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NEWS: Producer: No Square-Enix Anime Lost Money in 8 Years


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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:35 pm Reply with quote
Zero Gravity wrote:
Thats awesome Mr Taguchi, now make a Kingdom Hearts anime NOW!


Yeaaaah... there's a problem there... it's called Disney, and their various license/property holders.
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2171
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 6:39 pm Reply with quote
The most surprising thing to me was reading that FullMetal Alchemist cost $5.6 million to make and air on tv. For some reason I thought anime was super expensive to make.
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HeeroTX



Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts: 2046
Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 7:03 pm Reply with quote
neocloud9 wrote:
But I think what he said about manga sales in the US rings true. Manga's just more convenient to purchase in Japan...

While I wouldn't be surprised to see that this is true, I think the much stronger factor is the use of public trans (specifically: trains). It's just a guess, but I'd speculate that people have more time (and are more willing) to read on the train and in the station than in cars (since they need to... drive, or most people complain of car-sickness).
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BleuVII



Joined: 19 Sep 2006
Posts: 672
Location: Tokorozawa, Japan
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:20 pm Reply with quote
HeeroTX wrote:
neocloud9 wrote:
But I think what he said about manga sales in the US rings true. Manga's just more convenient to purchase in Japan...

While I wouldn't be surprised to see that this is true, I think the much stronger factor is the use of public trans (specifically: trains). It's just a guess, but I'd speculate that people have more time (and are more willing) to read on the train and in the station than in cars (since they need to... drive, or most people complain of car-sickness).


There's a lot of factors, but I think the biggest one is cost. I live in Japan, and I can go out and buy the latest volume of manga (at least from Jump or Gangan) for 420 Yen (about $4.50) after tax. But a lot of people don't even do that. They go to used book stores and get a volume of manga for 250 Yen (about $2.75). Compare that to the standard $9-$11 in America, spread it out over multiple volumes, and it's easy to see why people are less willing to experiment with manga in the USA.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 9:32 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Taguchi compared the targeting of market audience with fishing in the right spot with the right lure. Specifically, he said it is essential for the company to first search for where the fish are (search for a popular genre), then decide on a lure that these fish would like (decide on the work to adapt), and finally get the fish to bite on the lure (select the anime studio).


Quite sad to hear that. If everyone thought that way we'd never have anime such as Berserk, Evangelion, Monster and many others.
But I can't disagree with it, after all if that's what keeps the industry alive, then I won't complain.
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Saturn



Joined: 08 Aug 2002
Posts: 513
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:07 am Reply with quote
Quote:
he was more positive about moe and fujoshi; he cited the large crowds of Haruhi dancers and the influx of Gothic Lolita fashion at Japan Expo.


I don't think it's especially accurate to equate Gothic Lolita with fujoshi, if that's what he's getting at >_>

But otherwise I have to agree with him: if manga was cheaper and easier to come by in America, it would sell better. That's why, while I appreciate how cute and fancy some titles are, it might actually be a good idea for publishers to print on lower-quality paper and leave out color inserts and whatnot... and then pass the savings on to the reader, rather than keeping costs the same and pocketing the rest Rolling Eyes
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Ktimene's Lover



Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 2242
Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 10:08 am Reply with quote
This is good for anime community considering how bad it is right now. Not all anime has had it as hard as others.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 11:20 am Reply with quote
Though I think his comparison is a bit skewed by the fact that Japan is an island the size of California, with most of its population confined to a small area on it as well, the availability of manga is naturally confined to that area. where in the US and Europe that same area is more dispersed, also of the total amount of manga in Japan only a small portion of that is exportable without finding oneself in trouble with the law somewhere. Wink
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Ktimene's Lover



Joined: 23 Apr 2005
Posts: 2242
Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert)
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk, WikiPedia says Japan has 127,590,000 people while Arizona has 6,500,180 people. That's 19.628687 times the AZ population. You are correct that population has such a confinement.
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Ai no Kareshi



Joined: 13 Mar 2005
Posts: 561
Location: South Africa
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 1:33 am Reply with quote
This is a very interesting article. Thank you for posting it, ANN.
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 3:49 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Taguchi explained that the first reason for this difference is the higher price of overseas manga due to smaller print runs. His second reason is the relative lower amounts of cash that children have.

Other limiting factors, namely publishing delays and reduced overseas selections, ought also be considered. I'd be inclined to assume that reasons such as this have a greater limiting effect upon overseas target audiences than the inability for numerous fans to conveniently frequent a retail outlet, especially in light of the prevalence of internet shopping nowadays.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 4:19 am Reply with quote
Zin5ki wrote:
Quote:
Taguchi explained that the first reason for this difference is the higher price of overseas manga due to smaller print runs. His second reason is the relative lower amounts of cash that children have.

Other limiting factors, namely publishing delays and reduced overseas selections, ought also be considered. I'd be inclined to assume that reasons such as this have a greater limiting effect upon overseas target audiences than the inability for numerous fans to conveniently frequent a retail outlet, especially in light of the prevalence of internet shopping nowadays.
This is clear when one steps into one's local Waterstones and finds, but a shelf dedicated to manga, where in Japan the entire shop would be manga.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:40 am Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
Zin5ki wrote:
Quote:
Taguchi explained that the first reason for this difference is the higher price of overseas manga due to smaller print runs. His second reason is the relative lower amounts of cash that children have.

Other limiting factors, namely publishing delays and reduced overseas selections, ought also be considered. I'd be inclined to assume that reasons such as this have a greater limiting effect upon overseas target audiences than the inability for numerous fans to conveniently frequent a retail outlet, especially in light of the prevalence of internet shopping nowadays.
This is clear when one steps into one's local Waterstones and finds, but a shelf dedicated to manga, where in Japan the entire shop would be manga.


Okay, now you're just being unfair. Your average Japanese book store is only 25% manga. The larger ones are more like 15-20%.

It's true that sales-wise manga sells more than any other single publishing category (and makes up something like 50% of the entire publishing industry), but that doesn't actually mean that book stores are 50% manga. Manga is sold in many places OTHER than book stores, like convenience stores and small news stands, etc, which makes up the difference.

Actually, perhaps that's the key that was missing: Maybe he's not so much talking about there not being a local book store... Maybe he means that manga isn't available in the US at other places like newsstands or convenience stores. Which has more to do with the non-local shopping culture in the US and the dearth of smaller businesses than manga itself.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:34 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Okay, now you're just being unfair. Your average Japanese book store is only 25% manga. The larger ones are more like 15-20%.

It's true that sales-wise manga sells more than any other single publishing category (and makes up something like 50% of the entire publishing industry), but that doesn't actually mean that book stores are 50% manga. Manga is sold in many places OTHER than book stores, like convenience stores and small news stands, etc, which makes up the difference.

Actually, perhaps that's the key that was missing: Maybe he's not so much talking about there not being a local book store... Maybe he means that manga isn't available in the US at other places like newsstands or convenience stores. Which has more to do with the non-local shopping culture in the US and the dearth of smaller businesses than manga itself.
Okay. You're there to know as I'm only going by what has been reported, and by photos of book stores that appear to be wall-to-wall manga. But still you say 25 % of an average book store is manga where in my only book store, out of three in Basingstoke, that sells manga it's more like 2% and that is being generous. You would be hard pressed to find manga in any newsagent, or convienent shop here, and Basingstoke has a very large population of Japanese residents, because a few Japanese electronics companies have their UK HQ's here. London would have Forbidden Planet, and Tokyo Toys, with a few small independant importers, but still they have manga as a section and that would only include just those licensed for the UK, which in total isn't very much in comparison. Nothing I saw, at a local convention last July, was anything I couldn't buy at Amazon.co.uk at cheaper prices.
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