Western Japanese Anime

Batman: Gotham Knight

Something interesting is going on with anime.

There has been a trend slowly cropping up in the anime industry where american properties are being turned into anime. It started back in 2002 with the release of The Animatrix, a compilation of 9 short films taking place in the Matrix universe, each done different by a different Japanese director and animation studio. Since then, there have been many similar projects done, such as Batman: Gotham Knight, Dante's Inferno, and Halo Legends. Out of these four, I was most surprised by Microsoft when they announced their plans for Halo anime shorts.  Additionally, seasons 2 and 3 of The Boondocks featured segments animated by acclaimed Japanese animation studio Madhouse. 

X-Men

More recently, American companies have turned to Japan to make anime versions of some famous properties. Marvel is working with Madhouse to bring us anime based on X-Men, Blade, Wolverine, and Iron Man. The latter two premiere this Friday on G4. More and more american properties are being made into anime at the behest of their American owners. There has been quite a lot of interest following these anime adaptions of these traditionally American series, and they've been getting a lot of support from the anime community.  However the Marvel anime are not, in my opinion, the most interesting development in regards to western properties being turned into anime.

Supernatural: The Animation

Supernatural is a live-action television show on The CW (formerly The WB) that has just been renewed for it's seventh season. It follows the adventures of Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers who spend their days fighting against the supernatural.  In June 2010, the Japanese Warner Brother's website announced the Supernatural the Animation project. The English release will feature Jared Padalecki, the actor for Sam Winchester in the original series, as the voice actor for his character for the animated series. 

This was the first time that an American, live-action television series was turned into an anime. I was personally ecstatic when I heard the news that Supernatural was getting an anime, partially because I am a fan of the series, but also be cause of what it means for other American properties. American properties, obviously, have a much bigger following in America than anime does. If anime can attach itself to American properties by making anime adaptions of them, it will have a much wider audience to sell to, which means more money for the anime industry. 

Plus I would not complain if there were to be an anime adaption of Harry Potter.

In the Name of the Moon, I will Re-License You!?

Things have been astir in the anime and manga world lately regarding an old classic: Sailor Moon. Last March, Kodansha USA announced that it would be releasing the original Sailor Moon manga in North America, and now, earlier this week, Great Eastern Entertainment (the merchandising company which handles almost all licensed anime merchandise in North America) has announced several pieces of Sailor Moon merchandise.

The merchandising company Great Eastern Entertainment lists four Sailor Moon products on its website as "coming soon" — a set of playing cards, a wall scroll, a notebook, and a binder [...]. The new products have a Toei Animation logo printed on them but also have "No Price Yet." Great Eastern Entertainment has produced Sailor Moon merchandise in the past.

Original Article at Anime News Network 

These new developments with the old series are big news. In North America, Sailor Moon held a similar standing as Dragon Ball Z, but for girls (and most boys, but they won't admit that). The English adaption, however, was altered and much of the dialog was changed, in order to make it appropriate for younger audiences, and the final two seasons were never licensed for release. Fans have been begging for a re-release of Sailor Moon for ages, and its looking like that wish is finally starting to come true. There has been an "international revival" of the series happening globally, with the licenses being renewed in countries outside of Japan. However, as of yet, there has been no mention of the series being licensed in North America, but at this stage it seems only a matter of time.

Sailor Moon is such a big deal in the anime world, that whichever company gets the rights to release it in North America will be making lots of money. Several years ago, before the dissolution of ADV Films, David Williams (now working for Sentai Filmworks) once commented on how much he wished that Toei would let them license and re-dub Sailor Moon. Just this last April, at Anime Boston, Justin Rojas, the Social Media Manager at Funimation, said that the show is something that Funimation is definitely interested in.

It will be interesting to see who manages to acquire Sailor Moon, though I personally have my money on Funimation.

Fukunaga, Ledford, and Greenfield

I've decided to take a break from the depressing topic of piracy this week and talk about something else. Since I'm working on obtaining my Entertainment Business Masters currently, why not talk a little bit about the origins of two of the most well known companies in the anime industry?

One of the most successful anime franchises in the United States is, without a doubt, Dragon Ball Z. Brought to the United States back in 1996, even today it remains one of Funimation's best selling series. The man who brought it to America was Gen Fukunaga, the President of Funimation Entertainment.

Gen Fukunaga was born in Japan, and grew up in West Lafayette, Indiana. Fukunaga spent his entire 8th grade year in Japan, where he became enamored with the Japanese style of animation. Years later, he would remember the cartoons he saw in Japan and would form a company with the sole purpose of bringing those shows to the United States.

Fukunaga's uncle was one of the producers for the hit series Dragon Ball, in Japan, and approached Gen about bringing the series over to America. Gen had been intent on starting his own company in order to bring Japanese animation to the United States, and Dragon Ball seemed to be a great starting point. Having drafted up his business plan for the company that would become Funimation, Gen began to meet with investors.

There was one particular investment group that was interested in Gen's business plan. Several years earlier, that had invested in another company bringing Japanese content over to the United States. That company, Nintendo, had done phenomenally well, so they were very interested in things coming over from Japan.

Fukunaga had all sorts of data about anime, which he laid out for the investors. However, they weren't all that interested until he mentioned one fact. Dragon Ball was the "#1 video game in Japan, and other territories." Once they heard that, they were hooked. They were convinced that regardless of whether or not the show succeeded or failed in the US, their investment would be saved by the video game.

They were, of course, in correct about that. While the video games have done will in the United States, their success pales in comparison to the success of the anime.  However, when you are trying to get investors, you have to get their attention, and Gen succeeded in doing that. While not an integral part of his plan, the video game was able to hook his investors enough to get the funding for what he really wanted to do: which was the anime. In order to get investors, you need to have some tidbit that really catches their interest, even if it's not your main focus. As long as you get their interest, it doesn't matter how.

Matt Greenfield

John Ledford

Funimation isn't the only important company in the history of anime. ADV, while no longer in existance, was once the leader in the North American Anime market. The company was started by John Ledford and Matthew Greenfield, with their release of Devil Hunter Yohko.

Ledford and Greenfield started the company by themselves, doing the majority of the work in David Williams living room. Initially they only gave the shows subtitles, but several years later began dubbing the shows into English.

The first show they licensed was Devil Hunter Yohko, which they licensed from the Japanese distribution company Toho for $100,000. Toho reluctantly licensed them the show, unsure whether or not they would be able to handle it. Ledford and Greenfield made their money back within three months.

While not initially looking for investors, Ledford and Greenfield needed to convince Toho to license them the show. Although Toho was skeptical about whether or not ADV could handle the distribution, nevertheless they did end up licensing them the show. Once they had succeed with the license, it was much easier for them to get additional licenses in funding, eventually culminating with a partnership with the Japanese investment firm Sojitz.

This just goes to show that the best weapon entrepreneurs have when trying to convince investors is success. If your business plan has proven sales, especially if they are as promising as ADV's were with their first license, that is something that investors want in on. The are almost guaranteed to make back their money, and more, which is what investors are looking for. Success is what investors want, so that's what you want to give them.


Sources: Interview with Funimation's Gen Fukunaga, Why Grow Up? - Forbes.com, ADV Teams up with Sojitz

Second PodKAAst and Beta.Funimation.com!

The second episode of the PodKAAst is finally up! We discuss Anime Boston, TokoyPop, Sony, and allude to guests for future episodes. We've also got a super secret special announcement waiting after the ending music of the PodKAAst!



During the PodKAAst we mention Funimation's new site, which is currently in Beta and you can check it out at beta.funimation.com!

As is quite fitting for the leading anime distributer in the United States, Funimation is also the leader in social media platforms. During Anime Boston, their Social Media Manager, Justin Rojas, stated that they have over 200,000 likes on their Facebook page (rivaling Capcom), and over 20,000 followers on Twitter. This is far beyond what any other US anime company has, so they are pretty good at it. It's only fitting that their new site, Beta.Funimation.com, has been heavily influenced by social media.

Beta.Funimation.com has been the pet project of Adam Sheehan, one of Funimation's Marketing Managers. He said that Funimation's new website isn't trying to be the Facebook of anime, however that is clearly what it is. Don't worry though, Funimation, we like that. We like that a lot.

In addition to having all of the things we're accustomed too with the old Funimation site, like show info, free streaming anime, the Funimation Update Blog, etc, there are many new and cool things available with beta. There are now forums, convention info and reports, cosplay photos, cool new videos, and users can even have their own blogs. On top of all that, the site design just looks really cool and clean.

So go and check out Funimation's new website, currently at Beta.Funimation.com until they move it over to the real site once all the bugs have been worked out!

Don't forget to check out the PodKAAst and look for the special announcement as well!

Don't Blame Sony

By now it's common knowledge that Sony has been hacked and that massive amounts of personal data was stolen. Now, while not directly related to anime piracy, it was very interesting to observe people reaction in wake of the theft. So many people are very angry that Sony allowed this to happen, and are less concerned with the hacker group that did the actual stealing.

As a programmer myself, I know how hard it is to make something hack proof. It is nearly impossible to account for every way your programs might be cracked, and some new way might crop up the next day because of some development in technology. Sony doesn't just sit around and let people break in. That's not very good for business, as recent events have shown us. I don't doubt that they make every effort to try and keep their network secure, as evidenced by their move against George Hotz in January. Sony operated the PSN for almost five years without this problem, so it's not as if the way to break in was obvious to anyone. If someone has the skill and is determined to hack your network, it is going to happen sooner or later. Because of this, I find it very hard to be angry with Sony, even though my own account on the PlayStation Network has probably been compromised.

The real ones at fault here are the hackers. Regardless of who they are, they are the ones who purposefully broke into the network and stole the information. They are the ones that stole the personal information, not Sony.

As I thought about this, I found the parallels between this and when the Fractale Production Committee ordered the halt of the Fractale simulcast earlier this year. It was stopped in response to the massive amount of illegal copies of the show that were available for free on the internet. Since the revenue for Fractale comes from the legal viewings of the show, the Fractale Production Committee decided to halt the simulcast until the amount of piracy was cut down on. Immediately, fans of the show were very vocal and very angry at the Fractale Production Committee for this decision. No one was angry at the people pirating it, or the people making it available online for free.

It is really unfortunate that this has been the way people have reacted to this sort of thing. I suppose it's because people find it easier to blame companies rather than an unknown group of people spread out across the internet. I don't blame the Fractale Production Committee, and I certainly don't blame Sony. They are doing their best to correct the problem, and people aren't helping very much by laying all the blame on them.

Hopefully people will wise up and place the blame on the people who are really responsible.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1380050/Sony-admits-Weve-hacked-PlayStation-Network-outage.html

Tokyopop Ends North American Distribution

You know those days where you wake up, eat some breakfast, and then log on to the internet and low and behold, it seems that the world ended while you were sleeping and blissfully unaware?

That's what it felt like Friday when I heard that Tokyopop had announced that it was closing it's North American publishing division. I've been buying from Tokyopop since I first bought Marmalade Boy way back in 2005, so hearing that Tokyopop was shutting down it's North American division was quite disheartening.

Tokyopop was one of the leading manga distributors in the United States, along with Viz Media and DelRey. They were the first to pioneer publishing manga in it's original right to left reading format, instead of flipping it to be read left to right. With the trouble that manga industry has been facing due to illegal scans of manga being freely and easily available on the internet.

Tokyopop also cited Borders' recent filing for bankruptcy as one of the reasons for them closing. People are spending less and less time in physical bookstores, and I have personally noticed that the bookstores I frequent don't keep their manga stock very current.

What's even more discouraging is that last December Tokyopop opened up a print on demand store for some of their older titles. I was very excited about this, and was hoping that it would be a change to help the manga industry increase it's sales, since it would provide them with an additional revenue stream without the risk of not being able to sell all the stock they've purchased. Unfortunately, the print on demand store, along with the rest of their publishing, is not closed.

I'm hoping another company, like Viz, which has some of the most popular manga series like Naruto and Bleach, will make a move to do a print on demand model with some of their titles. While the popular ones will always sell in stores, it will hopefully be more economically safe for them to sell the more niche or older manga as print on demand purchases.

Here's hoping things start to look up, and as always, don't be a parasite.

Source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-04-15/tokyopop-to-close-north-american-publishing-division

PodKAAst

Finally put up the first episode of the PodKAAst, where myself and other people involved with KeepAnimeAlive.com talk about the anime industry and what we are up to at KeepAnimeAlive.com.