The Night Shift

The Night Shift is a Japanese-American adult animated horror television anthology series produced by Typewriter Productions, Blumhouse Television (starting in 2016), Venga Animation, and Oiyu Media. The show started out as a segment of Vision HorrorNight before becoming its own show when HorrorNight switched formats. The show's release schedule is usually a week after HorrorNight ends and a late-night slot (12:30 AM), than the 10 PM slot HororNight usually occupies.

The show is created by Jonathan Hill and animation director Shoji Kaori. Pre and post-production are usually done at Oiyu Media and Typewriter Productions (later Oiyu Media and Blumhouse Productions, with Typewriter Productions handling post-production), with animation being done at Venga Animation in Japan. The show premiered in November 2012, and currently in production for its 10th anniversary season.

Currently, the showrunners are Winston Spears and Zoe Brooks (Brooks joined as co-showrunner in 2018, while Spears repalced Gideon Welch who ran the show from 2016-2020, and before that, Jonathan Hill ran the show from 2012-2015), with Shoji Kaori is the animation director for the series.

For the tenth anniversary of the show, there will be a double length episode that'll air alongside Vision HorrorNight's Friday the 13th episode, as well as double length season premiere and finales. Alongside the 10th anniversary announcement, production has announced that they will produce a Friday the 13th special each year alongside HorrorNight's.

Shoji Kaori announced her departure as the main director of the series in 2023, stating that Season 13 (2024) will be her last season as main director. She will return to be the Chief Director in Season 14, but then will fully depart the series afterwards. Kaori later announced Inoshishi Umi as her replacement for Season 14 onwards.

Development
The show entered a straight to order production when Vision and Typewriter Productions executives wanted to overhaul Vision HorrorNight for 2012, increasing the budget and giving the production team less of an episode order and a focus on live-action sequences, in return, $1,500,000 will be set aside for the production of an animated series to air directly after every season of HorrorNight as a late-night animated series on Vision. Jonathan Hill agreed and production went underway. He partnered up with a rookie animation director at Venga Animation, Shoji Kaori, who would help create the anthology series with him. This would continue the tradition of Venga Animation supplying animation for HorrorNight's animated segments.

Pre-production
Pre-production was handled at Typewriter Productions in Stamford, CT, and Blumhouse Productions in Los Angeles (from 2012-2016, Oiyu Media in Brooklyn, NY/Toronto, Canada handled co-production duties in the pre-production phase, however when Blumhouse Productions took over as the main co-producer, they were given a new role of being a funding company and co-creative producer alongside Venga Animation).

After the writers grab stories and adapt them for television, they send them to Mya Wright and Erin Turner (president of Venga Animation USA and liaison to Venga Animation Japan), when they approve five stories to produce and then send the stories to the storyboard department of Typewriter Productions West and Studio Acesky USA. After the storyboarding phase, they return them to Mya Wright as she sends the storyboards to Jason Blum, who then collectively approves of the stories (if there isn't a story that isn't approved by either of them, then another story would be chosen by Turner for storyboarding). The unused stories would end up as extras on the home media release.

Voice over is usually done in the storyboarding phase when they are put in an animatic with temp music over it, so the actors can perform. Voiceover is performed at NYAV Post, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York. Starting in 2020, Sound Cadence in Texas is also used for remote voice-over work.

Animation
After the storyboard process is done, they are sent to Venga Animation Japan when they start animating the story based on the storyboards. If an animator thinks a shot would look better at a different angle shown in the storyboards, they are allowed to do so. Animation takes about three months for the entire season. During each episode in production, Kaori would look over them and check-in with the animators about the process and how it looks. In progress shots are sent regularly to Wright and Turner for approval, of which production is continued. Animation is usually done by the end of the summer, while some episodes can be delayed until early October.

Mouthflaps are usually done in this time as well, matching up with the voice-over that was done in pre-production.

Post-production
Post-production usually happens in early September where final cuts are sent to Venga Animation USA and Typewriter Productions West as they continue working on clean-up shots, leveling, and final edits.

Then when everything is checked by Wright and a final look by Blum, the masters are sent to Vision Broadcasting for transmission.

Episodes
Each season so far has had only five episodes.

Cast
Only the narrator is credited in every episode, who is Ron Perlman. The show has also cast voice actors who normally appear in English language dubs of anime.

Other voice actors who appear in mostly every episode include Sean Schemmel, Wayne Grayson, Dan Green, Erica Mendez, Xanthe Huynh, Laura Post, Carrie Keranen, and Patrick Seitz.

Distribution
Vision distributes the show on television and on-demand, while Venga Distribution handles electronic sell-through, and home media distribution (via Warner Bros. Home Entertainment).

Japanese remake
Due to the success of the show, Venga Animation, alongside its Venga Seikunime production subsidiary and Typewriter Japan, announced in May of 2021 that a Japanese animated remake with an original overarching storyline will be produced for the Fall 2021 season for Venga's co-owned anime channel, Anime Spark. Shoji Kaori will be the chief supervising director for the remake.

The show was a success, and another season was greenlit for the Fall 2022 season, with another original overarching storyline.