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NEWS: Crunchyroll's Ellation Launches New Division for Original Animated Content

Kai99 wrote:

This is a GREAT time to be a creator, especially if your aiming to create your own animated cartoons. This is really good news. So many companies are getting into the independent animation market. Now the reality of making animation similar to what comes out of Japan, but aimed at a different audience, is becoming very possible. We have an American run animation studio in Japan trying to get things started, now Crunchyroll is jumping into the fray. Use to be the idea of an non-Japanese getting to tell their story in a anime format was a fairytail. Now it more possible than ever.

I absolutely appreciate and admire your optimism and aims.

Just always remember to keep your feet firmly on the ground, look directly evenly ahead, and try to gain a wider understanding of the world as your spirit soars.

I don't want that. I want staff that can make a good show without having to point out their ethnicities, gender, sexual preference(s), politics, etc.

Another thing that someone pointed out to me is that for people who subscribe to crunchyroll specifically for japanese animation, most of them are going to actually be very pissed. Because crunchyroll says they support anime and yet they're not using their money to support actual anime. They're taking it and spending it on western cartoon animators with mild anime influence.

Besides, no one on the production side is saying the show is good BECAUSE it's run by women. They're saying they think it will be good, and it's ALSO run by women. Both are things worth mentioning.

There are still hundreds of anime on Crunchyroll and more getting added every season. The assumption that this is somehow going to result in all those anime (or even a few of them) going away is ridiculous. That's not how streaming services do business: the goal here is clearly to diversify the content, and that means both anime AND original shows, most likely with a separate budget for each. You're not losing anything, the service is only gaining more content (and potentially, more money with which to buy both anime AND cartoons.) If the show succeeds, they'll keep making it and still license more anime. If the show flops, they'll stop making it and still license more anime. There's no way you can lose here.

And honestly this idea that western and Japanese animation need to constantly be pitted against each other is kind of ridiculous and feels like a relic of the 90's. Good animation can come from anywhere, folks. Chill.

Really wish people stop making it into Japan vs US thing though. When America make one moderately successful animesque show somehow that suppose to prove how superior American's animation is to anime. Likewise if Americans want to make a show inspire by anime, they can do it and maybe it can be successful.

I don't know much about the law but isn't that illegal? Discrimination based on gender is a pretty big deal isn't it? How have they not gotten sued?

The point here is that CR is supposed to be about spending money on getting new anime licenses.

Recently they've been losing them to Netflix and Amazon.

If they have less money to spend on actual Anime because they're spending it on this, then yes, as a subscriber, I have an issue with that. Considering how easy the "free" alternatives are nowadays, they should be spending money on what makes their customers happy.

It's the same thing as when MS tried to get into TV a few years ago. That's not what people wanted out of their Xbox. They finally wised up, shut that down, and spent money on videogames.

But while Japanese anime has turned Crunchyroll into a niche streaming success story, it has also limited the type of stories shown on the service. “Anime continues to be a domestic product for Japan,” Gao said. Japanese animators produce their shows first and foremost for Japanese audiences, addressing Japanese sensibilities.

At the same time, Gao and his team started to notice a growing group of fans on its service who were honing their own animation skills. “We are seeing creators who grew up on our platform,” he said. Now, the company wants to give some of those new voices a forum by producing their shows for a worldwide audience. Said Gao: “Their perspective is a more global perspective.”