July 12, 2007
AX Analysis: The Changing Distribution of Anime
Posted by Devin
For the next week, we’ll be providing Anime-Expo (AX) post-conference analysis on the industry presentations we attended. Today is on Anime DVD sales:
One apparent issue is the dropping of DVDs sales starting last year. Over in Japan, anime DVD sales dropped to $826 mil, or down 2% over 2006. In the US market, the number of DVD anime releases has dropped to 767 titles in 2006, a 9% title decrease verses 2005. Anime DVD sales are still outpacing regular DVD sales by a few % points even if total DVD released decreased by 8.2%.
Because the audience anime companies serve is some of the most proficient online, there’s no doubt that anime more any other medium is shared on p2p networks. The danger is fans often don’t understand the rights and wrongs of IP. Take the quote from one 17 year old:
“I wouldn’t steal a car. I wouldn’t steal a DVD. But I might borrow a DVD from a friend. And what’s the Internet these days, but a big group of friends sharing stuff?” [And] ultimately, because downloading is just too easy…too attractive to resist. A click of a mouse and “it’s all at our disposal.”
Because of revenue declines, the anime market is changing the way they distribute in every channel. Debra J. Kennedy, Vice-President of Marketing and New Media, of FUNimation, during her “Future of Anime” keynote at AX, acknowledged the fight for retail shelf space is becoming more and more difficult. The retailers like anime because it supples them with higher margins, however their lack of shelf space and category management is a problem. Companies are also getting more promotion-minded by pushing catalogs and online contests. And its working:
Manga has had one of its biggest years, selling more than 750,000 units of Ghost in the Shell’s six volumes, Manga’s senior VP sales Ray Gagnon said. “It’s challenging for anime companies, because the price points are high,” So specialty chains such as Best Buy and Trans World rep prime retail outlets for Manga titles, Gagnon said.
Other strategies include pushing anime to the TV networks, well illustrated by Kokoro Media in earlier posts. Ms. Kennedy expressed FUNimation was able to introduce IFC to anime. To help spur retail hits, Bandai specifically focuses on leveraging the TV exposure of properties such as Cowboy Bebop and Gundam. “Now we and also the retailers need to be more discerning,” observed Bandai marketing manager Jerry Chu.
Ultimately, digital distribution and Internet sales, the long tail of media economics help anime and other nitch genres expand the anime market. iTunes, XBox, Direct2Drive, Vongo, Akimbo, and other legal ways to download via the Internet is the future of anime distribution. Ms. Kennedy also noted the market is working to develop business models with new ways of reaching customers. The development of co-productions and simultaneous releases and the need for investment into infrastructure such as VOD and cable are all keys to future market success.
Filed To: Distribution / Retail / Digital / Adv/Marketing / General
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February 26, 2007
NYCC: ICV2 Graphics Novel Conference Wrap-up
Posted by Devin
This year’s second annual conference on Graphic novels was more focused on the printed word as the talk on anime licensing was shelved. I’ll go through each panel individually, discussing key stats:
ICv2 White Paper–Graphic Novels: Growth and Change
Quite a few bloggers, Mangablog, and Comics212 for stats. I’m going to pick at a couple of them and calculate some numbers based on what was presented:
Total US sales were $330 mil for 2006, with between $170 and $220 mil coming from manga. So now we can say 51% and 66% of total graphic novel sales were manga. In 2005, ICV2 presented a figure of $145 million generated in 2005 manga sales from a market size of $295 mil, a percentage of 49% of the total market. The market for manga has grown between 14% and 34% in one year. Wow, is that big: manga is out pacing the growth of the the rest of graphic novels by 2 to 1. Diamond tracks 10,500+ graphic novel titles, 46% manga/54% non manga. Manga, not having a significant history of more than 5 years, had an upshot of 120 releases (1088 vs. 1208), or almost 10% number releases growth. This confirms growth isn’t just more titles, but the selling of more copies. Just so you know its not only the Naruto effect. What I’d love to measure is the long tail number, but I don’t think we have enough stats yet.
Non-Fiction — The Real World of Graphic Storytelling
I do have to admit for being out of the loop on this one: I was surprised to hear how positive growth is and will be for this part of the graphic novel business. Also, a majority of non-fiction books in Japanese are manga-style. On the panel from this view: Glenn Kardy, Pres/CEO of Japanime Co. has been publishing in the international market for a number of years including the releasing of hit series, How to Draw Manga. His translated/localized series are translated to up to 12 languages. I do have to wonder if there are other licensing opportunities available for manga non-fiction work to be translated and released here.
Manga Ratings, Redactions, and Freedom of Speech
Tokyopop’s new rating scale for 2007 was passed out the audience members. Panelists and audience member supported their new approach to rating manga, even if it did mean becoming objective to the manga’s various content. When a librarian questioned the panel about a universal-friendly rating scale for all manga and how most manga falls into the T/Teen category, the panelists replied with no-comment or their self-policing rating systems were in reply to concerned parents. As long as self-policing policies like ratings and shrink-wrapping of mature publications take place, the industry shouldn’t have too many freedom of speech problems that have plagued comic books in the past. Is there a chance that someone who sees this as ‘universal cartoon art’ that hasn’t seen the umpteenth NYT article that comics aren’t for kids anymore? Sure–
Buyers Panel — Graphic Novels, the Next Three Years
More Yaoi. More all-ages books. There were a couple of differencing opinions from the panel on what works and what doesn’t. I think one consensus was for more single volume or short-series sets. A manga series that runs 5, 10 or 15+ books is a lot of $$ for someone to sink into a series at an average cost of $10 a book. One quoted book was Tokyopop’s single volume Kingdom of Hearts manga supported by $5.8 mil in video game sales. More pop-star licensed manga will drive traditional non-manga buyers into the market.
Filed To: Distribution / Retail / Licensing / Adv/Marketing / General
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February 21, 2007
Event Preview: ICV2 Graphics Novel Conference 2007 at NYCC
Posted by Devin
I’ll be attending tomorrow’s IVC2 second annual Graphics Novel Conference @ NYCC this year.
Last year’s graphic novel conference was a huge success and a benchmark for future industry events to come. Highlights to last year’s event include discussions on the ripple effect of Musicland shutting down, the effects of editing, censorship, and ratings in manga, and the cost of licensing a content series. One of the quotes that is long remembered from last year’s convention is from Al Kahn, CEO of 4Kids:
I think manga is a problem because we’re in a culture that is not a reading culture. Kid’s today don’t read, they read less today. In every survey, we find that they’re watching more television, they’re on the Internet more, and that content, although being king, is very disposable. Because the way content gets put out now, it gets put out free. We’re streaming most of our shows. The reason why we’re streaming them is we want kids to watch them as much as they can, and get vested in the concept and go out and buy products. The products ain’t free. The content is going to be free. And manga in my mind is trying to put a square peg in a round hole in the U.S. It will never be a big deal here, for the kids that are in the computer or the Internet generation, because they’re not going to read. They haven’t read, and they’re not going to start now.
A year later, and even I can firmly say that manga is here to stay and its potential is untapped as variety has diversified. Let’s take a quick look at tomorrow’s panels:
ICv2 White Paper–Graphic Novels: Growth and Change
ICv2 will present the results of its annual graphic novel industry survey, along with special conference-only info that will not be published in its magazines or on the Web.
Expect from new statistics from Milton Gripp of IVC2 that will run higher than the published Nielsen BookScan results that were published a few days ago (more on that in a later post)
Non-Fiction — The Real World of Graphic Storytelling
The memoir, historical storytelling, and education are among the fastest growing areas of the graphic novel (and we use the term loosely) category in North America. Is the N.A. market going to look more like Japan’s, where manga is a favored form for non-fiction as well as fiction?
I don’t think that non-fiction graphic novels are here yet as a primary vehicle for storytelling. To me, this is a surprise panel topic.
Manga Ratings, Redactions, and Freedom of Speech
Japanese culture is very different than American when it comes to controlling access to adult content, and publishers have taken a wide range of approaches when deciding how to deal with those cultural differences in their American editions. Retailers, libraries, and publishers all have their concerns.
Hot button panel. Tokyopop just published their new rating scale for 2007, and we’re just waiting for some conservative movement to discover explicit manga. Its at Wal-mart, yet no one has noticed–
Buyers Panel — Graphic Novels, the Next Three Years
A panel of key graphic novel buyers from multiple channels will discuss what’s selling and why, how the market’s changing, and what kinds of products will grow the market in the next three years.
Today’s word of the day: diversification. I’ve love to ask the panel what they think of limiting distribution for certain graphic novels to one or more channels (like Tokyopop has some with some of their recent graphic novel releases)
Filed To: Distribution / Retail / Licensing / Adv/Marketing / General
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January 10, 2007
2007 Predictions
Posted by Devin
I’m a little late with my 2007 predictions, being 10 days into the new year already. In general, it was the year of Youtube and amateur videos. Bittorrent and distribution have taken more of a backseat. Anime video via the Internet is getting bigger and bigger. You know the general stuff, so let’s roll out the predictions on the specific:
Cartoon Network will continue its anime TV dominance. When properties make it big, its because they’re on CN. Even through there is plenty of anime on demand, the content ‘package’ just isn’t distributed on all the stations. CN’s channels (Adult swim, Toonami ) have become branded blocks on entertainment, easily digestible for advertisers to understand. CN HD was just announced yesterday, so we’re going to be seeing some gorgeous anime pretty soon - can you say Gankutsuou? So until a “block” of serious programming comes to another station, its a one-channel show.
Anime isn’t ready for prime-time. Expect 2006 DVD sales flat to 2005. And the # releases are down over 2005 and barely equal to 2004: Total releases in 2006: 767, Total releases in 2005: 839, Total releases in 2004: 758. (AnimeonDVD) While CN will continue to push the sales of related DVD & manga, rollover might not happen until we see mainstream anime-based movies in 2008-2009. Manga is starting to dominate, just wait until Middle-America finds out. No question manga sales are steadily increasing. As more explicit titles hit the shelf and are “dicovered” by a concerned parent or citizen, manga ratings, censorship, and freedom of speech will become much more prevalent. In 2007, expect a outcry of news from a blue state– The first J-Drama license will be licensed & marketed. Sure, there are plenty of Japanese movies and other shows that are out on DVD, but they are barely marketed outside of the horror area. I think we’ll see the push or one or two more ‘mainstream’ J-dramas out in 2007, appealing to men and women. Subtitled only, once they clear those nasty music rights.
Filed To: Retail / Adv/Marketing / General
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January 7, 2007
Welcome to Kokoro Media: Madeline Ashby
Posted by Devin
Kokoro Media would like to welcome our new contributing editor, Madeline Ashby.
Madeline beat me to the punch a couple of days ago before I could post up her
welcome announcement. She is also a regular contributor to Frames
Per Second Magazine and a presenting speaker in 2007 at the International
Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts and the Popular Culture Association national
conference. She also posts on her personal blog, Fandrogyny.
Filed To: General / Kokoro Media
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December 15, 2006
Welcome back
Posted by Devin
This blog has been on vacation for the last 11+ months. If you’re visiting, I’ll try to summarize the missing time with some posts over the next few days.
A little summary of what’s been happening the last few months:
Just when you think the manga market can’t grow anymore, more companies and their ‘nitch’ properties make themselves known. We’ve got a little ways to go: in 2002 Japan exported 36.1 billion yen in manga sales to France and 4.7 billion yen in the U.S. compared with 520 billion yen within Japan. (Translation: In 2002, about $60 Mil USD in the US, compared to $400 Mil USD in France) Digital properties continue to develop as manga producers are starting to use new technologies such as mobile phones, Internet streaming and video on demand, both as means of marketing and distributing their properties. I’ll show some examples in the next few days Asian digital music continues to be unavailable in the United States. With the launch of iTunes Japan, will be seeing j-pop available for download sometime soon?
Filed To: Licensing / General
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November 28, 2005
Welcome to KokoroMedia
Posted by Devin
If you’re reading this, then I’m talking about our new blog here at Kokoromedia, covering the media space of Japanese content in the US and the rest of the world. Ever 3-5 days a week I’ll update a tidbit of news and market analysis of this new ‘space’ that has been long neglected by traditional media and market research media firms. If you have any comments, drop me at e-mail at from our about page. Thanks—
Filed To: General
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