Geneon Update

There has been one recent interesting tidbit in the Geneon situation. Navarre CEO Kerry Deacon held a conference call to talk about his company’s recent quarterly earnings report. Navarre is the parent company of FUNimation. Part of the call dealt with the impact of Geneon’s recent withdrawal on its FUNimation division.

Mr. Deacon said, "Generally we believe it could be positive to our position in the marketplace, both from a sales and a content acquisition basis." He specifically mentioned that Geneon had some "very strong content such as Sailor Moon, Van Helsing, and Black Lagoon, whose futures are unknown."

However, the above comments should be tempered by the fact that the main reason for the conference call was to discuss Navarre’s most recent quarterly earning’s report. That report had some bad news. The net sales of its publishing segment (which includes FUNimation) was down 22%…sales of $27 million which was down from $34.7 million from the same period last year). The report noted that most of this drop was due to FUNimation. There were a couple of mitigating factors which should make this report sound less dire. First, FUNimation’s product schedule is weighted towards the first and fourth quarters, so light sales during the second quarter is expected. Second, it was reported that FUNimation did meet sales and profit expectations for the quarter.

ICv2 Article: Geneon’s Fall a Positive for FUNimation?
ANN Story: Funimation’s Sales, Profit Meet Lowered Expectations

Bandai Namco Holdings Restructures

In other business related news, Bandai Namco Holdings (the holding company for the Namco Bandai Group) will be restructuring. They will transfer the home and arcade game business of Banpresto to Bandai Namco Games…both companies are subsidiaries of Bandai Namco. They will also move two of Banpresto’s subsidiaries, PleasureCast Co., Ltd. and Hanayashiki Co., Ltd. (both involved with the operation of amusement parks), to become subsidiaries of Namco Ltd. Banpresto will then concentrate on developing prizes for game center and arcade game machines.

Of more interest to anime fans will be Bandai Namco’s takeover bids of two other subsidiaries, Bandai Networks Co., Ltd. (mobile communications) and Bandai Visual Co., Ltd. (film production and distribution). Currently, Bandai Namco owns 62% of Bandai Visual shares and 70% of Bandai Networks shares. The plan is to buy shares through December 10 and conduct stock swaps for shares it cannot buy. The estimated cost of these takeover bids is 19.1 billion yen (about $173.7 million US). Why the takeover bids? According to an Anime Anime article:

"…the planned TOB [take over bids] of Bandai Visual and Bandai Networks aims at promoting the quick management decision-making for realizing the Group’s mid and long-term strategies. Officials of Bandai Namco HD say that, by holding 100% share of the two companies, the Group will be able to further generate synergies and maximize corporate values."

Until the takeover bid is complete, there should be little effect on Bandai Visual USA which is a subsidiary of Bandai Visual. Bandai Entertainment should remain unaffected since it is a separate subsidiary of Bandai Namco.

VarietyAsiaOnline Article: Bandai takes over subsidiaries
Anime Anime Article (via Katana Xtreme translation): Bandai Namco reorganizes business operations through TOB of Bandai V and Bandai Networks

Now on to some manga news.

Manga News

Classic Hollywood Movies Adapted As Manga

A new Japanese venture enterprise (with investors like Optrom, Inc., OGGI, Contents Bank Corp., and Glovic Co. Inc.), Manga Bank, has recently inaugurated a series of DVD/manga sets which adapt classic Hollywood movies into manga. The first four offerings in this series are Casablanca (1942), Charade (1963), Stagecoach (1939), and Wuthering Heights (1939).

Each 128-page manga will be based on the movie script and will be sold in a set with a DVD of the original movie. The movies will be subbed in Japanese. The sets will sell for 1,380 yen (excluding tax) which is about $12.71 (US). Mangaka Kenshi Hirokane (Human Crossing and Division Chief Kosaku Shima) is supervising the artists who are adapting the movies to manga.

Manga Bank is taking advantage of the fact that the copyrights for these films have expired in Japan. It should be noted, however, that all but Charade are still copyrighted in the US, so these sets may not make it to the States or will be sold at a higher price to compensate for paying the rights holders their fee. As to why they are taking this approach with public domain material, according to an Anime Anime article (via a Katana Xtreme translation) , Manga Bank says:

"There are plenty of bargain DVDs of public domain software, but too many rivals without copyright protection made the competition very severe. MANGA BANK’s project would aim to differentiate their products by adding the value of cartoon on those DVD."

ANN Story: Casablanca, Other Hollywood Movies Adapted into Manga
Japanese Source: AV Watch (includes pictures of DVD and manga)
Anime Anime Article (via a Katana Xtreme translation): Movies with expired copyright to be cartooned

Manganovel’s Online Manga Service

In an earlier sales article, I had mentioned a new online manga service called Manganovel. This service allows consumers to purchase manga at prices close to those found in Japan and East Asia mainly by removing the middleman (in this case this means the translators and editors). Readers may upload their own translations via Manganovel’s MangaReader software. As the Executive Director of Manganovel, Kunimatsu Atsushi says, "Every user is a translator”.

Publishers Weekly has an article which describes Manganovel’s (brief) history and methodology. It also has a short history of manga distribution especially in the digital medium.

The article mentions that the service is still Windows only. The manga is kept on a private server in Japan and the user access the material via the MangaReader software.

While there are no stated plans of expanding to the Mac OS, Kunimatsu-san does mention that plans are in the works for PDA and cellphone access. He specifically mentioned the iPhone and iPod Touch. According to the article, he said that "While most cellphones would require manga to be reformatted for smaller screens, the iPhone’s large screen and unique interface is ideal for MangaNovel’s service."

ANN Story: MangaNovel’s User-Translated Manga Service Expands
Publishers Weekly Comic Week Article: MangaNovel Offers Digital Access, User Translations

Manga on Apple iPhone

Speaking of the iPhone, I had written in an earlier news article that software developer Voice Bank had demonstrated software which can convert manga for Apple iPhone screens at the Red Herring 2007 “Insight Japan” conference, in Kyoto.

On November 17, Voice Bank showed their prototype software (which can also display manga on the new iPod Touch) at the International Comic Artist Conference in Hong Kong. They, along with the Digital Manga Association, also announced the creation of the Digital Manga Project which will be the delivery service for providing manga for the iPhone/iPod. According to their press release, the service "enables users to view Manga on their iPhone/iPod touch by Safari".

Images of the Digital Manga Project on the iPod are from Voice Bank posted with their press release.

ANN Story: Manga Prototype Viewer for iPhone/iPod Touch Displayed
Voice Bank Press Release (via ANN): Voice Bank has Started Delivering MANGA for iPhone/iPod touch Users, as ‘Digital Manga Project’ with Digital Manga Association of Japan

As to why there seems to be an interest in developing online manga services, according to ANN, the Japanese research firm, Impress R&D reported that Japan spent about 10.6 billion yen (approx. $97.4 million US) on electronic comics or manga in 2006. The breakdown was about 2.4 billion yen (approx. $22 million US) via personal computers and about 8.2 billion yen (approx. $75.4 million US) via mobile devices like phones.

In comparison, the breakdown for 2005 was 1.1 billion yen (approx. $10.1 million US) via personal computers and 2.3 billion yen (approx. $21.2 million US) via mobile devices. This means that Japan spent 3.4 billion yen (approx. $31.3 million US) in 2005 on electronic comics. So sales jumped by over a factor of two in 2006.

ANN Story: Report: Japan Spent 11 Billion Yen on E-Manga in 2006
Impress R&D Report (Japanese): 電子書籍の市場規模は182億円、対前年度比約2倍に拡大 うち電子コミックの市場規模は106億円

Culture Day In Japan

Finally…November 3 was a national holiday in Japan…and it has been since the Meiji Restoration. It was originally celebrated as The Emperor’s Birthday. After Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912, the day then became known as Culture Day. The purpose of the holiday is to promote culture, the arts, and academics.

With this day in mind, the survey firm Oricon had sent out a questionnaire to 2000 people asking which cultural figure represents Japan. The number two selection turned out to be director Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away). He was a rather distant second, however. He had received 56 votes.

The number one selection was Takeshi Kitano (aka Beat Takeshi) with 350 votes. He is somewhat of a renaissance man. He is a comedian, actor, presenter, author, poet, painter, (briefly a) video game designer, film editor and film director. Some of his films include Violent Cop, A Scene at the Sea, Sonitine, and Zatōichi. He was also in the North American film Johnny Mnemonic. He is probably best known to the Japanese public for his work on television.

Indeed, it is possible that he is best known to international audiences as host of the 1980s game show Takeshi’s Castle. According to TBS’s website, the show is described as:

"The world’s funniest, and perhaps most difficult, games challenge 120 participants in each program. Games include scaling walls, dodging boulders and leaping across a booby-trapped pond. There’s no script, just lots of laughs as contestants try to catch a football in knee-deep mud or pole-vault across a river."

In the US, the show has been repackaged and heavily edited. It started airing in 2003 on TNN (later known as Spike TV). The US version of the show is known as MXC (originally Most Extreme Elimination Challenge). Takeshi-san’s character (Count "Beat" Takeshi) is known as Vic Romano on MXC.

According to the ANN Story, the 2000 voters were "…evenly divided between five age groups (middle/high schoolers, vocational school/college students, workers in their 20s, workers in their 30s, and workers in their 40s) and both genders."

Image of Takeshi Kitano taken by Rita Molnár at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival

Image of Takeshi’s Castle 1986 cast: © Tokyo Broadcasting System

ANN Story: Poll: Miyazaki is #2 in Representing Japan’s Culture
Japanese Source: Oricon Poll Results