Gundam Seed director Mitsuo Fukuda talks about how he prepared to direct the series, the degree of input he had on the story, and his respect for Star Trek.
Via Anime Insider: Mitsuo Fukuda (October 2004)
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Tag Archives: Borderline Plagarism for the Freedom of Information
Via Anime Insider: Crispin Freeman (August 2004)
US voice actor Crispin Freeman talks about getting into character for different roles.
Via Anime Insider: Mamoru Oshii (August 2004)
Mamoru Oshii talks about design choices, the title, and doll research for Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.
Via Anime Insider: Stand Alone Complex (August 2004)
Production IG CEO Mitsuhisa Ishikawa and Director Kenji Kamiyama talk about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Kamiyama talks about his take on the gits universe, and Ishikawa boasts about a sales total of 700,000 units, a total that blows away the DVD/BD wiki totals.
For season 1: 16019*13=208,247
For season 2: 19640*13=255,320
For a total of about 470,000 copies. There are some miscellaneous box releases that add ~10-20 thousand to that, but it’s still probably generous probably generous, since s2 had only released 6 of its 13 volumes at that point (with only 6 volumes out for s2, that total goes down to ~330,000). Not a factor of 5 like it might be with Chrono Crusade, and under-reporting by a factor of 2 has happened before, but still a huge difference.
Via Anime Insider: NBA/Tokyopop Media Deals (August 2004)
This article details a very weird tie-in between Tokyopop and the NBA that totally happened, as well as corporate sponsorship for viz’s shonen jump.
I mean, I like the NBA, and I love manga, but I don’t know what the market is here. They made 12 volumes, though, so maybe that actually did well?
Via Anime Insider: Competitive Bidding for Fullmetal Alchemist (August 2004)
A piece about Fullmetal Alchemist’s licencing for US release. The interesting quote here is one on the second page by Funimation president Gen Fukunaga; “Fullmetal Alchemist was a very hotly contested property. All of the top anime companies in the United States were bidding on it […]”
That poses a very interesting what if; what if one of those other companies had gotten FMA? If ADV gets it, do they then fortify their brand around that property and not wildly overbid for that series in the very near future? It’s possible, though not likely, that their overspending on B-listers was driven by the increasing need to get a real hit out of one of them, something exacerbated by Funimation’s cornering more of the A-list market. What if, say, Geneon or Bandai Visual, with their less-substantial connections to cable TV, got it and whiffed on the rollout? It’s food for aimless speculation, although I would love to see a timeline of who made what bids when.
Via Anime Insider: Chrono Crusade Sales Totals (June 2004)
In a very interesting claim, Gonzo Marketing Manager Kanna Tamada-Nielsen mentions that the first volume of the Chrono Crusade anime sold in excess of 20,000 copies (well in excess – her claim was that it reached that figure in preorders a month before the April release of the Japanese v1). This is *way* off from the 4332 volumes the Japanese sales wiki says it sold.
This is perhaps a typo or a mistranslation, but it seems odd that Tamada Nielsen would proudly claim a preorder total of, say, 2000 – that’s not something you boast about, even back then. Something’s list of contrasting claims pegs the biggest Oricon-distributer discrepancies at >45% for known cases. If accurate, this number would represent an Oricon ranking that only covered about ~22% of total sales for that volume at best. That’s a *huge* underestimation.
I’m not sure what to make of this from just the one statement, but I’ll be looking into this some more, and will definitely post if I find anything.
Via Anime Insider: Shoji Murahama on Samurai 7 (June 2004)
Gonzo President Shoji Murahama talks about getting the somewhat clandestine call to anime Samurai 7, other creative decisions regarding the show, and shopping it in the US.
Via Anime Insider: Tsutomu Nihei (April 2004)
Tsutomu Nihei talks about being approached by Marvel comics in what led to his involvement in Snikt and playing Halo when he should be working.
Via Anime Insider: Hideyuki Kurata (April 2004)
Prolific writer Hideyuki Kurata talks about his inspirations for Read or Die, his favorite authors, and his bookworm tendencies.
Animetics 