The Kingdom of Biscotti

So apparently, Bandai, Denso, Shueisha and the group of Corporations that decide Fractale’s fate told Funimation to stop their simulcast, citing “the need to eliminate internet piracy” before it would go on. While in France, they allow the simulcast to go on.

Aside from the France jokes I’d love to crack, and the burning urge to criticize the role of corporations on the global fabric of humanity, I feel that there’s a serious lack of education on how anime is made today. With that, let us begin.

(BTW, pic is minami’s work. Hatsune Miku is copyrighted to Crypton/Yamaha)

This post by Zepy ought to cover the basics, but hey.

Remember the list of companies you see before the show starts? That’s right. They’re the sponsors of the anime. And guess what? Most of these sponsors are part of the Committee that decides the fate of the show.

And these sponsors? Why, they’re corporations! Or rather, affiliate companies related to the corporations. But basically that means that there’s a group of 6-20 companies/corporations the basically decide what gets animated. I think.

Here’s another educational point to chew on: The point of any corporation is to ensure the continued influx of profit for the benefit of their shareholders. Or in simple words, it’s all about the money. Sure, one can mock the corporations for being so narrow-minded, but hey, it’s THEIR money on the line here. They practically cough up the dough to ensure that you get to see the show.

Another learning point. The animation company is just another cog in the wheel. Ordet, A1 Pictures, KyoAni, AIC, AIC ASTA, Toei, PA Works, JC Staff, Shaft, they are all just cogs in the machine. They are contracted to do the show, and usually, they have to take orders from the Committee (which we have learnt have vested interests in the show, at least in terms of money). The fact that Yamakan was allowed to shoot his bloody mouth off can be seen as either reassuring or ominous. And considering his track record, ominous is probably the best word used.

It’s also painfully obvious to those who do know how it works is that Yamakan probably has no idea about his position in the grand scheme of things. Now, remember that funny interview he gave. If it was Makoto Shinkai, Yasuhiro Imagawa or Tomino (or any other director or God forbid, Hideaki Anno) doing the interview, the whole thing would have been grating, but sensible, since they do know their position and probably are not too happy at the way things work.Their bosses would also have grudgingly allowed the interview to take place since, well, they have proven track records. Tomino practically invented Gundam. Imagawa is a bloody genius. Makoto Shinkai funds his own productions. Most of the other directors probably have more hits than misses. Even Anno has Eva.

Yamakan? He was fired after 3 episodes into Lucky Star and Kannagi should not have even been made. Not to mention that his movies were… … … not as well-received as one would have liked. Oh yeah, there’s Haruhi… … … but he  said he was only a real director after Kannagi was made.

But enough rambling on Yamakan. More education.

As painful as it may seem, Funimation is really being ordered by a bunch of corporations much bigger than it to do some insane things that would involve Funi begging the US Armed Forces to do, such as the bombing of key data centres in various parts of the world, overtaking Russia and probably the second nuking of Japan, if they don’t want to go the costly lawsuit route.

But the even crazier thing is this: We Allow A Group Of Corporations To Decide What Gets Animated And What Does Not. It’s madness. It’s insanely mindboggling.

But then again, we’ve allowed the MultiNational Corporation to practically rule the world. But I think I’m making a clumsy point here, so let’s end this.