Problem description:
Why not other countries?
Why the Japanese?
Is there any inevitable reason or root cause?
Analysis:
Here we want to split the animation industry into cartoon industry and animation industry, because in Japan, the animation industry has been extremely developed and perfect, and the division of labor between the two sub-industries is clear, so we can't generalize.
1, editing system
Japanese cartoonists generally succeed along such a route: drawing short cartoons and participating in various cartoon awards (that is, competitions); After being shortlisted, they are attracted by magazines-often weekly or bimonthly; Co-publishing business short stories; If the short story is successful, start serializing the long story; If the long story is effective, it may be "animated" (this is an imported word, meaning the process of cartoon becoming animated). In the meantime, if the reader thinks that a work is not attractive enough, then stop downloading it immediately, which is called "waist cutting".
This whole process ensures the readability of comics. Because the comics contained in magazines are determined by readers' preferences, they are of course welcomed by readers; Moreover, because the weekly serialization method must attract readers' attention, the picture quality must be excellent and the plot must be tortuous. Generally speaking, the reason for the success of Japanese commercial cartoons is to meet the needs of readers, and the deeper reason is competition.
2. Competition of comic magazines
The core of the market economy system is competition. Competition is the driving force to promote industrial progress. Japanese cartoon industry is a very mature industry, and competition among magazines is naturally essential.
Japanese comic magazines are generally divided into two categories according to different consumer groups: male-oriented (mainly male readers) and female-loving (mainly female readers). I don't know much about the magazines in Women in Love, so I'll take men's magazines as an example to introduce the competition of comic magazines.
Japanese male-dominated comic magazines are basically divided into two categories, namely, juvenile comic magazines and male-dominated adult comic magazines. By the end of 2003, there were 18 juvenile cartoons and 43 adult male cartoons in Japan. In terms of quantity, men's adult comic magazines are much more than young comic magazines, but in terms of sales, young comic magazines are far ahead. After all, there are more teenagers who like comics.
Japan's juvenile comic industry has three pillars. As the pillars, Weekly Youth Jump, Weekly Youth Magazine and Weekly Youth Sunday occupy most of the market. Since they are both juvenile comic magazines and weekly magazines, it is natural to carve up the same market and it is really difficult to compete. Below, I will analyze in detail the factors that affect the circulation of comic magazines.
3. Factors affecting circulation
As we all know, circulation is the lifeblood of a magazine. The greater the circulation, the more successful the magazine will be. In the fully commercialized Japanese animation industry, the circulation directly determines the commercial interests of magazines, which must be paid attention to in the pursuit of maximizing interests. Generally speaking, the factors that affect the circulation of comic magazines mainly include the following aspects.
1) buy "inertia"
Nowadays, many people often say, "XX magazine is not very good-looking, but I will still buy it and get used to it." This is a habit of consumers and a natural help to magazines. People who buy magazines are rebellious and tired of their own works, and the change of sales volume itself often appears one or two years after they start buying. There are many such things, and this is often the turning point between the "inertia" of buying and the "nature" of consumers.
The magazines that readers buy in a year or two will change, and it will take more than half a year from really feeling qualitative change to actually unbearable change, and this process often makes people feel bored. In the stage of inertial purchase, readers often can keep buying without reason. If they don't give a strong * * *, they will keep buying. But any reason that fundamentally conflicts with their values will make them stop buying immediately, and in the future, they will put all the responsibility on this problem that makes them stop buying.
2) Signboard project
The "signature works" mentioned here refer to the works that are concerned by more than 90% readers in a comic book serial magazine, and are often used as a facade when they are recommended to readers who have never seen this magazine. This iconic work is often called "the face of a magazine". Interestingly, the quality of magazines often does not depend on whether the "signature works" look good. A magazine with high average quality of works or good sales of singles (that is, combining serialized works into one or several separate books for sale) can be called a "good magazine". But it's not like a magazine that sells well every week. After the serial publication of Dragon Ball, the signature work of Weekly Youth Jump, the sales volume of Jump dropped from the astronomical figure of 6.53 million copies to more than 4 million copies, which is enough to show the decisive influence of "signature work" on magazine sales.
3) Enthusiasm and release date
The content of magazines is often limited by the age of readers, which leads to the limitations of genres and genres. Therefore, there will be a kind of works that are not very popular in terms of sales volume, but some "die-hard" readers are keen on such works. This kind of readers often completely ignore other factors because of their enthusiasm for a work, thus driving some long-term sales.
Interestingly, for weekly magazines, the different release dates will also affect sales. In particular, both Sunday and Magazine were published on Wednesday, which directly led to the sales war caused by the different readers and the psychology of choice.
4. Disadvantages of this system
Things always have two sides. Japan's animation industry market seems perfect, but in fact there are still many shortcomings. Most of these shortcomings are caused by excessive pursuit of sales.
1) Follow the trend seriously.
As I said before, readers' preferences determine what cartoons are published in magazines. In this way, an excellent work is bound to be followed by a large number of works of the same type, which seriously affects the diversity of the market and the enthusiasm of the author. Fortunately, the magazine is also aware of this, and will consciously reduce the follow-up works and introduce more innovative works.
2) The signboard project has been delayed for a long time and has not been completed.
It can be said that the shrewd Japanese magazine dealers have realized the influence of the signboard works and the inertia purchasing power of readers, so the signboard works are constantly adding new plots and delaying the end time. Readers will get tired of watching the same kind of plot, so the more protracted, mysterious and bizarre the original compact and rigorous plot of the signboard works, the more tired the readers will be.
The evil consequence of this is the mental fatigue of readers. The old readers have grown up (literally, the Dragon Ball has been serialized for ten years), and the new readers don't know the previous plot and seem absent-minded. Once the publication is stopped, there is a risk of losing more readers, so many excellent works are full of long and bizarre plots every day in this embarrassing situation. (At this point, Hong Kong comic magazines have learned enough from Master. A dragon gate has dragged on for 20 years, and the plot has developed from a small gang fight to a world martial arts hegemony. ). This is undoubtedly unfavorable to the whole market.
3) Younger age and vulgarization
These two points seem contradictory, but they are not. After a long period of development, the Japanese animation industry has become saturated. In order to further expand, we must attract readers of different ages. As a result, the plot became more detailed and direct, and adult comics became for middle school students, so juvenile comics had to steal readers from primary school students and even children. This can be clearly seen from the fact that there are fewer and fewer Chinese characters in juvenile comics and more and more pseudonyms (equivalent to pinyin).
Because the plot is thin and eye-catching, the works have to become increasingly vulgar. Fighting cartoons are always covered in blood, while life cartoons are all girls with well-proportioned figures, posing and playing ball. This is also the evil result of excessive pursuit of interests.
On Japanese Animation Industry
Animation is undoubtedly a bigger part of the animation industry. Its investment is large, its income is large, and there are many affiliated industries. Of course, if you don't succeed, you will lose a lot of money. First of all, let's introduce the production process of Japanese animation (very different from what we usually think)! 1, Brief Introduction of Japanese Animation Production Process
As a product of highly developed market economy, Japanese animation is mostly made for making money (nonsense). So a good manufacturing method is essential.
There are generally two kinds of Japanese animation production companies, one is called "planning company", which is planning production, and the other is called "production company", which is actually drawing. Generally, two companies do it, and there are cases where one company does two jobs. Generally speaking, the script, schedule, shots, scenery, original paintings and producer (director) are all completed by the planning company, while the production company completes line drawing, coloring, special effects, proofreading, photography, printing, editing and dubbing.
The supervision (directing) of Japanese animation is generally not as hard as that of China (staring at it from beginning to end). In addition to decision-making and coordination, he only needs to arrange the beginning and end wholeheartedly, leaving other details to the performance (deputy director), and there are special people responsible for the review, original case and shooting, so he doesn't have to worry about it.
Of course, the above is just a general statement, and the specific production process is divided into the following three parts.
1) prophase
As the name implies, this is the initial stage of animation. This part of the work mainly includes planning, script creation, modeling design, scene design and shot screen design.
2) Mid-term
This should be a part that many people are interested in, because it includes filling in the photo table, original painting, animation and background picture. This part of the work is heavy, so the planning company generally does not participate in the production, only responsible for supervision. Often pay attention to the list of animation staff, you will find that the character setting, scene setting and lens are generally celebrities, but when it comes to original painting, animation, coloring and other work, there are a lot of strange names "wow", many of which are simply "XX Company". Important work such as staffing and supervision is generally carried out in the name of individuals.
Speaking of animation-this refers to the shooting process of animation, which is extremely heavy work, so it is the responsibility of a special "animation" company. Many domestic animation companies are helping Japanese companies to do this part of the work. Most of those very beautiful paintings were painted by people in China (so there is no shortage of painters in China). The planning company will give detailed written requirements for the original painting and animation. Next, it depends on the strength of the animation company. But don't take it for granted that although most of the Japanese animations with excellent pictures are produced by China processing companies, although animation is the lowest level of work, the pay is higher than that of domestic animation, so many China animation companies that process animation for foreign countries don't accept domestic animation.
3) Late stage
After a long process, the later work is shooting (or scanning), coloring, synthesizing, editing shots and dubbing subtitles, etc. Speaking of dubbing, we should have talked about Japanese seiyuu (voice actor) system, but in Japan, seiyuu industry has already formed an independent industry with many specialized consumers. In addition, and animation production have almost become two aspects (seiyuu not only dubs animation, but also often dubs movies, hosts radio stations, broadcasts dramas, sings and so on. ), so I won't elaborate.
At this point, the basic process of animation has been introduced, and the following will introduce the "making money" method of animation, that is, the way of income.
2. Ways to benefit from Japanese animation
In a commercial society, people who take risks must be rewarded for their investment in order to encourage reproduction until the material is extremely rich ... well, stop it. As we think, the animation industry in Japan is very profitable. Even if the relevant companies go bankrupt (which is inevitable in a market economy), animation, a gold mine within reach, still attracts a lot of money, and TV stations are naturally the most profitable. Television is responsible for production, but in capitalist society, employers obviously get the most benefit, so I also introduce it mainly with television.
The reason why animation can make a profit is because animation is a "content business", and "content" can be stripped off layer by layer. Investors pay for the animation to get the copyright, and then make a profit by charging the broadcast fee and selling other products such as music, prototypes and original paintings, thus draining the oil and water of an animation.
According to the traditional concept of TV stations, after making a program, we should try our best to improve the ratings, and then collect advertising fees to recover funds to achieve profitability, that is to say, the commercial value of the program is only reflected in the broadcast schedule. Nowadays, Japanese TV stations have already used "content business" to make profits. Peripheral commodities, sales rights and broadcasting rights have become an important part of the operation. Keisuke Iwata of TV TOKYO admitted that TV TOKYO would continue to implement this mode of operation, but also said hypocritically: "Not counting those late-night animations, although we have to earn some hard money, the starting point is' children like to watch'!" . It's very nice, but everyone knows that TV Tokyo makes a lot of money by making animations and selling peripheral products.
Tiexiong Gensheng of TBS TV in Japan is an animator who pursues "content business" very much. The first thing a producer thinks about is how to attract the audience. This guy thinks about how to recover the money before the animation is completed. Although the practice is too realistic, the truth is still good. For the audience, a classic animation is a work that brings them good memories, but for the producers, high-cost animation itself is a dangerous investment. Only a benign capital cycle can make investors confident to continue to pay for production, and all this is determined by the market. Of course, it is understandable to accuse over-commercialization emotionally and ignore artistry, but after all, Japanese animation is not a charity and investors are not willing to throw away their money. This is like the helplessness and confusion of European filmmakers full of artistic ideas in the face of Hollywood movies with deep pockets. Yes, artistry is important, but investors don't think so. Their money is used to produce money, not to hit the "priceless art abyss." On the other hand, boring and smelly commercial works have indeed given many people jobs, and have also contributed to the economy. It brings real bread to employees. Why should we blame it?
This is how Japanese commercial animation benefits. This way ensures the normal and orderly development of the animation industry. In order to maintain stable development, we must return to the word we mentioned: competition.
3. Competition in animation industry
Yes, it is competition that ensures the stable development of the animation industry. It can be said that competition is an indispensable part of the commodity society. The competition in Japanese animation industry is also very fierce.
As mentioned above, animation is a very profitable industry, so many investors are trying to get a slice of it. Japanese animation is made in the unit of "week", and a week is generally only a few words (sets). Take a picture with the money earned by selling a sentence (it's really dangerous). So you make a mistake and the whole animation is finished. And "season" is the big time unit of animation broadcast. General animation has 13 characters (one quarter), 26 characters (two quarters), 50 characters (one year) and so on (ah! Then "Blue Cat Naughty Three Thousand Questions" was done in Japan for 60 years. At the beginning of each season, especially in June and July, when the competition is not too fierce, about 60 or 70 cartoons are broadcast all over Japan every week. In the middle and late competitive season, there are hundreds of animations playing at the same time! Theoretically speaking, it is impossible for the audience to finish reading it. ...
Although the audience is mainly concerned about the producers (labor) of the works, the main body of the real competition is the TV station (management). Because TV stations invest in production, they have higher decision-making power than producers. The TV station has the final say in the previous market research, project establishment and topic selection, and of course it has to supervise the work. The main competition of Japanese animation is TV animation, so let's take TV animation as an example to introduce the competition of various TV stations!
1) TV station competition
The so-called "competition between TV stations" naturally refers to the same type of works. Although there is no powerful "Central" TV station like China CCTV, there is also a semi-official "Japan Broadcasting Association", namely NHK, and five other relatively strong folk TV stations (namely Japan TV, TBS, Asahi TV, Tokyo TV and Fuji TV), which basically dominate the Japanese TV market. Moreover, Asahi TV, TBS and other media have long been systematic and three-dimensional in capital composition. Interestingly, most of the early original animations were produced by small local TV stations. The reason is that the investment in animation is much higher than the cost of TV series, and the risk of original animation is much higher than that of cartoon adaptation. Original animation with high investment and high risk is difficult to pass in large TV stations with complex equity, but those original animations are easier to pass than local TV stations with concentrated equity.
If we only look at the above aspects, local TV stations can't suffer too much in the competition with big TV stations. However, in recent years, the life of local stations has become more and more difficult. This is mainly due to backward technology.
2) Competition of broadcasting technology
The technology referred to here is not the animation production technology, but the technology broadcast by TV stations. To understand this, we must first understand the relevant provisions of Japan's Broadcasting Law and Broadcasting Law. According to the regulations, semi-official radio stations such as NHK are not allowed to broadcast to the whole country alone. They must take five private TV stations as the center, form a network with local TV stations, and broadcast the programs of NHK and five major TV stations to the audience through local TV stations. Therefore, local stations still have their own way of survival.
However, the popularity of satellite TV has changed this. It can be said that the development of high technology has directly affected the process of Japanese TV animation and greatly improved the quality of animation. Many animations have reached DVD level, thanks to the popularity of satellite transmission and digital TV (far away from us).
As early as 1997, Japan began to broadcast multi-channel digital TV with communication satellites, but the progress has been slow because viewers are not used to spending money to watch TV and have to install special equipment. Until June, 5438+February, 2000, NHK and five major TV stations began to broadcast digital programs free of charge through broadcasting satellites, and the number of viewers increased greatly. If big TV stations put their programs on satellite channels and show them directly to the whole island audience without going through transit stations (local stations), local stations will lose their meaning of existence. It is especially serious in the animation industry, because the quality gap between digital animation and analog signal animation is too big, just like wide-screen cinemas and street video halls are open for free at the same time, and the audience's choice is obvious.
The popularization of digital TV has made local TV stations worse. Due to the popularity of digital TV in Europe and America, Japan, which has always attached importance to science and technology, is not far behind, and even regards popularizing this new gadget as a national policy. Not only satellite TV, but also local radio stations have to use digital signals. It is estimated that the comprehensive transformation will be completed in 2006, and the analog signal output will stop at 20 1 1 the whole island.
Although digital TV has surpassed analog TV in almost all aspects, TV stations need to spend a lot of money to buy broadcasting equipment, and such long-term investment has no direct income. It doesn't matter how much money big TV stations have, but it is a big burden for local TV stations that have been stretched by satellite TV.
Generally speaking, local stations tend to disappear. At present, it is impossible to define whether this trend is good or bad for industrial development, and whether it will disappear depends on the future situation. However, if the innovative local station closes down, you may only see fully commercialized fast food animation in the future. At least for consumers, especially China viewers who have little to do with Japanese TV animation ratings, this is by no means a good sign.
3) Competition of broadcast time
The so-called "schedule" is the broadcast time. We often see that Japanese animation is divided into "golden files" and "late night files". Generally speaking, prime-time files are mostly commercial fast food works, while late-night files are animations for adults who pay attention to violence and ridicule and play "edge ball". In fact, this statement is not entirely correct. In fact, after years of development, Japanese TV animation has now formed a set of basic framework about schedule segmentation: 8: 30 pm to 10: 30 pm is "prime time", and the animation of teenagers or young and old Xian Yi is played; Play high school and above animations for adults in the middle of the night; Play cartoons for children on Saturday and Sunday morning. The age range of the work is very clear and has been implemented for many years.
However, since 1995, the monster-level late-night TV animation "Gospel Warrior of the New Century" achieved unprecedented success (why is it called "monster level"? Because it once achieved 40% ratings, countless excellent producers went bankrupt because of competition with it), a large number of TV stations suddenly noticed this cake that has been ignored. There was a time when late-night animation skyrocketed or even flooded. Even many children-oriented animations ignore the fact that their audience has already been forced to sleep by their parents, and they also squeeze into late-night stalls to try to make money. Later, the late-night animation declined because of the influence of satellite channels, but the late-night schedule is not just for young people or even adults to play animation.
Recently, there has been a new change in the timetable. From April 2002, Japan changed to every other week. Almost at the same time, the sensitive Tokyo TV set a new timetable for children's animation after 7: 30 on Saturday morning. Keisuke Iwata, who mentioned above that "children feel beautiful" as the starting point, believes that the system of the past two weekends makes the ratings closely related to whether the school is on holiday, but once you don't go to school every Saturday, the ratings at that time will be considerable. According to the statistics of TV Tokyo, this decision was very successful, and the ratings of similar programs rose several times in a week. Seeing that someone has tasted the sweetness, other TV stations are also eager to move. Many adults try to break their heads and make money, regardless of their audience falling asleep after a week of fatigue (is this the inevitable result of market economy or blind? )
The above basically talked about the competition of Japanese commercial TV animation, but also mentioned the whole picture of Japanese commercial animation. There is no reason not to learn advanced experience, and then it is time to learn how to use it for yourself.