The gift from the island country "Your Name" may sound the alarm for the dregs of Chinese comics

After a long wait, "Your Name", which has been released in many places and has become a popular work, will finally be released in mainland China on December 2. This breakthrough work, which has become a hot topic before its release, is now regarded as a masterpiece by many viewers. Although the source of the film has been leaked, with the influence of Makoto Shinkai's reputation, I believe that this domestic introduction will still have a good box office. It has become a backbone force in the introduction of animated films.

I believe that many comic fans who are familiar with the domestic imported film market can find that from "Doraemon", "One Piece", "Naruto", "Crayon Shin-chan", "Detective Conan" and even "Dragon Ball", as the mainland film market policy continues to relax, the import volume of Japanese comics has also shown an unprecedented prosperity. More and more Japanese classic IPs have been approved for domestic release. And in terms of diversity, it covers almost all the IPs that are most popular among Chinese comic fans.

Some onlookers lamented that whether it is a "romantic action movie" or anime, the way Japan makes money in the mainland is nothing more than "sentiment". But from the perspective of domestic introduction, this word cannot be escaped either.

Open up the market by introducing hot IP

In the past year, the annual output value of the entire animation industry has exceeded 100 billion yuan. This industry, which was once considered difficult to produce animations and recruit talents, has reversed its decline and ushered in a small spring in comic platforms, video websites, game development and theater movies. In recent years, China has also provided unprecedented support and revitalization to this industry in terms of policies.

But some people may have doubts about this. The earlier centralized ban on a batch of online Japanese comic resources is enough to show that my country has always been "cautious" in the introduction and dissemination of foreign culture. However, the significance of the ban may be to reduce the subtle influence and prevent excessive erosion of foreign culture (the original intention of restricting Korea may also apply this principle), but this is not a threat to the old drivers who have been wandering the Internet for many years. The ban only slightly increases the tediousness of watching comics and increases the entropy of this world. As a necessity for the survival of the comic circle, problems such as resource sharing are difficult to eradicate. From this perspective, the ban is just in line with the changes and has not played a substantial role.

As a result, most domestic online resource platforms began to spread culture by purchasing copyrights. With the accumulation of resource richness and traffic, these resource distribution platforms have also gained audience influence greater than that of conventional channel copyright holders. The Internet has thus become the main battlefield of the current domestic animation industry. With the convenience of policy liberalization, some strong capital investment has also made the introduction of popular IPs increasingly common.

We know that compared with TV animation and online animation, animated films have the natural advantage of a wide audience, which is more conducive to the spread of animation culture. Especially American animation, led by Pixar, is of the type that appeals to all ages in terms of content and theme. At the same time, Japanese animation works that focus on fan economy have also enriched the industry's development towards diversification, and through some profound works, the animation industry as a whole has been elevated to a certain level.

Domestic works, influenced by the effect of "The Return of the Great Sage", have re-established the public's awareness and attention to the entire animation industry, and the capital giants in the industry chain have also re-examined the prospects of the industry and expressed their recognition of optimistic returns through investment in various fields. More gratifyingly, the country has also regained confidence in revitalizing the domestic animation industry.

From "Doraemon" that started with the audience's nostalgia to "Your Name" that achieved a box office myth of 19.4 billion yen, and even "The Return of the Great Sage" that caused a shock in the industry, or "Big Fish and Begonia" that disappointed far more than expected. If the introduction of overseas IP is the first step to open the door to industrialization, then the development, cooperation and output of high-quality original content in China is a good start for the active expansion of industrialization.

Domestic capital moves in step with overseas cooperation and original development

In China, a special industry environment that is different from other countries, as an important part of the pan-entertainment industry, the concept of "two-dimensional economy" has been proposed by Tencent, which is rich and powerful and has the vision of "front-end pan-entertainment layout". From high-quality animation IP to derivative games and peripherals, it can be said that the impact on the domestic animation industry is crucial. According to the "2015 China Two-Dimensional User Report", the number of Chinese two-dimensional (broadly referring to animation, comics, games, novels, virtual idols, derivative fan creations and peripheral products, etc.) consumers has reached 260 million. Analysis agencies predict that in the next few years, "genuineization" will accelerate the rapid development of the two-dimensional industry, and domestic animation and games will gradually advance to the core beneficiary area of ​​the "two-dimensional economy", and a consumer market of hundreds of billions of yuan is waiting to be developed.

In terms of the development of excellent IP, domestic creations have gradually begun to break through the age limit of the K12 (kindergarten to 18 years old) audience group, from "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" and "Boonie Bears" to works such as "Painting Rivers and Lakes: The Bad Guys", which is known as China's first "adult animation".

In terms of overseas cooperation, as business contacts become more in-depth, the cooperation model funded by China has also created a new win-win situation.

In 2014, although the Japanese animation industry also achieved growth, it also encountered a bottleneck in development, so that many Japanese animation practitioners felt a sense of crisis because their production capacity had reached its limit. In 2015, although these development bottlenecks were not effectively resolved, due to the transformation of the business model, Chinese capital began to directly purchase broadcasting rights or production orders to gradually pull the Japanese animation industry out of the shadow of the trough. Since then, the diversified industrial structure represented by the online distribution market has made the "pill" Japanese animation industry "in a good situation." And China's capital power has also become the key to the reversal of the Japanese animation industry to some extent.

An authoritative report points out that although American companies were the first to come into contact with the Japanese animation market, Chinese companies are the most enthusiastic and concerned about the Japanese animation market. On the one hand, these Chinese companies have purchased a large number of animation broadcasting rights in Japan. Toei Animation once mentioned in its financial report that "the sales of distribution rights for many works to the Chinese market" contributed important performance to Toei Animation, and their sales to the Chinese market accounted for a large part of the overall overseas sales. In order to obtain the Chinese broadcasting rights of Japanese animations, many Chinese Internet giants also invested in the production committee, and there were even cases where Chinese companies invested more than 50% in the animation production committee.

On the other hand, Chinese capital is also entering the Japanese market. For example, Huimeng Animation is entering the Japanese animation production industry, which has a low profit margin, and has also participated in the investment of some Japanese animation companies and projects; Internet giants such as Tencent, Youku Tudou, and iQiyi have also begun to promote some Sino-Japanese animation projects, not only Sino-Japanese co-production, but also pure OEM for Japanese animation production companies.

The revitalization of Chinese comics has far-reaching and responsible significance for education

The increasing acceptance of the ACG culture by the Chinese people has created a large space for the development of the ACG culture market. Of course, unlike other industries, the prosperity of the animation industry also brings serious problems that deserve people's attention. Looking at the performance of these animations, including Japan, there are countless unsatisfactory works. This inevitably throws us a commonplace question: Is it necessary for the creation of animation content to have a certain educational and enlightening role?

At present, most Chinese comics are very close to Japanese works in terms of painting style, plot layout and connotation. The unique works represented by "Havoc in Heaven" and "The Deer with Nine Colors" in the last century are extremely rare today. In terms of the choice of subject matter, the producers basically choose to adapt existing works or completely imitate the routines of Japanese comics. There are all kinds of fat and round, childish style, otaku and gay, and full screen of European style.

In addition, although the entire cultural and creative and animation fields still see "Big Fish and Begonia" and "Monster Hunt" as tapping into Chinese traditional culture IP, industry insiders have proposed the concept of "pan" animation IP, believing that China's two-dimensional content consumer groups are showing a trend of diversification and multi-style, and content production must also follow this "trend". In essence, it is basically based on what is popular. However, as an audience, what we have experienced under such cultural output is already well known to those with discerning eyes.

Don't mention it, I really have the urge to watch the promotional video...

Nowadays, watching animations, movies and TV series has long been one of the most cost-effective entertainment methods for domestic audiences. Whether watching online or downloading resources, they are all readily available. Even if you encounter something you don’t like, you can just delete it. There are almost no cost factors involved, including time. The same is true for getting used to cheap pirated products. As we are exposed to more and more, we will not care much about the truths carried and contained in some high-quality works. Works like "Doraemon" are believed to have been bound to the childhood or youth of many people. They are not only irreplaceable beautiful memories. Even today, when we grow up and become parents, we can still experience a lot of realistic thinking from these seemingly childish imaginations. And sincerely want to pass on this experience to the next generation in their growth time.

Catering to the public's taste and making animations for different groups of people has long been a prominent feature of Japanese animation. Works with profound connotations and artistic value have not been affected by commercialization. After taking the commercial route, animation works not only maintain the original educational and entertaining effects, but more importantly, commercialization has made the entire animation industry no longer remain at the pure art level, but has created economic value for society that cannot be ignored.

It is undeniable that the Chinese animation industry is weak in this aspect. Chinese animation is not only more targeted at younger audiences, but also commercial products. The educational significance they focus on is not as good as the "advertising film" "Haier Brothers" produced by Haier with an investment of 60 million yuan in the 1980s and 1990s, and the animation series "Blue Cat" which started with the new edition of "100,000 Whys", based on popular science, and later developed into a huge industry. It can be seen that the development of business models and the progress of industrialized production cannot lead to a leap in the quality of creation.

Whether it is the CCTV supply chain that produces and sells itself, or the unofficial production that is responsible for its own profits and losses, or the stylized creation with more artistic value than market value, these will not hinder the creation of animation content beyond entertainment, make the content influence more positive and educational, remove the dross and return hope to the future, rather than cultivate more future pillars who lack independent thinking and imagination and are mentally incomplete in such a cultural atmosphere.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.