The Panelists: Meredith Mulroney, Art Director/ Senior Designer at Media Blasters and Joe Chagan, Interactive Media Producer
Moribito Anime
A worried audience member asks “With ADV getting tanked and Geneon getting tanked…”
Meredith responds, “We have anti-tank rifles,” getting a big laugh from the audience. “People make fun of us and say ‘oh Media Blasters, you’re so cute’ but,” she says in a singsong voice: “We’re still heeeeere. I think we’ll be here until the end of time.” She has confidence in the company.
Joe says, “We don’t spend money all over the place advertising every title.”
Meredith, “We’re doing games – that was one of John’s original intentions when he started the company. If things are doing badly we don’t get bonuses, and we look for other ways to make money.” Apparently their in-house game Altiel is doing well for the company.
One fan mentions how other anime companies have their own TV channels – and has Media Blasters considered something like this? Meredith explains that the amount of money that it costs to run a TV channel could buy a Bentley every day. It costs ADVision “like a 100 million a day” to run the Anime Channel. Despite all their interests anime fans just can’t support that kind of money…
“Brilliant shows get cancelled all the time because [some jackass] says this didn’t do well on a rating system from the 1950’s,” Meredith says, referring to the Nielsen system.
Another fan brings up on demand DVD printing and download services as a means of alternate distribution. Joe says, “Download and burn or burn on demand services are very expensive to host [the bandwidth] – the system isn’t cheap enough and licensing fees are too high for a small company to support.”
Joe goes on to explain that licensing is required per download – the Microsoft fee for proprietary codecs was something like 50 cents per download, “And we’re charging $2.00 an episode?” Media Blasters couldn’t swing it.
Media Blasters subs four episodes a day, but waits six months for Japanese approval of things like credits, waiting weeks for a single name change.
On Fansubs
Meredith says, “I like fansubs,” She admits that she helped fansub the first Evangelion movie. Fansubs are how Meredith watched 12 Kingdoms, and liked it, and Media Blasters picked it up, and it did well for them. Company president John [O’Donnell] pretends that fansubs don’t exist, and that way, Media Blasters can keep going.
Meredith says, “I would say retailers have screwed anime more than anyone else. You’re going to get screwed because Best Buy decides ‘anime is over’. Not because of fansub groups.”
In another example of retailers screwing the market, Meredith explains how Walmart really wanted Ah My Goddess, and MB was all: “‘Are you sure?’ It doesn’t seem like a Walmart kind of show.” Walmart ended up returning all the copies, which now litter the Media Blasters office.
Joe says, “Most of the stuff on Cartoon Network gets it’s money from merchandise and T-shirts,” anime companies are not so lucky. Viz sustained itself on Ranma, then InuYasha, and now Naruto but “How many shows like that are there? Cartoon Network only wants stuff with that mass appeal.”
“People don’t understand that anime is a medium and not a genre,” Meredith goes on, “You can tell people Hamtaro is brilliant and everyone loves it, but it’s made for 3 year olds. You try and sell that to adults and…” she shrugs hopelessly.
On Moribito
“I hope Moribito doesn’t become another Escaflowne” Meredith says, explaining how Escaflowne “got the crap beat out of it on TV,” and had the worst Japanese DVD release, Meredith says. Moribito was recently moved to 5 AM on Cartoon Network, from a more reasonable later night slot on Adult Swim. Moribito is based on a series of novels which qualify as children’s literature. Look for my upcoming review of volumes one and two in issue #10 of OtakuUSA magazine. In brief, it’s a terrific show and one of the novels is currently available from Scholastic, with manga to follow.
On 12 Kingdoms
Machine Girl Poster
The [Japanese] guy who was directing the 12 Kingdoms anime had a nervous breakdown and quit. “That’s all the 12 Kingdoms you get,” Meredith says, adding, “Hopefully Tokyopop will keep putting out those novels.”
On Tokyo Shock
Someone asks about MB’s Tokyo Shock Titles. Machine Girl was recently released on DVD in Japan and it is “cleaning up”. The Media Blasters office in Japan is a tiny box-like room with a desk and a shared fax machine.
Meredith says of GaoGaiGar: “GaoGaiGar is my albatross. It’s also my greatest love in life. [I was] that close (fingers pinching close together) to getting Disney to take GaoGaiGar. They decided nobody wants robots. (sarcastically) Oh yeah, nobody likes Transformers.”
The Machine Girl trailer “Got a million youtube hits of the trailer overnight… the Germans really liked it.”
Tokyo Shock just released Tokyo Gore Police on DVD. The film was shot in 14 days. “Which means that nutcase director had all the props made ahead of time.” Tokyo Gore Police aired during the New York Asian Film Festival, but this reviewer was too scared to see it, based on the trailer.
They picked up some Shaw Brothers films – a lot of them – whatever ones the Watchowski Brothers didn’t pick up. “We should have an endless supply of fantastical films coming out in the next couple years,” Meredith says, mentioning Fleshman and the Beast.
On Cream Lemon
Someone asks if MB has any Cream Lemon news. The do not, although Meredith says a box set floated around the office.
On Gonzo
“Gonzo will not sell to us,” Meredith says. “They don’t like us. I don’t know what they’re deal is. I knew a bunch of people who worked at Gonzo. They all quit a long time ago.”
On Moe
“Moe is one thing, and it sells well in Japan,” Meredith says, “but big boobs sell well everywhere. Big boobs and big guns.”
On Crunchroll
Media Blasters has stuff up on Crunchyroll.com, or if they don’t yet they will.
On Youtube
You can watch some clips of this panel on youtube, thanks to IFC.
Read the rest of Erin’s New York Anime Festival 2008 coverage:
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