If you're interested in how anime is made and you're on Twitter, you need to follow Thomas Romain, a French artist living in Japan, working on designs for series such as Symphogear and the new Macross Delta. One of his recent, insightful explanations of how the industry works started with a clarification of what exactly an "art director" does in the anime production process. This lead to him diagramming the creative structure in a way that, you probably won't say "simplifies" the structure, but certainly illustrates it.

In Japan, "bijutsu kantoku" (美術監督), litterally "art director", actually doesn't mean "art director". It means "backgrounds director".#anime — ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 27, 2016

Usually there is no "art director" on anime. It's the director's job to give visual consistency. Artists doesn't communicate together. — ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 27, 2016

Supervision roles of the series director (kantoku 監督) and episode director (enshutsuka 演出家) in an anime production. pic.twitter.com/63zmf5qQU3 — ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 27, 2016

Making animation is like commanding an army https://t.co/u2Bv2FIRY6 — Nuge (GameDevHiatus) (@nugeyo_) April 27, 2016

322 anime TV series produced in 2014 in Japan. No wonder there is such a major animator shortage in the industry. pic.twitter.com/W1ogWtYhDL — ThomasRomain ロマン・トマ (@Thomasintokyo) April 28, 2016



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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.