How much an anime episode cost (2010)?

A typical 20-30 min anime episode in Japan cost breakdown:

Original work - 50,000 yen ($660)
Script - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Episode Direction - 500,000 yen ($6,600)
Production - 2 million yen ($26,402)
Key Animation Supervision - 250,000 yen ($3,300)
Key Animation - 1.5 million yen ($19,801)
In-betweening - 1.1 million yen ($14,521)
Finishing - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Art (backgrounds) - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Photography - 700,000 yen ($9,240)
Sound - 1.2 million yen ($15,841)
Materials - 400,000 yen ($5,280)
Editing - 200,000 yen ($2,640)
Printing - 500,000 yen ($6,600)

Source: Media Development Research Institute Inc.

Values were adjusted to 2010 USD inflation so the total is around USD 145,000 per episode. I wonder if there is any difference between pre and post March 11th tsunami in costing. AFAIK, any sales of Bluray/DVD that passes 4000 unit tends to get sequel. Best indicator is sales of 1st volume in first week itself since it will establish general trend onwards for particular series.

In Amazon Japan for example, Magica Puella Magi Madoka vol 1 Bluray is selling at 5,826 yen now (76 USD).

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Madoka cosplay spotted in The Economist!

Ah!

Link

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Miku Hatsune in Toyota ad

Toyota ads featuring the famous pop diva who is not real. Personally I don't get it but hey she is a hot item now.

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Manga publisher backlash against new censorship law has gone global

As predicted, the backlash is getting global coverage from top newspapers. I wonder how long the right wing Tokyo Governor can hold on before he buckle under the pressure. It won't be long in my opinion. I don't think he expected this kind of coverage and indirect complaint from Premier of Japan, Naoto Kan. While he is no Aso, he nevertheless deplored the new law as he feared it will reduce Japanese economic competitiveness in global market. Not to mention the often overlooked softpower aspect. What a lot of people including the Governor of Tokyo did not realise is, one of the mainstay of Japanese global power is its ability to influence world audience thru softpower.


Wall Street Journal

AFP

BBC

ABC

Daily Telegraph

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Impressive anti war animation from Chinese artist

Titled "See Through" or 打，打个大西瓜, it is 3 years worth of work by a Chinese artist goes by name of Jokelate. Great timing, good music and crisp animation with strong anti-war massage. Nicely done.

anime

Dr House vs Blackjack?

Yes, apparently there is going to be a match between these 2 iconic medical heroes. Who will win? Amusing.

Source

anime

B Gata H Kei creators gives a middle finger to obsessed otakus

Recently concluded comedy series, B Gata H Kei have been bombarded by series of threats from irate "fans" who disliked openly sexual female characters. It is quite similar to what happened to Kannagi last year when there is a creepy backlash when it is discovered that the titular female character used to be in relationship.

Another manga series that go into the trouble is Good Ending when one of the female character have a normal relationship that is not approved by so called "fans" who wanted innocent, virgin but sexually ravishing females. However these females must not be engaged in any relationship because of perceived purity "issue". If you ask me, this is pretty fucked up, selfish obsession with the notion. Since they cannot get laid in real life, then imaginary 2D characters must not too. Losers.

The production committee of B Gata H Kei is not deterred by the threats and responded that it is creative process that cannot be undone to whims of small minority that is obsessed which completely skewered the original intent of series existence: that is to entertain. The makers of the series have contacted law enforcement to investigate these threats.

Source

anime

Manga publishers missing the boat

Guess what, a coalition of publishers in USA and Japan decided enough is enough, they going after manga scan sites such as Mangafox and many, many others. Most of them are based in China or Taiwan (heh not surprised at all) but what is different this time that they also targeting English scanlastion sites too. Woo....scary! To me, it sounds like Japanese manga industry is desperate to pin blame on anything,anyone but themselves in current malaise of manga industry in Japan. Same goes for the US people.

They sound pretty serious in smashing the pirate sites that make mockery of their investments by providing mangas FOC using the Internet as the medium. Sounds familiar? Napster, if anyone remembers. What exasperated me here is these people of the industry seem to be so anti-Internet. Instead learning to use it as a tool of making money, they keep trying to destroy it which it is utterly stupid and wasteful. Why bucking against inevitable juggernaut of civilization? Is their vision so short sighted that they fail to see that using Internet can actually help they make money?

As more and more young generations of manga fans raised on cyberspace and Internet, their preference for information gathering has changed remarkably too. They prefer e-stuff more than tangible, traditional book stuff. Where is the marketers have been looking at all these years? Are they even listening? Their expertise are made of fail so far from what I can see. Many people snorted that books are better but technology has catch up pretty fast and stuff like I-pad or Kindle provided quite comfortable reading experience for users. Things are catching up and old books will be consigned to same place that now houses papyrus scrolls, rocks etc soon, ie: they're history!

Vested interest especially those middle people who made fat money also don't like this new method of delivery. It is no small wonder that they were the most vocal and angriest bunch of people when comes to this oh so delicate issue. After all, they don't give a damn about the fact books cost paper which means trees will be chopped off to feed their business model.

Just offer a chapter of manga at affordable cost like .99 cents or 1-2 bucks and I can be sure that will be a majority of fans do not mind to pay for it. Pay attention to Itunes for example. The latest trend is people are reading mangas from handphones or Ipads. Create some technology or invest in something that make payments easy. Also develop some sort of technology that make the chapters can be downloaded from buyer's HDD 3-4 times before it becomes locked. Or offer the chapters for free but make sure that users click on some ads before they can read it. Anything but try to force manga fans to buy books. Some people don't like the idea of buying volumes of manga that will take up space in their room or house etc (for example, Ranma has 38 freaking volumes!). I balked at the thought that I have to allocate more space in my room for manga housing since space is a precious commodity in living especially in city. Having electronic copy is great boost in space management, honestly. Not every manga fan can afford a big room to host big collection of mangas.

Have these so called captains of industry think of that? Guess not.

My prediction as soon this current storm blow over, the pirates will be up again, offering illegal manga chapters for free at expense of hardworking mangakas. Back to square one. The more you try to grasp it in iron grip, the more it will slip away. Just like water. Pfft!

Sorry about the rant. I just totally disgusted about this.

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The story of Nishimata Aoi

She is famous for her work on Shuffle! series. Her works also featured in many eroge games and been active since 1994.

Her first well known moe project is Ugo Rice where her illustration is said to be key factor reviving the dead town of 16,000 people into a happening place with anime fans flocking there to buy the rice thanks to her illustration. From there, the ball starts rolling where now there is even battery laced with moe drawings. Some people credited her as the catalyst of this phenomenon. What amuses me the most is the watermelon moe edition by her.

Aoi Nishimata next notoriety is her selection as Japanese artist in Star Wars illustration project where a lots of people in Japan reacted pretty badly to the choice. Some of them are pretty scathing of her originality and lack of evolution.

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Wall Street Journal Discussion on State of Anime Industry now

Basically this article talks about poor state of animation industry workers and struggling economy as pointed earlier in this blog. Osamu Tezuka pioneering work in anime also brings in the concept of cheap pay for mass production of anime, this is recent result of his vision.

The more detailed link from WSJ.

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Spice and Wolf US Novel cover controversy

Planned US release which causes so much furore and anger amongst otakus.



The original cover.


Hahahahah, this is rich. I honestly don't know why fans were so angry about original cover for Spice and Wolf translated novel series which is soon to be released in mid-December 2009. To me, it is not important what is on the cover but what is inside. I hardly bothered by cover when I read the novel, I mean it is not manga or comic so pictures are secondary to me, FFS. It is not like Horo will be different when the cover of novel changed, right?

Anyway, I will still grab the novel, regardless of what cover they use.

The rather spirited discussion on this here

Zac Efron in US version of Death Note?

The current heart throb actor who is rumored to be in Full Metal Panic! live action movie (Mandalay Pictures) also in talks for Death Note live action. However he did not really confirm anything concrete on these 2, and he dismissed Full Metal Panic! role as "unlikely". So far there is not much news on Full Metal Panic! (most likely still in plan), however I do feel that Death Note has more possibility to be adapted for silver screen treatment. After all, it is already have 2 Japanese live action movies and it is highly popular in US too. Plus, it did not require a lot of special effects too unlike Full Metal Panic!.

Source

Kyoto Animation Award

Hmmmmmm

Considered as one of the most beloved anime studio by anime fans worldwide for their faithful adaptation of source materials (Clannad, Kanon for example), Kyoto Animation is organizing a competition for original submission of story (all formats are accepted). The prize is not much but it will be animated by the studio themselves which will automatically send any orgasmic joy to all budding anime creators out there. What's more, no restriction on genre, age, sex, professional or amateur is placed. Dateline is 15th Jan 2010.

Now I tempted to ask why the studio is harvesting non mainstream sources. Are they running out of ideas? Or they decided to play cheap, looking at current climate of industry? Some cynics might point out their colossal creative mistake of doing Endless Eight is major indication that they need to change.

Anyway....So anyone willing to try for it? Good luck!

Main Site

Tokyology Documentary

This pop culture documentary of Japan, Tokyology hosted by a very hot Carrie Ann. This segment focused on anime and manga which I felt very instructive. It is easier to convey the culture using sight and sound instead of words. In the documentary, Carrie Ann interviewed Yoshitoshi ABe, the guy who gave us magical Haibane Reimei and brain sucking Lain.



That interview is the most interesting segment to me besides brief image flashes of pretty cosplayers. The rest pretty blah to me, lolita goth segment for example did not inspire any interest from me. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.

Gotta to confess here, some of the cosplayers in this short video are pretty good looking. Gobsmackingly good looking. The film is available at select stores, anyone with interest of Japanese pop culture discussion might want to check the documentary out.

Fancy a Masters in Anime and Manga?

Kyoto Seika University (KSU) established bachelor's program in manga & animation and became the first real, accredited university in the world to do so in 2006. Now, KSU has upgraded its manga & animation program to the graduate level. Starting in 2010, you can earn not only a bachelor's degree but also master's degree in manga and/or animation.

KSU's "Faculty of Manga" department consists of cartoon art, comic art (story manga), manga production, and animation. Professional manga artists, anime creators, producers and editors from industry teach those courses. A legendary shoujo manga expert Keiko Takemiya (Fly Me to the Moon, To Terra..., Kaze to Ki no Uta) is one of the professors.

However, all the classes are taught in Japanese so international applicants must pass Level 1 of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test for admission.

It means the applicant must have studied the language more than 900 hours, mastered 2.000 kanji characters and 10,000 vocabulary words, and is able to discuss manga & anime in Japanese. Ouch.

English homepage of KSU

Soft Power Discussion no 7: The End of Rozen Aso?

With impending fall of Premier Taro Aso, his stimulus program for Japanese softpower which including establishment of pop art center/"anime palace" that will showcase manga and anime is now very much in doubt. DPJ, opposition party already mounting offensive on Taro Aso's plan to strengthen Japanese softpower (164 billion USD right now), citing it is non sustainable and export reliance will not guarantee Japanese economy revival. DPJ argued for trimming budget and more cuts on domestic front to ease the fiscal pressure instead of Keynesian economics practiced by Taro Aso.



Taro Aso popularity slid into red zone prompting his own party seniors to ask him step down to prevent LDP complete defeat in upcoming snap election scheduled on August 2009. His approval rating is 18.6 percent, polled on 15th July 2009 by local media which pretty much nailed the end of his era as Japanese premiership.

Even domestic anime industry did not really embrace Aso's vision and setting up of anime palace plan (called National Center for Media Arts), citing it has no real goal and inadequate budget to help the ailing industry in meaningful manner. Some even feared possible censorship from the proposed body, stomping on freedom of expression.

Only a miracle can save his doomed government.

Anime becoming stale? Perhaps some answers here...

With current economic downturn, the industry output for 2009 is reduced by 30 percent compared to peak in 2006. So there is 2 possible things here:

a) More mainstream anime which guaranteed audience and not too heavy ( K-On!, Lucky Star, Clannad). However this category is what many people complaining about the boredom factor or anime story becoming stale. Some shows are so formulaic that it is embarrassing to watch (Asu no Yochi).

or

b) New storytelling, innovative anime exploration like Basquash, Rideback for instance. Some of the story might be bothering on brain squashing material. Some of them are successful such as Nodame and Eden of the East. But such gem is rare here.

Take your pick.

Now it is Darwinian time for Japanese anime scene. More and more animators were quitting (90 percent junior animators quit in 1-2 years) and studios did not earn as much as before. A 30 min episode can be contracted up to 18,000,000 Yen (700,000 MYR/ 194,340 USD) 2-3 years ago but now it is only worth 13,000,000 Yen (500,000 MYR/ 140,350 USD) .

It is a grim statistic, even Japanese economist were worried by the numbers. Taro Aso government even have a proposal to set up National Center for Media Arts, a body to stem the decline and promote Japanese softpower industries particularly anime. However insiders and pundits of the industry dismiss it as having too small of a budget for such ambitious scheme. Some of them even worried that this quasi federal body might start imposing creative control, limiting the freedom of expression in anime industry. Already, some fans were angry at Japanese lawmakers support to ban pedophile loli materials in Japan. This incident even prompted some of the fans wished that anime did not become mainstream, like they want to keep this hobby to themselves.

The crisis of economic stagnation and population issue hit Japan hard even before the 2008 meltdown in USA. Literally, Japan is running out of kids if the population did not reverse the demographic pattern soon ( 1.07: 1 ratio birth versus death, ideally should be 2:1 ratio). The 2008 financial crisis compounded the problem even further, affecting even seemingly insular anime industry in Japan.

Moe shows trend started when more and more 30-40s age otaku category who can't seem to grow up began to buy into the moe trend which it is hard to miss by the studios. Simply, there is not enough kids for studios to make more children orientated anime profitably. The industry now hinges on aging otaku population to survive and these guys were mostly unmarried or unable to connect to people in normal manner due to social dysfunction in Japan.

Some fans accused the studio is responsible for decline, keep churning up formulaic series to satisfy mainstream demand which is whimsical and now unable to cope with changing focus in the market. Now studios were racing to adapt light novels into series which director Kannagi and Haruhi call it " a mere ploy to sell more novels". He cited ToraDora! and Index as great examples of this. Also, the studios were reluctant to make new stories that challenges mainstream, contributing to decline of interest by fans who wanted more than just cute girls in school uniform doing funky things.

Alas, more thoughts later.

How much salary for a Japanese animator?

An updated estimation, Japanese animator paid in accordance of their experience and seniority. Employees in their 20s earn an average annual salary of 1.1 mil yen per year (11,268 USD) while those in their 30s get 2.14 mil yen (22,532 USD). Veteran artists in their 40s and 50s survive on around 3 mil yen (28,160 USD) per year. Yeap, all this figures are per annual. The senior's wage will be comparable to wage of a carpenter in USA now (29,520 USD).

That makes sense as to why 90 percent turnover rate in Japanese anime industry is happening. Ouch indeed.

Source

Japanese manga industry surprises

In a move that surprised industry watchers and pundits alike, Kodansha, one of big players in the manga industry released a free online copy of manga magazine simultaneously with sales of same manga magazine on May 22nd 2009. This clearly a desperation move as Kodansha battled online piracy without much success which this factor were blamed for most of slump of domestic market and destruction of US anime/manga industry. In another surprise, the tactic actually increased of said copy by 25 percent which vindicates the seemingly desperate move.

Perhaps the big company should really look into fact that more people are willing to read online and pay a nominal fee for it?

In the same article, perhaps as a general trend indicator, mobile phone comic market, expanded tenfold to 22.9 billion yen over fiscal 2005, thanks to an established charging system.

The bottom line is, manga readers are willing to pay for online copy for convenience sake.

Source Article

K-On! / けいおん！ fan's outcry over sudden ending

I couldn't help but LOL at the reaction. Just as I predicted, the series will be only 12-13 eps long due to lack of plot and source material. Reading this on SC however, and I can only shake my head with a smile looking at over reactions. The drug was chopped off and the addicts were howling in pain: This is how I feel like when I reading the outcry. I just hope no one is stupid enough to do something more extreme than this.

Some people I knew celebrating the end of what they perceived as biggest moeshit ever. As for me, I just shrugged my shoulders and move on.

Sankaku Article