If you happened to visit the Tokyo Anime Fair in 2004 or 2005 on business days, you might have noticed copies of the black book to your right stacked up on the counter for sale at the information help desks. Search it's title in English and you will only get one hit, this very article. Search it's title in Japanese and you will get less than 4 hits. Extremely exclusive, you can only purchase it at the TAF events. With about a 1,000 Yen pricetag, the facts, figures, statistics and data contained inside the roughly 200 page English language Anime Business Handbook 2005 are a virtual holy grail for anyone who is working in or with Japan's contents industry. The handbook is the brainchild of Studio Hard, who produces content for various magazines and books published in Japan on anime and manga fan culture. The company's President, Mr. Nobuyuki Takahashi is recognized as an otaku pioneer, widely credited with coining the term "cosplay". English translation comes courtesy of Sho Aiya of Supersonic Inc.. Publication was commissioned by the Tokyo International Anime Fair Executive Committee.
The handbook is basically a directory listing info on virtually every animation company operating in the Tokyo metropolitan area. 2004 was the first year of publication, in that edition one can find a Japanese language slant to written content, and the colors are limited to black and white. For the 2nd issue in 2005, improvements included English as the main expression of contents, color pages, screen grabs of various company works, and more comprehensive breakdowns of property copyrights as they relate to their various owners.
Sections are divided into 3 parts, Animation Studio Guide, Appendix and Data Section. In the studio guide, one can find anime studios listed with their own page in aphabetical order according to company. There information is listed on the studio including personalized logo / insignia, type of business (studio, seller, producer, sound, other), works, production years / periods, running times / number of episodes, genre of title (film, OAV, TV series), copyright relation to works (Original, Animation, License), nature of title collaboration and images related to the listed works.
The appendix section is composed of ultra handy map withs dots indicating anime studio locations and their relation to the public transportation system of Tokyo. Supplementary up to date maps of Tokyo's constantly growing train and subway system are also included. The data section includes a full and exhaustive phonebook style adress / phone directory to the following company types: Character Licensors and Agents, Video and Record Companies, Toy and Game Companies, Anime and Manga Afilliated Publishing Companies, Digital Contents Production Studios, Cinemas, Event Halls, Seiyu & Entertainment Production Companies, Post Production Studios, Filming Studios, and Sound Recording Studios.
Finally, there is an omake section in the very back of the handbook titled "Handy Business Guide". There one can find Emergency Phone Numbers for Tokyo, Dialing Services, Country Phone Codes, Transportation Facility Numbers, Lost Article Inquiry Numbers, Hotel and Tourist Information, Embassy Information, Metric Unit Conversion Data, even Japanese / Western Calender Year Converter.
In short, the guide is the absolute best anime business directory resource existing in any medium presently. In both presentation and content quality there is not much else that be desired. For our day to day contents industry research here at ANS, the handbook has served us well for close to a year. Obtaining personal contacts within companies (especially in Japan) can be extremely difficult at times, this often requires a face-to-face meeting and business card exchange. While I respect the custom, personally exchanged business cards and talked face to face with the 200 exhibitors on the floor of the TAF, my favorite part of the book is that there is an email contact listing for almost every studio in the directory. The TAF Executive Committee mentions they hope the handbook becomes a bible for animation trade people all over the world. They plan on improving the contents with new versions to be released annually.
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