The anime market is currently experiencing historic growth. However, according to a prominent producer, this boom also carries risks and could cause significant structural problems in the long term. We summarize.
Anime bubble as a warning signal
Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, the founder of IG Port and president of the Production IG studio, known for works such as “Ghost in the Shell,” “Haikyu!!,” and “Psycho-Pass,” was unusually critical of the current state of the anime industry in a conversation with the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO).
In his opinion, the industry is currently in a kind of state »Bubble«which ensures strong growth, but at the same time also unites in the long term due to the rapidly increasing number of productions and the sharp increase in sales prices »Elimination process« something that only a few companies can cope with.
The producer also emphasized that the international market has increased significantly thanks to streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. Although this has increased the global reach of anime, the competition has also become much more intense – especially when it comes to promoting young talent.
New talent is now being produced worldwide, which is why Japan no longer naturally holds the leading position in the anime sector.
If it is not possible to train producers and creative managers at an internationally competitive level in the future, there is a risk of a loss of importance or gradual displacement in the long term.
Increasing budgets
From his point of view, however, it is not just the creative development that is problematic, but also the economic dimension. If there is a lack of managers and producers who can successfully place content on the international market, there are clear limits to further progress.
At the same time, anime production budgets have increased massively in some cases and have recently even more than doubled in certain cases. According to Ishikawa, the current costs per episode are between around 18 and 300 million yen, which is equivalent to around 96,000 to 1.6 million euros.
This opens up new opportunities for creative teams, but at the same time investors are faced with ever greater challenges. In addition, the industry is becoming increasingly divergent, which means that many projects in certain budget segments – especially smaller and medium-sized productions – can hardly be implemented and could disappear from the market completely in the long term.
Despite the numerous warning signals, the current development of course also offers great opportunities, but whether this will result in stable expansion or hard consolidation in the long term will largely depend on how well Japan will succeed in maintaining its creative and economic leadership roles in global competition.
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Via VIPO
© H.Furudate / Shueisha, HAIKYU!! Project, MBS