Shopping Guide
On Nov. 17, Mille-feuille-plus, Inc., a startup with experience in the internet service industry, began offering the beta version 2.0 of Ani-t, a service which offers support for turning your favorite characters into anime-inspired products.
■ About Ani-t
Ani-t is a new service through which fans can turn fashionable items into actual products using the likeness of characters 1 from anime, video games, and other products that cooperate with the service.
Ani-t users can freely submit designs using the likeness of supported characters, and designs that are popular among fans are then turned into actual products and sold. The submitter of the design then receives 10% of the proceeds as compensation.
◎ Service Flow
1. A creator submits a design using the likeness of a character onto Ani-t.
2. The copyright holder decides whether or not the design can be opened on Ani-t.
3. The design is then put on the site and users can express their interest in purchasing it. Popular items are turned into actual products and are then sold in a limited quantity for a limited time on Ani-t.
4. The designer receives 10% of proceeds as compensation.
■ Behind the Development of Ani-t
Smartphones have expanded in popularity along with video streaming services recently, and the number of light fans of anime characters in their teens, 20s, and 30s has grown. Furthermore, according to the Yano Economics Research Center, the market scale of the character business product marketplace was 1.228 trillion yen in the 2015 fiscal year. Of that, there was a large demand from adults for clothing (6.0% distribution) and accessories and sundries (proceed component of 9.6%), and the market place in that realm had grown from the previous year 2. Ani-t estimates the value of this realm to be worth around 189 billion yen.
Despite this, if you search for anime T-shirts online you’ll see that that anime-related T-shirts in the marketplace are mostly just items with pictures of characters on them, and there aren’t many items that meet the needs of light anime fans. There are a lot of fans that talk on social media sites about the designs they wish they could see.
Ani-t was established to meet this demand by making a system that could be used to create products. Until now, fans who wanted to design and create products either weren’t familiar with general copyright business or were unable to get permission from the copyright holders to their products.
Despite lacking experience in the anime and apparel industries, Ani-t released the beta version of their service two years ago this past June armed with a deep understanding of the voices of fans.
■ Three Best Features of Ani-t
1. You can submit designs featuring the likeness of characters (an industry first 3)
Most services that allow you to submit fashion designs do not permit you to use another person’s work or a character’s likeness. Ani-t, on the other hand, allows users to submit designs featuring the likeness of characters from cooperating works and even turn them into real products.
2. Offers stylish anime fashion
Ani-t focuses on design that can be comfortably worn around town. Instead of unsophisticated shirts that simply have characters printed on them, it seeks to offer highly fashionable items.
3. Anyone can participate, even if they aren’t skilled illustrators
Submissions to Ani-t are merely designs, so unlike typical art sites, users can submit work even if they aren’t skilled illustrators. You can also download material from cooperating works on Ani-t and use those materials, so anyone can make designs. Of course, even if you don’t want to submit something, you can even “like” designs, so absolutely everyone can participate.
■ New Feature of Ani-t Beta Version 2.0: Collaborative Function
As of the beta version 2.0, you can create collaborative T-shirt designs using different likenesses. This is another industry first 3. The first collaborative function to be added includes popular Vocaloids Gumi and Yukari Yuzuki. Additional collaborative series will be added, too.
■ Future Prospects
1. The number of works Ani-t cooperates with including anime, video games, and characters will increase. (10 companies and 19 characters currently (including the previously announced work) with a goal of 80 companies and 120 characters)
2. Currently designs for T-shirts are being accepted, but the kinds of items handled will grow
3. Ani-t wants to contribute to the further development of Japanese content, and will aim to expand overseas in the 2017 fiscal year.
◎ Vision
Unlike the official goods made 100% by copyright holders or the doujin goods made 100% by fans, Ani-t produces items in a different, third way. By helping to connect copyright holders and fans, Ani-t aims to promote their next-gen kind of work and its unique value.
^1^ Details about the copyrights cooperating with Ani-t are as follows:
(as of Nov. 1, 2016)
Gumi (Megpoid), Gakupo Kamui (Gackpoid), Kokone ©INTERNET Co. Ltd.
Jam Band ©AHS Co. Ltd.
Yukari Yuzuki ©VOCALOMAKETS Powered by Bumpy Factory Corporation
Lei Kirishima ©Yupiteru
^2^ Source: Yano Economics Research Center, Character Business Almanac 2016 Ver.
^3^ According to Ani-t
Games
*Ayakashi Hyakki Yakou* ©ICJ
*Brave Sword×Blaze Soul* © grimoire Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
*Neko Mimi Sabaibaa!* ©2014 GeePlus Inc. All rights reserved.
*Waga Ie no Koneko-chan* ©NovelEngine / COSEN
*Eki Dashi* ©Mobile Factory
*Shiei no Sona-Nyl Refrain* ©2014 Liar-soft
Source: @Press
