'Unless something is done, Japanese anime will be...'

[demoneyeskyo]

`Unless something is done, Japanese anime will be ruined.' KOICHI MURATA President of animation company Oh Production

For all the fat profits that Japanese animation generates from merchandise these days, the wallets of the animators who piece the cartoons together are as thin as the cels they painstakingly paint.

To take one example, the worldwide market for the video games and merchandise related to the late-1990s cartoon series Pokemon is worth some 3 trillion yen.

Yet an animator, toiling away on cels in a tiny Tokyo studio, might be fortunate to pull in just 50,000 yen a month.

http://www.asahi.com/english/arts/TKY200406020134.html

[omae mona]

OK, isn't it about time that we just face it and write some software that automatically reads the slashdot RSS feed, and copies to FG any articles containing the word "Japan", "anime", the name of any Japanese electronics or game companies, or the word "pervert"?

[emperor]

If there really is a problem, I think one of causes is lack of advertising in western countries.

Ive met a surprising number of people in Europe and the US who arent familiar with names like Ghibli or Miyazaki, in some cases there only impression of japanese animation is pokemon and tenticle porn..


I cant wait for "Howls Moving Castle" to come out in Autumn!
I was lucky enough to get a tour around the studios near Kichijoji last week and got to see the animators churning out the beautiful artwork.
The size and number of staff there is surprising small... but seems like a lovely place to workl - very chilled out

[Mulboyne]

Many of the 70 or so subcontractors clustered in Tokyo's Suginami Ward are in a bind. Even as the cost of rent and paying animators rises, there has been no corresponding rise in production budgets."

If life is that bad, how are salaries rising? Also, why are rents rising? Most companies I know in Tokyo are still getting cheaper deals or better locations.

There is no doubt that Korea and China can manufacture cheaply but that shouldn't be a problem for an industry with a larger global profile than at any time in its history. Japan still has most of the best ideas in animation.

I wonder if monks specializing in illuminated manuscripts feared for the future of books when Caxton introduced his printing press.

[Mulboyne]

I thought I'd seen a similar story here before.

Actually, I've been listening to "end of manga" and "end of anime" stories for years now. I keep suggesting that the real story is "end of way we do things now" like just about every other industry in the world but change is rarely easily embraced.

Then again, it is very painful to lose your job and watch the world pass you by. As most US manufacturing workers will attest, having had to put up with assaults from low-cost Japan years before Japan had to deal with China and Korea.

[Mulboyne]

Michael Eisner speaking

Eisner Wants To Reopen Talks with Pixar
Disney CEO Michael Eisner intimated Wednesday that he would like to reopen negotiations with Pixar Animation Studios to bring the company back in its fold. "I will not believe it is over until it is over," he told a Sanford Bernstein & Co. investor's conference. He suggested, however, that the ball was in Pixar's court. "I have always felt from day one that it is in Pixar's best interests to continue with the Disney company," he said. "We can only make half the deal. I am just an eternal optimist." Eisner showed no such optimism about hand-drawn animation, however. "The 2-D [hand-drawn] business is coming to an end, just like black and white came to an end," he said.

Just like Michael Eisner is coming to an end

[Mulboyne]

I guess I'm replying to myself but...

Ex-Disney Artist Outraged Over Eisner's Remarks About Animation

A veteran Disney animator....has posted a blistering message on the anti-Michael Eisner website savedisney.com, lambasting Eisner for his recent comment that the day of hand-drawn ("2-D") animation has come "to an end, just like black and white came to an end."
Dave Pruiksma, commented: "What makes Michael Eisner think he is even qualified to make a judgment against classical animation? After all, he made a similar judgment in 1985, when he first came to the studio. He was ready, even then, to throw in the towel on feature animation and, if anyone had listened to him at that time, there would have been no Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or Aladdin or perhaps even Pixar!"

[Mulboyne]

More for the Eisner file from the L.A. Times

An internal study concluded last year that Disney's ABC Family Channel was worth about $2 billion less than the $5.3 billion that Michael Eisner agreed to buy it for in 2001, the Los Angeles Times disclosed today (Tuesday). (The newspaper said that after the deal was signed, News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch told associates that he could have kicked himself for not asking more -- since Eisner was so eager to buy it.) Former Disney board member Andrea Van de Kamp, an Eisner foe, told the Times: "None of us really understood to what extent we overpaid. ... We all got carried away with the enthusiasm and concept of the purchase."

Excellent business practice.