An article on the changing contemporary methods US companies were using to distribute anime and manga.
Via Anime Insider: US Anime Distribution (January 2007)
2
Tag Archives: Anime
Via Anime Insider: Crispin Freeman (January 2007)
Short interview with US VA Crispin Freeman.
Via Anime Insider: Hollywood Spitballing (December 2006)
Various directors are asked about hollywood movies they’d be interested to remake as anime.
It’s a good question which gets some good answers (some not even restricted to movies). There are a bunch of cases of classic Western film and TV inspiring anime and manga (The Fugitive->Monster obviously so, Easy Rider->Gad Guard less so), but it’s neat to get a window into some of the less-obvious influences on a number of entertainers. Western or not, stuff like Taniguchi Goro learning about ongoing subplots from E.R. and Tsutomu Mizushima being a fan of car chases is fun to discover.
Via Anime Insider: Hellsing Ultimate Staffers (December 2006)
A feature on Hellsing Ultimate that closes with interviews with author Kouta Hirano and screenwriter Hideyuki Kurata, as well as producers Yasuyuki Ueda and Young King Ours’ Yoshiyuki Fudetani.
Favorite part of the interview is Fudetani’s “[y]ou can do manga for us until the day you die” (Hirano’s Drifters is also very successful and also runs in YKO). Also touches on Hirano’s interest in England and favorite Gundam characters. Also interesting that Hideyuki Kurata has been a Young King Ours reader for the magazine’s entire run (“since volume one”); the magazine began serialization in 1993.
Via Anime Insider: Various Bits of News (December 2006)
An article listing off several bits of US-related anime/manga news.
Via Anime Insider: Brett Weaver (December 2006)
Short interview with US VA Brett Weaver.
Via Anime Insider: Japanese Copyright Laws (December 2006)
A short article mentioning debate around a possible extension of the protections afforded by Japanese copyright laws.
Fun With Numbers: Dragonball, Naruto, Love Live, and the Importance of Second-Tier Hits
Weekly Shonen Jump is Japan’s most successful manga magazine, something that’s been true, excluding a brief early-aughts blip, for upwards of 20 years. But the brand didn’t get there by some fluke – it earned notability by harnessing a number of talented artists in many eras; Go Nagai in the late 60s, Buichi Terasawa and Osamu Akimoto in the 70s, Hirohiko Araki, Masami Kurumada, and countless others in the 80s.
But that doesn’t mean the past 2 decades were free of uncertainty or bad luck for Shueisha. In actuality, in between the early-nineties peak where the magazine’s circulation topped 6 million copies and the modern era of Oda Eiichiro breaking his own volumes’ records on a regular basis, they experienced one of the biggest misfortunes that can befall a publishing empire: two franchise cornerstone series ending withing 13 months of each other.
Via Anime Insider: Seiji Mizushima (September 2006)
Seiji Mizushima is interviewed about the Fullmetal Alchemist series. Again.
It’s still somewhat interesting, talking about Sho Aikawa’s contributions to developing the setting for the Shamballa movie, the difference between TV and movie production, and insisting he’s finished with the series, a pledge he kept when Brotherhood was greenlit. And the fact that he enjoys wearing hats to interviews (I guess one nice thing about interviewing the same guy 3+ times is that you start to get a window into his habits).
Via Anime Insider: Sojitz-ADV Partnership (September 2006)
Short article on KlockWorx part-owner Sojitz corporation buying a small stake in ADV.
Animetics 