Over the past few weeks, there have been announcements bringing together significant powerhouses. For those who have missed them, let’s recap and cover what this means.
Sony and Aniplex
Well, this one is both less interesting and more interesting than the heading may seem. By now, you already know that Funimation is owned by Sony. You may not know that Aniplex is owned by Sony — Sony Music Entertainment Japan, to be precise. So this isn’t two unrelated companies, but the Great Streaming Wars is causing Sony to do some shuffling. Two of Aniplex’s streaming services, Australia’s Madman Anime Group and France’s Wakanim, are going to join Funimation in becoming one joint venture under the Funimation name. According to Variety, that means Funimation will operate in 49 countries and cover 10 different languages.
This Funimation’s first series is Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, with the French Wakanim and Australian AnimeLab getting a period of exclusivity thanks to this union. Not much else is known at this time, so who knows what other effects there will be outside of Sony (Funimation) licensing series and spreading it to more places around the globe. But will Madman Anime Group and Wakanim eventually just become Funimation Australia and Funimation France? These are both big companies in their regions, with many licenses that Funimation US doesn’t have. Will Funimation focus more and more on titles that they can release in all territories, meaning that anime that Madman and Wakanim might have picked up will go to competitors or not be picked up?
Personally, I imagine Sony and Aniplex will mostly leave them as-is, but they’re going to put more ad money and physical releases into the anime licensed by the joint venture Funimation. Why leave room for a new competitor when they’d rather have their cake (global Funimation titles) and eat it too (exclusive to region titles)?
HIDIVE and MyAnimeList
HIDIVE and MyAnimeList has announced a new partnership. MAL ratings and scores will appear on HIDIVE. Later this year, HIDIVE anime will play directly on MyAnimeList through an embedded player. MyAnimeList already is hosting anime from Crunchyroll and Hulu on its website.
Chances are that if you are a regular reader of this column, you already check out HIDIVE or at least know what series they have. Sometimes though, newer or more casual fans just look for something interesting and may not know where to find it and end up at an unofficial site. It also speaks to the power of MyAnimeList as it kind of functions as a one-stop shop. Reference guide, store, anime episodes…if a new anime fan finds MAL, they have a good chance of using or buying official goods and services with all the hosted content.
The New York Times and Graphic Novels
A few years ago, The New York Times discontinued three graphic novel bestseller lists. This included the one specifically for manga. While many people clamored to reverse the decision, and the paper launched a column dedicated to graphic novels in 2018 after some pressure.
Now, though, The New York Times has done some restructuring with its bestsellers lists. Now, as of October 2nd in the online version and October 20th in the print version, there is a “Graphic Books and Manga” monthly list. Graphic Books and Manga will combine all versions of volumes (digital and hard/softcover), and it covers all ages and types. This isn’t as good as before for fans of the medium, as there were separate lists for hardcover, softcover, and manga. Now all formats and ages will be combined. This means that manga will likely have a hard time cracking this list against some of the big names in comics and graphic novels, but on the debut list, Dragon Ball Super volume 6 made #14.
Perhaps if demand rises, the NYT will go back to having several graphic novel lists. Demand in the market caused them to put Graphic Books in. So if you want to see manga get its own list, keep buying manga and help make titles get onto the Graphic Book and Manga Best Sellers list! To you, it may not seem that important, but for publishers, it’s a great way to attract attention. “Hey, this series has been featured on The New York Times‘ Graphic Books and Manga Best Sellers list!” can be a good persuasive argument to the buyers for mass merchandisers like Walmart or organizations like schools and libraries. Getting books stocked at more places generates more sales.