Bones president Masahiko Minami and character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto look back on Cowboy Bebop on the occasion of the “Remix” DVD release. Nothing really new here, given the amount of other interviews these two have done, but it’s my policy to archive multiple-page full text interviews regardless.
Katsuhiro Otomo talks about developing Steamboy, his most difficult-to-make work that spent 10 years in production.
An article explaining the high-relative-to-other-US-boxes cost of anime DVDs. A couple of really interesting figures in here (via Forbes and Geneon VP Nobu Yamamoto):
-ADV paid between $1 million and $2.6 million for each anime TV series, and $0.5 million to $5 million for each anime movie. (Forbes) I believe that’s production, including licensing, but it’s not entirely clear.
-Licensing for a popular anime title could reach $50,000/episode. (Yamamoto) That’s a far cry above the max of ~$33,000/episode paid for Pumpkin Scissors and Air Gear (the most expensive shows on this 2006-2007 ADV list). Licensor collaboration may have proven effective.
-For the same popular anime as above dubbing ran $12k/ep, authoring/materials/quality control ran $10k/DVD release, marketing ran $15k/box set release. Manufacturing and royalties cost an additional $15/box set.
-Wholesale retailers typically got 50% discounts on more popular series.
-The cost of licences grew almost a factor of 10 faster than the size of the market since 2000. (Yamamoto) Presumably some of this was just Japanese companies getting their fair cut of things as prices adjusted to more properly value the market, and some was overvaluing just how strong the market was.
This article describes an attempt of which I was not aware of by Funimation, ADV, and Geneon to cooperate and drive the price of licenses down. It likely worked (more on that in just a moment), despite the fact that one of the three closed down and another declared bankruptcy.
A short article outling plans for a Real Bout High School live action movie, which, like many other things from the mid-00s, didn’t pan out.
Kenji Kamiyama offers some brief comments on each episode of the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
Shounen Hollywood seems generic on paper, but with an interesting visual design and some twists in its production, can it be something even better? USHM believes so and will tell you about it right now!
(Note: This poster is the one we refer to in the podcast. Cool, ain’t it?)
Top Cow President Matt Hawkins talks about why they decided to make a Witchblade anime with studio Gonzo.
Shoji Kawamori talks about the largest number of projects he ever worked on at once (17!) and the difference between doing comedy versus drama. He also names The Spring of Kenji (aka Spring and Chaos/Kenji no Haru) as his favorite among his many works. Coincidentally, studio Satelight’s work on that project was how he became involved with them.
Various studio Bones staffers. the voices of Ed and Al, and author Hiromu Arakawa discuss various aspects of symbolism in the FMA series.
Animetics 