CATDOLL: "Gintama" Director: Making a new late-night animation is like a big gamble

We all know that after an animation company produces an animation, it will issue a BD to cash in. However, there are only a handful of new animations that can sell thousands of BDs. If this part cannot be compensated from other aspects, it will only be a loss, not to mention making money.

Recently, Shinji Takamatsu, the animation director of "Gintama", publicly complained about the industry on Twitter: There are millions of people watching animations, but less than 1% of them will buy animation discs to support the production of new late-night animations. This is really problematic, and there is really no other business model that can replace the model of making money by selling discs. It really makes me anxious. Will the business model of the Japanese animation industry be transformed into the Internet distribution business model of the United States in the future?

But if that happens, it will be more important for 10 million people to watch anime than for 10,000 people to buy discs, and the number of anime works for otaku will decrease sharply. According to the advertising revenue calculated based on the number of views on "Youtube", one view is equivalent to 0.5 yen in advertising fees. If the current production cost of one season of animation is 150 million yen, then the number of views of animation works on Youtube will need to be around 300 million. In the past, TV anime was produced based on advertising revenue, and the TV station would provide sufficient production funds, but this is a thing of the distant past. Now, the only animations that can enjoy this treatment are probably a few works broadcast during prime time. What will happen to the new late-night animation when discs are not selling well? There will still be production companies that hold the mentality that they will definitely win the jackpot and continue to gamble to produce new animations.

On the other hand, the two animations "Strike Witches" and "Hiroki" recently announced that the latest episodes will be postponed, and "Occultic;Nine" has even suspended the broadcast of the first two episodes due to production reasons. Is it true that, as Shinji Takamatsu said, the animation industry has become a gamble?