The Futureofthe Anime Industryina Global Environment PDF

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The Future of the Anime Industry in a Global Environment Preprint · January 2017 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28437.47849

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Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies Animation Culture Prof. Renato Rivera Rusca 2017

Essay by: Anna Alexandra Haas-Krioutchkov [email protected]

The Future of the Anime Industry iin n a Global Environme Environment nt

In recent years, there have been many changes in the Anime Industry. Not only within Japan, but also within the International market that the Animation Industry, has become around the world. Since the fierce decline of the market in 2009, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) has been publishing an annual report, examining industry trends from the previous years. In the least years, we can definitely see the influence of other countries, such as China, having a large effect on the market. This makes us rethink many possibilities of how the Industry’s future will shift and evolve from now on. It has now been about 3 years since Miyazaki Hayao announced his retirement from the feature filmmaking industry. At this point, and after the low box revenue for Ghibli’s next film after Miyazaki’s announcement: “Omoide no Marnie”; many worried about the industry’s future and the changes it would bring upon. Due to elements such as lowering production costs and labour force reduction, we have been seeing more and more changes in the techniques used to produce animation. The long resisted and rejected 3D computer animation style, is being seen more and more in recent projects, taking as an example the recently aired anime “Handshakers”, an original action anime by GoHands and Frontier Works, that is almost fully completed in 3D animation only. Although the fan base’s reaction towards these changes is still not very favourable, many alternatives are being explored in order to develop the industry even further. For example, one of the most impressive examples of the well applied new techniques would be the case of Studio Colorido. Studio Colorido, an animation studio that has been actively contributing to many projects in the recent years, has shown a technological revolution in terms of the facilities at its workplace. They were concerned about how, while Japanese animation is globally recognized, it is a reality that it is supported by the harsh working environment of the workplace, and in recent years the market size has shrunk due to the depression and the decline of anime culture. In order to overcome the overworked-underpaid industry trend, they decided to set up their office with advanced IT gadgets, that would allow for a more comfortable working environment. The studio founder Uda Hideo, says that branching out more into digital animation, will allow for improvement of the high turnover rate in the business. By using liquid crystal pen tablets, they are able to maintain the hand-painted style

Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies Animation Culture Prof. Renato Rivera Rusca 2017

of traditional Japanese animation while greatly reducing the workload. And this for itself, has a huge impact on the workplace. One other huge change that is currently happening in the Japanese Animation Industry, is the influence from China. Many fans may still not be aware that several of the Animations released over the Anime seasons of Autumn and Winter 2016, are actually original Chinese stories co-produced by Japanese animation companies. The largest of these companies being: Haoliners Animation League, a Chinese animation company established in 2013, that is based in Shanghai. This company has a branch both in Korea and in Japan, the one in Japan being Animation Company Emon. Over the past year or so, we have been able to see a huge increase of series with more and more foreign influences. Brought to us from Haoliners and Emon only, we can already list five series that aired on Japanese Television over the period of January 2016 to January 2017. These series being: Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage, Hitori no Shita: The Outcast, Bloodivores, Cheating Craft and To Be a Hero. At first glance many may think these series don’t have much in common and may be surprised to hear that these are Chinese creations. Since all the voice acting and a good part of the animation was created in Japan. But on the other side, some of the Opening and Ending songs being in Chinese, the name of the characters, and most importantly, the personality of the characters and the humor used in the stories is very different of what we are used to see. On one side, I think it is a wonderful thing that foreign influences are expanding and creating more opportunities for foreigners to work in the market; but on the other side, I feel that many of these animations have lost the soul of Japaneseness that the current animation industry contains and appeals to many fans worldwide, not only within Japan. The authors of the original material for some of these Chinese animations specifically mention how they were influenced by Japanese authors in their drawing styles, but did purposely not include any Japanese aspects in their stories, rather trying to appeal Chinese culture and folklore. While people may discuss if these influences are positive or negative for the industry, one thing is for sure, something will change. It will be interesting to continue observing these trends in the future. Another trend that has appeared in the market in recent years, is a new type of theatrical performance-act genre unique to Japan, known as 2.5 Dimension Musicals. This new genre consists in theatrical plays (mostly musicals) that combine Japanese pop culture (Animation, Manga and Games), with theatrical acting and plays. It is, as the name reveals, a play that is in between the 2nd dimension (the fictional world behind the screen), and the 3rd dimension (the real world); the 2.5 dimension. While this genre has yet to popularize in the west, it has been showing great success within Asia, to the point of having the plays tour

Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies Animation Culture Prof. Renato Rivera Rusca 2017

around other countries, such as China, to show the original Japanese plays and their cast with automatized Chinese subtitles on screen. Also, a new gadget being rented out at Japanese theaters has to be remarked as a symbol of the internationalization of the market: “The Multilingual Subtitle Glasses”. This gadget aimed at a foreign audience, allows customers who come to see the different plays, to enjoy them in either English or Chinese language only by putting on a pair of glasses. The gadget itself seems to work similarly to the acclaimed Google Glasses, with and incrusted screen within the lens, but comes with a remote control that allows you to adjust the language and size or position of the subtitles. The appearance of these kind of gadgets in the market, definitely shows how the industry is trying to adapt to a more international market and is reaching out to an international audience across borders. The popularization of 2.5 Musicals itself should represent a new financial support route for the industry, since it works within a completely different financial situation and is nevertheless involved with the Anime Industry. Some of the recent works that should be pointed out are such as the 2.5 Dimension plays for: Naruto, Bleach, Haikyuu (1 st and 2nd Seasons), Sailor Moon and lastly, Touken Ranbu. The last one being an adaptation of an online computer game that later on passed on to become a mobile phone game. In contrast to the usual Animation fandom, the large part of the audience for these plays is exclusively female. This might revolve around the fact that actors are generally chosen for their looks on stage rather than their acting or singing skills, but also is because of the usage of personalities that already have achieved a certain degree of fame, and can therefore attract a certain audience, regardless of the play or story. These plays are generally targeted at fans of the original material, which can be seen by the amounts of merchandising that is not only sold at the theatre stores, but also brought in by the fans when the go and see the plays. There also seems to exist a huge culture of fan lettering the actor you support through official present receiving desks at the theatres themselves. 2.5 Dimensions Musicals is still a fairly unknown genre, even within Japan and has still to grow and develop much more before it can be called a stable new trend in the market. But I definitely hope that it will be a source of economical support for the original source material, and also a tool for international exposure that will help with the works’ popularity expansion. Lastly, I would like to address a trend that has been seen lately as a financial aid system for animators and animation studios around the world. This is the existence of Kick Up Starters for original works and animations, which are crowd funded and generally distributed on an online surface. Many projects and skilled animators, see themselves having to face the harsh reality of the low wages that the animation industry in which they work provides. These difficult conditions do not allow for artistic creativity, and many of these projects end up being

Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies Animation Culture Prof. Renato Rivera Rusca 2017

cancelled for financial reasons. One of the solutions to this problem that the Anime industry came up with, was the usage of crowd founding for starting-up projects. It might seem like an unstable option at first since there is always the possibility to not be able to complete the set goals, but it could become a method that the fan base could use, in order to save the Industry’s economic crisis. Looking at very good example that was successful using this method, is the case of “Little Witch Academia”. A short film that was originally released as part of the Young Animator Training Project’s Anime Mirai 2013 and later obtained a crowd funded sequel that was obtained through the usage of Kickstarter. It’s impressive animation and enchanting story made it grow into a much larger phenomenon that would end up obtaining a very own television series and several manga adaptations. The success for projects like this are crucial for the survival of the industry, and are promoted in a way which allows not only Japanese fans to contribute to the cause, but also gives a chance to international fans to take part in the creation of new projects. These and many others, are some of the trends that have been appearing over the last few years in the Anime Industry and will definitely lead to further International influences in the market and changes within the until now established systems and rules. If these influences are to become positive or negative is still to see in the future. But we can definitely state that things are starting to drastically change within the industry. As for topics that should be further explored within this area, there would be the case of the unbelievable success that some specific Animated Movies that aired in Japanese theatres over the last year have had on the overall nuance of Anime within Japan and also its impacts on the global market. Let’s hope for the future of the Anime Industry in this new Global Environment to be a prosperous one.

Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies Animation Culture Prof. Renato Rivera Rusca 2017

References: Anime

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(2017.01.08) Martin, Alex (2009) The Japan Times

Future of “anime” industry in doubt:

(2017.01.08) Ryall, Julian (2016) Japan Today Japan Ink: How anime is building business ties with China: (2017.01.08) Shilling, Mark (2014) China Morning Post Seismic Shifts Ahead in Japan’s Anime Industry: (2017.01.08) Shilling, Mark (2016) Variety Media LCC Tokyo: Emon animates Chinese Animation for

Japan and the World: (2017.01.08) Tanaka Nobuko (2015) The Japan Times “Tenimyu” 2.5 Dimension shows net over 2 million

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(2017.01.08) Time Out Tokyo (2015) The future of digital animation in Japan:

(2017.01.08) Yamaguchi, Yasuo (2013) Nippon Communication Foundation The Evolution of the Japanese

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