We recently reported that Makoto Kimurawho worked on anime series such as Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan It is Jujutsu Kaisenleft the studio MAPPA to found his own company and has now revealed which was not because he was unhappy with the studio, but rather to pursue a business opportunity that he spotted and that will be vital to the future of the anime industry.
Kimura created the Blue Rights and in a workshop organized by Cool Japan Fund Inc. he revealed that the company will help with licensing and communication between studios directly with distributors and help with market exploration.
Since anime studios are mostly hired by production committees, the chief animation director of Jujutsu Kaisen 0 explained how animators’ business incompetence is also a major risk, predicting more anime studio bankruptcies in the near future.
In some ways, these companies are blessed to continue to receive requests and face creative challenges, but at the same time, I think it is very difficult to break free from precarious operations with such a setup. If pandemics and other unexpected issues arise and air dates are postponed, these companies will not be able to produce a finished product within the allotted production budget. This is a big risk for these companies.
In the production committees’ business model, if an anime is a success, the animation studio will not earn more because it does not obtain revenue from streaming rights, merchandise, box office, events, etc… Kimura stated:
MAPPA has implemented several approaches to change this environment and developed growth strategies. One approach was to obtain the rights to an anime through investment, and another was to produce a popular anime. A third approach was to pursue projects related to popular anime (merchandising, events, etc.). With Chainsaw Man, we were determined to try all three approaches with a 100% investment. We would create, deliver and sell products on our own. Several problems remained, but it was a financial success and I hope we can apply this success to the next update.
Kimura explained that he transformed the studio’s copyright department MAPPAallowing the studio to secure streaming rights in the West for titles such as Oblivion Battery and the highly profitable Jujutsu Kaisen – currently the most popular anime in the world and the most sought after TV series in the world of any medium or genre.
Kimura showed in detail how to guarantee certain rights for popular adaptations and, in the case of Chainsaw Man It is Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skillto possess 100% rights related to anime. Some studios take out massive loans from banks, such as Studio Pierrot, whose president stated that at a certain point banks could confiscate part of their intellectual property if they were unable to pay. Others rely on pre-sales agreements, where a distribution company will give the money for production before production is complete and, in some cases, before it even begins in earnest. This is based on their past track record and the projected success of the series. O MAPPA also depended on bridge financing, where, instead of a distributor, the financing company Cool Japan Fund intervened based on the previous and projected success of the MAPPA. Kimura believes that with the impact of Chainsaw Man, “the need for JCF and other forms of bridge financing will increase in the future.” Creating your company Blue Rights will help solve these problems.
