Crowdfunding Japanese Commercial Animation: Collective Financing Experiences in Anime

Abstract

This paper offers an exploration of the incipient development of crowdfunding anime projects for short and medium-length films. Japanese commercial animation is characterised by the support of a strong production industry that primarily targets local audiences through cross-media projects, developed in synergy with other cultural sectors (such as the publishing industry, record labels or video game developers). The growing acceptance of anime in markets around the world has strengthened it as one of the most well-known forms of Japanese popular culture and has also resulted in changes to some of the dominant dynamics of its production to adapt to technological innovations. One of these changes has been the rise of crowdfunding, an increasingly popular form of financing involving the patronage of fans from all corners of the world who want to participate in these audiovisual projects. This paper analyses the response to some of the more popular initiatives from a historiographical perspective on the production and reception of commercial animation and the main theories related to the relationship between the hyperactive nature of Japanese fandom and collective financing. The conclusions include the confirmation of the increasing receptiveness to anime crowdfunding among potential sponsors-especially among fans based outside Japan on platforms with a global reach, such as Kickstarter-and a consideration of the transformative potential of this phenomenon for a precarious industry and its usefulness as a tool for exploring the viability of the production and distribution of projects by animation studios.

TV Film Financing in the Era of “Connected TV”: How Do “Legacy” Broadcasters Respond to Market Changes?

“…The stability shown by the current TV film market can also be explained by the openness and increasing variety of funding models (Bonini & Pais, 2017;Freeman, 2017;Ladson & Lee, 2017;Loriguillo-López, 2017;Papadimitriou, 2017). From this research we learn that greater participation of the audience in possible funding opportunities strengthens the market and produces greater interest in the content (Freeman, 2017).…”

“…This research shows that different forms of funding may be on the rise (see e.g. Ladson & Lee, 2017;Loriguillo-López, 2017;Papadimitriou, 2017), which will, in turn, lead to new organizational management strategies down the road.…”

“…TV film financing is a growing and relevant topic of academic, public and industry-wide debate, because of the changes produced through convergence that are further multiplied by the rise of new digital technologies (Bonini & Pais, 2017;Freeman, 2017;FutureScape, 2011;Herzog & Karppinen, 2014;Ladson & Lee, 2017;Lange, 2015;Loriguillo-López, 2017;Lowe & Berg, 2013;Papadimitriou, 2017). Essentially, digital technology changes broadcast media -particularly through its impact on production capabilities, distribution platforms and funding models -and yet, surprisingly, the effect of these changes is taking time and the traditional TV industry is proving to be quite resilient toward change.…”

Making Sense of Complex Narration in Perfect Blue

“… 1. The degree of acceptance of these titles makes complex anime a paradigmatic art form for narrative experimentation in a market as hypersaturated as the Japanese audiovisual market. Both trends fit comfortably in the evolution of commercial culture, now conditioned by the democratization of viewing outlets and by increasingly autonomous consumption in a market for culture where market niches (Anderson, 2008), narrowcasting and cross-media (Steinberg, 2017) reward such innovations with financial returns (Loriguillo-López, 2017). …”

Filmmaking and Crowdfunding: A Right Match?

“…For the film industry, crowdfunding has become a popular form of financing involving the patronage of fans located anywhere in the world. Fans are willing to support such projects ever since the creation of the first specialised platforms [7,[26][27][28][29][30][31]. Some authors even argue that new forms of funding the film industry have an even higher impact-they have consequences of the industry, on the kinds of films produced, on the topics explored and on the way they are produced [32].…”