Start anime studio for half of your mortgage

Yes, misleading headline, I know.

Anime News Network has translated portions of a Japan Fair Trade Commission report on the anime industry, based on surveys of independent animation firms and their employees.

I can’t really provide any insight into this particular news item.  I’m not even sure of the implications.  I’m just looking at the factoid that 62.8% of the anime studios have capitalization of under $100,000 US, and wondering if I’m in the wrong business.

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MangaCast rates Dark Horse, the one manga publisher that didn’t bow to online pressure, swam against the shojo current, and carved its own path in the industry with manly man manga.  The fact that they publish Berserk at a reasonable pace is worth two letter grades alone.

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Almost missed it… Precocious Curmudgeon coaxes a response from Fanfare’s Stephen Robson about how the niche manga publisher may be affected by Diamond’s policy changes.  Fanfare will still be carried by Diamond - despite everything, Diamond’s record on accomodating publishers such as Fanfare has been quite good – but Robson is worried about the health of his backlist sales.

There’s one offhand point in Robson’s response which I think is worth closer scrutiny: the idea that reducing the number of publishers at the bottom can help those that do survive the purge to sell more.  Besides being slightly machiavellian, I’m not sure if recent history supports it.  This very same argument was raised when Diamond last increased the minimums and introduced the under benchmark, but looking at the top 300 lists I have been collecting since November 2005 and ICv2′s sales stats, I cannot discern a notable rise in alternative comics sales.   Sales quantity of the 300th comic has definitely gone up… but it seems to be a result of Marvel and DC releasing more product, thus pushing smaller publishers out of the top 300 altogether.

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Robot 6 wraps up some of the latest online reactions to Diamond’s policy changes, including perspective from some who have one foot in retail and the other in publishing.  Definitely give all of these a read if you’re following this story.

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ICv2 has an interview with Diamond’s Bill Schanes, which covers much of the same ground as the Newsarama interview.  Seriously, no one cares about Previews Adult? (T_T)

Meanwhile, Newsarama interviews Haven Distribution, the reorder comic distributor that sprung from Cold Cut.

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Truly useful market share data, in delicious pie chart form.  I will no longer trust any manga sales analysis that does not contain a “proxy fighter manga” category.

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Viz is done hiring.  Nah-uh,  no more spots.  They were looking for editors, lawyers, sales people and such, but the spots are all filled.  Sorry.  Go away now.  Good luck when the recession is over.

Now please excuse me, I must fire up Word and, uhh… polish up my own resume… (Found via AnimeVice)