Dana Terrace Photo by Kalai Chik
Knights of Guinevere released its second episode days before its screening with the cast and crew at Animation is Film Festival 2026. Directed by Dana Terrace, the creator of The Owl House, the adult animated series has garnered over 34M combined views on YouTube . Despite its easy online access, the in-person AIF screening was one of the sold-out Q&As on the lineup, as fans could watch together with the cast.
Terrace, fresh off proudly showing her latest episode to the world, spoke candidly to Anime News Network about the worldbuilding and characters that live within it. This past summer, she had the opportunity to hold a public conversation with Witch Hat Atelier 's Kamome Shirohama about the rules and limits of magic. But what of the futuristic but technologically destitute world of Guinevere? “There's no reset in every episode, and that's really important to me,” she answered.
Sharp-eyed viewers have compared the visual parallels between Guinevere and Revolutionary Girl Utena , and Terrace confirms the avant-garde anime influenced her. “I grew up watching anime and copying anime to learn how to draw and understand anatomy. It's become part of my DNA.” Even at the Q&A session, she credited Satoshi Kon as an “especially” important inspiration. “Visually, I want to keep pushing myself until I can do things as creatively and interestingly as some of my heroes.” She recommends Utena , Paranoia Agent , and The Apothecary Diaries as anime series for Guinevere fans to watch.
In contrast to The Owl House, an animated show for children, Guinevere is an adult animated series that touches upon subjects like trauma and abuse. While there are creatives who want to work in kids' animation in order to eventually work on adult animation, Terrace says she's always wanted to work on both. “I'm glad to work for adult audiences now, but I don't know if I'll ever stay in one place. I constantly want to challenge myself, but I think writing television for children can be just as challenging.”
From Left to Right: Morgana Ignis, Jasmine Yang, Eden Riegel, Dana Terrace Photo by Kalai Chik
When it comes to class structure in the world of Guinevere, Terrace pointed out that there's a hierarchy. “You got to know who's on the top and you got to know who's on the bottom. The more I write scenes with the main characters, who are on the bottom, and Orville and Olivia, who are characters on the top, the more I can start figuring out what's in between. It's an observation and a reflection of what we deal with in real life.”
Despite the show's status as an indie animation series, the pilot and the second episode don't cut corners to save money. “I don't believe in shortcuts,” smiled Terrace. “I don't believe in holding back if you have the opportunity to do something beautiful.” She credits Glitch Productions for supporting beauty in art. “I've seen healthcare workers talk about that particular [glove] scene and be like, 'Oh my god, he did that right.' And that means a lot to me.”
In the current ecosystem of the shrinking U.S. animation landscape, Glitch Productions has seen massive success with its titles even as an indie studio. In 2025, The Hollywood Reporter released a visual showing the decline of animated series orders year over year. Just a year prior, The Animation Guild ratified a three-year contract with studios, a contentious agreement as guild members disagreed with the deal's perceived weak protection against AI.
One of the most noticeable differences between the pilot and the newly released episode was a Special Thanks credit to SAG-AFTRA, similar to what was shown in Gameoverse. “This is the first time that Glitch has worked with SAG,” said Yang on the AIF red carpet. “We are under a new media agreement, and everyone there is union or about to join.” She continued to share that working with the guild was “a bit of a learning curve.”
Morgana Ignis (left), Jasmine Yang (right) Photo by Kalai Chik
“It helps us work with a much larger pool of different performers, too,” added Morgana Ignis , global brand manager of Glitch Productions . “As an actress myself, I've had my time before I joined SAG-AFTRA. I'm a very proud member of the union now. But before that, I cut my teeth on different indie projects that were some of the most impactful stories I got to tell.” However, she added that there are union projects and others that have non-union performers. “We have our union projects with a lot of union performers. We also have our other projects that have non-union performers in them. Together, we get this enormous pool of creatives at different levels of their career.”
All this is welcome news, as Terrace previously mentioned that independent studios “do not give the same salary as Disney.” When it comes to determining the budget for a show, especially as Guinevere now has a full season order, Yang declared that Glitch is a little “weird.” The company allocates a budget based on what they “think will make a better show…so the fans will come.” Ignis pointed out that the company is “funded predominantly from the fan support,” and credits the company's product availability at Hot Topic as part of it. “We're very proud Glitch has received the success it has by remaining independent, fan-funded, and doing it our way without compromise.”