My coverage of the ICv2 conference held at New York Anime Festival continues with this final ICv2 panel on technology. You can listen to the un-edited audio I recorded of the panel here. I hope to clean up the levels later for my podcast.

ICv2: Technology and the Otaku

Panelists included:

Peter Heumiller, VP of Content Development at Comcast
Daniel Marks, VP of Strategy and Business Development at Viz
John Nee, Senior VP of Business Development at DC Comics (CMX)
Jeremy Ross, Director of New Product Development, Tokyopop

Out of all the ICv2 panels at NYAF, this one is of the most interest to internet fans of anime and manga. Some of us live online, denizens of cyberspace, crawling the web for new content and the latest technology. You know who you are!

Each of the companies represented on the panel; Viz, CMX, Tokypop, and Comcast, are doing their best to find the next market model to deliver anime to you, the consumer, in a legal fashion not involving DVDs. It’s just like how the iTunes store provided a legal alternative to music piracy and destroyed Tower Records in its wake. Just like that!

Moderator Milton Griepp opened by asking the panelists what each of their companies is doing, exactly.

Viz is offering a lot of free content (to the U.S. only) on Toonami Jetstream. Although Daniel Marks did not say so on the panel, I have heard from Cartoon Network that the reason the Toonami block is no longer on television is because Cartoon Network started pouring money into web content a couple of years ago. I went to go check out Toonami Jetstream just now, but apparently Mac users are not supported. Damnit! I wanted to watch Eyeshield 21 in a legal fashion, but I guess I’m forced into piracy… It’s not even on DVD!

Viz also began digital downloads with the Death Note anime. Although they haven’t started yet, they hope to do something with digital manga in the near future. Comcast is offering a lot of free content as well as user submitted content. John Nee from DC is bypassing magazines and offering things on the web.

Jeremy Ross of Tokyopop spoke like a technological evangelist. Tokyopop is offering a ton of web content and services. He emphasized that the free online samples for OEL helped promote Dramacon among skeptical fans. Tokyopop is even offering cell phone manga for $5 a month.

Griepp asked the panelists how anime and manga consumers are different from other consumers. Ross answered that Tokyopop’s customers are tech-saavy 13-20 year olds. Nee claimed that books won’t go away in the near future. Peter Heumiller of Comcast said video on demand is perfect for anime, since it’s an electronic “sell through”. Heumiller also runs Exercise TV, which is the only other VOD station I have used. Heumiller could not reveal the demographic statistics of his VOD customers.

Griepp asked the panelist how they can compete with the free content of the internet. Daniel Marks from Viz had this to say:

“The problem rests in how animation is made in Japan. Animation is – the day before it is aired – the final scripts are done – they deliver* literally hours before it’s aired. So we can’t get the materials in the United States in time to combat illegal downloads. And so until the Japanese system changes it’s going to be very hard to fight against someone who downloads it, has it subtitled and up ready for download worldwide within a day. There is no way to combat that.”

Having worked in television, I can tell you that when Marks refers to the “delivery” of an episode, he means the completed digibeta tapes (or whathaveyou) are delivered ready-to-air to the television network who commissioned the show. The American cartoon show I worked on completed final delivery typically four to six months before an episode’s air date. Cartoon Network needed the shows well ahead of time to develop promotional material and distribute the episodes to its partners worldwide. I was surprised to learn how close anime companies cut their schedules to the air date!

Heumiller agreed that Japan needs to change their delivery techniques to a digital system. Instead of a production coordinator driving videotapes to the TV studio the day before the show airs (like in Paranoia Agent) the Japanese could FTP shows to the broadcasters.

Griepp asked the panel about trends in stopping electronic piracy.

The panelists agreed that although movies, television, and music are one experience, reading a book is fundamentally different experience. Scanslations and free online samples help sell physical books. Once you’ve seen an episode of anime, you’ve had the full experience. Thus, anime is in trouble while manga booms.

Marks responded, “Cease and desist letters are effective for about five minutes.” Part of the problem, according to Marks, is that bittorrent sites are frequently not based in the U.S. The laws are different in the Netherlands and China, for example. A legal alternative to piracy is the best way to fight it – and it must be at a price people are willing to pay.

Ross claimed pirate sites want to work with the industry, but the industry sees this as fraternizing with the enemy.

“You can’t say it’s like hire the hackers,” Ross elaborated. “But I think there’s going to be creative solutions other than playing a game of whack-a-mole that we’re gonna see spin out over the next couple of years… We don’t just need more and better cops.”

Ross brought up the example of Radiohead’s pay-what-you-wish album. Ross believes in direct distribution with no middle men, although it seems that might put him out of work as an manga middle-man himself.

Griepp asked the panel their opinion on pricing structures.

Both Heumiller and Marks agreed that no one market model has been proven to work yet, so everyone is trying a little of this and a little of that. Heumiller commented that money is moving away from linear advertisements and towards broadband and VOD. Advertisers want fewer 30-second spots and more graphic overlays.

Ross, still in full-on visionary mode, praised Google AdSense. He believes service-based advertising is a good way to reach niche audiences as opposed to how something like Coca Cola advertises. Ross hinted earlier in the panel that Tokyopop might move towards a system like livejournal, wherein content is ad-supported, but users can pay to make the ads go away.

Griepp asked about the pace of conversion to digital delivery – particularly on handheld devices and cell phones.

Tokyopop is already aggressively pursuing these options. Ross mentioned the Amazon upgrades program and said that Tokyopop is currently making high resolution copies of their books so they are ready to go into whatever digital realm Tokyopop needs them in. Tokyopop is even producing screen-resolution copies of all their titles, so if you buy a book you could potentially own a complete digital copy of that book as well. The moire problems in manga screentones are a serious hurdle, however.

Tokyopop has been working with uClick to adopt manga to cell phones and break it down into a frame-by-frame experience. This comment really creeped me out. The manga creators intend for you to look at a certain page spread, and altering their work in this way changes the reading experience. It’s one thing if the work was created to be experienced digitally in the first place, like NetComics’ title The Great Catsby.

Comcast happens to own a very large ISP. According to Heumiller, mobile content will really take off in two years, and there will be cross-platform, cross-promotional content.

Marks pointed out that regrettably Viz does not own an ISP (I kind of wish they did… that’d be sort of cool). Japanese publishers, Marks says, still love paper. As the paper market decreases the Japanese are looking more into cell phone manga. The U.S. is still still behind in cell phone technology.

Nee is currently working with Flex Comics to make more mobile manga.

Ed Chavez of the Mangacast asked why, or rather if there is resistance from Japanese publishers towards making manga available digitally. I think he was referring to the proliferation of Netcomics’ Korean titles online, or how Tokyopop’s online titles are largely OEL.

Marks said that all the major Japanese publishers have their own ideas and agendas. There are certain rights issues, but it’s also a matter of timing. Many Japanese publishers are not happy with the cell phone technology available in the U.S.

Ross pointed out that creators have a lot of control over their titles in Japan. Editors and business-people are very hesitant to ask manga creators for permission to do something without good reason. However, in the last year the cell phone manga market has tripled. Ross is sure the rights will become more available in the next two years. He really likes comics on the iPhone because of the gestural interface.

Ross also brought up the excellent point that Americans commute by driving and have PCs everywhere, whereas the Japanese commute primarily by train, own fewer PCs, and are always using their cell phones to access the internet. Koreans, Ross continued, have more access to streaming video on their cell phones than anywhere else in the world – but it turns out Koreans prefer to quietly read manga on their hyper-advanced phones instead.

At one point Ross used the word “widget” as a verb, as in, “widgetizing,” which was somewhat alarming.

Much of what was said on this panel came up at panels during the rest of the convention.