Anime, Budget, Pay

Anirepo uploaded the image of the Demanding Paper handed in annually to broadcasting stations by the coalition of Film and Allied Industry Workers’ Union and wide-range labor unions such as movie staff, studio designer, actor, animator, or TV staff.
It is handed in to TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, TBS, Nihon TV and Commercial Television Association.
It is the most reliable source I have ever read to know how much money concern anime production. I translated the anime-related section into English as follows.

Section 3: TV Animation-Related Requests

(1) Broadcasting stations should make efforts to abolish any infringement of Labor Standards Law in TV anime production sites.

(2) Broadcasting stations should agree to the “Employment Standards for TV Anime Production” we offer.

(3) Broadcasting stations should make a budget of at least 23,000,000 yen* a 30-minute long episode of TV anime series to accomplish (1) and (2) articles above.

(4) Broadcasting stations should place an order for a TV anime at least 8 months prior to the broadcast date.

(5) Broadcasting stations should hand in its “Guideline for the technical methods on motion pictures” to every staff of the production team. Since the ambiguous description of the required brightness and size of flashing causes confusion and mistrust, it should be revised.

(6) Broadcasting stations are the media that makes more use of animation than anyone else. Considering its social responsibility, each station or Commercial Television Association as a whole should has a concrete plan to develop human resources in the anime production industry, especially animators, and put it into practice.

*(3) approximately U.S. $206,000

I’ll translate “Employment Standards for TV Anime Production” mentioned in the article (2) later.

Manga Awards in Japan

When I received an e-mail from abroad asking about manga awards in Japan, I realized that I didn’t know of them very well.
As I looked over the articles and blogs on the internet, I found even some Japanese people confuse manga award with manga contest on account of the word “賞” (shou) which has the multiple meanings “award,” ”prize,” ”commendation” and “premium.”
When you come upon “manga shou” you must make sure which meaning it is getting at.

Follwing is the list of the most prestigious awards in Japan. Some are quite old, and some are not. The early awards encouraged mangaka in the 50s and 60s when manga was regarded as cheesy children’s book.
It is famous that Tezuka Osamu called Hagio Moto when she won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1975, and yelled “You made it!”

Nowadays, readers are not as excited by the awards as they used to be in those days, but they still assure us the quality of each award-winning manga when we are of two minds whether to try it or not.

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小学館漫画賞
Shogakukan Manga Shou (Shogakukan Manga Award)
Since 1955
Provided by Shogakukan

It is said that it has the tendency to award an honor to the manga published by the companies in Hitotsubashi group (consists of mutual equity holding companies: Shogakukan, Shueisha, Shodensha, Hakusensha and President-sha.)
In fact it has the liberality to give the award to some manga published by the rival company such as Keroro Gunsou (running in Shonen Ace published by Kadokawa Shoten) in 2005

Official site

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日本漫画家協会賞
Nihon Mangaka Kyoukai Shou (Japan Cartoonist Award)
Since 1972
Provided by The Japan Cartoonists Association

Oficial site

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講談社漫画賞
Kodansha Manga Shou (Kodansha Manga Award)
Since1977
Provided by Kodansha
It is said that it has the tendency to award an honor to the manga published by the companies in Otowa group (consists of mutual equity holding companies: Kodansha and Kobunsha.)
In fact it has the liberality to give the award to some manga published by the rival company such as Fruits Basket (running in Hana to Yume published by Hakusensha) for girls division in 2001.

Official site

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星雲賞
Seiun Shou Manga Bumon (Seiun Award for manga division)
Since 1978
Provided by Nihon SF Fan Group Rengoukai (Japan SF Fan Group Joint Association)

Winner is announced at the SF convension takes place annually. It is chosen by the attenders’ vote. The convention itself is 43 years old and Seiun Shou was established in 1970, however the manga division is added in 1978.
The nomenees are confind to fictional sci-fi works. "Seiun" is Japanese for nebula, but has nothing to do with SFWA Nebula Awards.

Official site

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手塚治虫文化賞
Tezuka Osamu Bunka Shou (Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize)
Since 1997
Provided by Asahi Shinbun

Official site

It must not be confused with Tezuka Osamu Shou, one of the new face contests for amateure manga artists takes place twice a year since 1971 in Weekly Shonen Jump by Shueisha.

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文化庁メディア芸術祭マンガ部門
Bunka Chou Media Geijutsu Sai Manga Bumon (Japan Media Arts Festival Award for manga division )
Since 1997
Provided by The Agency for Cultural Affairs
Manga award is one of its four divisions

Official site

One Piece characters in Shibuya

I found some more photos of Sibuya.

Yamaomokusw updated his blog to provide us with three more photos.
Thanks!

Yamamokusu's blog

CAX's blog

This festivity is held to celebrate One Piece's publication of 100,000,000 copies.
According to CAX, the top 5 mangas (as of March 2005) are as follows.

Sold 130.000,000 copies:
Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouen-mae Hashutsusho
(143 volumes and still continueing)

Sold 126.000,000 copies: Dragon Ball (42 volumes)

Sold 111.200,000 copies: Oishimbo (90 volumes and still continueing)

Sold 110.000,000 copies: Golgo 13 (135 volumes and still continueing)

Sold 110.000,000 copies: Meitantei Conan (48 volumes and still continueing)

Sold 105.000,000 copies: Slam Dunk (31 volumes)

Shonen manga (comics for boys) circulations

As I mentioned below, only Gan Gan is available in amazon.
I suppose mass-circulation magazines are sold at every bookstore, convenience store or kiosk, they don't need to be sold online. Above all, if it is a weekly magazine, it gets out of date too quickly.
I translated the report on the magazine circulations (average number per issue from September 1, 2003 to August 31, 2004) I found in Japan Magazine Publishers Association website.
Numbers with "*" are estimations which are not verified. (W) stands for "weekly" and (M) for "monthly"