What should Miyazaki's latest film be called?
Plus: Crunchyroll targets Indian market for expansion; 'Slam Dunk' sake finds new fans overseas; Anime and manga brands lead the entertainment scene; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, July 19, 2023.
In case you missed it: As Hollywood’s actor and writer unions strike, anime dubs by American voice actors remain excluded from the work stoppage. Anime News Network published a feature story on union anime dubs in the U.S. last year.
Latest Miyazaki film renews debate on title translations
Director Hayao Miyazaki’s latest anime project after coming out of retirement opened in theaters in Japan on Friday after more than seven years in production. Fans overseas eagerly await the film’s release in their countries, but there is a debate on what to call it.
Driving the story: As the film opened in Japan, New York-based film distributor GKIDS revealed that its international title will not be the literal translation How Do You Live?, but instead The Boy and the Heron.
Catch up quick: Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki surprised Japanese media last month when he declared that the no marketing or advertisements would be done before the film’s release.
Miyazaki himself was reportedly nervous at first at Suzuki’s plan but decided to trust his longtime business partner.
The film’s Japanese title borrows from a 1937 Genzaburo Yoshino novel, translated into English in Australia and North America as How Do You Live?.
Many foreign media outlets—this publication included—initially reported on the film using the same English title for convenience’s sake.
How it played out: The absence of promotional content didn’t dampen audience enthusiasm in Japan as many movie theaters saw lines on the release day.
By the numbers: Over the July 14–17 holiday weekend, The Boy and the Heron earned more than ¥2.1 billion (US$15 million) and sold more than 1.3 million tickets, according to box office sales data provider Kogyo Tsushinsha.
Box office sales have so far outpaced Miyazaki’s previous film The Wind Rises by 50 percent.
GKIDS denies any connections between the stories of The Boy and the Heron and Yoshino’s novel, the company told Variety.
Reviews describe the film with a fantasy setting, whereas the novel is a young adult fiction set in the real world, so the title change was likely made to avoid confusion among unacquainted English-language audiences.
Twitter responses to the GKIDS license announcement questioned the need for a title change, but anime industry veterans point out that the majority of Studio Ghibli films don’t have the same Japanese and English titles.
Bottom line: News about anime travel more quickly today than 10 years ago, the last time a Miyazaki film was released, and widespread use of social media creates the risk of an anime’s unofficial English title quickly taking root before an official one can be determined.
Crunchyroll takes aim at Indian market for expansion
Sony is increasing Crunchyroll’s footprint in India, positioning anime fans in the country as a linchpin in the streaming platform’s quest for subscriber growth, Bloomberg reports.
Why it matters: India, whose entertainment market is expected to grow annually by 10 percent to US$60 billion by 2030, is a battleground for streaming platforms, especially as China remains closed to them.
Sony Pictures, which owns Crunchyroll, is expected to close an acquisition of Indian media conglomerate Zee Entertainment Enterprises later this year.
What’s happening: Crunchyroll is investing in a flywheel strategy, licensing more content for distribution in India and localizing them into dubs in Hindi and other languages.
The platform significantly reduced subscription prices in India last year, with subscribers of its most popular subscription tier paying one-eighth the price paid by a U.S. subscriber.
Bollywood actors Tiger Shroff and Rashmika Mandanna were also recently announced as the platform’s brand ambassadors in the country.
What we’re watching: Unauthorized anime streaming platforms in India present a challenge for Crunchyroll, itself a former pirated-video website.
Early in its history, Crunchyroll drew criticism for a business model that relied on copyright infringement to obtain financing.
What they said: At the 2012 Tokyo International Anime Fair, it claimed that simultaneous broadcasts of Naruto on the platform at the same time as Japan resulted in a 70 percent reduction in illegal downloads of the show.
“If we do our job right, we can convince fans to switch over to an official site,” President Rahul Purini told Bloomberg.
Clippings: ‘Slam Dunk’ brews a sake following overseas
Chinese and South Korean fans of Slam Dunk are buying up sake bottles from a brewery in western Japan that shares the same kanji name with a character from the basketball anime and manga. (NHK World News)
Half of anime figurine sales at maker Tamashii Nations now comes from foreign markets. The Bandai affiliate opened its first overseas store in Shanghai in January and will open another in New York City’s Times Square this summer. (Nikkei Asia)
Dentsu’s new anime licensing venture is specifically targeting Generation Z audiences as the advertising agency seeks to use anime to help its clients with promotional campaigns. (Digiday)
DC Comics launched a manga reader feature in its DC Universe Infinite digital comics platform as the American comic book publisher releases new manga titles with DC characters. (ICv2)
American publishers move toward manga authenticity
“American readers of manga, they know all this stuff, and they love the fact that they know this stuff and other people don’t.”
— Frederik L. Schodt, writer who translated some of the first manga in the United States
Context: In a new interactive feature by The New York Times that showcases the evolution of manga translation by publishers in the United States, Schodt points to the main reason why American translations of manga preserve the Japanese reading order (right-to-left, top-to-bottom) and the usage of honorifics – because readers demanded it.
In a push toward more authenticity, some publishers are now preserving the Japanese name order (family name first) when printing artist names.
Yes, but: The Times misses one big reason how early manga fans got used to the Japanese reading format in the first place – a proliferation of unauthorized manga scans translated into English, or “scanlations”, in the early 2000s.
Anime, manga brands lead Japanese entertainment
Anime, manga, and video game brands are dominating the entertainment scene in Japan, according to a new consumer survey by marketing research firm GEM Partners published in the August 2023 issue of Nikkei Entertainment! magazine.
Driving the story: A ranking of the top 25 entertainment properties by brand strength for the month of May found nearly half of the positions are occupied by anime, manga, and video game brands.
Demon Slayer and Oshi no Ko took first and second place overall in the list, with properties like One Piece, Spy × Family, Pokémon, and Jujutsu Kaisen placing in the top 25.
By the numbers: The survey estimates that Demon Slayer has at least 2.7 million “core fans” who spend an average ¥1,150 per person per month on its content.
Oshi no Ko was the biggest gainer in the rankings, adding 1.1 million “core fans” between April and May for a total of more than 1.5 million.
The share of females among Oshi no Ko fans rose 14 points, confirming data previously reported by Animenomics that showed the recent anime broadcast was drawing female viewers.
Methodology: The “core fans” figure is extrapolated from the number of people who like, love, or endorse each brand among the more than 10,000 respondents of GEM Partners’ survey, weighted according to Japan’s demographic composition.
Thanks for reading this week’s newsletter. Sharing this newsletter helps others learn more about the anime and manga industries. You can also find us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Man, such a cool post. Love your stuff as always, no one does it quite like you!