For a couple of reasons, I’ve been going through the manga and light novels first adapted in 2010 to gauge if and how their sales changed after the anime adaptation aired. This data is currently being gathered (manga info is collected, but it needs to be turned into plots, haven’t started on LNs). Before diving into an analysis of those boosts, though, I’ve noticed a very important point that pertains some specific earlier posts of mine. Namely, first week manga sales, while rarely smaller than second week sales as is common with light novels, aren’t all that consistent.
Via Anime Insider: Ninja Scroll’s Best Buy Exclusivity (December 2003)
Years before they had a fire sale on most of their anime titles, Best Buy was the first store to gain exclusive rights to an anime release.
Via Anime Insider: Kazuo Koike (December 2003)
A very, very short Kazuo Koike interview (made more so by the fact that the interview is only half the sidebar).
Via Anime Insider: Satoshi Kon (December 2003)
The late, great Satoshi Kon talks about choosing animation over live action, his works, and Osamu Tezuka’s effect on him.
Via Anime Insider: Appleseed (December 2003)
Director Shinji Aramaki and producer Sumiji Miyake talk about CG in the Appleseed movie and Shirow’s involvement in the project.
Via Anime Insider: Jobs in Anime (December 2003)
This article might not have been a boatload of fun to read, but it does contain a bunch of rough salary figures for various anime-related professions:
Dub voice actors: A minimum 64.25$ per hour for Screen Actors Guild people (remember, an mc’s va typically works about 12 hours per episode) $25 for non-unionzed actors. So that’s 64.25*12*12=~$9250 per main character role per show. Or $3600 if a show is being cheap. For reference, the current per-episode cost of a dub is given by Justin Sevakis as around $7000-8500 per episode.
Pure speculation here, but the fact that vas are paid by the hour might mean a series with less dialogue (thinking about Texhnolyze here) is more likely to get a dub because the number of hours involved might be fewer.
ADR Directors: Yearly salary ranging from a rookie’s $25k to a veteran’s $100k.
Japanese Animators: Roughly $17k/year, though I don’t know whether that’s starting or average.
Translators: $20k-30k/year salary, $20-50 per page freelance.
Plus, there’s a sidebar towards the end with some technical specs on Voices of a Distant Star.
Via Anime Insider: Del Rey Manga (October 2003)
A minor revelation from this short article about Random House’s Del Rey imprint; apparently the reason they were so quick to partner with Kodansha was that they had just finished researching how to put out a line of graphic novels for a separate project which ended up being too expensive. That’s a pretty big what-if for me; Genshiken (via a discount bookstore) was one of my big formative manga in high school, and it’s pretty heavily influenced my philosophy on fandom.
Via Anime Insider: Yoshitoshi Abe (October 2003)
Yoshitoshi Abe talks about his pen name, religion, and the emotions behind his art.
3 things that jumped out at me: one, apparently he started using a computer in 1990 (seems early for an art student to have access to one), and two, apparently director Tomokazu Tokoro made a request to enlarge the size of the wings. Not a major thing, but it’s always neat to hear that sort of production trivia. And three, Abe was prohibited from reading manga as a child.
Via Anime Insider: Studio Gainax (October 2003)
An interview with Gainax staff, namely Hiroki Yamaga, Yasuhiro Takeda, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Hiroki Sato, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, that touches on working with US companies, the differences between American/Japanese conventions, and their personal favorite titles.
Too, this article offers a funny opportunity to quote mine;
“[I think where] Gainax is better than Disney [is that after Disney created Mickey Mouse, they created titles that belonged to other people.]” -Yoshiyuki Sadamoto