Anime Expo has come and gone, but for Miles Thomas, brand/convention manager at Crunchyroll, it’s always a memorable experience….even if very busy! But even despite the time, he was able to spend some time to chat with me about ordering food for all the Crunchyroll workers, what he’s learned about the anime industry, and why there’s way too many warm bodies on the floor. Or something.
Organization ASG: So how’s AX been man? How’s it been so far?
Miles Thomas: …I’m kind of a perfectionist so I got all these different things that I’ve been pointing out that could’ve been better, but honestly, it’s gone really well so far.
OASG: This hasn’t been your first AX correct?
Miles: This is not my first AX, I think my first AX was 2007 or 2008 when I came as a fan, but this is my second time professionally.
OASG: So I guess last year was your first at CR, so compared to last year does this feel a little bit bigger than last year or no?
Miles: It feels a lot bigger *laughs* and last year felt pretty big to begin with, so this has been with an exciting group of people, there’s a lot of bodies on the floor, and it’s warmer everywhere.
OASG: …Warmer? *laughs*
Miles: It’s warmer inside. The body heat, I guess, the AC is not powerful enough to fight a hundred thousand people!
OASG: So you had to prepare for AX, can you elaborate on what you had to do this year?
Miles: So I am the floor manager for the booth. We have two elements of the booth: the stage and the floor. I’m managing all the staff working the floor, tech behind the scenes, and just how those details are managed. My boss Tiffany is managing industry relations, you know, the bigger, high level things, and then I’m working on the details like schedules and making sure everyone takes breaks, lunch is ordered and makes it to the booth, and I shipped everything that got here, so everything that you see here, I either brought or shipped myself, so that’s the kind of stuff I’ve been doing.
OASG: It’s a little different from doing DaiCon back in college isn’t it?
Miles: *laughs* It’s actually very similar, except for there are actually stakes. For DaiCon I could’ve just shut the whole thing down at the flick of the switch, with this I don’t have that luxury, even if I wanted to. I’m kind of stuck going on how to rescind no matter what. Can’t cut my losses.
OASG: Working at CR as a brand manager…did you honestly expect you’d be doing this as a living?
Miles: Oh no, not at all! I studied agricultural economics in school, so I have a really good understanding of commodity, futures markets, and things like that, which, honestly, I thought I was maybe gonna go to Wall Street or Chicago and work in finance related to agriculture, or just commodities in general, and my previous two jobs before this, both were on that track, and, I honestly didn’t like it that much. I like data a lot, I like statistics, I like doing data analysis, so there were a lot of parts of it that I liked but the whole job was kind of soul sucking. Then I got an opportunity to turn my hobby into my job and I took it.
OASG: So basically CR said, “Oh hey, we’re looking for people, let’s get this guy in right?”
Miles: I had a lot of friends in the company, they were bringing me out to conventions every once in a while to just work the floor, work the booth and interact with fans and it’s something I’m really passionate about, and when they had an opportunity for someone to do that full time, I took it and quit my job the same day *laughs*.
OASG: What has surprised you about working in this industry so far?
Miles: Um, knowing the details about how things get licensed, knowing a lot of the stuff that I’m not allowed to talk about, that’s been–*laughs*
OASG: That’s been a struggle huh?
Miles: Well no, it’s been probably one of the most interesting things, and those are the things that’s surprised me the most, and the more I’ve researched the anime industry having joined it, I’m less surprised now but when I first joined, I just didn’t know how the industry worked. I had a total fan’s perspective and all the misgivings…
OASG: Like bad translations or something like “what’s wrong with Japan,” stuff like that?
Miles: More like how the American industry reacts to that, or, I guess I’ve learned quite a bit about the Japanese industry as well. And that’s been really interesting, the business side of it, which is, I studied it for a reason, I do think the business element is the most interesting part of anime.
OASG: Since you’ve been at CR, what’s surprised you about the fandom now that you’re not just a fan, but now you’re working in the industry?
Miles: I think the fandom is pretty much the same as when I was 100% part of the fandom rather than working the fandom as well as being in it. The thing that surprised me the most, and this is part of being informed by the data analysis I do at Crunchyroll, but also just from talking from thousands and thousands of anime fans, people actually don’t watch that much anime. They’ll watch 2-4 hours of anime a week, and I’m not saying that’s the average or anything, but a fan that watches 2-4 hours of anime a week will consider anime just as important of a hobby as a video game that they play for 20 hours a week. Like there are people who play League of Legends for $300 dollars, and they’re like, “Oh I just started this, I’m still a newb,” but they’ll watch $100 dollars of an anime in total and they’ll say, “Oh, I’m an expert.” So maybe there’s an over representation of anime in the hearts of people who watch it, and I think that’s because it’s so evocative and so exciting that people will really grab onto it, and they have all these very positive emotions, moreso than really the time commitment would justify, so I found that very interesting.
OASG: So summer season’s about to start, you have any anime you’re looking forward to?
Miles: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to Gatchaman Crowds, Part II. Also I’m looking forward to a couple of continuing shows that I’m really excited about, like Tribe Cool Crew, watch that from the beginning so I can keep up with the simulcast, Gangsta is looking pretty exciting to me, Prison School’s got the same staff as Shirobako, so definitely gonna be checking that one out. I’ve seen some parts of the manga that have been…uh…interesting to say the least. I’m very excited to see how that turns out as an anime, and then what else…Working, part 3.
