×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
INTEREST: Ghibli Co-Founder Toshio Suzuki Discusses Why Studio Did Not Seek Growth


Goto page Previous  1, 2

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
ChrissyC



Joined: 17 Jun 2015
Posts: 542
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 12:36 pm Reply with quote
While I like that they can control everything going on in their Studio and want their products to be exclusive/valuable, I still don't think it's a good mindset, it's a backward way of thinking. Ghibli will die off after Miyazaki and Suzuki pass away or be a fragment of what it once was, but maybe that's what they want to do, something that lived with them.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kai99



Joined: 18 Aug 2015
Posts: 89
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 12:58 pm Reply with quote
That was a bad move on their part. As uncreative as merchandising can be, this allows for more investment in your animators and movies. Having your eggs(income) coming from more than one basket, helps to keep studios like this alive. What happens when the 40 million dollar movie you made fails at the box office? To only rely on ticket sales is leaving your company open to bankruptcy. Disney would not be where it at now if they relied only on money made from their animated properties. They were hardly making any money back in their first decade open. The merchandise and parks help to cement their growth to being able to expand to do more and more, from animated movies to tv shows, to buying Stars Wars and Marvel properties.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 2:39 pm Reply with quote
While I can agree why 'must' there be growth, on the flipside what if you don't put enough money away and become so uncompromising your studio dissolves just by losing two staff members?

The 1950s through 70s were a huge time to learn that feature films aren't that profitable. Even Disney masterpieces took decades to pay themselves back.

While I don't want Ghibli to be a Disney-like monolith, the studio got caught up trying "not" to be like the rest of anime these characters and movies they put so much effort into will have less impact.

This to me just sounds like "I don't understand business, so I will hope we stay lucky after all the big names that keep us afloat are gone."

In a technical sense if your currency is deflating, the same money year over year gets more powerful." If you have a Central Bank demanding and trying to create a certain set amount of inflation if you don't grow equal to that your money is worth less and less year over year.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 2:41 pm Reply with quote
Ghibli is not an "entertainment company" like Disney is. Ghibli was founded as an independent animation studio that could provide for their animators a higher degree of artistic freedom than other studios in the industry were providing. In other words, Ghibli was founded because Miyazaki and Takahata wanted to make movies with the highest degree of freedom possible.

Of course, growth is irrelevant to them: revenues need to only be enough so they can maintain themselves making the movies they want to make.

ANN wrote:
Suzuki revealed that he is often asked why Ghibli films aren't distributed on Netflix and other streaming sites. "I don't want to do it because the films would be treated as cheap commodities," he said.


Now I disagree with this naive-anti commercialism. Ghibli should try to distribute their movies in all possible channels to reach the widest public. Their movies have universal appeal and are masterpieces, some of the greatest pieces of film ever made, they are movies everybody should be able to watch.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
Steve Minecraft



Joined: 13 Feb 2019
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 2:55 pm Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
Now I disagree with this naive-anti commercialism. Ghibli should try to distribute their movies in all possible channels to reach the widest public. Their movies have universal appeal and are masterpieces, some of the greatest pieces of film ever made, they are movies everybody should be able to watch.


I don't see that as anti-commercialism so much as it is anti-streaming. They put out lavish collectors editions of their films, so they're certainly not against commercialism in that regard, just the anti-merchandising front.

They probably dislike the idea of streaming due to its disposable, assembly line nature that streaming is. Put a film in your queue, lazily watch it in bed, then move on, with no real investment being put into experiencing the work like an extravagant home video release with lots of art books, interviews, and other documentation included in them. They want their work to be respected, and something people will invest themselves in, and not just be someone's 1:AM insomnia Netflix sleep-aid.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Kai99



Joined: 18 Aug 2015
Posts: 89
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 4:10 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Ghibli is not an "entertainment company" like Disney is.


Yes it is.

Quote:
Ghibli was founded as an independent animation studio that could provide for their animators a higher degree of artistic freedom than other studios in the industry were providing. In other words, Ghibli was founded because Miyazaki and Takahata wanted to make movies with the highest degree of freedom possible.


And how do you think Disney started? They really aren't that different. Disney just discovered the wonders of merchandising and continue to expand to different mediums.

Quote:
Of course, growth is irrelevant to them: revenues need to only be enough so they can maintain themselves making the movies they want to make.


Studio Ghibli made quality films and were lucky enough to capture the love of the Japanese market. You need revenue to make animated films. These are costly to make and you will be millions of dollars in debt if your film fails it at the box office. They were able to make enough money in their films to get by, BUT have two or three failures and your business is dead and your in the red and that means no more movies. This is why Ghibli is now jumping on the theme park/merchandise ship that they should have done at its peak. They would have been much farther ahead financially but better late than never. I now see Ghibli merchandise nearly everywhere I go.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
StarfighterPegasus



Joined: 04 Oct 2013
Posts: 149
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:04 pm Reply with quote
Steve Minecraft wrote:
Jose Cruz wrote:
Now I disagree with this naive-anti commercialism. Ghibli should try to distribute their movies in all possible channels to reach the widest public. Their movies have universal appeal and are masterpieces, some of the greatest pieces of film ever made, they are movies everybody should be able to watch.


I don't see that as anti-commercialism so much as it is anti-streaming. They put out lavish collectors editions of their films, so they're certainly not against commercialism in that regard, just the anti-merchandising front.

They probably dislike the idea of streaming due to its disposable, assembly line nature that streaming is. Put a film in your queue, lazily watch it in bed, then move on, with no real investment being put into experiencing the work like an extravagant home video release with lots of art books, interviews, and other documentation included in them. They want their work to be respected, and something people will invest themselves in, and not just be someone's 1:AM insomnia Netflix sleep-aid.
I would rather make a profit and make sure I have a roof over my head than, worry about art. People are in a business to make money first and for most everything else comes second to that. I know it sounds cold but business is business, if I am going to make a profit and think it is a wise investment I would invest in streaming. People who believe passion over profit don't last long in the business world.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
jdnation



Joined: 15 May 2007
Posts: 1993
PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 10:48 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
ranran-001 wrote:
jdnation wrote:
But if you're publicly traded and have investors to answer to, then legally, you are obligated to maximize the returns on their investments.


Is this actually a legal obligation? Or is that a myth?


It is a myth. There is no legal obligation for a publicly traded company to have profit growth year over year. This myth was talked about on NPR Marketplace about four years ago. The legal precedent mentioned on the radio show, was a lawsuit involving a company and shareholders, and the judge decided in favor of the company citing there were no legal requirements to maximize profits/ROI.

At most, it's one of those "rules" that every company on wall street abides by, but its not a legal requirement.


Technically, yes. I should not have generally said 'maximize' but rather that there is a legal obligation to handle investments responsibly, which does arguably include getting the highest reasonable value for them when you can, though of course there is no obvious numerical figure could ever reasonably cited as its hypothetical, and as in the example above, shareholders can argue that a company is not using their investments responsibly to give them some hypothetical maximum over certain decisions to do or not do something. Likewise, a company can make a case to their shareholders that chasing some hypothetical deal was not in their best long term interests and thus was acting responsibly by being conservative in their actions. It would be hard to prove in a court of law that a company is doing otherwise, but there are laws to govern this, and as in the case above, shareholders do try to argue this case, but must do so on grounds of dishonesty and lack of transparency about how their investments are being used rather than the grounds that the profit was not the maximum amount.

So there is an important distinction there. For example, you can't argue that Ghibli isn't just maximizing your investment (there's no actual way to determine that or even cite what the maximum should've been). But you can make a case that Ghibli or someone with fiduciary duty refused to make certain decisions due to some personal internal politics or personal gain that were irresponsible, that were not made apparent, and that this irresponsibility cost you or lost you money or lost some opportunities to make money.

Essentially you can argue the same case in a roundabout way if you can prove irresponsibility on the part of the company that did things contrary to the interests of the shareholders, and usually by covering it up or dishonesty.

Nonetheless, even without the need for involving the courts or a legal battle, if investors feel a company is not doing enough, they'll simply pull out and sell, and this can have an effect on the company's worth.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
kgw



Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 1048
Location: Spain, EU
PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:50 am Reply with quote
Besides, it's not as if Ghibli just get their money from theatrical releases and starve the years between. Let's remember their work with Level E and Ni no Kuni and the TV series of Ronja.

Ghibli doesn't want to overgrow and lose control over their propierties. If that's good enough for them, that's good for me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Mito son



Joined: 15 Apr 2019
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2019 5:05 am Reply with quote
It is like most of their movies that end with an opening for more to follow but they don't because why ruin each persons perception of what could come.
Waterford crystal only make limited items so they can be treasured for ever, like someone said why milk it dry and worn-out.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page Previous  1, 2
Page 2 of 2

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group