This is why I say Raye's parents have to know somebody. Raye seemed to only get an in when Margaret Dean helmed Ellation, which at first I thought Crunchyroll bought but I guess was always a division of them. CR was doing comics for a while so that's all HGS was gonna be until Dean somehow got a hold of Raye. And even though Raye is currently identifying as a teenage boy Dean probably still wanted her for the women in animation thing. Cause no one believes you're anything but a straight girl fujo, Raye. So maybe it was just timing and sheer dumb luck riding on Dean's clout.
Either way it sounds like Ellation was never properly set up to make a full show and their pipeline is awful. If Raye is telling the truth then they let this naive kid new to the industry wear every hat in the production. I'd feel more sorry she got fucked over like that if she wasn't such an obnoxious brat who thinks too highly of her own mediocre talent.
Here is where your theory falls apart.
Say what you will about me, but I was a member of WiA. It’s basically mandatory to have a job in this industry because of all the extremely valuable networking opportunities.
Just flat out, without WiA or LatinX in animation, you did not get many chances to network or attend private events with access to top people.
WiA also hosts the best job board in animation, their weekly job listings feature many exclusive posts. But literally none of them require the applicant to be a woman.
That said, because I was at many a WiA event, it’s all a facade. Most of the people there are men, most of the people who benefit are men, and they have no major agenda. In fact, the site barely functions and leadership is so scattered that you can’t get responses to basic emails for weeks.
So WiA would not have grabbed a random like Raye just for a woman card. WiA has literally the entire animation industry plus hundreds of aspiring people, men and women, at their fingertips for them to pluck up whenever they want.
The WiA misconceptions all stem from that video that everyone cites despite being sourced solely from Luke Webber, who I already said is untrustworthy for a variety of reasons.
Raye also failed pitching at Frederator. Frederator, despite being a very well established studio has an interesting reputation because they were the only studio with open submission.
Before 2020, anyone could submit a show idea to them. 99.8% of them were rejected, .1% were briefly considered, and only adventure time was ever really approved.
Raye’s work didn’t even stand out at the house that excepts all the weeds. So Raye must have found an in elsewhere. It’s a very suspicious green light to say the least, more so because of Crunchroll itself using it as the proof of concept for their new studio project
