welcome datacomp

Source: Nensyu Labo, compiled by them via publicly available securities reports and documents submitted for 2008.

Average yearly salary, in tens of thousands of yen. (100,000 JPY = roughly $1100)

1. Toei: 864
2. Toho: 837
3. Shochiku: 735
4. Tokyo Rakutenchi: 710
5. Gonzo: 654
6. Toei Animation: 651
7. TYO Productions: 620
8. OS: 620
9. Tokyo Theatres: 619
10. Subaru Enterprise: 615
11. Kokusai Hoei: 607
12. Aoi Advertising Promotion Inc.: 605
13. Tohokushinsha: 604
14. Flight System Consulting: 571
15. Marvelous Entertainment: 534
16. Sotsu: 518
17. Shizukatsu: 512
18. IG Port: 501
19. Omega Project Holdings: 490
20. TMS Entertainment: 485
21. We’ve: 483
22. Kin-ei: 444
23. Nakanihon Kogyo: 435
24. Musashino Kogyo: 430
25. Tokyu Recreation: 383

Sales Rankings, in hundreds of million of yen (100,000,000 yen = roughly 1.1 million USD). Number in () after studio name is rank in above list of average employee salary.

1. Toho (2): 2134
2. Toei (1): 1076
3. Shochiku (3): 949
4. Tohokushinsha (13) : 681
5. TYO Productions (7): 311
6. Tokyu Recreation (25): 277
7. Tokyo Theatres (9): 232
8. Toei Animation (6): 217
9. Aoi Advertising Promotion Inc (12): 167
10. Sotsu (16): 159
11. TMS Entertainment (20): 141
12. Marvelous Entertainment (15): 101
13. IG Port (18): 71
14. OS (8): 65
15. Gonzo (5): 63
16. Tokyo Rakuenchi (4): 37
17. Kin-ei (22): 37
18. Nakanihon Kogyo (23): 37
19. Kokusai Hoei (11): 34
20. Flight System Consulting (14): 30
21. Omega Project Holdings (19): 30
22. We’ve (21): 30
23. Subaru Kogyo (10): 24
24. Musashino Kogyo (24): 20
25. Shizukatsu (17): 11

…in condensed bullet point form of because there’s no way i’m completely translating a 39 page technical PDF just for fun, even if the project is really interesting.

Anyway, this project was announced earlier this month and the initial announcement about the basic form of the project (4 23-minute original animations to be produced with a 38 million yen budget each, with production focusing on the training of young animators) was picked up by the usual suspects. However, the general reaction on the comments sections seemed to be on the negative side, which was a little baffling to me. I have a lot of trust and respect for JAniCA, as they’ve been one of the most staunch supporters of animators (see translations here, here, and just about every substantial report over the last few years about animator salaries) and so the endless comments of “what is government doing???? just give money to the animators!!” were a little disheartening. These complaints seemed especially silly since the government funding is only coming in at around $2 million US, which in my admittedly rather business-ignorant mind isn’t going to do a whole lot if they just threw it towards wages. (Though if they took the proposed $130 million LDP budget for the manga library and gave that cash to animators, then maybe it’d be a different story…)

Anyway, I got to looking at the detailed application sheet that JAniCA put out a few days later, and wouldn’t you know it, it looks like a very well-meaning, intelligently drafted, and fast-acting plan! Anyway, here are your bullet points, as promised earlier. I’m doing this on a bit more of a rush than normal for me, so goyaku gomen. Please leave comments if you have any corrections/questions.

(more…)

The long-standing issue of how exactly to define moé has been resolved by ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) International. I quote:

The analysis estimates the market for moe products (books, images and games), which are related to anime and manga, was worth 88.8 billion yen (US$800 million) in 2003. The term moe is used in a neutral sense for economic analysis. But taken literally it refers to a fetishist sexual attraction that some fans of computer games, anime and manga have for female child characters, who may be depicted in pornographic and erotic contexts within games, animations and illustrations. Moe web pages sometimes link to other pages containing images, stories and chats in which very young characters are the objects of sexual violence, abuse and fantasy. A proportion of the moe market may therefore be regarded as related to child sex abuse images. The report expected the market for moe products to expand.

I am quoting page 32 of their information pamphlet “Violence against Children in Cyberspace“. Perhaps some of us are glad that this controversy has at long last been resolved. If you actually enjoy moé artwork, though, chances are you disagree with ECPAT’s characterization of your hobby. What’s even better, the only citation in this paragraph was a link to WaiWai News.

(more…)

Thanks to astrange I’m now able to spin off all my assorted news and dumb links posts from both this site and from twitter onto this newfangled blog, http://2chan.us/linkblog . Please watch over it warmly. Hopefully it’ll be a good site to get otaku news from without having to expose yourself to possibly criminal amounts of barely-clad anime 14 year olds!

Update on a previous post about Haruhi-chan dvds: the rental sites appeared to have been correct, as yunakiti notes that there are three (1, 2, 3) pages up on animate for Haruhi-chan/Churuya-san dvds coming out about every 4-5 weeks, starting in the end of May. How much for 40 minutes animation that’s been streamed for free on the internet? 5040 yen a dvd. I put my line at 5000y, maybe I should open an anime sportsbook or something.

Also, this is probably on every site by now since Itai News posted it like 4 hours ago, but there was a one-day cafe event, Cafe B’s Prince, that took place today where the waitresses (waiters?) played the part of your younger brother. Girls pretending to be boys calling you “onii-chan”, truly this is the highest class of moe. Well, it’s aimed primarily towards girls, so I guess “onee-chan”.

So remember that list of unsourced rumors i posted about earlier from 2ch that just happens to be incredibly accurate? Welp, guess what showed up on the 2ch thread that everyone gets their news from?

I mean there is definitely a good chance that 10,000 hours, pixels, etc, but honestly, even if this is fabricated, Railgun anime almost seems like a given at this point, no?

Yunakiti reports on the 2ch thread where otaku realize that Geisai 12 took place right next to Reitaisai, in East hall 1. Guests there included Yamakan, Ozoku band (Tissue Princess and other Nico Allstars), and Zombies, the ultimate anison dance group.

I kind of feel bad about not knowing about this, but on the other hand it looks like if I went I’d be giving money to Takashi Murakami, and he doesn’t really need any more money than he already has. Not to mention that I honestly believe that Reitaisai is a more significant event of the two in basically every way! Well, except for no yamakan.

I wasn’t going to post this originally since it seemed too out there, but now that Hagaren’s cast has changed I feel marginally more comfortable posting these completely unsourced rumors from a random 2ch post, many of which have already, by pure chance, come true! via yunakiti since I am a busy adult with no time to actually read 2ch

Munto will be 9 episodes long ○
Basquash getting aired on 10 channels across Japan, is 2 seasons long ○
Strike Witches S2 in 2010, based on the light novel ○
April Haruhi airing will be a mix of season 1 and season 2, aired in chronological order
Shangri-La will be 2 seasons long
Asura Cryin’ will be 2 seasons, one in Spring, one in Fall
Seitokai no Ichizon airing in July ○
Omamori Himari getting an anime adaptation ○　(this, Seitokai, and SW s2 were posted in late January)
Railgun getting an anime in 2010
The Final Negima OAD won’t be produced by SHAFT (? i might be reading this wrong)
Mangrove doing Seiken no Katanakaji
Many changed voice actors for the new season of Hagaren ○
Wolf and Spice s2 in July, 12 eps in all ○

I guess we have to sit back and see how this pans out! Maybe it’s all part of Kadokawa’s master plan. even this very blog post.

The Natsu Style reports that Miku super-cd supercell has charted at #2 on the Oricon album daily charts, with over 20,000 copies sold on day 1. Kalafina’s Seventh Heaven made #8. Got my copy, how about you guys??

via katoyuu

Yunakiti reports the 2ch thread reporting on the VIP thread about finding these two pages detailing release info on the Haruhi-chan and Churuya-san dvds. The first page notes that the DVD will be 40 minutes long and has the release date down as 4/24, while the second link says that there will be 3 dvds in all. Do be warned that both sources are from DVD rental sites, which could mean that the information isn’t totally accurate. Or maybe just made up, who knows. (comedy kadokawa trolling option.) Anyway what do you guys think a fair over/under on the price/dvd would be, 5000y?

In other news, Supercell is officially released today, though it was readily found in otaku B+Ms around the country yesterday. This is what I get for not going outside yesterday! Also, preorders for the Goodsmile Black Rock Shooter figure have opened, at the low price of 9800y, release in August. Interview with huke can be found here, and a new commercial/PV for it by huke can be found here. “Brack Rock Shooter” indeed.

edit an hour later: two other interesting links I came across that don’t quite deserve yet another news post on the same day:

new IOSYS / Tetla Pot PV for another track (The Ultimate Yakiniku Restaurant! Orin’s Store of Hell!) off of Touhou Chotto Matten. First was this pv. Unfortunately, I don’t see either of these becoming memes.

Also, the To LOVEru*LOVE blog points out some amusing facts about the new Bakuman cover.