The Anime Industry

The anime industry, how many of us really know what goes on into the production of a single episode, let alone a single frame? I don't for one and upon a couple of minutes of research from a well known individual it was quite shocking. As a general otaku, anime enthusiast, blogger etc these things don't come to mind often. So I thought maybe its time for the readers of AUA to get a little insight into the anime industry. Please note, I'm not a genius in this field and the information here have all been drawn from a trusted site which I will source below.

So let's start off with why the industry continues to create titles despite losses in their attempt to recuperate. Basically the reason as to why the industry continues to pump out titles is in hopes that they will create a hit title such as K-ON! or Bakemonogatari. A hit title means that the public will not only watch the series but go out into the market and buy merchandise such as DVDs, figures, OST CDs and other goods relating to the hit series. Even then the sales are in hope that it will recuperate production costs, and if lucky turn a profit.

Production of titles alone aren't cheap either, some titles may cost 2,000,000 yen ($22,914 AUS), some could cost up to 5,000,000 yen ($57,287 AUS) for a 20 minute title or 8,000,000 ($91,659 AUS) for a title with better quality. One company alone can not cover the tremendous cost so what happens is a group of companies come together to form a "Seisaku linkai", a group of companies coming together to invest in the production. What happens after is that one main company may have rights over media sales, while another over merchandise, each gaining a profit depending on how much of their royalties were sold.

Then there are problems such as the government and its rather ridiculous bans and constant threat to the industry. I personally won't name, but if any of you have been following the recent activities of the Tokyo government you may know what I am talking about. 

Now this may shock many of you, and it certainly did me. It gave me an insight into how well the anime industry and the companies that maintain it co-operate to maintain what gave Japan its footing into the entertainment world. So what now? What happens if companies fail to continually create hit titles? Theres the bigger problem, companies rely so much on the titles and the general audiences reactions to them that it could be fatal.

So then, what do we do? Well honestly at this point I'm not sure how the industry will maintain, as an otaku and general audience I guess the best thing I could possibly do for the industry is to buy merchandise in hopes that it will make them survive through to see a new season.

Source:
Dannychoo