Question About How Anime Show Direction Works

Topic started by ashogo on Dec. 26, 2011. Last post by ashogo 5 months ago.
Post by ashogo (14 posts) See mini bio Level 6

I'm trying to fill in a wiki entry over on Screened about the Persona 4 anime, but I'm getting a bit confused about how to credit directors. I'd heard that Seiji Kishi was directing the series and so added him to every episode, but then when I looked at this ANN page for the show I saw that each episode was directed by someone else. So is Kishi basically just overseeing the series as a whole, with various directors focusing more specifically on individual episodes? That's what it seems like, just want to make sure.

This is different from American shows as far as I can tell, which has no "overall" director, just individual directors for each episode.

Post by ashogo (14 posts) See mini bio Level 6

I was so curious that I had to hit the post button twice. My bad.

Post by Superevil225 (6,738 posts) See mini bio Level 17

@ashogo: Usually each episode is directed by different people, but there's one main guy that calls all the shots and what not. To give an example, the BBC series Sherlock is considered to be created and written by Steven Moffat. But out of the 3 episodes Moffat only wrote one. He's like the head honcho that approves each script.

In the case of the Persona anime, it is common for there to be the main director/creator, but he may not have actually directed all of the episodes.

Post by ashogo (14 posts) See mini bio Level 6

@Superevil225: Right, I know that shows have their main creators, just wasn't sure how direction worked. Because in say something like LOST, I know that JJ Abrams was touted prominently as a creator, but by the end of the series run he basically had no involvement in the show whatsoever. I'll go ahead and credit both Kishi and the individual episode directors, then.

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