Ellation launches production studio for original content on Crunchyroll and VRV.

[Elijah Abrams]

Ellation (the makers of Crunchyroll) has announced that they have launched a new division called "Ellation Studios", complete with facilities in Burbank, California, USA and Tokyo, Japan. The unit is dedicated to producing original content for Ellation's Crunchyroll and VRV platforms, and has named former Stoopid Buddy Studios General Manager Margaret Dean. One of Ellation Studios' original productions will be an anime-inspired series for Crunchyroll called "High Guardian Spice", created by Raye Rodriguez (who is transgender, by the way!), written by an all-female writing team, and features Animaniacs director Audu Paden as supervising director. Here's the synopsis for the show:

"The lives of four fierce girls — Rose, Sage, Thyme and Parsley — converge at High Guardian Academy, the one place where they can stumble towards adulthood while becoming the heroes they’ve always admired. As they master the ways of battle and sorcery, our foursome form allegiances and comical kinships, uncover legacies and betrayals, and discover their true identities while preparing to protect the world from an ominous unknown threat."

HGS will premiere in 2019. In the meantime, a panel for the show will take place at this year's Crunchyroll Expo in San Jose, California (No date and time set yet). Also, here's the poster and concept art for the show:

And here's a sneak preview:

So what do you think? Are you excited for this?

 

[Rhaynebow]

.....yuuuuuuup, starting to get a WEE bit tired of pastel colors. Are we allergic to earth tones?

I know this literally just got announced, but I believe timing and the material released does not mean a piece of media is immune to criticism. And by golly, this looks like one of those shows that’s gonna censor critics seeing how the official CR channel disabled the comments and like/dislike bar.

I mean, notice how we only got a sentence about the show, and the rest is about the studio and how ‘diverse’ it is with its 100% women writers’ room and more than half of the rest of the crew is women. The whole talk about diversity, the times that are a-changin’ and such to me are outdated buzzwords now. How is the gender ratio of the crew important to the viewer?

Diversity to me means giving everyone an equal opportunity and choosing the best based on ABILITY. If you have a wide mix of people at the end, be it gender, race, sexual orientation etc, THAT is diversity and it shouldn’t be a selling point, because the makeup of the crew ultimately shouldn’t matter as long as what they make is GOOD.

This show has a huge uphill battle because diversity DOES NOT equal a great show. And yet the vast majority of its first impression is touting just that.


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[Gatordragon]

Looks pretty interesting, but I agree with Rhaynebow about the video focusing on how diverse the studio is. Being diverse is good and all, but I was expecting the video to be more about the show itself.

On a side note, I'm liking the girl with the hammer who looks kinda like a female dwarf. Probably because I like dwarves.

 

[Dudley]

I too also agree with Rhaynbow. But if I learned anything, some consumers do care about diversity behind the scenes because that’ll lead to different perspective and approach to certain characters. And some studios feel that way too. I remember I pitched a cartoon to Frederator with a female lead, but one of the reasons they turned it down because they’d prefer a female perspective for a cartoon starring a female.
Also, based on what I heard, having this much diversity in an animation studio is rare, so from an artist perspective this is a very big deal and a good thing.
Anyhoo, I’ll wait and try to watch an actual episode before giving proper judgement. Right now, this sounds a lot like Rooster Teeth’s RWBY, but looks visually better. Hopefully it’ll be better written too. I look forward to seeing it in motion, it is pretty cool to see more US-Japanese co-productions.


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[TargetmasterJoe]

While I too was expecting to learn more about the show via the video and the "meet the studio" bit would have its own introductory video or website page, I'm a sucker for great character design, and this show is no exception. Admittedly I'm specifically fascinated by the one further away from the other 3 (I guess her name's Parsley?) if only because she's taller than them.

If anything, my only real problem is how I don't have Crunchyroll or VRV or wherever the show's going to go.

Anyway, some folks might want to talk about this over at TV Tropes, but what forum should this go to? "Western Animation" or "Manga and Anime"?

 

[Light Lucario]

While I can definitely understand wanting to learn more about the show itself, I don't have a problem with how they emphasized the diversity behind the scenes. I honestly think that's pretty impressive and important. Women still have a hard time in the animation industry, so the fact that a large portion of their cast and their writers are women is good. It will hopefully give these people opportunities in their careers that they might not have had otherwise, as well as allowing for more diversity in animation in general.

That's not to say that I think it's good automatically just because they emphasized their diversity. Since they gave such little information on the show itself, I think that they hyped it up a tad too much, but I didn't get the impression that they were going for diversity over ability. That really wouldn't make a lot of sense from a practical or business perspective. They aren't going to hire women just because their women or anything like that. People want more diversity behind the scenes since that can help with providing better/more accurate representation of different races, genders, sexual orientations, etc. If you put out bad representation with or without a diverse production crew, it's going to cause backlash and bad representation is generally worse than no representation too. I just can't see even a small production studio hiring women for the shake of diversity and not taking account their abilities for the actual show. It would be bad for a big studio to do that, but it could be potentially worse for a new studio considering that they're just starting out and need to get more people interested in their work.

The designs look cute and hopefully we'll get more insight once a trailer for the series drops, but I don't think that emphasizing that their crew is diverse is a bad thing.

 

[TargetmasterJoe]

While I can definitely understand wanting to learn more about the show itself, I don't have a problem with how they emphasized the diversity behind the scenes. I honestly think that's pretty impressive and important. Women still have a hard time in the animation industry, so the fact that a large portion of their cast and their writers are women is good. It will hopefully give these people opportunities in their careers that they might not have had otherwise, as well as allowing for more diversity in animation in general.

I agree to that too. I kind of wanted to say in my original post, but I guess I was worried about others somehow getting the wrong point.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I remember I pitched a cartoon to Frederator with a female lead, but one of the reasons they turned it down because they’d prefer a female perspective for a cartoon starring a female.

Well congrats on trying, Dudley.

I have also been noticing backlash on HGS, because some people are claiming that one of the writers of the show, Kate Leth, looks like a "stereotypical Tumblr user" (basically those who have dyed hair).

 

[ToonJay723]

I see people online listing the names of female manga artists to "debunk" the claim that women are underrepresented in the animation industry. Just exactly how is listing names from the Japanese comics industry correlate to the American animation industry. Women being successful in the Japanese manga industry in no way absolves women being underrepresented in the American animation industry. The mental gymnastics these people have to go through just to prove a point.

While I can definitely understand wanting to learn more about the show itself, I don't have a problem with how they emphasized the diversity behind the scenes. I honestly think that's pretty impressive and important. Women still have a hard time in the animation industry, so the fact that a large portion of their cast and their writers are women is good. It will hopefully give these people opportunities in their careers that they might not have had otherwise, as well as allowing for more diversity in animation in general.

I agree, but I think a video like this should have been saved for after the first episode premiered. Most people aren't interested in who's working on a show, unless it's a show they watch.

Did anyone find it weird they were using "hand drawn animation" as a selling point. There's a lot of hand drawn shows on TV and streaming, so that's not really unique.

 

[PapaGreg]

Looks pretty interesting, but I agree with Rhaynebow about the video focusing on how diverse the studio is. Being diverse is good and all, but I was expecting the video to be more about the show itself.

On a side note, I'm liking the girl with the hammer who looks kinda like a female dwarf. Probably because I like dwarves.

If you like Dwarves check out Dungeon Meshi, there is a female dwarf who looks like this

On Topic looks very uninteresting, I'm usually against the whole "All western cartoons look the same now" but yeah this is generic

.....yuuuuuuup, starting to get a WEE bit tired of pastel colors. Are we allergic to earth tones?

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Look at Camp Camp, Nomad of Nowhere, Ducktales, Clarence, OK KO, Loud House, Regular Show, Adventure Time, Amazing World of Gumball, TMNT RISE, Harvey Beaks and etc if you don't want cartoons with pastel colors.

 

[Light Lucario]

I see people online listing the names of female manga artists to "debunk" the claim that women are underrepresented in the animation industry. Just exactly how is listing names from the Japanese comics industry correlate to the American animation industry. Women being successful in the Japanese manga industry in no way absolves women being underrepresented in the American animation industry. The mental gymnastics these people have to go through just to prove a point.

I haven't seen that claim, but that is one strange argument. Not only is it about a different country, but it's also about a different medium completely. Manga is not the same thing as animation. At least comparing female manga authors to women in the American comic book industry would make a tad more sense, although I'm sure that there are still pretty huge differences between the manga and comic industries.

I agree, but I think a video like this should have been saved for after the first episode premiered. Most people aren't interested in who's working on a show, unless it's a show they watch.

Yeah, saving this for after the first episode premiered or at least until after we had some more solid information on the series would have been better. People might have been more interested in learning about the production team if there was some noticeable writer or voice actor from other shows involved, but since that doesn't appear to be the case, talking about their production crew right out of the gate probably wasn't going to attract a lot of attention compared to a proper trailer for the series.

 

[lowell]

I guess AT&T's bill is going to big this year, including the case they won and the appeal that's coming. So it's likely Otter already moved onto the Warner lot, except I don't understand why Cartoon Network Studios is not also on the lot yet. Future animated shows are likely going to be on Cartoon Network or even one of the streaming services. I wonder if AT&T might combine all the WarnerMedia streaming services into one gigantic bundled service and offer an affordable price for fans of all Warner content.

 

[Dudley]

I have also been noticing backlash on HGS, because some people are claiming that one of the writers of the show, Kate Leth, looks like a "stereotypical Tumblr user" (basically those who have dyed hair).

I saw people make fun of some of the writer’s weight as well. People can be so needlessly cruel.


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[SourSweetGone]

Looks adorable. Can't wait! Poo to the elitist weebs complaining about a toon being on their precious animu site. Anime & Cartoons are two sides of the same coin. If Netflix can have anime then Crunchy can have toons.

 

[Terror of Death]

Nothing says diversity like a writers room full of white millennials.

The voice actors, creator, and studio head are made up of a diverse group of people but it's still a majority of young caucasians coming up with story ideas just like the Thundercats & She-Ra remakes. Being women and among the LGTBQIA makes little difference if they all have the same race and most likely socioeconomic background.

I guess it's better than a white heterosexual male dominated staff but true progress and diversity to me would look like even split of screenwriters of different ethnicities, genders, race, sexuality, age, religion, politics, education, economic status & region (or a close to even split as possible). Not just 80% of people from the same group, 20% everybody else.

 

[SourSweetGone]

Nothing says diversity like a writers room full of white millennials.

The voice actors, creator, and studio head are made up of a diverse group of people but it's still a majority of young caucasians coming up with story ideas just like the Thundercats & She-Ra remakes. Being women and among the LGTBQIA makes little difference if they all have the same race and most likely socioeconomic background.

I guess it's better than a white heterosexual male dominated staff but true progress and diversity to me would look like even split of screenwriters of different ethnicities, genders, race, sexuality, age, religion, politics, education, economic status & region (or a close to even split as possible). Not just 80% of people from the same group, 20% everybody else.

Given Men still dominate the entertainment industry this is still a pretty big deal. And we don't know they full staff, and given LBGTQ individuals are often opressed/harassed I would say they more then count as diverse.

Anywho hope we get a full trailer at NYCC cause this looks adorable!!

 

[Troy Troodon]

I've been surfing Youtube for reactions, and again it's the same old noise as with She-Ra.

 

[Radiant97]

Nothing says diversity like a writers room full of white millennials.

The voice actors, creator, and studio head are made up of a diverse group of people but it's still a majority of young caucasians coming up with story ideas just like the Thundercats & She-Ra remakes. Being women and among the LGTBQIA makes little difference if they all have the same race and most likely socioeconomic background.

I agree. I think a lot of people have been misusing the word "diversity" in discourses about representation of minorities in media. For instance, Black Panther features a remarkable representation of African-Americans, but it most certainly does not have a "diverse" cast.

 

[Light Lucario]

Nothing says diversity like a writers room full of white millennials.

The voice actors, creator, and studio head are made up of a diverse group of people but it's still a majority of young caucasians coming up with story ideas just like the Thundercats & She-Ra remakes. Being women and among the LGTBQIA makes little difference if they all have the same race and most likely socioeconomic background.

I guess it's better than a white heterosexual male dominated staff but true progress and diversity to me would look like even split of screenwriters of different ethnicities, genders, race, sexuality, age, religion, politics, education, economic status & region (or a close to even split as possible). Not just 80% of people from the same group, 20% everybody else.

Considering how difficult it is for women to stand out in the animation industry and how people within the LGBTQ still have to deal with discrimination/harassment, I'd say that it's still a pretty big deal to have a large number of them here. At the very least, I'd say that's a step in the right direction in terms of allowing different people to work in animation.

Since we only saw a few people in the trailer, assuming that everyone in this show have the same race and socioeconomic background is a pretty big assumption to make. It isn't impossible and having people of different races would help to provide more insight in topics that other people wouldn't have, but using a brief video to assume that everyone in the cast is white doesn't make much sense to me. We don't even know the full cast and production crew yet, so that just seems like an unfair assumption to make in the first place.

 

[Gatordragon]

Looks like High Guardian Spice was originally a webcomic before becoming an animated series. With other webcomics like Harpy Gee and Camp Weedonwancha getting cartoon pilots, I'm starting to sense a trend of webcomics being used as material for animated series. What's next, The Order of the Stick and Gunnerkrigg Court? Those two webcomics have plenty of story material to work with.