ it, but it’s new to some people.

Satoshi Fujii: As far as fan reception goes, I wasn’t too worried about it, because I knew that the first series was well-received. Even though the first two parts of Hellsing: Ultimate we’re re-telling the story (we haven’t gotten into the new story arc yet), I was very confident that the production value and some details that follow the original manga better…which I know the fans appreciate. Ever since the (original) animation ended, the manga has been really popular in America. And the animation in Hellsing: Ultimate is more true to the manga.

I was a little worried about the production schedule. We’re releasing it once every eight months. The good news is that the production value is high! Unfortunately it’s not a television series. With a series, it would be every week. But with OVAs, when the team is happy with the production, they release it. (That) almost guarantees high production. But it can be frustrating waiting in America for them to finish with the production.

Rachel: What were your main challenges?

SATOSHI FUJII: The main challenge was the one episode per release. I knew that would be a challenge. I wasn’t sure what to do. Usually American releases have more episodes than Japanese releases. I thought the most obvious thing to do (or normal thing to do) would be to release two episodes per volume. That would make each episode of Hellsing: Ultimate (equal to) two episodes. So that would make it four episodes long. At first I thought that would be the best we could do. However, in the beginning I thought I would be getting new episodes every three months. But it turns out that we’re not. So in retrospect, I’m happy with the decision that I made of one episode per release, because at least I can be more timely with the American release. Otherwise I would have to wait for every two episodes in Japan to be made before I could start production.

Rachel: You said that the American releases have more episodes. Can you highlight some of the other differences between the American and Japanese releases (in general)?

SATOSHI FUJII: I don’t want fans to take this in the wrong way, but I think American fans are kind of ‘spoiled’ – compared to Japanese fans - because the prices are cheaper. In Japan, DVDs can go for $40 for two episodes. (In American), you get more episode count per volume, plus you get two languages, plus sometimes we even upgrade to a 5.1 mix. We’ve been doing this to add value to the product. The expectation now is so high that it’s kind of hard to keep up.

Rachel: What’s the next step? You have all these ‘bells and whistles’, and you’re right – we do expect that. I hate to say ‘I want the liner notes’, sometimes they have little things like tarot cards or something to that effect. So what’s next? I mean, what are you going to have to do to keep the American market happy in that regard?

SATOSHI FUJII: In that regard, I don’t think we can do much more (we all laugh). I mean all those extra cards and tsotchkes cost a lot of money. And it reduces our profit margin. And I don’t know if fans know this, but DVD sales – although the popularity of anime has gone up – and I know more people are watching anime, but because of downloads, and also because of the fact that there’s too much anime on the market now, the industry as a whole is less profitable. And we kind of brought that upon ourselves by releasing too much anime – which means that not everyone can buy all of that anime. So basically my answer is ‘we can’t do much more’ as far as adding bells and whistles goes.

And also, it seems like everyone is going towards digital distribution and people are buying less and less DVDs. Once HD picks up, maybe people will start buying again. But we’ll see. I don’t think HD is going to be as big as DVD because I think that digital distribution will catch up by then. It’s kind of like the iPod – people stopped buying CDs because downloading is much more convenient. We’re hoping that HD helps our sales, but we’ll see. We’re crossing our fingers.

Rachel: When do you foresee Hellsing being released on HD?

SATOSHI FUJII: I don’t have the numbers, but there aren’t a lot of households with HD players yet. We’ll see how much the market turns out (and follow that). We’ll follow the ‘big guys’. Despite the fact that anime like Hellsing seems really popular - it’s still a niche market. We’ll follow Hollywood.

David: One thing you mentioned too, regarding what you can give fans (more) – I think you are, in a way, with the accelerated releases in North America (of anime series). I noticed you’re airing Hellsing: Ultimate volumes I, II and III with subtitles (at Anime Expo this year, so I think that’s good for the fans, because they’re like ‘wow, I can see this early’ and can feel special that way.

SATOSHI FUJII: Of course! We want to share the product with the fans as early as possible. As soon as we’re done with the production we’re showing it at conventions. Especially with Hellsing – I mean, it’s a good show! The title sells itself. So if you watch it, you’re going to want to buy it.

Rachel: How do you market to (the Japanese and American markets)?

SATOSHI FUJII: With the Japanese (release of Hellsing: Ultimate), there’s a little bit of a time gap, so that (they) have time to sell their product. The Japanese version has a staff commentary, which we did not include in our version, because if you’re that hardcore, I want you to buy the Japanese version! Of course (the American version) we have the audio commentary.

David: In terms of HD, I was in the Freedom panel yesterday and there seemed to be some interest in the crowd (in HD). So in terms of HD, digital download and producing the CDs (DVDs), do you see the features that you add to those things to be different? Like for the digital download, would you say ‘well you would get this commentary’ but maybe the one you purchased (at the store) you’d get something else? A few of the iTunes television series have included this feature…

SATOSHI FUJII: Digital downloads is still kind of a weird business. I still focus on the actual production of the content for the English version of the production. So I hadn’t actually thought about the content to include in the actual digital downloads because people are still trying to figure this thing out.

David: How did you approach the voice cast – I mean getting that all back together for Hellsing: Ultimate?

SATOSHI FUJII: I knew that the English voice cast was really popular from the first (Hellsing) series and I wanted to get them back. So I asked the production company to try to get everyone back – that’s all I did. And I think for Hellsing: Ultimate, this is a high-profile project for them.

David: Let’s stray a little bit away from Hellsing: Ultimate. I know you’re working on the Black Lagoon release. How do you feel about the reception?

SATOSHI FUJII: I think the reception for Black Lagoon has been very positive. One of the reasons I think Black Lagoon has been good for the North American market is because the original characters are supposed to be talking in English to begin with. You know how a lot of anime shows take place in Japan and they’re supposed to be talking in Japanese? Well all of the characters in Black Lagoon are American except for Rock, who is Japanese. Everyone else is American, which is one of the reasons why I think the reception has been really good.

It’s kind of like Hellsing (which) takes place in England, so you know, people are supposed to be talking in English. So I think those types of anime work really well when (it’s in) English. It feels like (it) was meant to talk that way.

David: You mention language. In Hellsing, I know you have some German characters and British characters. So I would imagine that creates some unique situations…

SATOSHI FUJII: For that sort of creative decision I trust New Generation Pictures to do a good job with, and of course Allyson the director he’s really anal when it comes to details and stuff like that. I think his approach is that since this is an English dub, if it feels natural for the English audience, then he’ll use an accent. So while a German character won’t talk in German, they’ll talk (with) an accent that feels natural for the audience.

David: I think they’ve done a really good job with that. Are there any unusual voice acting decisions that creatively they’ve had to go back to you to get it right (with Hellsing: Ultimate)?

SATOSHI FUJII: With Hellsing, I trust Allyson. When I first worked with (him) on the first tv series five years ago, I had him audition every cast (member). I was more ‘hands on’ with the production, because I wanted to make sure it got done right. But for the second series (Hellsing: Ultimate), we (had) gone through this before, which was very good and I have not complaints.

David: What (project) are you most excited about that you’re working on?

SATOSHI FUJII: I’m excited about Black Lagoon. I think it has potential to be the ‘next big title’. I think it’s the kind of show that does well in America. It’s going to be on tv. I can’t say where, but there will be an announcement soon!

Thank you Mr. Fujii for taking time out of your very busy schedule at Anime Expo to sit down and talk with us! Special thanks to Geneon for arranging the interview! Hellsing: Ultimate volumes I and II are in stores now – volume III comes out in October.