Studio behind the Cutscenes in Vol. 4

[Airon]

Anyone know what studio made the CG/Anime style cutscenes in volume 4? A watermark or somekind of rpomo somewhere. I like it quite a bit, they remind me of the promo videos for Dragoborne TCG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwQs5pk5n9g

It wasn't CC2 who made these right?

[Kuukai]

It was Orange Co., who I believe also did some of the CG for .hack//Quantum. CC2 created the storyboards, which were approved/rejected by Matsuyama, and then sent to Orange for basic animation. Then the two companies would have a long back and forth about specific effects, and CC2 would add the sound, etc. Apparently this was cheaper than in-housing it. Source. This feels really strange because in the same meeting CC2 announced their intention to make their own animation projects, as they did with .hack//The Movie, but I guess presumably those projects will have a standalone budget with more allotted for animation than Last Recode. Still, it didn't turn out that badly in my opinion.

[Airon]

Thanks for the info. I didn't see the Dragoborne stuff listed under them so I guess just similar style, the studio is pretty popular with good reason. It worked really well in Last Recode, even though the movement was stuttery-like, it gave it a sense of more drama and emotion than the rendered CGs did. Made it much more enthralling. I guess that's also partly cause they put more time into these, one of the cutscenes was like 6 mins long straight.

I didn't know they were going to do more in-house animations, so maybe an IMOQ OVA could happen! Probably the best way to rerelease that story without having to sink time into remaking the gameplay. If it looks even half as good as the movie did, or a mix of Orange Co.s style and the movie it would be great.