Sunrise Ozaki Director talks about the immediate sharing of animation fans' hotness is the key to the hit

Animation production company "Sunrise"Is"Mobile Suit Gundam」Series, including animation works have been sent to the world, how are you going to expand overseas, not just in Japan? For examples of deployment and promotion, director of Sunrise Co., Ltd., General Manager of Character Works Division and general manager of overseas sales departmentOzaki MasayukiTold me in anime · business forum · 2013 sponsored by Digital Hollywood University International Anime Research Institute.

【Digital Hollywood University】 Anime · Business · Forum +2013
http://www.dhw.ac.jp/e/anime_business2013/

The lecture title is "About overseas expansion of Sunrise".


Sunrise is a long-established animation studio celebrating its 37th year of establishment this year. According to Mr. Ozaki's data, there are 267 copyrighted contents, the number of film hours is over 2000 hours. In the existing studioToei AnimationThere is the history,Tom's Entertainment (Tokyo Movie)Although it is also an old company, it is said that it is many people side by side.

In general, there are manga and novel as an original in animation, but the strength of Sunrise is "where there are many original". "Mobile Suit Gundam" is well-known and many other robot things are made, and the ratio of original works is about 70%. Although it sometimes deals with original works, it seems that there is a desire to "stick to the original as Sunrise".

In the forum, the image of Sunrise 's second half year 2012 line - up was streamed. Flowed works are based on card games "Battle Spirits Sword Eyes」, Animated the original of the Weekly Shonen Jump SeriesGintama"An original arcade game using Bandai's cards developed for girls"It's cool!, The original idol for men "lovelive!", The latest work of the original work Code Gias series representing Sunrise"Code Geass Akito of the lost country"Which made famous novel an animated movie"targeted school"Animation of children's novels and"It's a movie snorri ... · It's a boyfriend!"Released after the end of the TV series of the original original work"TIGER & BUNNY - The Beginning -"As a HD remaster of the work of 10 years ago"Mobile Suit Gundam SEED"We are holding events once every few months and doing BD releases"Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn)". You can see that the genre also has considerable width with or without the original.

Ozaki says that rights of contents can be divided into "primary use" and "secondary use" in animation and live-action photography. Primary use refers to the route that comes out to the world first, "TV" or "screen (movie)". Secondary use is to make things broadcast on television become Blu-ray Disc, DVD, distribute online (automatic public transmission), issue related publications. Here, money is born as one content is expanded in many directions, and it is a model that you recruit (collect).


Inside this secondary use is "overseas sales rights". There is also a structure called video grammatization overseas, Internet distribution ... .... When creating contents, various companies mainly bring money to make "Production Committee", but among them "like A company in overseas, B company in video grammar" , Companies that are in charge of secondary use are decided.

Ozaki says that the feature of Sunrise is that it has departments, personnel, and functions that can operate not only animation production but all secondary usage. In the case of the original work of Sunrise, although there are various cases, there are cases where Sunrise plays all the windows, and it seems that being able to realize it is a strength. Such a work exists 8 to 90% of all works.


As an overview of the overseas market, Mr. Ozaki first cited "a drop in the package market". Packages for DVDs, BDs, and games are not selling for the last 2 or 4 years, especially in North America, their progress is fast, the market has spread to Japan one year later, then to Europe, and it has declined acceleratively It seems to be.

The second point is "expansion of delivery service". This is a fact, but it has not been covered to cover the above-mentioned depression.

The third point is "decrease in TV broadcast opportunities". In North America CATV is no longer broadcasting Japanese anime. Although there are several reasons, the fact that North American companies themselves make animation that matches the market and develop business to sell toys, has come to take the framework of Japanese anime broadcasting. It is not so prominent in Asia, there are also needs of Japanese work, and the market seems to be expanding little by little.

The fourth point cited is "universality of commercialization". While animation exists as digitized content that can be downloaded, toys are products that need circulation in reality, which can not be downloaded. Although there is a risk that pirated edition comes out, there is no possibility that the family of kids' toys will not disappear even if the spread of the Internet spreads and the distribution scale is expanded, so it will be possible to monetize if continued efforts are made.

The end is "Increasing information immediacy". There is a growing desire to share not only overseas animation fans but also something that is prevalent somewhere in the world, and there is a tendency to notice the global hits and jump, It was a story.

A specific example of overseas deployment was "Mobile Suit Gundam UC". This work has been released in OVA format up to 6 volumes, but the world's first "simultaneous BD world release" to release the same disc in North America, the UK, France, Hong Kong and Taiwan as well as Japan from March 2010 It was carried out. The disc contains Japanese audio and dubbing English audio, and the subtitles include six types of Japanese, English, French, Spanish, Traditional Hong Kong, and Taiwanese Traditional. According to the data of Oricon, it is said that the top in the all BD genres of 2012 in Japan was Mobile Suit Gundam UC, which seems to be a big hit worldwide.


In addition, "Mobile Suit Gundam AGE" and "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED HD Remaster version" are attempted worldwide simultaneous delivery. This is an officialGundam Information Portal Site "GUNDAM.INFO"And, it carries out delivery with subtitles. Ozaki says that its meaning is "to make works known and disseminated all over the world at the same time," but the big one is "countermeasures against piracy". Currently, within 24 hours since broadcasting in Japan, there seems to be a situation that fans independently put on subtitles in quite a whole area and are uploading on the net, so that the official will provide it as soon as possible So there is the effect that the fans will see the official instead of the pirated version. In fact, it seems that pirated versions are decreasing and this has led to countermeasures.

The above "GUNDAM.INFO" has English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Hong Kong Traditional and Taiwanese traditional versions in addition to the Japanese version, and the number of accesses has increased dramatically due to the multilingualization. As for the official website of Sunrise, although it is only in English, it is making it easy to search for works, while trying to enrich it.

SUNRISE INTERNATIONAL Information
http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/international/index.html


In overseas deployment "TIGER & BUNNY"Was also taken up. In the TV series, 25 episodes were broadcast over half a year from April 2011, but in North America, France, UK and Australia, subtitles were put on and the same day delivery was carried out. Since popularity came out, a movie was also produced, which was released in the fall of 2012. The movie has been expanded beyond the TV series, and it has been released almost at the same time in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and others.

Ozaki is selling as a sales manager of overseas sales department, but TIGER & BUNNY is involved as a producer who produces the work itself from planning and production. As a producer, there is a sense that "the trend of fans is similar to Japan" and "The way of heat transfer is the same as in Japan", and although there are differences in each country in details on the way of laughter, It seems to show a reaction similar to Japanese fans.


There are several opportunities for exercising overseas sales rights and licensing, and representative ones are overseas markets. Speaking of the movie, the American Film Market (AFM) and the Cannes Film Festival which is attached to the Cannes Market are famous and it is a television workMIPTVThere is a trade fair called. Sunrise has been actively participating in overseas events, not overseas markets these past few years. Among the famous places are "Anime Expo" to be held in Los Angeles, "Japan Expo" to be held in Paris, "OTAKON" to be held in Baltimore, "New York Comic-Con" to be held in New York, Hong Kong We are participating in "C3 in HongKong" etc. to be held.

In these overseas events, we will hold panel sessions, autographs, presentations of lineups, but fans have found value in the place where producers and directors actually talk and "guests (producers and directors) It seems that there seems to be a place like the temperature sensation of the work, such as "If it comes," it is a work that will surely become a topic if guests come. Ozaki also participates in various events and is speaking and has a sense that it has led to the sharing of work in Japan overseas and may be a factor that Gundam UC hit globally It seems to feel it. Also, in overseas, it is surprising that not only casts and directors, but also producers' signs are requested, because producers often have strong editorial rights, such as with film editing rights.


In Sunrise, although there are not many, there are cases where we made anime by sharing money with overseas company. that is"THE Big O"so,Cartoon NetworkIt was co-production with. This work was first made in Japan for one course, broadcasting was done, but the story ended with a trailing dragonfly. However, when I broadcast this in the United States, I received a great deal of response from the cartoon network, and there was an offer called "Let's make a second season" and the second phase was realized. In the lecture materials I wrote "Secure broadcasting rights" Although it is, it seems that this was that it was able to secure a frame as TV stations worked together. However, even though it is a result, it is also a big point that being surely broadcasted at the station.

Another co-production work is "SD Gundam The Three Kingdoms"This was a work to develop animation with toys and strategically develop Asian markets. Since Sunrise belongs to the BANDAI NAMCO Group, we often do product linkage with BANDAI of the whole world, but in the case of this work it seems that it made it by listening to the needs and opinions of BANDAI Asia. Because Sangokushi is popular both in Japan and in Asia, it is made by saying "Do you hit if you make Gundam for low age with motto of Sangokushi? Can not you sell toys?" Popularity became popular in Asia. In addition to Japan, it seems to have been expanded with Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, China spreading.

It was real life animation that was issued as "a special case". Sunrise is not a stance of positively making real animation of the company's animation, but it seems that it is a stance that it is good if the awareness of the work increases worldwide and it is good if it is reduced to the original animation. Regarding the availability of real-life images,Whether there is love in the work"It is said that they are not licensed for offering such as real-life photographing with money aim and" won if it is realized as it is a famous work ". This is a point that places a heavy importance as it tells us well, so the reason for strictly seeing it seems to be that "if the finished live-action work gets mocked, it may adversely affect animation."

As a real life project of Sunrise work, in January 2009Make popular science fiction animation "Cowboy Bebop" live-action movie by starring Keanu ReevesAlthough there was an announcement that, as for this, planning is still underway. Mr. Ozaki's realization that "realization takes time."

Ozaki said, "Although animation is easier to cross the border, animation is more citizenship globally, and there is no doubt that it is easy to appeal." Even if you do not usually watch anime, this means that there are definitely many people who wish to see if it was made into a live-action film at Hollywood. According to Mr. Ozaki, any entrance to the work can be anything, for example "Indian girls who saw the Hollywood version of Cowboy Bebop, see the animation that became the original after that" will eventually be in anime It seems that realization is being promoted aiming at being able to reduce it.

There seems to be various offers, as mentioned above, it seems that it is rather difficult to collate conditions such as "love for the work" and "finally returning to the animation" and conditions such as adjustment of the right and consideration Mr. Ozaki. However, it was said that "I can say that the attention degree of Japanese animation from overseas is certainly high."

As Ozaki uses the word "seeds" in the findings to assume that you will like to animate in the end, it is important to have whatever entrance entrance He said that.


Also, as for how to hit, how to share the worldwide with little time lag is also a point, so for that, go to overseas events and actively seek opportunities to see them simultaneously I will also provide it.

In the future, as a matter of the digital system, we can not yet cover the decline of packages by distribution alone, how will we monetize while devices such as smartphones are growing? And in the non-digital system, live entertainment enjoyed live, such as animated concerts, events, stageization, musicalization and so on, has attracted attention and it is not only content that can be enjoyed anytime anywhere that is extremely prosperous now " Consumption behavior towards those who pay money that can not be shared "is increasing, so it will be pointed out how to cultivate and hot markets overseas.

A question and answer session was held at the end.

Q:
I think that it will inevitably cause problems of piracy when overseas deployment is done. In the case of China there are cases where the law is different from Japan, but are there specific or aggressive countermeasures or countermeasures on this?

Ozaki:
Although Gundam AGE and Gundam SEED are the most examples, there were tens of millions of pirated viewers before the official distribution. However, when the official properly applied local subtitles and distributed it, it came to official. Of course, the pirated version still exists, but it is getting less. As China has regulations of the government and can not do television broadcasting, it takes the form of distribution, but there are uncertainties as to the regulation concerning distribution, so it is developing with trial and error.

Q:
I think that delivery to overseas is free delivery, but how do you monetize?

Ozaki:
This corresponds to "seeds". Even if it is free, if you can see it tens of millions of times, some people will like SEED from them. That person is achieving it if you think that "I like Gundam, so let's buy Gundam." If Gunpla is sold, some of it will be returned to Sunrise and will be the sales of the Bangnam Group. That is our strength. Even if it can not be monitored with video, it is a strategy to switch to money with secondary usage.

By the way, at the Anime · Business Forum +2011, producer Yasuo Miyakawa of SunriseIs not it an excuse for not being able to sell DVD or BDAlthough I was tough to point out to the industry, I thought that TIGER & BUNNY, which had been delivering on Ustream at the same time as television broadcasting, was a big hit and BDs also sold and made films, I am inside.

At the time of 2011, the window strategy of Gundam UC to release Blu-ray at an early stage after paying distribution and screening at a movie theater was quite conspicuous, but recently the "Space Battleship Yamato 2199" is similar We adopt a strategy and realize that the strategy of animation business should not be caught up by conventional common sense.