Forum

This was informative. Did end up Wiking how many companies Kadokawa actually owns and can understand much better why Sony would want them. I know people keep focusing on the FromSoftware part, but they wouldn't go this far just for that one company.

I think this reflects a larger trend of large businesses trying to create closed ecosystems. The less you have to outsource, the more money you can keep and the more control you can exert on the consumer.

When do we think someone makes a move to buy Naro?

No mention of South Korea's Kakao been on a bit of a expansion in their share-ownership in Kadokawa?

i'm glad they did an answerman on this topic as they always tend to be solid explanation. However i have to admit as someone with autism & ADHD it still is a bit difficult for me to get used to the new guy as Justin Sevakis was always like a big brother to me.

Quote:

It may mean that this consolidation will result in less anime being produced in the future. That's probably a good thing, as Japan struggles with a capacity problem. Hopefully, fewer productions will mean better quality and bigger franchises. It could improve the standard of the output across the board with smaller productions taken out of the equation, and it will allow each of these series the opportunity to become franchises.

Somebody tell me why I'm supposed to be happy about smaller niche productions getting killed for the sake of boring mass appeal productions. And why does less competition now increase quality?

Quote:

but another logical conclusion of this hyper-consolidation will be that you're going to see a lot more of those “xxxx: The Anime” type productions you all profess to hate so much if this deal goes ahead.

So not only do I have less anime to choose from, a chunk of what's left will just be American shows?

Only on the verge of their death do I realise what Kadokawa was protecting me from. Crying or Very sad

Joe Mello wrote:

I think this reflects a larger trend of large businesses trying to create closed ecosystems. The less you have to outsource, the more money you can keep and the more control you can exert on the consumer.

When do we think someone makes a move to buy Naro?

Is there any real benefits to buy the Narou itself (considering it's basically self-publishing site for the writers which have no part to the rights of the published works) instead of negotiating with the authors of proven successful works (how publishers approaching it today) for major holders to have the access to IP?

Quote:

Hopefully, fewer productions will mean better quality and bigger franchises.

To be honest, if Japan stopped producing single-cour late night shows (which perhaps get a second season a year or two down the line), I'd probably tune out of modern anime altogether. Obviously, from my user name, I was into some "franchise" anime when I was younger but I almost entirely prefer standalone productions with low episode counts these days.

(Okay, I'd be interested in a new season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya which is kind of a franchise since it does have spin-offs, but Haruhi Suzumiya is about the biggest franchise I'd still be interested in watching new productions of.)

#ChewyBike wrote:

Somebody tell me why I'm supposed to be happy about smaller niche productions getting killed for the sake of boring mass appeal productions.

I agree completely. My favourite anime this year was My Wife Has No Emotion which was so niche that it didn't even appear on this site's summer season weekly rankings.

Consolidation is never a good thing and never should be seen as a good thing. Killing off smaller production companies that make niche series may seem like it's good on paper for penny pushers, but for anime fans? It's going to ruin a lot of series. How many beloved niche series only managed to survive thanks to die hard fans that stuck with it or have had these series go on to be some of the most memorable of their season?

Killing off smaller studios only to put everything under Sony's umbrella is going to make things worse for everything. Plus, who is to say that Sony will actually put more effort into creating anime if they gain this near monopoly? Generally, a monopoly means that the company is going to make the bare minimum effort going forward rather than actually increasing the quality of their output or continuing series. I'd be glad to be proven wrong but I foresee a situation where Sony just cuts production to the cheapest levels possible since, what other anime would there be to watch besides theirs?

Maybe we'll start seeing even more ambitious niche series taking the spotlight going forward if that's the case.

If that means that Kadokawa will stop producing so many isekai animes, I totally agree.

Seriously, we have more isekais a year than Macross series in 40.

Could it help in terms of quality and overall production conditions? Conceivably. There are already so many shows made each season that it's more than anyone can hope to keep up with realistically. That said, I'm skeptical. I know that it's like anything else in entertainment where they want those mass-market appealing franchises that go on to sell and sell and sell. But, I've caught myself enjoying some niche show and thinking how great it is that somebody gave it the go ahead that it would never have elsewhere.

kgw wrote:

If that means that Kadokawa will stop producing so many isekai animes, I totally agree.

Seriously, we have more isekais a year than Macross series in 40.

If you think only Kadokawa is only behind the current isekai flood - you are way far from exact situation, as most of the current stuff is not even produced by Kadokawa at all, but rather the other publishers (Kodansha, Overlap, SB Creative, Micro Magazine, Fujimi Shobo, there is a lot of them) who are sitting on the pile of Narou-kei - so ruling Kadokawa out will change literally nothing with that.

Quote:

It is incredibly difficult to launch a successful original anime IP. If it isn't already based on an existing manga or light novel, you may as well not bother. According to the excellent substack, Animenomics, which has written on this topic extensively in their latest edition, “Three out of four anime properties, in which Sony has accelerated investments, are adapted from other media like manga, light novels, video games, according to an analysis of anime broadcasting data published in 2014.”

I decided to run some numbers on this. AniList's "popularity" numbers are far from the best measurement of an IP's success, but they're at least a decent starting point. I decided to query their API for the most "popular" anime listed as "original" from the past 20 years, excluding movies (because Your Name and such don't exactly run on the same "franchise" rules as the industry at large). The query:

Code:

query Originals {
Page {
media(type: ANIME, source: ORIGINAL, sort: POPULARITY_DESC, format_not: MOVIE, startDate_greater: 20040930) {
startDate { year month }
popularity
title { english romaji }
}
}
}

And here were the top 50 results (default page size), re-sorted in chronological order:

Code:

2006-02 121685 Ergo Proxy
2006-10 382018 Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
2007-04 291633 Gurren Lagann
2007-04 144126 Darker than Black
2008-04 288402 Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2
2009-04 93577 Eden of the East
2010-04 368081 Angel Beats!
2011-01 258177 Puella Magi Madoka Magica
2011-04 333895 Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
2011-10 199667 Guilty Crown
2012-10 292102 PSYCHO-PASS
2012-10 145781 K
2013-01 107124 Tamako Market
2013-06 159434 Free! -Iwatobi Swim Club-
2013-10 341589 Kill la Kill
2013-10 117417 A Lull in the Sea (Nagi-Asu: Nagi no Asukara)
2014-07 229020 Terror in Resonance
2014-07 89097 ALDNOAH.ZERO
2014-10 118612 PSYCHO-PASS 2
2014-10 97352 SHIROBAKO
2015-01 383800 Death Parade
2015-04 207634 Plastic Memories
2015-07 341654 Charlotte
2016-04 167031 Kiznaiver
2016-04 156309 Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress
2016-07 162403 91 Days
2016-10 195855 Yuri!!! on ICE
2017-01 138360 Little Witch Academia (TV)
2017-04 129052 Tsukigakirei
2017-04 112337 Re:CREATORS
2018-01 398150 DARLING in the FRANXX
2018-01 139759 A Place Further Than the Universe
2018-03 86937 B: The Beginning
2018-04 117589 Megalobox
2018-10 130470 ZOMBIE LAND SAGA
2018-10 87483 SSSS.GRIDMAN
2019-04 89526 ISEKAI QUARTET
2019-04 88553 Carole & Tuesday
2020-01 102921 ID: INVADED
2020-03 109172 BNA
2020-06 186102 Great Pretender
2020-10 131931 Akudama Drive
2021-01 236909 WONDER EGG PRIORITY
2021-01 195642 SK8 the Infinity
2021-04 142497 Vivy -Fluorite Eye's Song-
2021-04 117466 Link Click
2021-04 115325 ODDTAXI
2021-07 97690 Sonny Boy
2022-07 154052 Lycoris Recoil
2023-01 89192 Buddy Daddies

Which is, uh, a pretty low bar for the top 50 in a 20-year span. Code Geass and Madoka are big names, but there's nothing on the level of Eva or Gundam. And Death Parade? Sonny Boy? Tsukigakirei? There's only a few on this list that I think can really be classified as "a successful original anime IP".

(Plus there's some pretty questionable inclusions w/r/t "original", like Isekai Quartet. And SSSS.Gridman was popular enough to get a spinoff/sequel and a movie eventually, but it's still derivative of an old tokusatsu IP.)

This is not good, and only serves to show people that trustbusting of large media conglomerates is needed.

kouga88 wrote:

Consolidation is never a good thing

I’ll keep in this mind that next time people complain about they’re being too many streaming services.

kouga88 wrote:

Generally, a monopoly means that the company is going to make the bare minimum effort going forward rather than actually increasing the quality of their output or continuing series.

Isn’t one of the more prevalent complaints about modern anime how poor a given production is in addition to people wanting continuations of their favorite series with some eventually happening (Bleach) and others still left wanting (Hitman)?

You don’t need a monopoly to achieve that.

"Bloomberg reports that both Kadokawa and Sony have been going back and forth for a number of years, with the former wanting Sony to make a full purchase whereas the latter was only interested in strategic investments in anime and video game IP.

Though Bloomberg’s report mentions that Microsoft, Tencent, and Kakao have all expressed an interest in Kadokawa, it stops short of confirming that Kadokawa wanted to fight off a foreign entity in favor of the local Sony Group."

Forum - View topic
Answerman - Why is Sony Offering to Buy Kadokawa?

There's No Freaking Way I'll Be Your Lover! Unless... Volumes 1-6 Manga Review

Aoashi Manga to End in 40th Volume

Scars Volume 1 Manga Review

The Big Holiday 2024 Giveaway

Most Anticipated Anime of Winter 2025

Merry Christmas 2024 From Around the Anime World

This Week in Anime - SonyFuniCrunchyKadoRoll

Macross 7 Episodes 1–26 Anime Streaming Review

Let This Grieving Soul Retire! Anime Gets 2nd Season

The Worst Anime of Fall 2024

Optimus Prime Actor Garry Chalk Diagnosed with Cancer

Tasokare Hotel – Episodes 1-3 Review (Press Screening)

The Best Anime of Fall 2024

Mamoru Hosoda Reveals Scarlet Anime Film for Release in Winter 2025

Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why is Sony Offering to Buy Kadokawa?

Forum

Forum - View topic
Answerman - Why is Sony Offering to Buy Kadokawa?