When Aniplex Attacks
Just trying to sum up thoughts about Japanese anime producers, marketing in the US market, via the lens of Anime Boston 2009…
Con-based marketing blitz is something of an enjoyable mystery to me. When people talk about bringing over Japanese guests at anime conventions, often times someone will mention that a company will sponsor or bring someone over on their own volition. I guess this is so when Aniplex decided to come to Anime Boston, bringing an exec, a producer, a cross-label recording act (Kalafina is Sony Music Japan, Aniplex is a Sony subsidiary), and screened one of their prized movie based on Kinoko Nasu’s Kara no Kyoukai novels. Now this is probably possibly only with the help of many others, and it shouldn’t be credited to Aniplex alone, but these guests and events are tagged by the said sponsors as such.
And of course, “prized” here means that Kara no Kyoukai was #2 in Japan’s anime DVD sales chart last year–given that there are now 5 pairs of SKUs (LE/RE) for the Rakkyo movies as of this writing, I’m not sure how they measured it… In the down economy that we’re in, though, any news like that is good news.
Indeed, one of the small factoids flying around this summer convention season is that companies are on tighter budgets because nobody is all that well off…as far as I know. And we all know, for sure, that Sony’s not in the best of shape right now, so how does Aniplex find the fortitude to seize the day?
Coming from a fan’s perspective, I think Aniplex has done a bang up job at presenting itself at the con, being a purveyor of Very Cool intellectual properties; ultimately, they have stuff that I would buy. And who wouldn’t buy Rakkyo after being screened episode 5, in high definition? I might be sold out for high definition, but it doesn’t take an expert to tell the difference between what I saw then and a DVD-ripped fansub.
There’s something to be said when a Japanese producer points up at the screen, which is displaying the too-familiar Sony crossbar interface of a PS3, and the little video thumbnail is flipping through the book like how it is in the first minutes of the film. Take a look at these pictures, if you haven’t seen it–straight from the Rakkyo screening at Anime Boston. From it, we can say:
- There’s a date that dated a week before Anime Boston; they’ve been prepared since mid-May. Funnily enough, burning the movie on a Blu-Ray disc may very well be an option but I bet they wanted to reduce complexity and thus comes the PS3 in the whole. There’s a little side story about how the Aniplex entourage were surprised that they could get their PS3 past customs without even a wrinkled eyebrow, but it probably was something “you had to be there” for.
- It’s got subtitles. A subsidiary of Sony screening a foreign film is nothing out of ordinary at a glance. But if we were back in 2004, you would presume Aniplex is simply trying to shop for a buyer and using this exhibition to drum up interests. And honestly a title like Rakkyo probably has enough on its resume to solicit genuine interests without much help. It makes you wonder why there’s this display? Rakkyo sold well in the theaters and it sold well on DVDs in Japan, relatively. It’s Type-Moon. And being Sony, are they really afraid of reverse importation? (I’m guessing no, given The Sky Crawlers release here).
- It’s got subtitles–and it’s 2009. As with every Anime Boston, industry guru Chris Beveridge runs a panel talking about anime industry stuff. The questioning did come down to looking at the way how the market segments into streaming, mainstream and various types of VOD, versus the expensive, super high quality niche releases that serious collectors want. To Chris, the mid-to-long term forecast is something in the tune of convergence in outlet but divergence in market as middlemen gain sophistication for better ways and additional ways to monetize with larger margin. At least, that’s as I paraphrase it. This means that the “Bandai Visual” way will work but it would be an universal import/export situation. It side steps the reverse importation problem if everything is priced the same, and the high margin justifies the low print run and high production quality, for niche titles. The more mainstream items are sold similarly to what is currently the standard practice, but with a stronger digital delivery component which allows for different forms of monetizing–subscription and early access, exclusivity, and DTO. To think that we run and jump all these hoops just to get a localization…
What’s more, just as much is said through what it wasn’t there at Aniplex’s spree.
- It isn’t a Blu-Ray disc. I think this speaks for itself. Let’s QQ collectively for some more.
- There’s no license announcement. I think we were all waiting on this one–Kara no Kyoukai should be a sure sell, right?
The further evidence of a potential “convergence” strategy would be Kannagi’s English-language website. At the con, the rep mouthed off nagisamafanclub.com. As of yesterday, the anime site portion of the website is now live. Again, why the English language translation? Did the price of translation drop enough over the past couple years that Aniplex can do something like this? Cross-language marketing on their own behalf, because…?
The other answer, and perhaps the more prudent guess, is that Aniplex is marketing these anime to us in the hopes to increase its value as a license to American companies. It’s a tough pitch, but maybe it does work. I don’t know. But besides the subtitled movie and the English-language website, there is this pretty neat English-language flier (pardon the crappy scan, and watch for the Rakkyo 5 spoilers) Aniplex handed out at the con, as well as a questionnaire. It’s one not unlike the Famitsu/Otaku USA survey, but this one is straightforward and doesn’t have much in terms of open-ended questions. Basically, it asks questions like:
- What is your favorite anime?
- What is your favorite manga?
- Who is your favorite character?
Very SOP, but it also asks:
- Who is your favorite anime/manga creator?
- What is your favorite animation studio?
Woah. Getting ahead of ourselves here? The studio question is a cute one but also one that I want to know the results! I would type up the whole survey if I have it in front of me, but my memory is too leaky, so those questions are there to give you a feel.
One thing anime companies that directly interact with fans should know this–fans love to give you a piece of their minds. That’s nature of fandom. Surveys like this is good when they give the fans a feeling that they’re not only making a difference in your business, but also engaged in a way that let them express their fandom. I think especially for a middleman type group such as Aniplex, where they don’t necessarily have to mess with fans and can interact with them at its leisure, patronizing your eventual sources of income is a very shrewd move. Beats mailing out C&Ds, at any rate.
Of course, this is a different story in Japan. But given the large share of blame Japanese producers shoulder in today’s market condition, I’ll take any positive signs that I can get–maybe someone over there has a clue on how to pander to a convention audience? Maybe they want to start pushing their brands and recognition of said brands overseas? Educating their consumers overseas may overall streamline their marketing efforts in the long run? I don’t know.
I’m just hoping that when KnK does finally get a release outside Japan, they’ll do it with the same Special Edition packaging and soundtrack disc and whatnot that Japan got, because those releases are beautiful.
I was also wondering why they didn’t announce KnK for R1 at the con, given the amount of careful attention they gave to it (they even stopped calling it Kara no Kyoukai and went by the subtitle Garden of Sinners). Maybe it’s more than just a ‘prized’ movie series as the Aniplex producer expressed his personal deep appreciation of Nasu’s story, so they want to get an R1 release done ‘right.’ At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.
OK, I’m probably putting my thoughts out without prior research, but hearing that Aniplex is aggressively pushing their products through anime conventions (like what you’ve highlighted) is novel indeed. Previously, they have the luxury to
get their balls licked by external distributorsstick to their domestic market for distribution and licensing revenue. I guess the economic downturn has forced a lot of companies to find innovative solutions to maximise their profit.It’s a good start, I hoped. KnK should be done right - it’s the most sought-after property in the otakudom!
I am pretty sure Aniplex has done similar things like what they have did this time at Anime Boston. I just don’t know off hand what they were. Other production companies, too, have pitched in similarly. Geneon comes to mind as the most extravagant of them all as far as going to cons and doing something cool.
I am not sure what Aniplex has in store for Kara no Kyoukai. It has an odd release schedule and format which will likely play havoc on foreign licensees’ spreadsheets and figuring out a good price for it. As is, Rakkyo is likely to be a good-selling title, but one that isn’t going to sell like hotcakes.