Content:Staff Credits
| Note | The first two sections are a mostly untouched copy of some of the text from nwa's forum post and still need further details, proper editing and formatting. |
Adding staff credits
Use MASSADD for adding staff, unless you just want to add the most common and important credit(s) like direction (監督) or animation work (アニメーション制作), then using the drop-down menu is probably easier. To add a direction credit for Taniguchi Gorou for example, you enter 監督:谷口悟朗. Trying to add Direction:谷口悟朗 will not work, because the English part of the credit is just the translation, not an actual credit. 監督:Taniguchi Gorou does work, however.
"But I can't type Japanese..." - hey, neither can I, I don't know much Japanese at all and we're not expecting users to be able to do that either. Mass-adding credits it pretty much only COPY/PASTE from some Japanese source (I'll list the common sources below) and editing it to the wanted format of "credit1:creator1;creator2;", the VIDEO part of it comes from COMPARING and thus verifying the correctness of the source you copied it from, after all, we all can see and unless the video source is really horrible, can make out differences in kanji (probably comparing the kanji pasted to the mass-add box is a bad idea since the symbols are really small there, so comparing with the page you copied it from and perhaps increasing the font size is the better solution). So copying credits from a Japanese source and then verifying them with the video is the PROPER way of doing it, of course, we can't force you to do that, that's where the source field comes in, if all you did was copy/paste the credits without verifying anything, just give the URL you copied from as the source, if you DID verify, then you can add the source you copied it from plus something like "verified with the intro/outro video" should be noted, but leaving out the copy source and just writing "intro/outro video" is enough, same thing, really.
So what happens if you'll notice a mistake with the credit type? If the video says キャラクター設定 but the page gives キャラクターデザイン, then simply change it to what the video gives. It's simple if it's just a different variation of what is eventually the same credit, but it might take time if it's a case of アニメーション制作 vs. 制作 for example, as people who don't know the meaning behind this credit may not easily find that 制作 is Work and アニメーション制作 is Animation Work, another common mix-up is 制作 vs. 製作 (Production). If you notice a mistake in the creator's name, then you'll probably have a problem, since you'd need to get the correct kanji(s) from somewhere. One way is to look for another web source and hope they didn't make the same mistake (aka copy paste) or the method I use is once again a tool made by rar - http://tools.anidb.net/krad. It's a kanji builder, you build kanji by combining radicals, is it easy to use? No. Will it eventually become easy to use if I've used it enough? It did for me. But yeah, it requires patience. Basically kanji are often a combination of other kanji. For example if you look at a kanji, notice it having a symbol like 广, then you click on it on the table, then you notice the symbol 耳, you click on it on the table, this narrows the selection down to only 2 kanji - 廰 and 廳 from where you should be able to make out the one in the video. But yeah... generally, if the name in the video is different from the name given on the Japanese page you used to copy, then just don't add that credit, no data is better than wrong data.
Credit sources
The following are acceptable sources for information on anime staff:
- VIDEO, VIDEO, VIDEO - this is THE definitive source for staff credits, and by video I do mean the one with original Japanese credits and NOT R1 credits. It's not to say that studio's haven't used some obscure credit type or mixing up 1 kanji in someone's name, that's where personal judgement comes in, but we'd still like to see what was originally give in the comment.
- The official page for the anime - duh... This is a no-brainer, but there's this thing that one needs to consider. Staff credits are added to the official page before the product itself is finalised for TV airing or video release, things might and often change on the final product and these changes are sadly not fixed on the official pages for the given anime. So official pages for anime are not definitive sources for staff credits like the video is. Hentai animation pages are particularly bad at giving matching staff credits with the video if they give them at all.
- Japanese wiki - yes, Japanese wiki is actually a good source for the main credits, not to say that they don't make mistakes, but it's definitely better than allcinema most of the time.
- cal.syoboi.jp - this is the source we prefer for airing times of currently airing anime (remember, Japanese got like.. 28 hours in 1 day or something, anime airing after midnight still have the date of what for us is already yesterday, so those should be changed to reflect sane day count) and they also give the main staff credits, those are generally copied from the official page of the anime.
- D2 Station - or a more precise link - http://www1.vecceed.ne.jp/~m-satomi/data.animation.html. Imitates the exact credits given in the video and also adds episode specific credits (you need to click on the sub section usually as a link named by the episode range covered on that page). The only search you can do there is the browser search and there are a number of anime missing of course, but it's still a long list. Are there mistakes on that page? Yes there are.
- Anistaff - similar to D2_station but has a search similar to wiki and it doesn't really give full episode specific credits, just the more important ones like key animation and in-betweeners, if any episode specific credits are given at all. Yes, mistakes have been noted on that page as well.
- SF Movie databank - the link leads to their anime section. Only lists movies and OVAs, but they go back a long way to the past, there are cases where full credits are given, but often it's limited to the main staff. Mistakes noted on that page? Quite a lot, although the right to wrong ratio is in favour of right. They also peculiarly list R1 credits aka English credits if applicable for the anime, not all the time, though.
- JMDB - this is a page I haven't quite figured out yet. There seem to be credits given for movies, OVAs and TV anime alike, but they don't have anime that broadly covered. Also there seem to be 2 different interfaces for the entry pages that list staff credits - one has links for creators, the other doesn't, and they seem to contain different data and different ordering for example - Metropolis with creator links and Metropolis without creator links. When doing a search on that page, you'll always seem to get the version with dots and links, when I search in Google "jmdb メトロポリス", I'll get the other version. Mistakes? I haven't actually used it that much, but I can assume there are a few on entries with a lot of credits.
- Shirayuki - I haven't really used it much, it also has a fairly limited list, but still a good number of anime., plus it also provides episode ranges.
- http://ia.ath.cx/ - this is a funny one, but quite useful and then again not. It provides screenshots of the entire outro credit listing of an episode and the range of anime is quite varied, from really old ones to ongoing anime and since they're screencaps from the actual video, there are no mistakes. Of course, we can't copy from screenshots, can we, so that's why they're useless to most of us, save for the people who can actually write Japanese characters from the video without actually having that video. There are also some entries with text instead of screenshots, but those only give the most important episode specific credits - 脚本 (Screenplay), 演出 (Episode Direction), 絵コンテ (Storyboard) and 作画監督 (Animation Direction), which can most of the time be acquired from the Japanese wiki as well.
- AllCinema - definitely more accurate than ANN, but the error ratio is a bit too high considering they only give the main credits, often the credits don't match the ones in video (that's not to say that they don't mean the same thing, but even that has happened), mistakes with kanji in creator names and sometimes even a completely different name. Yeah, we got someone here who has copied a whole lot from allcinema without checking the video, I'm not personally too happy about it, but the percentage of correct data gotten from allcinema still is much higher than wrong data.
Credit type exceptions
These are the credit types that the mass-add parser will not recognize, but they won't be added to AniDB either:
- 製作著作 (Production Publication) - it's basically two credits in one, Production (製作) and Publication (著作). This kind of credit isn't that widely used and when it is, it's only given in an OVA. It feels a bit silly to add this as a separate credit when the meaning is already covered by the two existing credits and since it's not possible to have the mass-add parser recognize it as 2 credits without making an exception in the code, it should be handled manually. So simply split this credit up.
- 色指定・検査 (Colour Specification・Inspection) - it is correct to assume that ・is used as a separator between 2 different credits as it in most cases is. In this case the 2 credits given are 色指定 (Colour Specification) and 色指定検査 (Colour Specification Inspection), which you should manually change.
- 仕上・検査 / 仕上げ・検査 (Finishing/Clean-up・Inspection) - same as the case above. In this case the 2 credits given are 仕上/仕上げ (Finishing/Clean-up) and 仕上検査/仕上げ検査 (Finishing/Clean-up Inspection).
Note 検査 has also been given as a complete separate credit (for example in Senjou no Valkyria: Gallian Chronicles), in which case it has meant Finishing/Clean-up Inspection.
- 動仕 - this is most likely a combination of 動画 & 仕上 (In-Between Animation & Finishing/Clean-up), but shortened. Luckily it's used rarely. Split this credit into 動画 and 仕上.
- キャラクター・メカニックデザイン原案 (Character Mechanical Original Design) - 2 different credits, which are キャラクターデザイン原案 (Original Character Design) and メカニックデザイン原案 (Original Mechanical Design). Split this credit up manually.
- 動画仕上協力 & 動画・仕上協力 (Inbetween Animation Finishing/Clean-up Assistance) - 2 different credits, which are 動画協力 (Inbetween Animation Assistance) and 仕上協力 (Finishing/Clean-up Assistance). Split this credit up manually.
Possibly one-off credits
These are credits that haven't been noted to have been given to more than 1 anime, but are generic enough to be used in other anime as well. Meaning if any of those credits occur in more than 1 anime (excluding sequel-prequel anime), they should be added as proper credits.
- ロボットデザイン (Robot Design) - given in Top o Nerae! (and the movie remake). For now added as Mechanical Design.
- サイボーグデザイン (Cyborg Design) - given in Mai-Otome 0: S.ifr. For now added as Mechanical Design.
- プロパティ・デザイン (Property Design) - given in Kenpuu Denki Berserk. For now added as Set Design.
- 路地デザイン (Alley Design) - given in Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (2009). For now added as Set Design.
- 練成陣デザイン (Transmutation Circle Design) - given in Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (2009). For now given as Design Works.
- 妖怪キャラクター原案 (Youkai Original Character) - given in Yokai Ningen Bem. For now given as Original Character Design.