"Broadcasting Cool Japan from Regional Origins to the World" Part 3 Mr. FROGMAN

FROGMAN, who gained significant attention by distributing "Sugai-kun and the Family Stone" created with Adobe Flash from Shimane, where he relocated from Tokyo. He also achieved a major breakthrough with "Secret Society Takanotsume." He spoke about regionally-based creativity, his own work, and his approach to ideation.

Episode 3:
Flash Animation's Agility: Thriving Because of Low Budget

 
 While many see low budgets as a hindrance to video production, for me it's the complete opposite—I consider it one of the advantages. First, low costs mean you can work freely. You can create immediately whenever inspiration strikes, without worrying about anyone else.
 
"Secret Society: Talon Claw" ("Talon Claw") started with me handling the script, animation, voice acting, and directing all by myself. Normally, you'd need to secure various staff, coordinate schedules, and book a studio. Doing it alone frees you from those tasks, letting you focus purely on the creative work. You can start making things the moment inspiration strikes. This immediacy is the strength of Flash animation.
 
This instantaneous power and sense of speed were maximized when we incorporated "product placement" during the production of the movie version. It's an advertising technique where specific products are integrated into movie or drama footage. For example, with movies, from shooting to final editing and release, you might have to wait a year or so. Even if you wanted to feature a company's new product, promoting something a year in advance is impossible. The reality was that product placement for new items on the grand stage of film was difficult.
 
Flash animation, however, allows for much more agile responses. While client feedback might require some directional adjustments or specification changes, what would necessitate a costly reshoot in live-action can often be handled by simply reworking or swapping elements in Flash animation. This was a major advantage for clients too. I recall we were already discussing advertising in January, even though the movie wasn't released until March.

I'd long considered Flash animation's potential as an advertising medium. When we distributed Flash animations online, the response exceeded expectations, sparking buzz like "FROGMAN is funny." But no matter how much praise it got on internet forums, it didn't earn a single yen. "Ah, I see. I need a revenue engine," I thought, and that's when I created the DVD. It sold reasonably well, but releasing DVDs meant I had to keep creating new works. That became quite exhausting, and that's when the idea popped into my head: "Let's use the characters to make infomercials."
 
TV commercials have fixed lengths like 15 or 30 seconds, but online, that doesn't matter. To put it bluntly, the strength of the internet is that if a client says, "Just put this much information," you can respond, "Alright, let's put it all in." In the world of 15- or 30-second spots, you have to pare down the concrete information to a certain extent and focus primarily on conveying the image. But I thought the internet was a medium without time constraints, so that's why I started making infomercials.

 

Behind the idea of "using ads as material" lies a cynical perspective on society

 

Ever since my anime brand "Kaeru Otoko Shokai" started, I've been incorporating ads into the content itself, creating mechanisms for viewers to enjoy them. However, doing it through product placement, especially using a movie, was a first for me. The distributor also seemed resistant, asking, "What's the deal with charging people money to show them ads?"
 
Essentially, it's a matter of consistency: how seamlessly can you integrate the ad into the world of the work and give it meaning? Typically, in film production, product placement is seen as a hindrance, and people tend to think that imposing conditions makes the film less interesting. I'm the opposite; the more conditions there are, the more I get fired up thinking, "How can I make this interesting?"
 
So, I decided to make the product placement itself the joke. When an ad was secured, the budget increased, and the visuals stayed polished. But if no ad was secured, the budget shrunk, and the character designs became sloppy – "See what I meant?" That's how I arrived at the "Budget Gauge" method. So, when the audience laughed at the product placement scenes, I thought, "Yes!" Seeing people genuinely happy when ads appeared was something you'd never see in movies before.
 
A major reason for putting the budget front and center is that I worked in the production department managing on-set budgets. I encountered quite a few directors who weren't good at managing money. I had this frustration inside me, and I wanted to express how closely money and filmmaking are intertwined.
 
Even in our daily lives, there are many cases where budgets are misused. Like getting so absorbed in a hobby that your diet becomes extremely poor, or spending heavily on public works while there are still tons of children waiting for daycare spots. Looking around, there are quite a few examples of budgets and money being used incorrectly, and actually, there's a bit of irony toward those kinds of things woven in too.