Forum - View topicANNtv - Inside Toei Animation (Part 1)
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Michael_Arnold
Posts: 11 |
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I don't think they do tours for the average visitor, but the museum (actually a "Gallery") is free and open to the public from 9:30 - 5:00. You have to sign in and get a pass to get in. It's closed on Mondays and holidays (and occasionally other days, usually without notice). Visitors get a free "gift"--a four or five frame strip of (discarded) film from one of the recent movies. The exhibit changes every once in a while, but they usually have a display centered around some featured TV show (something like Precure or One Piece, right now it looks like it's Fist of the North Star). It's in one relatively small room, so there wouldn't be nearly enough space to include samples from everything Toei has worked on. And most of the few visitors who go are little kids and their parents, so the materials on display aren't always very interesting. Occasionally they put out original cels and backgrounds, production materials from the shows, or the awards that the early films won at international festivals. They also have some really old documentaries on animation film production and DVDs of Toei's 1950s shorts that they sometimes play on small TVs in the corners of the room. The walls are covered with things like posters from different films and a timeline of Toei Doga's productions over the years. http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tag/index.html Just outside there are a few big cases full of DVD boxed sets and plastic models of different characters that otaku from the city come in to ogle at, and the next room is a "salon" with a bunch of couches and a vending machine that sells decent espresso for 100 yen. Sometimes there are small art displays in the salon too. |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2259 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Huh? Sailor moon aired on TV in R1 in 1995, and I think the only clamp that was released was magic knight rayearth on VHS at the time (if I recall, my sister who was in middle school had some of the tapes). Are you saying that you think sailor moon is as popular as it was because of the MKR release? That's nuts... |
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GATSU
Posts: 15700 |
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samuel:
X, CCS and MKR were the ones which ended up being successful, here. Sailor Moon didn't make a comeback until after said series proved profitable. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1685 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Seriously, GATSU, do you just make this stuff up? How in the world can you say a series with no merchandising, no television broadcast (or in the case of CCS, a cancelled one) and an otaku-only fanbase more successful than something that actually penetrated the mainstream?
And for the record, all of those came AFTER Sailor Moon's US appearance. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10474 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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You have a very interesting perspective. Yes, X and MKR never ran into the disappointments that SM ran into (CCS on the other hand...), but to say they were more successful... is.... pretty wild. SM aired weekly, it was stripped,it's still stripped in Canada, it introduced *MILLIONS* of North Americans to anime and is generally regarded as one of the biggest gateway titles that anime ever had (along side Robotech and Dragonball). Remember this poll ? SM's popularity had waned by the time Pioneer got around to finishing the series (or what they had of it) on DVD, yet it still sold more than X TV and CCS combined (insider source), I'm pretty sure more than all three combined (X,CCS,MKR). -t |
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2259 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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So ignoring the G-man, do you think I have a point about Sailor Moon paving the way for Clamp's current success in the US? Maybe even all shoujo manga... |
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Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10474 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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In regards to all Shoujo... Contributing, without a doubt! Being first to contribute, pretty much yes. "Paving?" Debatable. If by paving you mean being the biggest contributor, without which it wouldn't have happened unless something else replaced it, I'd say "no." Tokyopop did more, across many titles, than SM did. SM of course was the first Shoujo that Tokyopop released, so it's worth pondering how much SM's success contributed to their decision to experiment with other titles. Still, there's no doubt that SM was a gateway for many people, and I think it's safe to suggest that anime and manga, particularly shoujo, enjoyed more success in North America thanks to SM. In regards to CLAMP alone, I'd say that they had many entry points, many of which are so different from SM that SM can't be thought to have helped. Ie: CCS (younger demo), X (older demo), Chobits (male demo). I honestly don't see SM as having opened any particular doors for CLAMP. -t |
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GATSU
Posts: 15700 |
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jsevakis:
X had the manga and anime film, and occasional posters and wall scrolls. MKR had those DVDs and tapes from MB and the manga from Tokyopop. The only thing Sailor Moon had was a crappy broadcast time and some dolls. [And I'm aware of the manga for SM, but Fruits Basket and Love Hina are really what put TP on the map. They were still small-time before they got those titles. ] You might argue that CCS was bungled, but at least people saw it. And the original even did well on dvd. So in actuality, it's Sailor Moon that's the otaku show. tempest:
Disagree on the part about millions, since it's clearly not reflected in the number of cosplayers and/or tv ratings for the series. And the poll primarily reflects the hardcore and/or seasoned fans who frequent ANN, not necessarily the casual fans.
I'm sure that's the case, but SM likely only sold more than CCS, because the revenue for the latter series was split between two companies. If Geneon owned the distribution and merchandising rights to CCS, and not just the exclusive dvd replication rights, it might be a different story.
Doubt it, or we'd be seeing less Tsubasa and XXXHolic, and more of Stars and live-action show.
By that logic, the original DB is responsible for DBZ's success. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4878 |
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One of my friends is not, nor has ever been, an anime fan in any sense. She has a decade-old Sailor Moon soundtrack CD buried in her room at home (and no, I've never let her live it down
 ). My neighbor's sister is not, nor has ever been, an anime fan in any sense. She used to watch Sailor Moon religiously back when it was being broadcast. How you can call a show that garners fans like that "just for otaku" is rather beyond me. Before I even had a good feel for what anime really was, I'd never heard of properties like X or CCS, but I sure as hell knew the name "Sailor Moon."
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Look, I LOVE MKR, I've got lots of merch and the manga and what not, and I'm STILL waiting for CLAMP to finish X (and I own the LD boxset for the movie which was terrible), but it's LUDICROUS to say CLAMP had more impact on US fans (even collectively) than Sailor Moon. (and EVEN if you want to make that argument, it's like saying Rumiko Takahashi was more influential than DBZ, if you take everything she ever did, you might be right, but that's at LEAST 6 titles vs. 1. There is not a SINGLE CLAMP title (and I'm a CLAMP fan), or ANY shoujo title, that's had more impact (in the US) than Sailor Moon) #1, Without Sailor Moon, TokyoPop folds back when they were Mixx. Sure Love Hina and Fruits Basket were bigger sellers (benefiting from a MUCH different fan climate created by Sailor Moon) but if Mixx hadn't had Sailor Moon the magazine would have died. And if you don't believe me, look at what happened when they split it off into "Smile", and if he's honest I'll bet even Stu Levy himself would admit as much. #2, Without Sailor Moon, anime fandom is SciFi fandom's goofy about as acceptable little brother. 15 years ago anime fandom had a demographic easily comparable to RPGaming and Star Trek (and a high degree of crossover population). Within 5 years of Sailor Moon on TV the numbers were closer to 50/50 (male/female) and became what they are today. Finally, by what metric are you saying "Sailor Moon wasn't successful until after X, CCS and MKR"? The X movie didn't come out until 1996 (didn't hit US till 2000) and none of the rest of that series (animated) came till much later than that. MKR likewise was a later release (and if you're going to argue that it's MKR that sold the magazine that they both ran in then you're living in a fantasy land not unlike Cephiro) CCS was generally considered a commercial FAILURE in the US. Considering that the United States release (and the Japanese release for that matter) predates all those titles by a fairly wide margin AND had provable sales WELL in excess of any other shoujo of its day, I don't see your frame of reference. (I would also point out that Sailor Moon would POSSIBLY challenge any shoujo in overall sales even now IF licensing hadn't gotten screwed, altho to be fair they MIGHT have yanked that due to unwillingness in the US market to accept the issues of the later seasons. And on that token, if you're saying Toei has issues on the BUSINESS side, well then I may concede your point, but their PRODUCTION efforts deserve whatever pride they choose to espouse) |
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Vuwazy
Posts: 208 |
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It was great to see the history and hear about the shows they worked on. Didn't care that much about the animation part though.
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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As if to prove my point (and to show "cosplayer numbers" are not everything, altho I'd wager total cosplayers since '95 Sailor Moon can match with ANY title) http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/625.html The most notable bit is: Robert Boyd of LPC, the company that sells Tokyopop titles to bookstores, told ICv2 that Sailor Moon sells better than any of the other graphic novels his company reps by a factor of 'at least' 1.5. Tokyopop estimates that the company has sold at least a million English language Sailor Moon books in North America. Since the beginning of this year LPC alone has sold over 25,000 copies of the bestselling Sailor Moon graphic novel, and five other Sailor Moon books have registered similarly strong performances during the same period. (from article, circa: 2001) (so I'd say that "millions" figure is pretty accurate) |
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GATSU
Posts: 15700 |
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Top Gun:
The fact that they're still not anime fans is precisely why SM is just for otaku here. Those girls are satisfied with the crappy DiC versions, and not the originals.
I knew what Legend of Zelda was, too, but I'd never heard of Cyborg 009 before I read the Shotaro Ishinomori manga; so I'm not sure about the point you're making here. By your own argument, Sailor Moon clearly didn't help you get into anime, either. Heero:
Are you kidding? I saw more people cosplaying and talking about Chobits than I ever saw for Sailor Moon.
Actually, Mixx folded, anyway. So, other than giving the company a foothold in the market, you could argue SM didn't help the company.
That had more to do with trying to create a market for something which wasn't in demand.
I think SM added to the goofiness. It's Akira and GITS, and subsequently the Matrix, which made the genre less geeky. And of course, Pokemon. *sigh*
But the popularity of the manga caused a lot more fansubs of X than fansubs of SM, thus feeding off one another...
If you like the X manga, and you want to read more from CLAMP, of course you're going to buy MKR. Do the math.
Except for paving the way for more shojo anime and the entire series getting released here while that didn't happen with Sailor Stars, sure.
LPC =/= Tokyopop. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4878 |
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"Those girls" were probably 10 or younger at the time; of course they didn't know or care what edits were or were not being made to the series. And I have no idea where you're getting at with your point. The simple fact that non-anime fans not only knew about the series, but were ardent fans of it, means that it did what very few anime titles have managed to do: break through into the general popular culture. It's in the same vein as Pokemon or DBZ. Try asking any non-anime fan today if they've heard of something called "Card Captor Sakura," and you'll just get laughed at.
And of course Sailor Moon didn't turn me into an anime fan, seeing as how I never watched a second of what I considered "Japanese crap" back in the day. And even if I hadn't had that inherent bias, I would have hated it anyway, considering it was about a bunch of girls running around. (Eww, cooties!) That's completely beside the point, though. As I said above, I knew of it (and even its theme song...which is now stuck in my head  ) despite having no interest in it or anime in general...which indicates it had broken through into a market beyond that of strictly anime fans.
And saying that GITS or Akira let in "less geeky" fans? Lulz. |
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posterior_praiser
 Posts: 296 |
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Um what? SM is one of THE most infulential anime to ever cross overseas. People who have no clue about anime know sailor moon. As much as I love CLAMP, they do not have any titles with that kind of name recognition. If there was a re-release of Sailor Moon today dual language and a rebroadcast of the later seasons, it would rake in money hand over fist. Even CCS, the only CLAMP title shown on broadcast TV unless im mistaken was not nearly as popular even as it was airing.
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