Anime character designers remain unrecognized
Anime character designers remain unrecognized
Plus: Industry lacks central anime production database; Anime directors discuss feature films at TIFF; City sets tax donation record thanks to anime gifts; and more
This is the weekly newsletter of Animenomics, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, November 1, 2023.
In case you missed it: Attack on Titan’s anime adaptation is finally ending, and a trailer of the finale has been viewed more than 5 million times on YouTube.
Study: Anime character designers remain unrecognized
Anime characters form the most important visual identity of the anime medium, but character designers and concept artists are highly underrepresented in media interviews conducted by anime industry periodicals, a new analysis has found.
Why it matters: Anime multimedia projects rely on consistent character visuals across multiple forms of media, from animation to merchandising, to drive their success, but those projects often downplay how the characters are drawn.
Olga Kopylova, an assistant professor at Tohoku University, published the study in the latest issue of Mechademia, an academic journal on the research of anime, manga, and related fields.
By the numbers: Kopylova reviewed 247 issues of two of Japan’s leading anime magazines, Animage and Newtype, published between 2010 and 2020 and found only 130 interviews of character designers, averaging less than one per issue.
By contrast, one issue of both magazines can contain 20 or more interviews with directors, voice actors, and other creative personnel who occupy higher positions in the production hierarchy.
Zoom out: Japan’s anime magazines created the anime fandom before the arrival of the Internet and continue to survive in the digital era, but they provide readers an incomplete understanding of the inner workings of the anime industry.
“Such texts often amount to little more than glamorized press releases intended to serve marketing goals, not to inform or to educate,” Kopylova writes in her article.
The bigger picture: Mainstream English-language coverage of anime tends to revolve around filmmakers like Hayao Miyazaki whose personal influence and artistic control are so great that they are regarded as authors of their movies.
Bryan Hikari Hartzheim, an associate professor of new media at Waseda University, advocates for a closer study of the less glamorous aspects of the industry, focusing on anime’s industrial systems and studio labor.
Yes, but: “A large impediment to this kind of research is obviously access: fan communities are more open and accommodating to [academic fans], whereas the media industries have long been secretive and suspicious of any academic incursions, a fact of life that has been exacerbated through the coronavirus pandemic,” Hartzheim writes in the same Mechademia issue.
One big thing: A panel of animators at the Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association’s kick-off event in August highlighted the issue of designers being forbidden from drawing or selling drawings of their own character designs, shutting them out of the copyright of anime’s most important feature.
Anime industry lacks central production credits database
Annual data compiled by Association of Japanese Animations shows that more than 340 works of anime will have been released by the end of this calendar year, yet to date there is no central database that reliably keeps a record of production credits for all of these works.
Why it matters: Interest in anime databases has grown in the past decade as the volume of anime production grows and new viewers seek to discover past anime titles by their favorite anime creators.
Catch up quick: The AJA launched its own attempt at an anime database last year to “prevent past works from being forgotten”, but the site only captures high-level production data like broadcast dates, director, and primary animation studio.
International platforms Anime News Network and MyAnimeList maintain comprehensive databases of anime and manga that include production details, but they are largely run by volunteers and prone to errors.
Such databases and the fan communities built around them have drawn the attention of investors, resulting in Anime News Network being acquired by Kadokawa last year and MyAnimeList by DeNA in 2015, then by Media Do in 2019.
Where things stand: At last weekend’s Machi Asobi Vol. 27, a recurring anime industry event held in Tokushima, Japan, Hideyuki Ohtsubo, who researches anime databases, outlined the challenges of creating such a database.
Anime is often broadcasted or released in an unpolished state because of tight deadlines, so production credits can change between the time the work is aired and when it’s finally packaged for home video release.
Errors in the writing of staff names can also occur if the work is aired before credits can be reviewed or if those names aren’t verified against payroll data of production companies.
International databases face a unique challenge when entering records because volunteers may provide the incorrect romanization of a Japanese creator’s name.
What we’re watching: As anime fans pay more attention to how their favorite works are created, there is growing interest among animators in a system that records their roles in anime production.
When databases are able to capture production credit details down to a specific anime episode, they can be used as an animator’s business card.
An effort is underway by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs to build a Media Arts Database that records works of anime, manga, and video games and their complete production details, but it has remained in beta since 2019.
Disclosure: The author is a former database moderator and managing editor at MyAnimeList.
Clippings: Directors discuss anime films at TIFF panel
Japan has a shortage of animators who can draw layouts well, anime directors Keiichi Hara and Sunao Katabuchi told attendees of the Tokyo International Film Festival last weekend. (Panel recording with English interpretation above.) (Animation Business Journal)
Chinese film distributor Road Pictures is expanding into the anime intellectual property development business, establishing a new subsidiary for content distribution, merchandising, and physical exhibitions. (The Hollywood Reporter)
As reported by Animenomics in May, Beijing-based Road Pictures is the company responsible for the marketing success of Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume in China and, later, Toei Animation’s The First Slam Dunk.
Happinet Phantom Studios, the film business of toy wholesaler Happinet, signed a partnership agreement with New York City-based independent film company A24 Films that includes distribution of each other’s works. (Animation Business Journal)
It’s unclear whether Happinet Phantom intends to release the upcoming Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower anime film, adapted from a portion of Osamu Tezuka’s manga, in North America with A24.
Pluto’s anime adaptation, a retelling of Osamu Tezuka’s iconic Astro Boy series, debuted on the number 7 spot of Netflix’s Weekly Top 10 list in Japan. (Netflix Top 10)
Numazu sets tax donation record thanks to anime gifts
Numazu, a coastal city in Shizuoka prefecture, has received a record ¥2.34 billion (US$15.5 million) in the first six months of the fiscal year ending March 2024 thanks to Japan’s hometown tax system that encourages people living in urban areas to contribute to rural areas in return for a tax credit.
Why it matters: Numazu’s hometown tax receipts have already exceeded last year’s amount and is projected to exceed ¥4 billion (US$26 million), thanks to anime and manga collaborations.
How it happened: Numazu partnered with CoroCoro Comic, a children’s manga magazine published by Shogakukan, and producers of the Love Live! Sunshine!! anime, which is set in the city, to provide gifts to participating taxpayers.
CoroCoro Comic is sponsoring a welding experience for elementary school students at the Kageyama Ironworks factory. Last year, the magazine sponsored stays at a tent hotel near the city.
Love Live! Sunshine!! is sponsoring a illustrated box containing specialty food items from the Numazu area.
Zoom in: The Love Live! Sunshine!! box can be claimed on Anifuru, a hometown tax donation site launched in April by BS Nippon Television and Trust Bank.
BS Nippon Television broadcasts more than 20 anime titles weekly and develops products utilizing anime content.
At launch, Anifuru partnered with 58 local governments to receive hometown tax donations for those jurisdictions in exchange for anime-branded gifts.
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