Anime dependence on int'l market grows
Plus: Bones anime studio spins off animation department; Mandarake stays the course amid inbound tourism boom; Japan gets otaku prime minister; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
In case you missed it: Academic scholars have published in recent weeks two new reference books on anime and manga, representing the latest research literature on both media industries.
Palgrave Macmillan published The Palgrave Handbook of Music and Sound in Japanese Animation last month, and Cambridge University Press will release The Cambridge Companion to Manga and Anime this month.
Global demand shifts as anime tries to keep uniqueness
Japan’s anime industry is facing growing competition from anime-style and anime-adjacent content in the global market as it continues to seek long-term solutions to increase production capacity and meet foreign consumer demand.
Why it matters: Anime has grown dependent on overseas markets. A breakdown in the current business model could spark an industrywide recession like the one seen in the late 2000s, anime industry expert Tadashi Sudo warns.
What he’s saying: “The uniqueness of Japanese anime is often touted, but as the market grows, the world’s anime needs and preferences have changed, and the range of works in demand continues to expand,” Sudo writes in a new column for Anime Hack.
“By focusing too much on uniqueness, there is a possibility that some [in the industry] will not be able to meet such needs,” he adds.
Sudo also warns of “arrogance” in the government’s new Cool Japan Strategy, which calls for anime exports to quadruple from ¥1.46 trillion (US$10 billion) today to more than ¥6 trillion (US$41 billion) by 2033.
Rewind: The last anime bubble burst about two decades ago when international demand for anime collapsed in the second half of the 2000s.
Although domestic anime revenues continued to grow then, companies that relied in international contracts like GDH and Bandai Visual retreated.
What’s happening: Two of Japan’s top ten startups that raised the most money in August are anime-adjacent firms, according to data compiled by Kepple.
THINKR, a content development company focused on virtual YouTubers, raised ¥5 billion (US$35 million), while 2.5-dimensional IP development firm Utaite raised ¥2 billion (US$14 million).
Zoom out: New technologies such as AI anime companions and AI-assisted user-generated content are transforming the way fans engage with anime, American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz said in a report published last month.
“Today, anime is more than an art style, it’s a content format and cultural aesthetic that has transcended gender, race, age, and geography to become one of the largest and most profitable creative industries,” report authors Robin Guo and Jon Lai wrote.
Clippings: Bones studio spins off animation department
Anime studio Bones is spinning off its anime production department into a new subsidiary, Bones Film, retaining functions like production planning and rights management at its parent entity. (Animation Business Journal)
Anime production companies spinning off animation departments into subsidiaries and investing in production committees are part of a wave of changes in anime industry business models, Nikkei Asia reported this week.
TV Asahi’s Indian-animated remake of Obocchama-kun has signed on Sony Pictures Networks India as a local broadcasting partner. TV Asahi will promote the series at the MIPCOM industry trade show this month. (The Asahi Shimbun)
What they’re saying: “We are looking for pre-acquisition partners for Obocchama-kun. Territories outside Japan and India are open to TV, VOD, and licensing, and merchandising rights are also available,” TV Asahi head of animation sales & development Maiko Sumida told Sandra Lehner in July.
Smart TV operating system VIDAA, owned by Chinese TV manufacturer Hisense, has added Crunchyroll to its app library in multiple markets, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and India. (Crunchyroll)
Why it matters: VIDAA quickly climbed the smart TV market after being founded in 2019 and now controls the second-largest market share after Samsung’s Tizen OS, according to the Connected TV Marketing Association.
Chinese video game makers are creating more anime-style games popular with younger users as Japanese video game makers shift toward photorealism, a Toyo Securities analyst observed at last week’s Tokyo Game Show. (Nikkei Asia)
Mandarake keeps strategy amid foreign tourist boom
“There is a wide variety of genres [in anime], and each content and work has its passionate fans. I think that just like Japanese otaku, there are casual and hardcore types of otaku overseas as well. However, no matter how much inbound tourism is booming, we will not focus on that in our store development. We want to maintain our consistent stance of not just jumping on the bandwagon.”
— Katsuya Nakamura, Mandarake public relations director
Context: Mandarake, a retailer of secondhand anime merchandise that operates more than 30 stores in Tokyo’s Nakano Broadway shopping center, has chosen not to adjust its merchandise displays despite a growing number of foreign customers visiting the stores, Nakamura told the Real Sound web magazine.
Stores that focus their merchandise only on items popular with foreign tourists, like Pokémon cards, without an understanding of the market can become unprofitable when such items are no longer trending.
Zoom in: Nakamura says soft vinyl toys have been especially popular among foreign tourists at Mandarake’s stores in Nakano and Akihabara, driving up the price of items in this product category.
“There are also works by soft vinyl artists who have collaborated with high-end brands such as BE@RBRICK, and who also develop apparel, so there is some overlap between the fashion enthusiasts and those who purchase brand-name goods and the soft vinyl customer base,” Nakamura said.
Otaku politician to lead Japan as its new prime minister
Japan’s newly-elected prime minister Shigeru Ishiba has caught the attention of domestic news media and social media users as an “otaku”, someone obsessive about topics that range from trains to video games and anime.
Why it matters: Japan counts 22 million self-identifying otaku among its population, each one spending an average of ¥44,000 (US$300) a year, according to an annual survey by the Yano Research Institute.
The survey, which allows responses in multiple fandom categories, estimates that Japan has 6.57 million anime otaku and 6.74 million manga otaku.
Catch up quick: Japanese legislators elected Ishiba this week as the country’s new prime minister days after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party voted him to become party leader, replacing former prime minister Fumio Kishida.
What we know: Ishiba is known to be an obsessive fan of trains and plastic model kits and is also well-versed about 1970s female pop idols, says music critic Patrick St. Michel.
While not generally considered an anime otaku, the 67-year-old Ishiba isn’t unfamiliar with classic titles popular with the Japanese public in the 1970s.
He professed in a 2018 interview to have seen the 1978 anime film Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato over a hundred times.
When he last ran for party leadership in 2020, he quoted in his candidacy speech a line from Galaxy Express 999’s 1979 anime film, the Animate Times reported then.
What we’re watching: Whether Ishiba, long considered a maverick in Japanese politics, can bring meaningful plans in the new Cool Japan Strategy.
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extensive research there, I had no idea about Obocchama-kun in India! what!
Are Japanese video game makers really shifting more towards photorealism? Speaking as someone who prefers more stylized looking video games (cartoon, anime, pixel-art, etc.) over photorealism, I don't particularly like the sound of that.