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Answerman - Uncertain Futures

Wow, I would have never thought people directly involved in a show, such as the head writer or voice actors, get overseas royalties. You'd think that was freelance work and selling the show would be the sole business of the producers.

Counter-intuitive, yes, but there are good reasons why this is the case. Those American publishers, while being owned partially or entirely by their Japanese overlords, are legally separate companies. Whenever a manga or a book or an anime gets transferred to another company, several people, and usually several different companies, need to get paid. When they get paid, they get a percentage or an amount based on, whatever the license fee was. These people include the author and their agent or estate for manga. For anime, we can also add every other company on the Production Committee, the head writer (series composition), some voice actors, and often music composers and publishers.

In regard to the US divisions/subsidiaries of companies paying licensing fees to their "overlords," there may also be more shadowy reasons for that type of thing to take into consideration. Average people often don't have any exposure to some of the more complicated aspects of international business, but there is a whole lot of funny stuff going on behind the scenes by the accountants and tax professionals. Money moves around in ways that might seem strange to us but may serve some arcane purpose due to international taxation for example. Like, I would assume that a US division of an international company could lower its tax burden by paying "expenses" to its overlords over seas, when in reality that money will be profits for the stakeholders. They shift the money out of the US to avoid US taxes and then bring it back in in other ways. I'm not saying that is definitely what is going on with the examples discussed here, but just saying that there is a lot of funny stuff that goes on behind the scenes with international business.

So even if and when those companies (branches?) in the west are owned by some percentage by their Japanese HQ, due to bureaucratic proceedings those companies are literally paying to themselves from the rights they already own. Yes, I'm aware that technically companies like Kodansha and Kodansha USA are two separate entities, but is still buffles me...

So even if and when those companies (branches?) in the west are owned by some percentage by their Japanese HQ, due to bureaucratic proceedings those companies are literally paying to themselves for the rights they already own. Yes, I'm aware that technically companies like Kodansha and Kodansha USA are two separate entities, but is still buffles me...

By comparison, would the American division of a foreign car company be paying such fees to their foreign parent company?

In regard to the US divisions/subsidiaries of companies paying licensing fees to their "overlords," there may also be more shadowy reasons for that type of thing to take into consideration. Average people often don't have any exposure to some of the more complicated aspects of international business, but there is a whole lot of funny stuff going on behind the scenes by the accountants and tax professionals. Money moves around in ways that might seem strange to us but may serve some arcane purpose due to international taxation for example. Like, I would assume that a US division of an international company could lower its tax burden by paying "expenses" to its overlords over seas, when in reality that money will be profits for the stakeholders. They shift the money out of the US to avoid US taxes and then bring it back in in other ways. I'm not saying that is definitely what is going on with the examples discussed here, but just saying that there is a lot of funny stuff that goes on behind the scenes with international business.

(Also, the long lead time and huge minimum orders required in getting those parts of the package makes them very hard to reorder, which is why those fancy artbook limited editions are typically limited to a single pressing.) The material cost per unit goes from around $5 (for a standard 2-disc, 13-episode BD release) to as high as $20 and up. When the product is that expensive to manufacture, it really only makes sense to do so as a limited edition. You want to be able to sell as many as you made, because every box of unsold inventory means that all the money you spent on manufacturing went to waste.

And so, yes, the salaried animation staff was cut loose, and if and when the studio churns to life again to create a new feature film, they will hire artists once again. Hopefully, many of the same ones will return. But this time, they'll be hired on a project-by-project basis, as they are at every other anime studio. It's a little sad, but it's the responsible way to keep the company going.

I do think Pony Canyon is taking a gamble on beginning distribution in the US. Others have walked that path and have paid the price of failure, some of their bones still sit on the shelves of RightStuf's warehouse and occasionally show up in the clearance bins. I sincerely hope that they don't hurt themselves by doing this.

So even if and when those companies (branches?) in the west are owned by some percentage by their Japanese HQ, due to bureaucratic proceedings those companies are literally paying to themselves for the rights they already own. Yes, I'm aware that technically companies like Kodansha and Kodansha USA are two separate entities, but is still buffles me...