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End of an Era? Anime Industry In Crisis!

Date: 2005 January 02 15:44 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Anime

The Otaku News Crew are still in holiday mode, which explains our rather relaxed coverage recently (I am aware that a few of the crew have had far too much eggnog and mulled wine over this holiday season). This doesn't mean that the news stops however.

As if it was timed to coincide with Sky Cinema's UK Screenings of Spirited Away the alert folks over at AnimeUKNews.net have discovered that The Telegraph Arts Section has a very interesting article on the future of anime, Hayao Miyazaki's future retirement (Princess Mononoke was supposed to be his last film, as was Spirited Away) and how little an animator in the Japanese animation industry earns.

It explains that animators start as passionate otaku wanting to be part of the industry of their childhood dreams and by the time they are thirty or so realise that most supermarket clerks earn more than them so as a result decide to leave for a better paid job. It then goes on to mention the danger of foreign influences leading to anime it loosing it's appeal and it's soul.

The article has quotes from anime expert, translator and writer Jonathan Clements.

An another interesting part of the article is the bullet point at the end stating that Howl's Moving Castle will be released in the UK in the autumn. The Otaku News Crew look forward to this and will bring you more news on the subject when avaible. ^_-

Souce: Telegraph Arts Section

The Laughing Man - Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex's Hacker Logo

Date: 2004 November 29 11:08 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production

The hit series Ghost In The Shell: Standalone Complex, features a logo for hacker and cyberterrorist "The Laughing Man", in the show he is only identified by his logo which forms a distinct part of the Standalone Complex imagery. I discovered that Paul Nicholson of Terratag designed the logo for Production I.G.

Join us as Otaku News interview Paul about creating an icon in anime!

Animex 05 Bookings Now Open

Date: 2004 October 22 18:22 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Production

Those of you in the animation industry should pay a visit to the next Animex International Festival of Animation. This will be the sixth Animex now, and every time it just gets bigger and better. Animex will run from 31st January to 4th February at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough in the North East of England.

This year the emphasis on animation in gaming seems to have increased and as always attendees get a chance to discuss details with industry professionals such as Robin Linn, Director of Animation Production for the Digital Character Group at Sony Pictures Imageworks.

Souce: Animex

Jonathan Clements Launches New Website

Date: 2004 October 16 13:26 | Posted By: Joe

Category > Websites

Jonathan Clements, writer, translator, co-author of the Anime Encyclopedia, The Erotic Anime Movie Guide, The Dorama Encyclopedia and I Love My Tamagotchi (under the name of Bronwen Komatsubara), has just e-mailed with some details regarding his new website -

"Don't know if this counts as news or not, but if it does, there is much anime goodness to be found at my website, including the English version of my Afterword to the deluxe edition of Akira, the unpublished Afterword to the Anime Encyclopedia, and several anime columns from Newtype and the Sci Fi channel."

Considering how much Jonathan Clements has done in the anime industry, I think it does count as news, so go on and have a look at his website. I'm off to find Schoolgirl Milky Crisis.