Akadot: I heard you worked with the Japanese animation studio Madhouse for the Low Brow pilot? How did you like working with Madhouse?

Chris: That was incredible. Jody and I went over and worked there. But, George was busy here working on other stuff. It was incredible to work with Madhouse because they are responsible for Vampire Hunter D and tons of other awesome stuff. So it was great to work there directly with the people. It was a wonderful experience. We only went over there for a week, but we stayed in Mr. Maruyama’s (owns Madhouse Studios) condo. They really treated us well.

Akadot:I hear there is an actual "toilet story".

Chris: [Laughs] Yeah. We went to his condo and it's really modern, but there was only one big room. There's a bathtub in the middle of the room and a toilet in the middle of the room with no walls or anything.

Akadot: Were there any communication problems while working with Madhouse? Any cultural difficulties?

Chris: There really wasn't. I swear there are more communication problems dealing with American animation studios than in Japan. The Madhouse staff was really excited and surprised that we really knew their culture. We knew the animation culture and anime culture, which is something that confuses them. In Japan, anime is just animation (Japanese, American, Disney) and when we referred to "anime", they thought we were talking about animation in general. So when we talked about anime, they asked us what kind of anime. We meant specifically Japanese animation.

It was really easy to talk to them. Mostly we were doing a lot of drawing and we could communicate through drawings. Also, way more Japanese people speak English than American people can speak Japanese. They had some English-speaking people there. Eddie Cox, from the Japanese Cartoon Network came over and translated for us one day. He came over on the first day and we got through the majority of the scenes, so that was really good.

Akadot: What was Madhouse's role in Low Brow?

Chris: They were the animation production studios. They subcontracted out to DR Movies, which is actually part of Madhouse in Korea.

Akadot: Since Madhouse played a role in Low Brow's animation design, would you say Low Brow is animated in a Japanese animation style or American animation style such as Powerpuff Girls?

George: It's a combination of both, but it leans more toward western style since everything was laid out here. The layout was done before the trip to Japan and once the layout is done, you can't really change much. I would say it's leaning toward western style, which might change if Low Brow goes to series. Because of time constraints we had to lay it out here. I have to give Madhouse credit because they did a lot of good work very, very quickly.

Akadot:If Low Brow does get picked up for a series, will Madhouse work with you?

George: We hope so.

Want to read more?! Then check out the Part II of our interview with Low Brow's George and Chris.