This article published in the November 1988 edition of Animage focuses on OVA productions, reflecting on their impact on the industry after the fifth year of their appearance. We are happy to present you with a translation of this archived document.
Year 001 was the experiment era, Year 002 was the genre definition era, Year 003 was the era of trial and error, Year 004 was the maniac era…
Year 005 of the OVA calendar is the era of strategy! Reflecting on the future of OVA development from all the fine works of this Autumn
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The very first OVA to come out was DALLOS II published in December 1983, and we could say that the direction OVA would take was almost decided within the first two years, until November 1985. DALLOS got a start on video series by appointing popular staff (Director Mamoru Oshii, who was at his popularity peak with Urusei Yatsura, as well as Studio Pierrot). BIRTH, in 1984, proved the efficiency of promoting the work using events involving staff and voice actors. The pillars of the OVA industry – manga adaptations and anime spinoffs – were in place, and works such as Genmu Senki Reda, Tatakae!! Ikser I, as well as Megazone 23, were already out, so the Bishoujo mecha approach original to OVA was also established. Even if it did not become a major approach, experimental music videos like Machikado no Meruhen had also been done in 1984.
Until that point, for an OVA, we were talking about a budget of 10 million yen per 10 minutes, which meant 60 million for a 60 minutes work. This was a far higher production value than TV anime, and the situation made the creation of productions with high degrees of accomplishment easier. Unlike TV or feature films, projects emerging from the staff’s side were also more likely to realize, which was also appealing.
As such, the OVA industry was expected to flourish, but instead, it quickly started to stagnate from 1986. The number of works produced grew steadily, from about 50 in 1986 to 72 in 1987 and 90 in 1988. But without a significant growth of the demand, that excess of supply inevitably caused a drop in sales. Without sales, budgets got cut, and original projects were less likely to get approved. The staff for whom most of the work revolved around a handful of popular OVAs were also overworked.
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On the other hand, rental video shops were starting to steal the limelight in the meantime. The rental system started in 1984, and already there were 514 official rental shops affiliated to the Japan Video Association, and their number grew every year (respectively 1, 818 in 1985, 2, 733 in 1986, and 4, 732 in 1987), reaching 8, 684 in September of this year (based on research by the Video Association). Besides, we estimate the number of non-attached shops at about 5, 000, but only by seeing official figures, we can tell how significant this growth was. Even rental fees, which were about 1, 500 yen at the beginning, got even more competitive, and now there are even shops which let you borrow for 100 yen. One would say that OVA is a medium for which celluloid is much stronger than film videos, but only a handful of consumers buy OVAs, which cost about 10, 000 yen each, and is not a demographic that would suddenly grow. Thus it is not surprising that most makers started to calibrate their production to rental shops. The typical example of that is 1986’s Kizuoibito, which chose to adapt a source material appealing more to ordinary salary-men than to anime fans, with a limited budget compared to OVA standards at the time, and it succeeded.
The apparition of rental shops was also something anime fans welcomed at first since they were now able to easily watch OVAs they could not afford. Yet rental shops did not have as much of them as one would expect, and there were more and more works like Kizuoibito on the market, which differed completely from the type of work fans demanded. Makers’ and staff mentality was also starting to change to creating something valuable and worth spending 10, 000 yen to produce, yet something enjoyable enough for a 500 yen fee.
All of this explains why there were very few hits among OVAs from last year to the beginning of this year, and why the future of the industry seemed so uncertain. But from next Autumn to Winter, we are expecting more satisfying works to come out of OVAs than TV and movie theaters. This is not a coincidence. Makers and staff who entered the industry seeing a bonanza were weeded out, and only those with a concrete vision and strategy now remain under the spotlight. The situation of the OVA industry is certainly not rosy, but this establishes a context where creators must rack their brains to survive. Year 005 of the OVA calendar is the era of strategy, and that is the reason why right now, the OVA is interesting.
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Demon City Shinjuku, an ambitious OVA which received a movie-level budget and production time. Will it become the savior of the industry!?
It may not have been surprising at the very beginning of the OVA industry, but a work with such a long production time and consequent budget is rare these days. With solid action and a direful setting, Demon City Shinjuku is built as quality entertainment, enjoyable by a broad audience, from kids to adults. It is truly a tour de force, injecting some energy into a declining industry. Behind the production of this work is Wicked City, also adapted from Hideyuki Kikuchi’s original work, directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri and created by Madhouse. This OVA masterpiece was aimed toward young adults with a 130 million yen budget and two years of production time. It received a broad success, not only sales-wise, but also contributing to improving the public image of Japan Home Video, who endorsed the production. We hear that the movie is a great hit in Hong-Kong, where it is currently screening in movie theaters. There is also much demand for TV broadcasts and sales abroad. A good example of how creating a work of quality with a high budget resulted in increasing the company’s capital.
Interview with director Kawajiri “My main focus with this work was to create something anyone could enjoy. To do so, I removed all common bad traits of OVA, such as convoluted stories or selfish preconceptions of the creators, thus purely focusing on entertainment. Filmmaking is a composite art, so I wanted for both this and the previous one, Wicked City, to have an organization where we could create elements such as art or music properly, and I think we achieved it for both. Between solidification of the rental business and the total sales hitting the ceiling, it becomes more and more difficult to create ambitious works. Still, I am willing to keep on making OVAs which have nothing to envy of theatrical films.”
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Legend of the Galactic Heroes, a low-price long-running series to expand the bottom of the fan demographic 2500 yen, 30 minutes, 26 volumes on a weekly publishing
The number 1 issue for promoting OVA toward the general public was the price. In response, the Legend of the Galactic Heroes series was sold for a reasonable price of 2500 yen each. Kitty Films’ producer Masatoshi Tawara expresses his mind regarding this rate:
“We were able to sell it at this price because it was mail-ordering. By cutting the in-between margins, we were able to lower it to a certain extent. Also, by making it a 26-episode series, each episode was cheaper than making an entirely different story. That also reduced constraints such as advertising expenses or the staff’s binding charges, which were more cost-effective if we made 26 episodes.” But wasn’t the risk also bigger, particularly in terms of time?
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“No, to adapt GinEiDen into anime, even that wasn’t remotely enough. One could say we just had to make it on TV, but this material is not fit for it. It’s difficult to make character merchandise, so we would have struggled to find sponsors, and there were episodes with people talking for 30 entire minutes. To make it on TV, we would have had to change the original work accordingly to add companies or the channel’s directives. Also, we would have gotten less budget. To my mind, the representation of anime will expand by making ‘not easy to translate into anime’ works like this one. Even in the unlikely case that the mail-order system failed, the 26 quality films remaining would be the studio’s fortune. With late-night programs, satellite channels, or CATV, the demand for film content will keep on increasing, so in the long term, I don’t think producing it will be a disadvantage.”
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The attempt of creating OVA as a part of
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