In December 2022, I had the privilege of visiting the Polygon Pictures Digital animation studio in Tokyo when it was about to enter its 40th year of production. One purpose of the visit was to learn more about the studio’s latest TV series, Kaina of the Great Snow Sea; however, I was also able to interview the studio’s President and CEO, Shuzo John Shiota.
Shiota has been working with Polygon since the mid-1990s, starting with consulting work for the studio before he became its President and CEO in 2003. In the interview, he talks about his first experiences in the CG animation industry, the mixed fortunes of the industry in the late 1990s and early aughts, and his efforts to find American corporate clients. I also asked him about Polygon’s partnership with Netflix, what Shiota thinks about “AI animation,” and how Polygon switched to remote…
