Forum - View topicANNCast - The Life and Kime of Geneon, USA
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CareyGrant
Posts: 453 |
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Merchandising: The Fatted Calf of any IP.
Here in the US, the first true cartoon success, in my opinion, to really crack this merchandising code was He-Man (and others quickly copied the formula). He Man was a near bald-faced 22 min commercial, barely disguised as entertainment, whose primary goal was to sell toys/junk (everything else was just gravy on top, compared to that fat pile of cash). Not unlike the multitude of anime aimed at kids which are little more than animated tutorials on how to play (only after buying) the anime's related card game or what have you. And now, most everything has a tie-in... with fast food chains, cereals, video games, card games, clothing, toys, music, direct-to-video, etc. etc. RE: Fanservice anime... Fan service not make money? Are they kidding? When has sexuality failed to deliver the money or audience unless it was REALLY trying hard to suck? For example, take Baywatch (I can barely say the word without gagging on bile). Baywatch wasn't the 1# show on the planet because it was well-written with great acting. Pamela Anderson (to single one bimbo out of the many on the show) made David Hasselhoff OBSCENELY wealthy (amongst other people) to the tune of SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS (I think 500 mill. is what he took home, if I remember right, based on franchise and broadcast rights around the globe). Take a moment to think about that for a second... $500,000,000. As in half a Billion dollars. That's two and 1/2 years of salary for the entire New York Yankee ball club, the HIGHEST paid sports team on the planet (at a little over 200 mil. a year). For the record I love baseball, but hate the Yankees. Or look at all the Twilight/New Moon nonsense: primarily androgynous pretty boys and half-clothed beef cake smeared with tween angst/dysfunction and smothered in sexuality (laughing all the way to the bank). Sexuality has become the substitution for quality or originality, and will always be present to one degree or another as it's a formula that rarely fails. It keeps men and women tuned in and coming back for more. Sexuality is the MSG of modern entertainment, perfectly suited to short attention spans and low expectations. But this isn't anything new, even the great works of Shakespeare are both bawdy and brilliant, written to broaden their appeal to a wider audience during his time. But the danger is you risk losing it all by focusing so tightly to a niche that cares only for sexuality/fan service. Fans looking for quality and original entertainment will look elsewhere for it if all you give them is the same low-brow, pandering fluff, over and over again. Now don't get me wrong, I loves me some fine lookin' ladies, but I didn't get back into anime again (after Star Blazers and Voltron as a kid) so many years later because of fan service. |
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Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
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How *does* merch fit into the equation? Assuming Viz or Funimation designs their own T-shirts, are they allowed all the profits, or does some of that money have to go back to the Japanese companies? Do manga publishers (such as Tokyopop) ever see any of that revenue?
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Merch is usually licensed from the "master licensor" which is occasionally Viz or Funi, but usually their licenses don't come with those rights. More often it's the Japanese rights holder. After that, I have no idea how the royalties get distributed, but the US manga publisher is seldom involved.
I agree merch is important for bigger properties, but I think it'd be a huge waste for a good amount of shows here. (lol, Rumiko Takahashi Anthology T-shirts) |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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 It's hard to try to swim up that fast running stream of ideas with the kind of titles Geneon were offering, but isn't it interesting that Ikki Tousen "made money"? Why? Because the "perverts" have money to spend. Now I quoted that term as I don't think of adults, who want to watch such things, as that. It does nothing for me, but to each their own. Mr. Kime should have heard the penny drop when he saw that and changed his marketing target accordingly. Still it doesn't help to be bidding for the wrong properties in the first place. 
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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You're confusing correlation with causality. Consider that it could easily be the reverse of what you're implying: the shows received so much merchandising because they were so popular. |
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