Animanga in the News: 2/3/11

Here you will find a run down of today's anime and manga news! If anything sent waves through the anime and manga world today, you'll find it in this post! By the way, I'm saladesu, one of the translator-moderators of MH, and I'll be posting a post like this every day (as much as possible, anyway). Look forward to them ;)

If you would like to help in finding and translating news of this nature, please contact saladesu via PM ^^ Feel free to PM me any interesting bits of anime or manga news you find floating around the internet, too.




Tatsuo Tanaka, an associate professor of economics at Keio University, posted a discussion paper titled "Do Illegal Copies of Movies Reduce the Revenue of Legal Products? The case of TV animation in Japan" last month. The paper details the research that Tanaka conducted on the effects that the video-sharing site YouTube and file-sharing program Winny had on DVD sales and rentals for television animation programs in Japan.

Tanaka was a faculty fellow in the Japanese government's Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry (RIETI), which hosts the paper. However, Tanaka emphasized that the paper expresses his own views and does not represent the views of RIETI.

Tanaka chose to study television animation programs because their episodes have a standard length, and the large number of programs made them a ideal subject for quantitative analysis. Out of 111 anime titles listed, 105 such as Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Major, Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Soul Eater, Vampire Knight, To Love-Ru, Macross Frontier, and Kodomo no Jikan were shared on Winny. 58 of them were also on YouTube.

According to Tanaka's findings, YouTube views increased DVD sales, while Winny downloads decreased DVD rentals. A 1% increase in YouTube views correlated with a 0.25% increase in DVD sales. In particular, Tanaka said that the effect was clearer for programs that had already stopped airing on television. An 1% increase in YouTube views also correlated with a 0.08% increase in DVD rentals, but this increase was statistically inconclusive.

A 1% increase in Winny downloads correlated with a statistically inconclusive 0.06% increase in DVD sales. However, an 1% increase in Winny downloads correlated with a 1.11% decrease in DVD rentals. According to Tanaka, these results indicate that Winny downloads are used as a substitute for DVD rentals, but not for DVD sales.

In his conclusions, Tanaka suggested that companies encourage online streaming similar to the YouTube model. He added that individual companies should use their own discretion on how to handle these issues instead of acting as a "cartel." Tanaka advocated that companies experiment through trial and error to find viable solutions, which cannot be done if they just resort to copyright protection organizations to strengthen copyrights.

original source





Giant Killing, Sora no Otoshimono, Gantz and Shingeki no Kyojin fill out the rest of the top 10. All 3 volumes of Shingeki no Kyojin remain in the top 30 for the fifth week running.


original source





The national Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun published a special advertising feature wherein popular idol group ARASHI were made into manga characters, instantly becoming a hot topic all over the nation. There were many blog posts and tweets on twitter about the feature, describing it as a "super treasure from a fan's point of view" and many fans rushed to convenience stores or train stations just to get a copy of the newspaper.

The advertisement feature spanned 8 pages in full color, and was titled "ARASHI Meets MANGA - Our Portraits". The members of ARASHI all have acted in live-action dramas that were adapted from anime or manga, and this time the original authors of those anime and manga specially drew portraits of them for this feature. There is a page dedicated to each member, adorned with not only the portrait but also info on the original anime/manga, as well as the feelings of the members towards their portrait. Below the portrait were advertisements.

The 5 members of ARASHI are Ninomiya Kazunari, who acted in "Tekkon Konkreet" (art by Matsumoto Taiyou), Sakurai Shou, who acted in "Honey and Clover" (Umino Chika), Matsumoto Jun, who acted in "Hana Yori Dango" (Kamio Youko), Aiba Masaki who acted in "Bartender" (Nagatomo Kenji) and Ohno Satoshi, who acted in "Kaibutsu-kun" (Fujiko Fujio A).

ARASHI has been Japan's official "Tourist Navigators" since April 2010, taking on the task of promoting Japan and its culture to the rest of the world and encouraging tourism. This advertising feature from Asahi Shimbun's advertising department aimed to showcase the wonder of Japan's soft culture, by amalgamating the ARASHI who conveys the charm of Japan beyond its seas, with Japanese manga which holds the great ability of conveying messages to the rest of the world.

Asahi Shimbun's Tokyo Office received numerous calls from the public on the 3rd, saying, "I want a copy of the newspaper no matter what" and "Can you tell me what stores still have stock of the newspaper?"

original source