This is not exactly world-shaking news: the preciptious downturn in the U.S. economy claims yet another small business. But I suspect the business in question, a Japanese import outlet called ‘Made in Japan‘, is just one of many such closures in the otaku-friendly market in the near future.

“It’s a very tough time for small businesses in New York state,” said Wales, who owns the shop with her husband, Casey Wales. “Right now, there’s just not enough of an economical pull to stay in business.”

Made in Japan, on the Vestal Parkway for about two years, sells manga (Japanese comic books), anime (Japanese animation), Hello Kitty merchandise and other items. The business previously was located on Washington Avenue in Endicott for 2 1/2 years.

Staying open has been a struggle for the past nine months, Wales said. Made in Japan has no employees.

“People aren’t looking to spend money on hobbies right now when they’re having a hard time paying for everything else,” she said.

Anime distributor Geneon, which exited the U.S. DVD biz late last year, has been taken over by Universal Pictures, Inc. Universal’s grab comes shortly after a number of Geneon titles (including the most excellent Black Lagoon) were re-launched through FUNimation’s distribution arm.

UPIE plans to merge Geneon with Universal Pictures Japan, a UPIE subsid. UPIE will own an 80.1% stake in the new entity, Dentsu the remaining 19.9%.

UPIE and Dentsu will collaborate in supporting the new company, which will distribute all Universal home entertainment content in Japan while developing a slate of local pics and other content.

UPJ and Geneon have been partners since March, with Geneon distribbing new Universal DVD releases and UPJ marketing DVDs of Universal catalog and TV titles.

Variety has the whole story here.

…so says the ‘Art and Entertainment Editor’ of The Daily Beacon, a student publication from the University of Tenessee Knoxville. Normally I’d pass on giving nonsense like this crediblilty through commentary, but I feel the need to call bullshit when I see it.

The problem this created was not only about money; it affected creativity. That’s because the only people that really bothered to buy the DVDs anymore were the hardcore fans, and hardcore fans have different interests than the regular, everyday fan. Hardcore, maniac fans tend to like their series peppered with the geeky stereotypes of anime: over-the-top violence, excessive use of Japanese cultural references, weird characters and big-busted, scantily-clad animated women (or even worse, overly cute, underage-looking animated girls). So, the animators began adding more of these things into their series to satisfy the only fans that were bringing them real business. While it saves their companies from going under, it kills the final product. Shows became stupid and lost the things that attracted fans in the first place; mostly, all of the heart was gone.

We’ve written about this many times in the recent past, and the true consensus among anime industry types is that anime as a genre still enjoys a wide degree of popularity. It’s the business model that’s tanking. This is an important distinction, and one that I believe Ms. Heriges is missing. In many ways, the internet piracy that many have been decrying as anime’s death-knell is paving the way forward for new business models which will harness the power of information technology in ways DVD-centered business can’t touch. It’s no fluke that FUNimation announced last week that they were throwing a whole mess of content up on Hulu.com, one of the internet’s best resources for properly-licensed video. YouTube has also seen a dramatic shift in licensed properites from anime companies, with some studios generating entire YouTube feeds specificially tailored for their product. 

I suspect that I’m a good deal older than Ms. Heriges, who comments on watching Gundam Wing in the 8th grade. She probably doesn’t remember a time when anime fandom was a chore - when it amounted to signing up via snail-mail to videotape clubs which would trade badly fansubbed 10th generation copies of every grade-z anime series we could get our hands on. You know what was available on television when I was in 8th grade?

Voltron.

Yes, Voltron - the bastardized offspring of two relatively crap series forced into an arranged marriage and foisted on the American public as ‘anime’. I’d have killed for the anime the kids have access to today.

Rest easy, Katherine - anime will be just fine.

I was remiss in not posting a couple of bits of FUNimation-related PR we received yesterday…

FUNimation has made an episode of the Witchblade anime adaptation available at no cost thrugh Apple’s iTunes.

Witchblade, the anime series, is now available on iTunes! Download the first episode for free from now until October 26th.

From the renowned anime studio GONZO, Witchblade is the saga of a woman who must bear the burden of a terrible force of destruction known as the Witchblade. Based on the comic book series from Top Cow Productions, the anime series goes into the future to tell the tale of a new bearer of the Witchblade and the conspiracy that surrounds her burden. Witchblade is the first U.S. comic book property to be made into an anime.

Masane Amaha is a woman on the fringe of society, bouncing rootless from town to town with no memory of the past and no clue as to what the future holds. Upon her return to Tokyo, chance and circumstance conspire to unleash the fury of the Witchblade.

A new bearer of the Witchblade has been chosen.

The link to download the free episode is (link)

Read the rest of this entry »

A former Matsushita Electric employee turned manga-ka will rename the company featured in his comic to follow in the footsteps of his former employer, which recently changed it’s name to Panasonic Corp.

Kosaku Shima, hero of the popular comic serial “Shacho Shima Kosaku” (President Kosaku Shima), by Kenshi Hirokane, will be renaming his firm, Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings, it emerged on Tuesday.

The new corporate name will be announced in the Oct. 2 edition of weekly comic magazine “Morning,” to be published by Kodansha Ltd. on Thursday.

President Shima, an icon among Japanese businessmen, had earlier pointed out that his company’s branding is weak in the world market.

“We must establish a brand that can be competitive around the world,” said Shima during a board meeting, in the Aug. 14 edition of “Morning.”

As much as I complain that American corporations are run by a bunch of crooks, I suppose I’m lucky I don’t live in Japan - where the corporations really are run by crooks.

Japan’s powerful yakuza organised crime syndicates are mounting a widespread and “infectious” assault on the country’s financial markets that may have left hundreds of listed companies riddled with mob connections.

In a surprisingly stark admission of the crisis, the National Police Agency (NPA) says it is locked in a battle for the “economic soul” and international reputation of Japan.

Police investigations suggest the yakuza have become voracious traders and manipulators of listed Japanese stocks, and – via a network of about 1,000 apparently legitimate front companies – occupy hefty positions on the shareholder registers of many companies that may not even be aware of the connection.

The new activities of the nation’s largest crime syndicates, said one veteran expert on the yakuza, has effectively turned the mob into “the biggest private equity firm in Japan”.

The Daily Yomiuri takes note of a recent report issued by the undoubtedly fun Economy, Trade and Industry Minister’ Industrial Structure Council which, among other things, recommends Japanese business to hitch their cart to the draft horse that is ‘Japan cool’…aka ‘Otaku Nerd-dom’.

To put this in reference, imagine if the U.S. Department of Commerce urged U.S. businesses to take heed of Star-Wars and Spider-Man. It’s not as nutty as it sounds - in case you hadn’t noticed, Japanese culture is quite the rage these days, and Japanese business would be stupid not to take advantage of it.

Economy ministry’s Industrial Structure Policy Division Chief Keita Nishiyama said: “We are focusing on the fact that each category, such as akamoji and girly style, has become the taste and lifestyle of young people.

“With cell phones, for example, those who like akamoji fashion tend to choose phones that suit their style. Akamoji followers never buy phones that follow street fashion.”

Taking detailed tastes and favorites of consumers into account, a trend map aims to help private companies develop and sell their products, he said.

“The map may enable a pan-industry approach, such as selling akamoji-style clothes in combination with accessories and cell phones of the same style,” he said.

It has been 10 years since Japan cool became popular, but Japanese industry is not doing a good job of making the most of it, as it is often mocked: The biggest gainer from Japanese anime is Hollywood.

Japanese ad agency Dentsu, which owns Geneon Entertainment (formerly Pioneer Entertainment / Rondo Robe), has opened a West Coast bureau with an eye towards creating US-based anime. It’s first project is to bring the anime Deltora Quest to the U.S.

Branded as DCI Los Angeles, the group will seek to capitalize on the increasing popularity of what’s called anime in the U.S. DCI will distribute and license the programming, as well as produce it.

Yuma Sakata, senior vice president for DCI-LA, said the company will look to bring together programming expertise in the U.S. with top-notch anime talent from Japan.

“Working with Western partners in pre-production and then production teams in Japan for animation, we can create content that will appeal to a wider audience,” he said.

Man, this gave me an ear-to-ear grin this morning - a 12-year-old kid in Cape Girardeau, Missouri has opened his own anime store. That just r0×0rz…I hope he makes a killing.

Enter Yumazu on Broadway Street in Cape Girardeau, and you step into Umar Brimah’s world. In fact Umar says Yumazu translates into his name in Japanese. “Anime’ is a Japanese cartoon. In anime’ the eyes, clothes, and hair looks different. There’s a lot of expression in anime’ not used in American cartoons,” he says.

The tycoon in the making - gets -animated - himself - talking about the hobby he’s now turned into a business venture. “When I watch anime’ - there’s a lot of stuff in the shows I like to purchase. The only place you can find them is on the internet. And when you get them on the internet, you pay twice the price you pay normally - and also pay shipping so I was thinking, bring a store to Cape, so people wouldn’t have to pay all that money to get what they want,” Umar says.