>Western audiences growing tired of “formulaic” Disney titles is what paved the way for Japanese anime, Toei Animation veterans say https://archive.ph/UGvOl <Speaking to President Online, Tatsuya Nagamine, a veteran anime director at Toei Animation (who directed Dragon Ball Super: Broly and much of the One Piece anime) says that the reason why Japanese anime has become so big on a worldwide level is because it offers “eccentric” works. “Right now, only Japanese animation offers bizarre stories where you truly can’t predict what will happen next.” <Nagamine compares the position of Japan in animation to that of France in haute couture. “Japanese anime creators are like French designers. You could say the whole world is anxiously waiting to see what kind of strange creations they’ll put out next.” On a more practical note, he also mentions the importance of Japanese anime predominantly being produced for television. As airing shows rotate every three months, there is a constant turnover of new titles that satisfy a wide range of tastes. <As an antithesis to Japanese animated works, Nagamine cites the works of Disney and similar Western studios, which he considers to be formulaic. “I think overseas fans of animation are already tired of predictable Disney-style works.” Ironically, Toei has at occasions been referred to as “The Disney of Asia” for how it pioneered animation production in the region. <Toei Animation’s producer and adviser Shinji Shimizu doubles down on this perspective, commenting, “Japanese anime comes from comics. There is great care put into the characters. Disney, on the other hand, has predetermined storylines, and there is always a happy ending. In Japanese anime, you may see a protagonist die halfway through, or a villain turn out to be a hero – it’s made to be satisfying even for adults.” Although anime is a large-scale commercial export, its roots lie in the niche realm of manga, which has been relatively free of restrictions. Shimizu suggests that this is what compelled “US audiences, who grew tired of Disney” to turn to anime. <But despite how global it has become, Toei’s veterans consider that the appeal of anime lies precisely in its Japaneseness. Shimizu comments, “What the world is paying attention to in anime is Japanese culture, but not things like kabuki or sumo. It’s everyday life.” Citing examples such as Western viewers’ fascinations with the school and campus life of students in Japan, he concludes that Japanese anime has found success by visually presenting aspects of Japanese life that don’t exist overseas. <On the other hand, an aspect of anime that has changed with the medium’s expansion into the global market is undoubtedly the production scale and costs. Although competition between domestic studios is also a factor, Nagamine says that audience expectations are why anime has become so much more detailed with time. “If the quality isn’t high, you can’t win, and when you consider [the demands of] the overseas market, you have to keep raising the quality.” Kadokawa, another big player in Japan’s anime industry, has similarly shared plans to shift to higher budget production, which it considers a necessary condition for achieving global commercial success.

>>72077 Rich coming from Toei, but he's still right. The only western shows I cared after I started watching anime in the late 90s were the DCAU ones. The moral guardians from the 80s crippled cartoons for good.

>>72077 And western capital is already ruining anime with the likes of crunchyroll/adult swim originals and even netflix

>>72115 And expect even more trash incoming.

>>72124 >labor shortage >for fucking manga X to fucking doubt

>>72160 They probably mean that most would-be-mangakas straight up don't bother trying to make it to their magazines anymore and choose to stay on social media and subscription platforms instead.

>>72168 It's almost like a death march wringing dry every single retard that applies for the job is a bad idea or something.

>60% of the companies actually producing anime saw declining profit or losses in 2024, despite industry revenue being at an all-time high https://archive.ph/DVeHo <According to an industry survey of Japanese anime production companies by Teikoku Databank, the domestic anime production market was estimated at roughly $2.45 billion in 2024, marking a 4% increase from 2023 and a new record high. At the same time, 60% of companies serving as prime contractors or gross contractors in anime production saw profitability decrease compared to the previous year, with many slipping into the red (as reported by Otaku Soken). <... <As the main reason why so many anime production companies are seeing business performance worsen, Teikoku Databank cites the industry’s increasingly severe shortage in manpower. With the demand for anime increasing worldwide and projects multiplying, there are not enough animators to sustain the output. As a result, many studios are forced to extend production periods beyond initial forecasts, which leads to costs increasing and profit margins diminishing. <Teikoku Databank anticipates that Japan’s anime production market is likely to continue breaking growth records, but that production studios may continue to face a “profitless boom” situation due to rising production costs and staff shortages. >Japan’s Niconico sees paid subscriptions decline following credit card restrictions and adult content crackdown https://archive.ph/EhEK1 <Kadokawa’s financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2026 reveal that overall revenue from its major video-streaming platform Niconico has been on a decline (source: Otaku Soken). The company attributes this primarily to a recent decrease in premium paid subscriptions, caused by credit card payments being suspended on the platform for months. <Although the most recent quarter saw subscriptions rebound slightly, with premium members growing by 5,000 to 994,000, this is still a far cry from past figures. Excluding the impact of the June 2024 Kadokawa cyberattack, which resulted in extraordinary losses for Niconico in the previous fiscal year, the company admits that membership numbers have remained below the one million mark for the second consecutive quarter, leading to an overall decline in revenue. <While the number has been slowly dwindling these past few years (2016-2017 saw premium members peaking at 2.5 million), Kadokawa attributes the more recent decline to the temporary suspension of international credit cards on Niconico. From May 2024 to February 2025, no credit cards except for JBC were available as payment options on the site, which Kadokawa thinks has driven some members away. <Niconico has since revised its Terms of Use and Action Guidelines, as well as effectively banned all adult content and reinstated the Visa-brand credit card payment option. Despite this move, the 9-month lull during which potential premium subscribers could not pay using their Visa credit cards might have done irreparable damage to the streaming service. <Niconico’s current plans are to continue to implement mechanisms that will sustainably produce exclusive creators on the platform and to create opportunities for these creators to be active globally. It also wants to maximize licensing revenue, specifically from original music made by Niconico creators.

>>72124 >>72247 >help further an unsustainable globalized infinite growth environment while your country is still in the depths of a seemingly infinite recession >aid the destruction of Akiba >do not innovate in games, translation, WN centralization, archival, anime production, manga production, education, voice acting, or anything else >let almost everything die and go to China or Korea, enabling them to capture the gacha market, which you also don't innovate in, the global pop music market, which you didn't support, and the fashion market, which you didn't even try to fight for, despite hordes of people online clamoring for the "Cool Japan" period, the one from before the Cool Japan initiative >maintain the same lazy standards and practices of quantity of work hours as quality of work >almost exclusively platform wannabe Xitter mangaka instead of reaching out to high schoolers, college students, normal people, or art universities >fail to adopt the Western model of animation production, leaving years-long gaps between installments >get Arab and Chinese money to keep you afloat, despite the former keeping you loyal to an energy cartel and the latter wanting to nuke you into the ocean >don't fight for consumer protection, or even your own protection, against global financial powers >act shocked that there's a labor shortage which is now costing you money >throw up your hands under a neocon government and say that there's nothing you can do other than hire overseas and bring in immigrants Elevens may as well kill themselves. It's the American comic market, and the European comic market before that, all over again.

Japanese lawyer states that japanese anime should conforms to the international standards during the Dandandan case. >>72313 We can see now how titanic effort Abe was doing in keeping Japan afloat.

>Credit Card Censorship of Anime, Manga, Games Prompts Japanese Politicians to Hold Meeting With Card Brands & Others https://archive.ph/EGZ33 <Taro Yamada, anime fan and a member of the House of Councillors for the Liberal Democratic Party, revealed that an internal meeting of the Visual Industry Strategy Promotion Research Group (映像産業戦略推進研究会) was held on August 25 to discuss issues surrounding censorship through financial deplatforming. The names of certain attendees were not confirmed, but the meeting included “international [card] brands, acquiring banks, payment processing companies, merchants, relevant government agencies, and others.“ <Yamada said on X, “We held an inner meeting of the Visual Industry Strategy Promotion Research Group to discuss the credit card issue. We gathered international [card] brands, acquiring banks, payment processing companies, merchants, relevant government agencies, and others to freely and openly discuss the causes of the situation that can be described as financial censorship, specific solutions, and other matters.“ <“Under the condition that specific attendees and details would be kept confidential to facilitate frank opinion exchange, we conducted straightforward discussions. The perceptions of the stakeholders from their respective positions became much clearer, marking significant progress. We will continue to address the resolution of credit card issues.“

>>72535 I can`t help but find such effort useless. This wont stop credit cards to continue their censorship based on ideologies.

‘Bocchi the Rock!’ Writer Eriko Yoshida Champions Stripping Sexual Content From Anime https://archive.ph/PYfsN >Scriptwriter Eriko Yoshida, known for Bocchi the Rock! and NHK’s Tora ni Tsubasa, has openly admitted to cutting fanservice scenes and strongly opposes sexualized portrayals of teenage girls, arguing that “just because it’s anime doesn’t mean anything goes.” Yoshida’s comments at ANIME FANTASISTA JAPAN 2025 reveal a zealous drive to sanitize anime of elements she deems inappropriate, further fueling Japan’s creeping culture of self-censorship. >Eriko Yoshida, one of Japan’s most in-demand writers across anime, drama, novels, and stage plays, says she never feels secure despite her success: “If my schedule opens up, I actually get anxious rather than relaxed.” >Her work often pushes to reshape long-standing tropes. In her award-winning Koisenu Futari, about aromantic and asexual characters, she openly challenged the traditional portrayal of romance: <“When romance is depicted in dramas, it’s often like, ‘You can’t grow without falling in love’ or ‘Love will change your entire life.’ I’ve long felt there’s a kind of violence in pushing the idea that romance is the most important thing in life. <By including someone who might be aromantic/asexual, I wanted to show a perspective where romance isn’t central—and explore what it means to like someone even if romance itself isn’t important.” >Even while saying she loves romance, she warns that people who think they “understand” can become dangerous: <“I’m married and have a child, and I love romcoms and romance talk. But precisely because I love romance, I think we should also think about those who don’t like it or aren’t interested. <Yukio says on TV, ‘I even know my daughter’s period cycle!’ because he wants to look like he understands, but by sharing her private matters publicly, he’s hugely violating her rights. People who think they understand are actually the scariest.” >Her original anime Maebashi Witches also steered away from emotional extremes, with Yoshida stressing she did not want to market unstable or edgy girls: <“We didn’t start with wanting to do social commentary. It just grew naturally as we sought realism. I didn’t want to sell it as ‘they’re mentally ill!’ I don’t want to use that as a hook, and if I were a famous enough creator to have people watch something just because my name is on it, I still wouldn’t use it as a cliffhanger element.” >This philosophy reveals Yoshida’s approach: stripping away tropes, even long-accepted ones, if she deems them harmful or “noisy.” Yoshida also made her stance on fanservice abundantly clear: <“Fans can see characters however they want, and it’s fine to draw or imagine anything privately. But I’m against the official side throwing things out like, ‘Here, go ahead and exploit them!’ Just because it’s anime doesn’t mean anything goes. Even if they’re drawings, they’re still supposed to be minors.” >Such remarks underline her belief that even fictional characters must be protected from sexualization, a notion increasingly common among self-censoring creators. >Yoshida personally removed fanservice from Bocchi the Rock! to keep the show “clean” enough for mass audiences: <“In the manga, Hitori gets naked in a cold bath, but we changed it to a swimsuit in the anime. Bocchi isn’t that kind of series, and aiming for mainstream success, that kind of depiction would just be noise. <Things like girls commenting on each other’s breast sizes might be common, but if a work isn’t about that, then it’s just noise. <If there’s distracting fanservice, people won’t watch it—even if everything else is great. I want to make something I could show my young son without hesitation.” >While Yoshida praises the original manga and staff, she admits that she views typical anime fanservice as a threat to reaching wider audiences—a mindset that has become the backbone of modern anime censorship, and well-known to be completely false. She even uses her son as part of her agenda, when an anime with semi-nude service is clearly not meant for children. >Yoshida even framed her strictness as necessary to “protect” anime: <“Even if 99% of people are fine, if 1% of extremists do something, anime culture could be destroyed. We need rules, moderation, and ethics. Extreme or R18 works are fine—but only if children can’t access them. Streaming makes it easy for kids to watch, so zoning and age barriers should be stricter.”

>>2863 >There were brown-skinned people in medeival and early modern Europe, Not enough to matter

>>72515 Bruhdder, abe was a kike AND gook puppet, had he not gotten gun-shanked japan would have been dead by 2023. >>72867 I question why the fuck did they think it was a good idea to somehow brag about this during the height of the upheaval to throw fuel on the fire. What is this degree of stupidity?

>>>72882 >abe was a kike AND gook puppet I'll never forget the dessert in a shoe the kikes served him, absolute humiliation ritual.

>>72882 >abe was a kike AND gook puppet, Not gonna go much into politics, but Japan only started really going downhill when he died. If that was true Japan would be like what is today by 2012.

>>72884 >>72893 Reminder he drafted.the jeet importation plan. Acting he was one of the good guys is laughable.

>Japanese space probe that “sent Miku Hatsune into space” ends operations 15 years later https://archive.ph/9TAhK <Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced on September 18 that it has terminated operations of space probe Akatsuki, ITmedia reports. The spacecraft, which studied the orbit of Venus for nearly a decade, is famous for “taking Miku Hatsune to space.” <Also known as the Venus Climate Orbiter, Akatsuki was launched on May 21, 2010. Leading up to the big day, JAXA conducted a PR campaign inviting people from around the world to send handwritten messages and drawings they want to send to Venus. Amidst this, VOCALOID fans organized an initiative to send Miku Hatsune to space, gathering over 13,000 messages and illustrations of her. The messages were printed onto small aluminum plates and attached to the probe, serving as balance weights. <Akatsuki had a turbulent journey – after it was launched, it suffered an engine failure and was unable to enter Venus’s orbit. It wandered in space for five years before JAXA decided to replace the main engine with the secondary attitude control engine, which only had one-fifth of the thrust. Thanks to this, the probe was able to enter Venus’s orbit and start observation of the planet’s atmosphere and meteorology. Throughout the years, it took numerous valuable images and helped uncover insights into Venus’s mysterious super-rotation. <However, since 2024, JAXA became unable to establish communications with Akatsuki. Recovery missions were attempted, but with the Venus mission having far exceeded its designed duration, it was decided to bring operations to an end. Over on X, JAXA commented: <“We have concluded operations of the Venus probe Akatsuki. Since last year we have been attempting to restore communications, but determined that recovery would be difficult, and so we have drawn this chapter to a close. We sincerely thank everyone who has supported Akatsuki over the 15 years since its launch.”

https://eu.tallahassee.com/story/news/2025/09/16/porn-gaming-sites-nutaku-lawsuits-florida-attorney-general/86176866007/ Do I even have to say how disastrous it is that a payment ptocessor got also sued?

>>73290 You know, what actual argument that aren't brainless crap could judges actually make up if some porn site uses credit cards as age verification (give us 1 buck via credit card, not debit card, so we know you're 18+)? In the States and IIRC most of the world you must be 18 years old to own one, so it should be a very failsafe solution. I honestly want some porn site to argue with this, just to see the absolutely BULLSHIT way the judges and prosecutors argue against it.

>>73290 >>73291 >You know, what actual argument that aren't brainless crap could judges actually make up if some porn site uses credit cards as age verification Because that's not what the law requires: <In 2024, the Florida Legislature passed HB 3, which restricted children from social media and required any commercial site with adult content to use an age verification system or face fines up to $50,000 per violation, plus attorney fees, court costs and the potential for civil liability. <The specified systems must require an upload to each site of some form of official ID that verifies age

>>73303 Quite evil, if normalfags weren't such sheep the question why that old credit card method isn't sufficient would have come up immediatelly. At this point it won't be stopped, the only good news is that a massive global crash is also likely incoming, since the global elite doesn't really understand how anything works besides enriching themselves and feeling/acting superior to us. So likely they'll also lose everything. Doesn't really help us, though, but when everything's on fire and civilization collapses the rich and useless are usually not amongst the survivors. This is unrelated to censorship, of course, but we can see it already happening, and if anything the elite accelerates the downfall (in some retarded cases, like Thiel and his Dark Enlightenment, on purpose, not that it will help useless wastes of flesh like him).

>>72884 >>72893 The "gook puppet" part is true though. He was a Moonie.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Tops Superman as #1 Comic Book Film of the Year https://archive.ph/axbsp >Deadline and The Numbers services reported on Sunday that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle - Akaza Sairai, the first film in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle trilogy, has earned an estimated total of US$633 million worldwide as of Sunday, October 5. That makes the film the highest grossing comic book film of the year, after surpassing Superman's US$615,784,465. (Infinity Castle had already overtaken Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts*.) That would also make the anime film the #6 highest-grossing film of 2025 so far after topping F1: The Movie. >(The Hollywood Reporter and Box Office Mojo list the film's worldwide box office total at "US$757.6 million" as of Sunday. However, the discrepancy between their total and Deadline and The Numbers' total is US$124.6 million, which is exactly the U.S. box office total that all four services list.) >Deadline added that the first Infinity Castle film earned US$324.6 million in Crunchyroll/Sony markets (which are outside Japan and some other Asia markets) by adding US$10.2 million this weekend (US$3.5 million in the U.S. and US$6.7 million outside the U.S.) To date, the film has earned a total of US$17.4 million in Mexico, US$14.4 million in Germany, US$14.2 million in France, US$9.3 million in India, and US$8.9 million in the United Kingdom.

>Japan’s Business Elite Demands State Bailout for Anime & Games https://archive.ph/7pyPC <The powerful Keidanren business federation has called on the Japanese government to immediately boost support for the video game, anime, and manga industries and launch a tougher crackdown on piracy. But when the state leans too deep into protecting IP, creative freedom, anti-piracy overreach, and bureaucratic control may follow—especially for indie creators. <The Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), a heavyweight corporate lobby, issued an “urgent message” on October 6 demanding the government provide large-scale, long-term strategic support to content industries like video games, anime, manga, film, and music. The group argued that Japan’s content exports have grown so fast they now rival semiconductor exports, and warns that unless the nation doubles down, it risks losing its edge in global pop culture. <In their call, Keidanren lays out a suite of demands: more aggressive piracy crackdowns (with special attention to manga), stronger funding for localization and global marketing, investment in new game development, and improved production environments for animation, including better pay and more staff. They frame the push not as cultural, but as economic: “content IPs should be central drivers of Japan’s economy.”

>>4608 I literally cannot turn on the TV at any time of day on most channels that aren't showing anime or cartoons or within 5 minutes there will be a sex/rape scene it is a constant stream of people getting their brains blown out and moaning on most TV channels that aren't for children and it NEVER has anything to do with the plot, it's just softcore porn for Shōwa ojisans all day, 24/7 violence, sex, rape, or you turn on the news and see gore because you gotta feel sad for the jews for the 10000th time today I go outside and there's TVs out in the storefronts or inside bars blasting whatever whore "musician" released her latest machine generated single, shaking her ass, wearing shit that lets everyone see her beef curtains if a kid googles a character from a videogame there's a good chance he's gonna get porn, or stuff that leads to porn, within the first 5 results because WESTERN social media aids and abets the most fucked up leftist faggots imaginable, who spend 18 hours a day drawing porn of Link getting fucked by Ganon but what, Goblin Slayer is obscene? It's not that satanist bitch Sabrina Carpenter grinding her rancid snatch on a car as she sings about how she fucked 1000 guys, that's A-OK for a 10 year old girl to look at and sing along to, but Fruits Basket is where we draw the line? Fuck off. Hey it wouldn't have anything to do with this, would it? https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/06/28/japan/blackstone-buys-mecha-comics-manga This wouldn't just be the supreme court of the united states and Blackstone conspiring to put pressure on the Japanese entertainment industry so they all go the way of Capcom and SquareEnix, right?

>>74069 >supreme court of the united states What do they have to do with anything?

>Manga Legend Ken Akamatsu Steps Down as Parliamentary Vice-Minister https://archive.ph/MxUNA <Former manga creator-turned-Liberal Democratic Party politician Ken Akamatsu has officially handed off his duties as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, marking a notable change in his political responsibilities and raising questions about his future direction. <Ken Akamatsu, best known for his manga works such as Love Hina and Negima! Magister Negi Magi, was appointed as Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as part of the Second Ishiba Cabinet on November 13, 2024. <According to his official Twitter post, he participated in a formal hand-over ceremony on the morning of October 23 2025, signed transfer documents and then departed the role: <Today, starting at 9:30 in the morning at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, we held the handover ceremony between the outgoing and incoming Parliamentary Vice-Ministers. I signed with a brush pen and completed the handover to Vice-Ministers Shimizu and Fukuda. Afterwards, I gave my final address in the auditorium. Then, I was sent off with applause from everyone in the ministry, and left the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, where I had spent about a year. With this, my duties as Parliamentary Vice-Minister have come to an end. I will summarize the activities I carried out during my term as Vice-Minister in a separate post. <The departure marks a pivot away from a ministerial oversight role that aligned with cultural and media matters, sectors Akamatsu has long had personal and professional ties with. <Notably, Akamatsu’s appointment originally had symbolic resonance: a manga artist entering a formal culture-education governance role. His departure may somewhat blur that symbolic thread. Whether this means less direct advocacy for otaku-industry concerns or simply a recalibration of where he will focus his efforts remains to be seen. <For fans of Akamatsu, his exit from that role may inspire speculation about his next move: Will he return his focus more toward creative industries, manga advocacy, or the political arena in a different capacity? Given his background as an advocate for creative freedom and opposition to expanded censorship laws, the repositioning could signal a strategic shift. >Japanese Animator Warns That Cheap Outsourcing & AI Are “Killing the Industry” https://archive.ph/8InhT <On October 15, 2025, Japanese animator Joni (@jonchop1) went viral after posting a thread detailing how rampant outsourcing and AI “correction” work have wiped out the once-vital class of animation directors in Japan. <In his main tweet, Joni described how he was approached by a client to fix AI-generated animation: <“I got a request from an individual client to do ‘animation adjustments on anime made with AI.’ They showed me some disgusting animation and wanted me to fix flickering, sliding, and collapsing parts. Payment was per frame. The industry’s rotting. I told them not to contact me again. It really feels like a bad flow is coming to the forefront.” <He elaborated that this trend began with outsourcing simple animation tasks overseas, but now it has spread throughout the production pipeline: <“It started with cheap overseas animation, and now many companies outsource everything overseas. To put it bluntly, they’d ask people abroad to draw quickly and cheaply, then have Japanese animation directors fix it. Since the budget per episode doesn’t change, it’s cheaper overall. But the result is that many good, fast directors quit after being asked to work cheaply.” <Joni condemned the logic behind using AI or cheap human labor to mass-produce commercial anime: <“I want nothing to do with the idea that ‘if professionals fix AI-made anime, you can make commercial anime at low cost.’ I don’t deny the use of AI and human labor together, but it’s wrong to outsource to humans at low prices. I want to eradicate the practice of finishing ‘supervision’ or ‘corrections’ cheaply. The anime industry has already destroyed its directors with this habit.” <He concluded with a sharp critique of those who exploit animators under the guise of technology: <“I don’t know if directors understand the cost structure, but sending low-quality work to professionals for low pay as a ‘job’ is insane. It’s the kind of request you’d expect from an idiot or a clueless foreigner.” <Joni’s frustration echoes what many in the anime world have been warning for years: that the pursuit of efficiency, outsourcing, and now AI automation has gutted the artistry that made Japanese animation world-famous.

>>74267 >I got a request from an individual client to do ‘animation adjustments on anime made with AI.’ They showed me some disgusting animation and wanted me to fix flickering, sliding, and collapsing parts. Payment was per frame. The industry’s rotting. I told them not to contact me again. It really feels like a bad flow is coming to the forefront.” I did notice that in some anime it gets some weird parts that get me thinking "is this AI?", now I'm sure it is. Fuck, if this trend continues it sure will kill the industry.

>>74276 >it sure will kill the industry. Good. The only way to cleanse the rat infested boat is to kill it and build a new one.

>>74277 >build a new one. And you know if it ever happens the "new one" by western companies like disney and make some even worse trash.

>>74298 Then by definition it wouldn't be anime anon.

>>74302 Well, yeah but they just don't care. Also, something very similar to this happened to american cartoon when Hanna Barbera started. The story is just repeating itself.