by Will light anime change the production scene? Imagika Foss announced that it has entered into a business agreement with Dai Nippon Printing and will begin full-scale production of “light anime” that leverages the strengths of both companies. Both companies aim to turn light anime into a business through this joint venture.
The strength of light animation is that it can reduce production costs to one-tenth of traditional animation production and shorten the production period. Both companies are enthusiastic about developing their IP business ten times faster.
Light anime is a new media that utilizes materials such as manga and WEBTOON. The frames and parts are cut out from the manuscript with speech bubbles and other parts removed, colored, and created using video production methods that use motion and 2D techniques. Furthermore, it is a video work with various effects, such as audio and sound effects. Imagika Foss, the publishing company that publishes Seiyuu Grand Prix'' andS Cawaii!” as well as the light novel label Hero Bunko,'' will establish a new animation production departmentImage Works” from April 2023 through business transfer. As a publisher, we can now develop integrated business from original production to video production.
In this light anime joint project, creators such as animation production staff and directors will be appointed to work on production and direction to improve the quality of the video work. In contrast, Dai Nippon Printing, one of Japan’s largest printing companies, has developed a new flow that can significantly reduce the time and cost compared to conventional animation production methods. From August 2022, we began providing the service primarily to publishers with manga originals and companies with content such as characters.
The light anime business will be fully operational and respond to the needs of people who want to enjoy a variety of anime works more easily and quickly. As light anime becomes more established, will it improve the long working hours of the staff involved in anime production? It is said that animators work an average of 10 hours daily and often do challenging work with little time off.
This could be a solution because the production period is often short, and people work long hours. Different companies have made many attempts to create new media, such as light anime.
In particular, the media mix that has been gaining momentum in recent years is often unable to proceed smoothly with a single publisher alone, and it is now common for publishers to work together with partner companies to develop their products by leveraging their respective strengths. I look forward to seeing what kind of works Imagika Foss and Dai Nippon Printing will produce.
