Forum - View topic

Answerman - Quick Answers Part 6

What you're talking about is called a "vanity project."

How do you know it's bad and they won't care? Is everyone who hasn't been picked up by a major Japanese publisher automatically a bad writer?

So anyone other than an animator writing a story to try to make into a film/series is just making a vanity project?

I'm writing a novel, and once I get an audience, I would like to make a kickstarter for an animated adaptation.

There are good pieces of writing that are currently too small to get the attention of a production committee, or that aren't considered "marketable" as anime, but that the world would benefit from an anime adaptation.

A few years ago Justin Sevakis wrote several pieces on how the anime industry works, and he said that a 12 episodes series typically cost between 2.5-3 million US dollars. I assume costs have risen since, but I have to imagine that if I showed up at the offices of a Japanese anime studio with 5 million dollars and demanded to have a 12 episodes series made, regardless of the kind of project, they would take me very seriously.

The closest thing I can think of to an outright vanity project anime being produced by someone out-of-pocket would be Madhouse's production of Glenn Danzig's pilot video for his comic series "Satanika" back in 1998

If they consider it a well-paid waste of time, they may subcontract significant chunks of the creative work to cheaper countries (like Korea or China) without telling you directly. They use those countries for the less creative parts of making every anime anyway.

The closest thing I can think of to an outright vanity project anime being produced by someone out-of-pocket would be Madhouse's production of Glenn Danzig's pilot video for his comic series "Satanika" back in 1998,

Is everything from Kickstarter just a vanity project, then?

There are good pieces of writing that are currently too small to get the attention of a production committee, or that aren't considered "marketable" as anime, but that the world would benefit from an anime adaptation. It's sort of pessimistic to tailor a response to a lackluster "vanity project" instead of to this situation.

The answer is still "no, and they never have." Every once in a while someone suggests such a thing, usually in an effort to reduce confusion in dealing with overseas countries that do observe Daylight Savings Time. (It never gets much traction.)

Twice a year by the clock, we get the "Why do we even have DST?" questions--
As I always heard it, it dates back to Ben Franklin, who proposed the idea as a service more for farmers than for average folk who wanted to enjoy daylight.
Obviously, our farmers aren't their farmers, which also explains the difference with other traditions that grew out of farm-colony concerns, such as school summer breaks over there.

I've always thought that if I became super wealthy, one of the first things I'd do is fund an adaptation of Saya No Uta. It would more or less still be in the same vein as a vanity project, but it would certainly require that I have dealings with Nitroplus, Urobuchi, and more or less act as a producer for the project. I have an entire dream staff, including all of the smaller roles that many people probably don't think of already thought through.
Yes, this is all just for fun, of course, but it's something friends and I like to talk about from time to time.

I would pick Berserk instead and start over from scratch as I am not content with any of its adaptions^^