November 8th, 2006
Update
- Jay Navok
Analysis: "Licensing
Character Directory 2007"
Another
Genvid scoop for you tonight. I've
taken a look through a Japanese book called the "Licensing Character
Directory 2007," published by
Nikkei, which is one of Japan's premiere business media sources. I
present my findings to you below.
A bit of background: This book is an
industry tome, weighing in at 900+ pages and costing over $700 per copy. I
don't have the kind of money to buy something like this myself; I looked
through the copy available at the Tokyo Central Library in Arisugawa Park. I
also don't have a scanner in Japan so I'm afraid we'll have to make do with
digital photographs of copies that I took.
The book is broken into two sections: “Character Licensing Information”
and “Company Information.” It also has a table of contents in the front
listing the series and companies that have fact sheets written up about
them; the back is an index which mentions shows that are brought up anywhere
and don't necessarily have a fact sheet.
The first part, which is the vast majority of the text, is a
comprehensive listing of "fact sheets" for licensing any Japanese
anime/manga/comic book character imaginable. It even has listings for
popular foreign characters as well, such as Batman, Snoopy, and The Pink
Panther. These fact sheets tell you who owns the rights to a series,
the extent of its media (anime, games, etc.), how much it costs to
license, and companies that have produced products with it.
Examples of character license fact sheets.
You can click on those for bigger versions.
Checking the index for character licensing information results in
nothing for Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon or Sailor Moon. Takeuchi’s
husband’s series, Hunter x Hunter, is listed. None of Takeuchi’s other
series appear either in the “Character Licensing Information” section of the
book.
This is where "Sailor Moon" or "Bishoujo
Senshi Sailor Moon" should be.
(I checked for Pretty Guardian/Soldier also, it's not there. I've never seen
Sailor Moon actually indexed by its English subtitle anywhere.)
Takeuchi's husband's show is listed.
In the Company Information section there is information for Toei, Toei
Animation, and Toei Agency, as well as Kodansha, but not Princess Naoko
Planning.
The company information sheet for Toei Animation does not list
Sailor Moon among its “propertied anime,” which include such well known
series as “Dragon Ball,” “Dragon Ball Z,” “Dr. Slump,” and the three
different Pretty Cure series. This list of propertied anime is fairly short
compared to Toei’s full holdings, but it’s curious they decided not to put
Sailor Moon among these otherwise crown jewels of their animation company’s
history.
Toei’s live action unit DOES list a Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon among its
properties, next to Kamen Rider and other sentai shows. That’s the PGSM
series. The problem is that’s just a listing of properties held by Toei, it
is NOT an indication that a series is available for licensing. (These lists
are like resumes of stuff they’ve done. At least they’re still proud of the
show.)
Toei's properties and contact sheet.
The live action section lists Sailor Moon, the animation section does not.
Likewise, Kodansha has up Initial D and many of its other famous manga,
but Sailor Moon (which was just re-released a few years ago), is not among
the highlighted list of “properties held.”
Kodansha doesn't even mention the new
Sailor Moon manga.
In the final index in the back of the book, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
appears once, stating that it was listed on the properties held page of Toei
(live action).
The most important part of the book would have been a character license
information sheet for at least the live action series, if not the anime or
the manga, but there was not one for Sailor Moon. If there was, it may have
had stuff like how much it costs to license the show, which company grants
the license, and what products are currently available. (See, for example,
that Hunter x Hunter license sheet.)
Here is a book which helps companies who want to license characters or
television shows get in contact with the people who would be making money
off said license. It’s natural that any business which has a character or
show to license would want to be in this book if they wanted to get that
character or series licensed. But Sailor Moon, an animated series known
around the world and which ought to be there alongside Evangelion and
Dragonball and all those other shows in the character license section of the
book, is absent.
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