Studio Pierrot, the production studio behind popular anime series Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, turned a few heads this week with the announcement that the studio would begin to hire freelance animators from Fiverr in order to meet production deadlines. The announcement marks the first time that a major anime studio has ever used Fiverr, an online marketplace for hiring freelance services for as little as $5, to such a large degree.

“In order to reduce costs and time of production, we have decided to allocate a majority of animation work toward any Fiverr freelancers with a copy of the Adobe suite and a low enough asking price,” stated Pierrot Animation Director Tazuka Masakuni. “We believe that our storyboarding process has simplified and our fanbase has expanded to the extent that the need for professional talent is minimal.”

Studio Pierrot staff will continue to exist handling tasks such as storyboarding and directing, but will seek to outsource the majority of actual animation work to its army of Fiverr recruits. Eventually the company hopes to hire a Fiverr freelancer to read the original Boruto manga so that they no longer have to.

A spokesperson explained that the outsourcing was made possible by maximizing the use of still frames and flat colors while keeping in-between frames and character motion to a minimum. As such, tasks assigned to the freelancers are expected to be very manageable, only involving simple line art and coloring.

Although more details have yet to follow, Pierrot has assured fans that there should be no noticeable change to the animation quality of upcoming Boruto episodes.

“We all look forward to this collaboration with Fiverr”, added a Pierrot spokesperson. “Not only will episodes become easier to produce, but I’m sure that there are millions of fans worldwide who will appreciate getting their Boruto fix even faster! It’s a win-win for the producer and consumer.”

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