Anime industry responds to UN labor report
Plus: Shoji Kawamori joins AI CG animation project; J-pop music producer sees risk in close ties with anime; Top trending anime titles in 2024; and more
This is the weekly newsletter of Animenomics, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, January 8, 2025. Happy new year!
In case you missed it: Crunchyroll is building a new digital manga platform in place of the one it shuttered in 2023 after being acquired by Sony Pictures.
As originally reported by Animenomics, Kadokawa said last month that Sony will distribute its digital manga titles as part of the companies’ share acquisition deal, but Sony had no digital manga platform after failing to buy Mecha Comic in June.
Anime producers criticized for UN labor report response
Animator advocacy group Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association is pushing back against the Association of Japanese Animations and its response to a United Nations human rights report that warns of poor working conditions in the anime industry.
Why it matters: NAFCA and the AJA’s disagreement about what data to use to best describe animators’ working conditions underlines a need for better labor statistics in the anime industry.
What they’re saying: NAFCA takes issue with the AJA’s overly optimistic assessment of animators’ working hours and income levels, both of which are highlighted as areas of concern in the UN report.
The AJA, citing last year’s NAFCA survey, says animators work 2,623 hours a year (50 hours a week) on average, below the legal maximum of 2,805 working hours a year (54 hours a week).
NAFCA argues the AJA, which represents producers and studios but not labor, must focus on the more alarming median number of 2,745 working hours a year (53 hours a week) to truly address labor concerns.
The other side: The AJA correctly notes that the UN report is using outdated annual starting salaries of animators that are 24 percent less than a ¥1.97 million (US$12,500) figure from a more recent Japan Animation Creators Association survey.
Yes, but: NAFCA countered with its own analysis that this number still comes out to an average hourly wage below the minimum wage in Tokyo, where most anime studios are located.
What we’re watching: Japan’s government echoed a need to “organize and provide in a centralized and user-friendly format” statistics, indicators, and other data on the entertainment industry as part of its New Cool Japan Strategy.
Shoji Kawamori signs on board AI CG animation project
A troubled Chinese former autonomous trucking company pivoted into AI animation and is enlisting anime director Shoji Kawamori and 3D CG anime studio Shirogumi for help in making a film based on Hugo Award-winning novel The Three-Body Problem.
Why it matters: Kawamori, the creator of the Macross anime franchise, previously said he wouldn’t oppose the use of generative AI in his anime works.
“From a cost and speed perspective, I think it’s inevitable that AI is going to be used,” he told Vulture on the sidelines of Anime NYC last August.
Catch up quick: At last year’s Anime Expo, Kawamori confirmed he was working on an animation film to be released in 2025.
The intrigue: The project’s lead producer, CreateAI, is the reincarnation of TuSimple, an autonomous trucking start-up once valued at US$8.5 billion.
TuSimple pivoted to its new business in December after several years of separate legal challenges involving United States regulators and a former co-founder.
It announced the rebranding to CreateAI with the debut of an open-source video-generation AI model that it developed.
What’s next: CreateAI chief executive officer Cheng Lu told the South China Morning Post that the animated film’s first previews will be released by the middle of the year.
Clippings: ‘Macross’ anime library U.S. release delayed
Macross rightsholder Bigwest has yet to release the post-1987 Macross anime library in the United States despite announcing last March that the titles would be available worldwide on Disney+ in 2024. (Anime News Network)
In email communication with Animenomics, a representative of Harmony Gold USA, the Macross licensee that adapted the original anime into Robotech, confirmed that the post-1987 sequels “have been cleared worldwide for release” in accordance with a 2021 agreement with Bigwest.
Harmony Gold’s representative wouldn’t comment on the delays and said, “Any inquiries regarding those sequels should be directed to Big West.”
Crunchyroll, Aniplex, and Sony expect the Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle anime film trilogy starting in 2025 to exceed the overseas box office performance of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, the highest-grossing film of 2020. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Social gaming giant GREE’s anime production and licensing subsidiary will broaden its business model into full-scale IP development that includes video game publishing, music, and merchandising. (Press release)
Japan’s trading cards market is still benefiting from the surge of interest in anime that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. Card shipments reached a record ¥277 billion (US$1.75 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March 2024. (Nikkei Asia)
Japanese cosplayers spend about ¥60,000–¥70,000 (US$380–US$450) on average and up to ¥1 million (US$6,300) per order on the made-to-order costume marketplace Narikiri. (The Yomiuri Shimbun)
Japanese–Indian anime co-production Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama will be screened in India for the first time in more than three decades this month after a delay pushed back the film’s release from last year. (The Hindu)
Music producer sees risk in J-pop’s close ties to anime
“Compared to the global scale of mainstream entertainment such as music and sports, anime is still a niche form of entertainment. Nevertheless, compared to the global market share of Japanese music, the share of Japanese anime is very large, so by riding on that, we can achieve better than usual results.
“However, considering the size of the market that music originally has, the ceiling for anime is very low at the moment. In that situation, I felt a sense of crisis at the thought of competing based on anime and at the image that Japanese music equals anime, and I realized that I needed to be more conscious of the arena in which I was competing.”
— Takuya Chigira, artist management agency Cloud Nine chief executive officer
Context: Chigira, whose talent agency is home to J-pop and anisong mega artist Ado, tells Real Sound that J-pop’s close association with anime puts Japanese music at risk of becoming a niche segment in a broader Asian pop scene dominated by the musical style of K-pop.
What he’s saying: Accompanying Ado on her world tour last year, Chigira feels that Japanese music artists’ stature abroad isn’t as big as people at home might think.
“To put it in an extreme sense, it’s almost like an artist from a rural area visiting a few live houses in the outskirts of Tokyo with a capacity of around 50 people and saying, ‘We’ve expanded to Tokyo!’” he explained.
The bigger picture: Ado will hold a 34-stop second world tour starting in the spring, demonstrating of J-pop’s new global reach enabled by anime.
1 chart to go: ‘Dan Da Dan’ 2024’s most-searched anime
Mashle: Magic and Muscles’s second anime season in 2024 began with modest public interest but became one of the year’s most-searched titles, according to a new report by entertainment data analytics company SevenDayDreamers.
Why it matters: Changes in anime titles’ search volume between the start and end of broadcast offer a lesson in PR strategy, says Keisuke Yutsudo, the report’s author.
By the numbers: Mashle’s sequel ranked 20th in relative search volume among anime aired last year when broadcast began in January, but it rose to second place by March.
Yutsudo attributes Mashle’s rise to the explosion in popularity of its theme song, Creepy Nuts’ “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born”, from social media promotions.
In contrast, My Deer Friend Nokotan’s early social media campaigns made it the most-searched non-sequel anime of 2024, but interest declined sharply by the end of the broadcast.
Yes, but: Quality of the work also plays a role. “A combination of high quality content and well-timed promotion can lead to success that exceeds expectations,” Yutsudo writes in the report.
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I just want to add that Kawamori-san DOES NOT AGE! How does that happen?! LOL!
Richardson! Thanks for another excellent column. Did you read my Answerman piece on MACROSS? Big West also responded to my enquiries, but I didn’t really get a definitive answer on when it will be available on Disney+ in the USA. 🤷♂️
It is worth noting that only 20 territories currently have MACROSS on their Disney+ avails. I wonder what the hold up is?
Is Three Body Problem becoming China’s new “Monkey King”? The books have been adapted up the wazoo. There’s bountiful, appallingly animated adaptations available on TenCent, mediocre live action movies and a really shit Netflix series from the creators of Game of Thrones. It seems that every quarter there’s some adaptation being announced. It’s a yawn fest. 🥱
I think the Jpop producer has a point. Hitching Japanese Pop and rock artists fortunes to anime and the global fandom is likely a good place to start, but it shouldn’t be the only promotional tool in an artist’s arsenal. Anime fans are not high value enough to sustain a large scale touring artist.
I had a VTuber agency complain to me that anime fans simply don’t bring in enough income for their live concert business and they were hoping to expand their offering into classic rock IP in the same way the team behind ANNA Voyage have done.
I always thought anime fandom was a very decent average annual spend consumers when compared to general entertainment consumers, but that may not be satisfactory enough for those investing in premium entertainment experiences.