TV anime show, which is the core of the Japanese animation market, often develops their business by a media-mix strategy that combines derivative products (derivatives) and distribution of works in different media (versioning). Until now, the media-mix strategy has often been explained in terms of story and its expressive superiority, and it has not been described that it covers costs from TV stations, and now the strategy employs television broadcasting as a means of promoting businesses that mainly focus on revenue from media-mix channels. Therefore, in this paper, I show that business development by media-mix strategy is economically indispensable for TV anime shows from the cases of the three eras, the early stage of TV anime shows, the rise of the anime boom, and the establishment of the production and marketing partnership.

Although there is a significant body of literature analyzing the contemporary animation business, few studies have researched the history of the animation industry. The reason for this is a lack of explanation about the discipline and agenda in academia, which is a problem that this article attempts to address. Traditionally, the description of popular culture is often taken as the starting point of social critique in history studies, followed by an analysis of media politics through the lens of social history; such research tends to reconfirm the arguments of social critique and social history studies. Regarding the methodologies used in humanities and social sciences in general, more focus has been placed on the work of users than on the roles of industries and companies. However, these approaches often take no interest in the capital logic involved in the cultural industry. To address this, the historical study of the animation industry can encourage further discussion on the relationship between popular culture and capital logic. Additionally, case studies can be used to examine how this has changed. Therefore, there is an opportunity to update the theories and insights of humanities and social sciences by examining the history of the animation industry.

While it is known that many of the animators in the Japanese animation industry work as freelancers, there has not been sufficient discussion on how they cope with precarious situations. This paper draws on studio ethnography to reveal the individual and collective coping strategies animators use to deal with risks they face in their daily work. In particular, this paper focuses on animators’ portfolio work perspective, which examines how workers combine multiple jobs.

Animators were often exposed to the risk of no income for which they were not responsible. Still, veteran animators coped by securing short-term work in anticipation of when this risk would become apparent. Younger animators sometimes found it difficult to cope with such a situation, and in such cases, they obtained work with the support of the studio. This meant that animators who were freelancers were also subject to the organisational control. Still, this control was based on the assumption that the animators’ intentions regarding the production of their work were respected. These findings show the significance of freelance work and can help discuss the labour problems in the Japanese animation industry.

Although the animation business has been expanding since the 1960s, the process of determining the production cost of animation is not clear. This report, based on interviews with three producers belonging to a production company, clarifies the process of determining production costs, along with the method of calculation and the details of negotiations.

In Albania animation production began in 1975 during the socialist era, occurring later than in many other European countries. This paper focuses on nine animations made for adults under the Albanian socialist system in the 1980s.

During socialism in Albania some people were in favor of the system, some were brainwashed, others were persecuted by the regime and suffered, some were dissatisfied, and a few intellectuals had a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of socialist ideology. How people received these works depended on their points of view. The reality under socialism was that film producers had to follow the ideology of the government, but art and political propaganda have contradictory aspects. How did this manifest itself in Albanian animation films for adults and how did creators maintain their artistic autonomy in the face of political propaganda?

This Paper investigates the diverse functions of the spider web on the narrative and spatial level in cartoon animations from the 1930s, considering the technical conditions and the animation style of the period. In these films, while a spider often plays the villain, a cobweb can appear not only as a trap but also as various objects due to its simple but unique form, often providing clues for “the passage of time” by giving the impression of desolation or even poverty. Most importantly, a cobweb functions as various Depth Cues because of its web-like structure and thus creates visual depth in a two-dimensional world. Its transparency is also advantageous in the spatial composition of cell animations, which consist of multiple layers. In The Old Mill, a translucent plane formed by a cobweb right in the front stresses the cross-over motion of focus—going deep into the mill—thereby enhancing the impression of depth created by a multiplane camera. Moreover, depicting a delicate spider web also serves as the optimal showcase for the Disney Studio’s advanced colour techniques and sophisticated drawing skills.

Cinemetrics, the quantitative study of video works, focuses on the average duration per shot. However, other indices are needed for the development of this field. In this paper, we propose and validate an index based on the shot size in terms of direction. Given its importance in the extant video research, we first summarize the existing studies on shot size. We then apply the proposed index to the works of Osamu Tezuka, targeting storyboards that are published as books because identification of authors and selection of indices is easy. Tezuka had a unique disposition toward shot size, which emerged from the necessity to cut costs when he started TV animation. We verified the index by comparing it with the storyboards of Hayao Miyazaki, who has a contrasting background. Statistical validation revealed that the shot size between Tezuka and Miyazaki differed significantly, indicating that shot size is a useful index.

With the global popularity of anime pilgrimages, many local communities are now anticipating the economic benefits of them. The purpose of this study is to examine how anime pilgrimages expand the art world surrounding animation in local communities. Firstly, in order to clarify the increased focus on background art as well as characters, this paper discusses location hunting and development of perspective, which is the basis for the creation of background art. Secondly, this study points out that the active audience for animation had been doing more than just viewing animation works, such as through communication in magazines even before the rise of the anime pilgrimages. The focus on background art has led active audiences to make anime pilgrimages, visiting the areas depicted in the backgrounds of animated works, taking photographs, and sharing the photographs on the web. Although it is often a commonplace location in everyday life, by connecting the real space with the artwork, new cultural value is created there. Finally, this paper suggests that by fostering the art world centered on animation which works with the local community, it is possible to create a focal point in communities that has been lost to regional development.

Chinese animation in the 20th century was heavily influenced by the environment of the time. In particular, the first Asian feature-length animation Princess Iron Fan, produced during the special wartime period (1937–1945), is thought to have reflected the multi-layered social structure and complex political situation of the time. This article re-examines the meaning behind Princess Iron Fan while capturing the special environment of the concession city of Shanghai.

The ‘3 Cs’ (content, carrier and context) is a common concept in the field of film archiving that describes the object to be preserved based on the idea that film content is fundamentally characterized by its carrier and context. As a case study applying this ‘3 Cs’ archival approach, this paper presents an investigation of Ryuichi Yokoyama’s colour animation film Onbu Obake (1955). As illustrated in this case study, it became possible to complement the film’s content to some extent by examining the ‘career’ of the 16 mm colour reversal film, which consisted of three different film stocks, and by focusing on document research on the screening environment (‘context’), with further reference to production materials and Yokoyama’s own statements. This case study further underlines that intermediate materials, such as painted cels and backgrounds, are essential for the preservation of the content, as they are elements that define the content before the carrier and context were involved.