happy cel collectors

[quote]
From article at:
http://www.asahi.com/english/arts/TKY200406020134.html

Matsumoto said one U.S. toy manufacturer offered his company about $10 million (about 1.1 billion yen) for the rights to market merchandise featuring the characters of an animated cartoon his company hadn't even completed. The figure was particularly eye-popping for Matsumoto because it was 100 times what animated films earn on average from broadcasting rights in Japan.
[/quote]

The world of animation has almost completely gone digital. Maybe someone who knows more about the economics can answer this: Wouldn't it be a smart business move for anime studios -- well-publicized to be short on cash -- to paint a few a-1 end type shots and short sequences using traditional ink-and-paint solely for collectors?

According to the quote, Japanese broadcasting rights are $100,000 US. Okay. Let's do some math.

You could easily make $4,000-$5,000 per episode as the studio painting cels specifically to sell as originals. From a workflow perspective, the only thing that changes is production after sketches have been drawn. Backgrounds are still mostly done with paint. The cels cost between $5-$10 to paint in labor at most. Maybe another $5 in overhead. Each piece could be around $100 profit. You'd only need 50 pieces made for each episode. All the equipment and skilled labor to produce these cels already exists... and even worse, with everything digital now, it's idle capital.

It's not too insane to believe that you could easily sell a cel of characters from a show like Gundam Seed or Naruto for at **least** $150+, right?

So 26 eps * $4,000 (conservative estimate) = ~$100k. As the Japanese studio, you've just doubled your paycheck. At 50 cels * 26 eps (1300 pieces), you'd have several times the worldwide cel distribution of historically "rare" shows like Evangelion or Karekano. You'd probably have rarity on par with Saber Marionette or Utena (based on anecdotal personal observation of about 5 years of collecting).

This same process is used with some post-production cels, except they make both a digital copy and a cel copy. Why not just make one copy and put the cel copy under the camera instead?

Collectors value originals far more than they value repros. Collectors will be happy because they have under-the-camera originals.

The only issue is supply chain. Anime studios aren't distribution centers. To solve this, they can either partner with a large Japanese company like Mandarake or sell over the Internet. (Incidentally, as an open letter, I'd happily build the online system to make this happen if anyone has any connections with an anime studio.)

Crazy? Does anyone know for sure?

What a great idea! I've always insisted that original anime art, and it doesn't have to be cels, would have fantastic market value in both the US and European markets because of the continuing interest in Japanese pop culture. The uniqueness of even art like limited edition figurines (the highest end painted resin kit types) is almost a sure bet.

To know that a cel or drawing is done by specific animators or character designers and then have that cel completed as a production piece rather than left as a studio prop for CG anime is great. I know of hanken cel pieces that go for thousands of $$$ because they were done by specific character designers. If the studio name is attached to these specific pieces, they can easily go for more than 4 figures. This would be very select animation art.

Many people would like to own a piece of original animation art from CG anime because other than sketches, they are not to be found. I completely agree that reproduction pieces do not have the same cachet and hence long-term value of any art that can definitively be associated with the production of the anime. It would almost be necessary to tie into an existing distribution network as most studios do not seem to have the resources to manage moving and selling the cels. Many anime studios are small and have less than 40 employees so they would not have the skill sets for commercially selling animation art.

The big point I wanted to push was that it seems from all the articles I read about Japanese animation it looks like they **need** the income. Everyone would benefit. However, I think this is all a pipe dream unless someone "knows someone who knows someone". I would find it highly unlikely that an animation studio would know the first thing about setting up a retail supply chain or be willing to support two slightly different workflows.

When US presidents sign bills into law, they typically use several pens. Why is this? Specifically so that they can turn around and give these pens as gifts to politicians associated with the bill, foreign dignitaries, or whomever. I think forcing a little bit of inefficiency onto anime studios in exchange for a huge profit margin would benefit all.

The value of something going under the camera for production cannot be reproduced no matter how high the quality of the reproduction. The repros I see are quite good... hand-inked, hand-painted, on-model, excellent framing, etc. But at the end of the day, most collectors prefer the production art rough edges and all.

So does anyone know someone who knows someone at an anime studio?

*chirp* *chirp* *chirp*

Perhaps you can ask powerful dealers like Rick, he has tons of connections with artists and studios. Or if you can try asking the company route instead that has the licensing rights, i.e. Viz, ADV, or Manga Entertainment.

My experience with the Japanese is that their work ethic is completely different than that of the Western world.

What you've mentioned makes sense to any western educated person. I mean, I could send my artwork to Korea and China and have someone there ink a piece of acetate that I could easily sell for $200/each. I might pay less than $100 in total labor, supply and rent per piece to have these cels made. That's a decent return.

My experience with the Japanese is that these projects are done more out of love than the desire to make mega-yen. Unless you happen to be elevated to the level of CLAMP, Miyazaki or any other animation superstar, you'll only be able to make a decent living from manga. I know that Nakayoshi doesn't really pay their artists that much for the rights to publish their manga per month....just a decent stipend that enables them to pay rent, bills and buy a few nice things on the side. But, these artists continue to release story after story in the hopes that one day their idea is picked up for the latest TV Tokyo animated series. I suppose you could say it's kinda like the Lotto in the US...You gotta pay to play.