Correspondence Analysis on the Production Staff for the Anime Series Nintama Rantaro

Abstract

Nintama Rantaro is a long running TV anime series in Japan, which is produced by a large number of staff members. In the present study, 228 episodes of this series were selected to analyze the relationships among the staff members and the elements in the episodes, using correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. Numbers of storyboard writers, animation directors, screenplay writers and directors, and factors of the stories, e.g., representative expressions, motions of the main characters and emotions of the main characters, were counted, and a cross-tabulation table was constructed. The results of the correspondence analysis of the table showed that a three-dimensional space illustrated the correlations in the table with the cumulative contribution ratio of 42 %. The results of the cluster analysis with Ward’s method showed four clusters. Each of the four clusters coincided to each quadrant on the plane spanned by the first two dimensions. In the first quadrant, an animation director Tsuyoshi Ichiki was plotted. In the same quadrant, fighting motions of the main characters were plotted. Tsuyoshi Ichiki is one of the most proficient anime directors for battle scenes. Therefore, this indicates that the animation of episodes which includes battle scenes is chiefly directed by Tsuyoshi Ichiki in Nintama Rantaro. In the second quadrant, experienced animation directors, Emiko Niiyama and Kazue Tamari were plotted as well as a screenplay writer, Mitsuharu Yoshida who frequently writes the screenplay for the initial episode of a season. Moreover, characteristic expressions in Nitama Rantaro, such as the escape of the soul from the body, use a regional dialect “bayai” instead of “baai”, and the appearance of a character with breaking the screen, were plotted in this quadrant. This implies that the experienced animation directors and the screenplay writer use characteristic expressions especially for the initial episode of a season. In the third quadrant, an animation director Setsuko Shibuichi, who previously directed animations with sad stories, was plotted. The sad emotion of a main character is also plotted in the same quadrant. This indicates that for a sad episode, Setsuko Shibuichi directed the animation. In the fourth quadrant, screenplay writers, Satoshi Kimura and Kazuko Iwasaki are plotted as well as an animation director, Yasuhiro Endo, and various directions of motions of the characters are also plotted. This means that they are proficient dynamic motions of characters. In this way, the relationships among the staff members and the elements of the anime episodes are clarified in the context of Nintama Rantaro.