CATDOLL: Japanese animation production companies are frequently exposed to bankruptcy. Conscientious production cannot be used to make money.

Business is like a battlefield, there are victories and defeats. The most concerned event in the industry recently is the bankruptcy crisis of the animation company Manglobe. This incident has a wide range of implications, and even one of the "Ito Project" theatrical versions, "Organ", has fallen into production difficulties and was forced to postpone. Fortunately, a company took over and the theatrical version was reborn, but the loss of manpower and material resources is by no means insignificant. In addition, the Tokyo District Court officially accepted the company's application on November 11, and the amount of debt was also exposed, which was as high as 544.5 million yen!

Gangsta Gangster

Manglobe, which once produced the animation "The World God Only Knows", is a 13-year-old old animation production company. It ended with such a dramatic ending, which made people sigh. And its final work "GANGSTA Gangster" was being broadcast as a new show at the time of the incident. This black and violent animation has won a good reputation among anime fans. Unfortunately, the animation was implicated, and the last episode ended hastily, and a large number of collapses appeared, which suddenly lowered the level of this work. For the audience, this is like being told that the voice actor of Anna in "A Boring World Without Dirty Jokes" "Matsukura Misuke" suddenly passed away. It's unrealistic.

The World God Only Knows

Kyoto Animation, a powerful player in the two-dimensional world, has been making a lot of moves recently. Not only is it going to launch the second season and theatrical version of Sound! Euphonium, it is even planning to invest in building a new office building next year, which shows that it has the idea of ​​expanding its business. This sharp contrast reveals the ruthless competition in the industry, which is really a life-and-death struggle.

Sound! Euphonium

However, when it comes to animation production companies that have gone bankrupt or even closed down, there are more than just Manglobe. AIC, which is known as the conscience of the industry like Kyoto, is in a miserable state. As the producer of many popular works such as "Heaven's Lost Property", "My Few Friends", "My Sister Is Not That Cute" and "Date A Live", AIC has an irreplaceable position in the hearts of animation fans. Back then, AIC was the spokesperson for high-quality animation, and it never disappointed the audience, but a good reputation does not mean a lot of money. Due to heavy debts, it was eventually acquired by the slot machine company OIZUMI.

"Heaven's Lost Property"

The two most resentful anime fans are probably "Date A Live" and "Heaven's Lost Property". These two works have a large fan base under the creation of AIC. With the end of AIC, the copyright of "Date A Live" of AIC PLUS+ and the copyright of the third season of "Heaven's Lost Property" originally planned to be produced of AIC ASTA were transferred to Production IMS. The core members of this company came from AIC, and with its strange method of "Master of Collapse", it brought a devastating blow to these two works. Not only did the picture fail to surpass the previous one, but it was greatly discounted. However, after the merger, AIC seemed to disappear from the anime circle, and no new works were released.

Date A Live Season 2

The famous GONZO company has a similar fate to AIC. This company, founded in 1992, is indeed a legend. It has produced many excellent animation works, such as "The Royal Anglican Knights", "Blood of the Holy Demon", "Defense of the Earth", "Genius Mahjong Girls", "Strike Witches", "Cross & Vampire" and "Seto no Hanayome", which are still loved by anime fans. But it also has a bad fate, with financial crises one after another. Due to its poor management, it went bankrupt in 2008. Later, it made a comeback in 2011, but the BD sales of its comeback masterpiece "Silver Wings Farm" were too low, and it faced the dilemma of bankruptcy again. But as if it was a joke of fate, this indestructible cockroach also had a new work "That's the Voice Actor" appearing in this year's July new show, and it has gained a high popularity.

"Genius Mahjong Girl"

That's the Voice Actor

Of course, other animation companies that went bankrupt include TRANS ARTS (the old version of "The Prince of Tennis") and Group Ta ("Takeshi", "The Ballad of Death", "Looking at the Half-Moon Night Sky", "Alice Academy", "Night on the Galactic Railroad"). Due to their closure, countless animation masterpieces have become eternal childhood memories. Why are so many animation companies so vulnerable, and there are many conscientious big companies?

Baseball Heroes

The way of watching animation is changing. Although the mainstream media is still TV stations, with the popularization of the Internet in recent years, more and more people choose to watch online. The advantage of this is that the producer can get a high profit by charging copyright agency fees; and the production cost of BD leads to high prices, so in terms of purchase, anime fans will make choices based on their preferences. Recently, when the producer of "Shirobako" talked about the future trend of the Japanese animation industry, he mentioned that BDs are not very popular, but as comics OADs, they can sell well, and there are quite a few cases of making profits in this way. Animation is no longer the industry with the largest number of BDs. It is now in the process of entering the transformation period of the business model, and the BD model has begun to transition to other models. Of course, the income of animation production companies is not limited to selling animation BDs, there are also marketing models such as peripherals, but competition and survival are still very severe, and more companies have developed into multiple fields.

Shirobako

I hope that those once popular animations will not be forgotten because of the bankruptcy of the original production companies. As long as they have commercial value, I believe there will be companies to take over. I hope these conscientious works can stand the test and make the dreams of animation fans come true.