Another week, another depressing story about the Japanese animation industry! Okay, this info isn’t particularly new, but it’s making the rounds again thanks to being shared on a Japanese TV show. The show compared the average yearly salary animators in China and Japan. On the …Read more »
The Chinese government continues to grow stricter on what it allows in the entertainment section. Last week The National Radio and Television Administration said that programs aimed at kids, including cartoons such as anime, would be prohibited if they have any “violence, blood, vulgarity or …Read more »
The Chinese government recently put new restrictions on minors playing video games, saying they could only do it legally one hour a day from Friday through Sunday, plus holidays. Not long after that the Chinese government banned what it considers “effeminate men” from being on …Read more »
The Chinese government already had limits on video game playtime for those under the age of 18, but now those restrictions have been increased dramatically. According to a report on Reuters, minors will now be limited to playing games at a maximum of one hour …Read more »
Shinji Takamatsu, the director of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, posted a series of tweets about how China’s strict censorship rules affect the production of anime. According to him, there are instances where Japan needs more than Japanese viewers to make a profit off …Read more »
If you stick around for the credits when you watch anime (which you totally should!), you’ll notice that a lot of the folks who help make it happen are from outside Japan. It’s been pretty standard practice for decades for Japan to outsource animation—especially in-between …Read more »
The Demon Slayer movie is having hiccups toward its theatrical release in China, and it’s related to the fallout from Monster Hunter. To recap, a pun ad-libbed in Monster Hunter by Chinese-American actor Jin Au-Yeung (which was intended as a showing of Chinese pride) was …Read more »
Manga is a giant business, both in Japan and abroad. In the US, we regularly hear about how volumes of One Piece or Naruto outsell homegrown American comics by a wide margin, and new players are getting into the manga publishing game all the time. …Read more »
Readers of Otaku USA know the anime industry can be tough for animators. Despite record-high revenues, animators in the trenches are faced with poor wages and labor standards. According to one NPO, the starting salary for over 80% of young animators is under 100,000 yen — …Read more »
Chinese company Mihoyo has an open-world PS4 game in the works called Genshin Impact, but you’d be excused for mixing it up with a certain flagship Nintendo title. The first gameplay footage made its debut at the recent China Joy gaming expo, and some attendees had …Read more »
Earlier this month we posted about the then-upcoming Chinese premiere of Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away anime film, which took a whopping 18 years to make its way to theaters in the country. Well, the film’s debut finally happened on June 21, and it came away with …Read more »
For Chinese fans of Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World, slurping down some Cup Noodles just got a whole more interesting. Cup Noodles, Nissin’s famous brand of instant ramen, has teamed up with Re:Zero for some limited-edition packaging aimed at Chinese fans of the …Read more »
As we reported a few months ago, shockingly, China has never had official releases of Studio Ghibli films. That’s being rectified this month, with the theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro (a mere 30 years after its release in Japan). While the original …Read more »
It may have taken 30 years, but 1988’s My Neighbor Totoro will be getting a theatrical release in China. Believe it or not, Totoro is the first Studio Ghibli film to get a release in theaters in China—ever. It’s unlikely to be the last, though. …Read more »
Every year, the best cosplayers from around the world assemble in Nagoya, central Japan, to participate in the World Cosplay Summit, a week-long festival dedicated to all things cosplay. The highlight of the WCS is the competition, where teams representing dozens of countries duke it …Read more »
Matt Schley
Danica Davidson
Joseph Luster
