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Dallas Middaugh @dallasmiddaugh ‘s opening remarks at Project Anime in LA described anime & manga as “going through a period of radical change” - as overseas interest & availability of content from Japan has grown + increased investment fr. overseas #ProjectAnime19 #AX2019 
“When I started in this biz, JP rights holders weren’t interested in markets outside of Japan - at most, int’l licensing was only 5-15% of their revenue. To them it was like sofa change.” -@dallasmiddaugh #ProjectAnime #AX2019
“In 2015, I moved to manga publishing to anime. I was used to US book publishing, where bks usually need 1-2 years in advance for licensing, marketing, production/translation. When I moved to @Crunchyroll, we were lucky if JP anime production companies gave us a week lead time.”
“At Crunchyroll, sometime we got less than 24 hours notice before finding out we had the rights to an anime. This gave us barely any time to translate, & almost no time to properly promote the show. Why did JP rights holders wait so long? B/c it’s sofa change to them.” - Dallas M
“In 2019, things have changed — the lead time has increased from 1 week to 1 month. Sometimes, we get 3, maybe 6 months lead time after hearing that we have rights to air an anime series. This gives us a better chance to sell and market anime.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime
Why did JP anime/manga rights holders’ attitudes to int’l markets change? 3 factors: 1. Anime/manga is getting more popular worldwide. 2. Population decline in JP = decline in domestic sales. 3. As market has grown, larger companies are getting involved/investing $$ #ProjectAnime
So deeper dive into 1. Anime/manga biz is more popular worldwide - “In US, graphic novels are 2-5% of total publishing sales, of which 25% is manga. If you take kids comics out of the mix (Dog Boy, etc.), then manga = 50% of graphic novels sold in US.”- Dallas Middaugh
“Meanwhile, in France, 25% of all books published are graphic novels/BD/manga, of which 50% is manga. This indicates potential for growth in the overseas market.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime19
“@crunchyroll now has 2 million paid subscribers & 60 million registered users. It took 10 years to get to 1 million subscribers, and only 2 years to double that number.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime #AX2019
Reason 2 - As population in JP declines and ages, domestic sales of anime & manga also declines. “It’s as popular as ever, but given current trends, JP’s population will go from 124 million ppl now to 88 million ppl in 40 years.” Where is growth potential? Overseas.
This increased interest in foreign markets, is why now you see overseas theatrical premieres of anime feature movies, like the My Hero Academia movie, Your Name, etc. #ProjectAnime19
Manga publishers are also now doubling down on the international market. With the arrival of @SquareEnix having their own manga/book publishing imprint, “now all top 5 JP manga publishers have subsidiaries in N. America.” - Dallas Middaugh #ProjectAnime19
Reason 3 - As interest in anime/manga grows overseas, larger overseas companies are getting interested in the content. “This happened with Star Wars - it told Hollywood that there was a hunger for sci-fi stories. It happened with Iron Man too. This led to more superhero movies.”
“The players in anime are radically different than it was 5 years ago. The rivalry for licensing anime content used to be Crunchyroll vs. Funimation. Now Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Netflix and Amazon have entered the fray.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime19
Hollywood is showing greater interest in stories from JP anime and manga. “The results are mixed, but the interest is there, and there’s hope for more good adaptations in the future.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime19
”While people “hate-watched” Death Note on Netflix, there’s some big names attached to anime adaptation projects in the works: JJ Abrams has optioned Your Name. Taika Waititi is working on Akira. Legendary is working on movie adaptations of My Hero Academia and Gundam.”
Re: Hollywood anime adaptations: “It will be done right eventually, and success will breed imitation,” like it did for Star Wars & Iron Man. “There are risks here, but optimism is a choice.” - Dallas Middaugh @ #ProjectAnime19
