As part of a press event, Noritaka Kawaguchi (CEO) and Mie Onishi (consultant for overseas transactions) from Comix Wave Films (“Your name.”) Expressed her frustration about Hollywood’s view of anime. We summarize.
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The corresponding statements fell during a lecture on »How Far Can Anime Go? Comix Wave Films ‘Global Adventure’, in which the great influence of the renowned anime studio was discussed on the global film industry. Because many works by the company were box office strikers- at home and abroad.
Nevertheless, the impression has increasingly consolidated in recent years that Hollywood anime only regarded as an inexpensive replacement for live action productions. Again and again you get inquiries like: “A live action film would cost around 20 billion yen-can’t that also be realized as an anime?”
Kawaguchi regularly brought such statements onto the palm, and he joked that one should simply tell the people, an anime cost 30 billion yen.
Change in the Oscar ceremony
In the further course of the conversation, however, the increasingly positive impression of anime on a global level was also discussed, above all in terms of awards.
While, according to Onishi, only the films were honored by traditional film distributors with large prices, the Academy Awards in particular have made great efforts to improve the electoral system. Unfortunately, these developments were too late for »your name.«, But Kawaguchi is convinced that the film today had better prospects for an Oscar nomination:
“The reason why Makoto Shinkai’s works like› Your name. ‹(2016) were not nominated was that funimation drove the film. If we had entrusted the Sony Pictures sales rights, the film might have been nominated. «
The Funimation brand has now risen in Crunchyroll, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex (Sony Music). Sony Pictures is often responsible for global sales of current anime cinema films, so that many titles now receive a greater publication than before.
Regardless of this, Japanese directors have already had noticeable success at the Academy Awards in recent years. Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Young and the Uri” won the Oscar for the best animated film in 2024-even though he was competing with Disney’s Pixar production “Elemental”.
In view of this tidal change, Makoto Shinkai’s future work could also have a greater chance of an Oscar nomination.
Via Gigazine
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