Anime Vice Anime/Manga News

Kouji Taguchi probably does not look like this. (Art by Ayakaze Ryuushou.)

ANN has posted a pretty extensive summary (translation?) of a Business Media article in which producer Kouji Taguchi, who has worked on some of Square Enix's biggest anime hits ( Fullmetal Alchemist , Soul Eater, Bamboo Blade, to name just a few), shares some specific information on making anime and manga in Japan. Among the highlights:

Of the ~30 title Squenix has animated in the last eight years, not a single one has lost money.
Squenix "specializes in targeted genres," including moe-fans, fujoushi, and traditional shounen readers.
Fujoushi in particular are a tough audience.
A single episode of an anime costs ¥10-20 million ($110-220,000 USD), not the ¥50 million ($560,000) timeslot sponsoring fee.
The total budget for Fullmetal Alchemist was ¥500 million (about $5.6 million USD).
Of the ¥420 cost of a manga volume, publishers keep about ¥150 per volume.
American sales of the FMA manga are only about 5-10% of their Japanese counterparts. Taguchi points to higher prices, lower amounts of cash in kids' hands, and simply that kids can't hit up the bookstores on their own in most parts of America.

Taguchi hopes that Squenix's plan to distribute manga on the PSN will help deal with all of these problems, though he doesn't expect manga to do well on mobile devices like cell phones, PSPs, iPods, etc.

This piece features probably some of the most specific insights into the Japanese manga and anime industry I've seen, so you should definitely check it out.

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