I think most people who are into anime know who Aniplex is. It’s not a stretch to suggest you’ll fall two ways with the company — praising them for being different by bringing forth lots of merchandise with their anime releases, or not actually happy with them since their prices are high when you get any of their volume releases or a completed set.
I asked about Aniplex’s prices with “The Aniplex Guy” EJ Rivera. He’s the Marketing Specialist at the company, and since he was at New York Comic Con, I had to try and talk to him about that, along with…why do people call him The Aniplex Guy?
Organization ASG: How’s NYCC been for you this weekend?
EJ Rivera: It’s been pretty great, I’m checking out the show floor. There’s so many people out here, a lot of anime fans too.
OASG: Before I get into more comic-con talk or Aniplex talk, I do have a burning question that’s been on my mind because I can’t find any information on it: how did you actually get called The Aniplex Guy? Did someone throw it out there or was it because of those series of interviews in Japan or…?
EJ: *laughs* Ok, so when I first started at Aniplex, people were referring to me as “The Aniplex Guy”. So I would see in social comments, “Hey, The Aniplex Guy is at this convention, he’s here,” or “Yeah I saw the Aniplex Guy at this place like a couple days ago,” So I started picking up on it and using it as part of our promotions. So some of our early promotions was me posting contests, special promotions where I say, “Hey, the Aniplex Guy is here, if you see him at this time, let him know and you can win this prize.” So something like that.
OASG: So it all started because of a social comment.
EJ: Yeah *laughs*
OASG: So, again, back at NYCC. How does this con compare to other conventions like Anime Expo and stuff like that?
EJ: NYCC is definitely a big promotion tool. You can obviously tell with the attendees here that there are a lot of anime fans. If you go to all the panels and notice them featuring anime are at full capacity and it’s just…fans crave it, and we’re always happy to come out here, show our latest stuff, and let fans know what’s coming soon from Aniplex.
OASG: How did you first get interested in anime?
EJ: My gateway anime is Ranma 1/2. This was actually in middle school where I was a teacher’s assistant for industrial tech, which was like a woodshop in San Diego, and these kids were messing around, they were arguing over a video and I confiscated it. It was the Ranma 1/2 OVA: An Akane to Remember, and I’m like, “What’s this? This is cartoons but this doesn’t look like anything I normally watch.” And then the kids go, “Watch it man, you’ll be amazed!” And the minute I popped it into my VCR — I’m surprised I’m saying that, or admitting that–
OASG: Hey! That’s how it was back then! *laughs*
EJ: *laughs* Right? I popped it in my VCR, and just saw all the action and the comedy all in one, I was just like, mind blown. Of course it was a middle school mind, but it was mind blown.
OASG: Because you had never seen anything like that.
EJ: Exactly! And then, you know, I started becoming interested in more of the fandom and trying to find outlets that have it, so I started asking the kids again, “You got any other videos?” Then they started showing me the Dragon Ball Z movies featuring Broly. And then it just snowballed all the way from there. That was a time where Toonami was out, and Voltron, Ronin Warriors, Sailor Moon was out, and all of them I was like a big fan of.
But what really got me hooked — because there was a little break after the DBZ period — was when I was introduced to Initial D. And to this day, that is my favorite anime of all time.
OASG: Favorite anime of all time!
EJ: Yes.
OASG: I do know some people that do like it, but this is probably the first time I’ve heard someone say it’s the best, the best of all time.
EJ: I mean, if you see my phone case (he does actually take it out), it has the Initial D stickers, I got this from the Initial D movie screening in Japan. I flew to Japan to just to watch the Initial D movie, and it’s just…something about the mix of Eurobeat and the drama from the racing — I mean this was before The Fast and The Furious. And something about the music just gets your heart racing and you’re like, “Is Takumi gonna win? Is Takumi gonna win???” *laughs*
OASG: How did you get an opportunity to be the Marketing Specialist at Aniplex?
EJ: To give you a little background, before I joined Aniplex of America, I actually was with a Japanese music label called Maru Music. It was a music label that promoted mostly Japanese bands, visual kei. So with that, I gained experience doing social networking, marketing, press releases, marketing plans, and also conventions. Unfortunately a couple of years after Maru Music started, the company shut down and I started looking for other positions. Sony was hiring and the job description said, “Must have a degree in marketing, must have a background in marketing, and have an interest in anime.” So, I applied online, got a call from Sony’s HR, and they interviewed me in the next couple of days.
OASG: What did you understand about the anime industry before you started working in it?
EJ: Before I was working at Aniplex, I was pretty much exposed to what the fans saw really, like the swag given out at conventions, the flyers, the promotional tools — like AX was still small compared to what it is now — and basically everything you see on Amazon. I was mostly exposed to FUNimation releases, so I picked up titles like Gunslinger Girl, The Full Metal Panic series, as well as Summer Wars. That perspective totally changed the minute I started working at Aniplex.
OASG: How did it change?
EJ: Well you learn how much work really goes into bringing in anime to the U.S. There’s a lot of approvals, there’s a lot of work producing, translating, subtitling, finding replication, finding the best place to get the discs made…there’s a lot that goes into it, and a lot of people put in a lot of work to make sure we bring out the highest quality in these releases.
OASG: And I understand Aniplex doesn’t have that big of a team, correct?
EJ: Correct. When I first started in 2011, there was only 5 members in Aniplex of America. We’ve grown now and we’re now at 12 members.
OASG: You make it sound like that’s a lot!
EJ: *laughs* For our team it is! In the beginning there was only the Manager/President, the Licensor, one Producer, Marketing, and an Office Assistant/Merchandising. Now we have two Producers, two Marketing, an assistant for both of us, both producing and marketing, as well as a Licensing, a Licensing Assistant, an accountant, and a web person. So…it’s grown *laughs*.
OASG: So Aniplex has definitely changed since you started there, but how much has it changed?
EJ: A lot has changed really. The market has changed, and you see fans are getting more exposed to titles legally. Like when I first started the whole idea of streaming anime was still an early concept and only early adopters had them. But now since it’s more readily available everywhere, people have access to anime at ease thanks to Crunchyroll, Hulu, Netflix…people usually had to go the back way to find out about titles or trust on news sites like Anime News Network to find out, “Ooooh! There’s this new title, I hope it comes out months after it airs!” But now it’s at a point where anime is airing hours after it airs in Japan.
OASG: Where do you think anime streaming can go from this point forward?
EJ: Well at first it was, you hope it gets licensed legally so you can see it months after, then it’s started to become more instant, where you’re getting it hours after Japan, and now it’s getting to a point where companies like FUNimation and us, we’re doing simulcast dubs, where we’re bringing out the English dub as fast as possible to meet demand of the fans.
OASG: And there’s also more collaborations with companies. Like I believe The Asterisk War is now streaming on FUNimation correct?
EJ: Yes, The Asterisk War is streaming on FUNimation. With a show like that, we really believe it’s a strong title, with the backing it’s produced by (the producer of Sword Art Online), the director (The Irregular at Magic High School director ), we really want to expose that title to as many fans as possible, so you’ll see it on Crunchyroll. And I’m sure it’ll be on other streaming channels soon.
OASG: I can’t let this go since I know you normally get questions about this, probably at conventions and through emails — how often do you get the emails saying your prices are too high, lower it to make sure it’s easier to buy?
EJ: …Often. *laughs* We get it all the time — social networks, whenever we make a post — we have a contact email so we get that every so often. It’d be a lie if I said I don’t see it every day, but I do.
OASG: How hard has it been to convince people, who are used to prices like FUNimation’s or Sentai and have the complete series, but then you have a title for Aniplex, it may not be all the episodes, it has all the other stuff, and it’s usually $90 or so dollars, how do you try to convince them?
EJ: Are you talking about volume releases?
OASG: Yes. I know you also do some complete series but some would say they’re also kind of expensive. How hard has it been to convince people that this is a potential way to purchase a series?
EJ: We try our best. And if fans can’t purchase it, I like to remind them that you can definitely watch it streaming, and if it’s not streaming it’s also on Netflix. We try to make it available to the fans, even if they can’t purchase it. But for our items, it’s more of a collector’s edition — we really wanna give fans a really good experience. I’ve seen fans grab special editions and they’re just in love with it. Like how would I feel if I grabbed a Rick and Morty special edition and it came with special bonus items. We wanted to give that experience with our releases. They may not be complete sets, but we definitely want you to enjoy it if you purchase it.
OASG: Is it fair to say it has helped that you guys bring over a limited amount of titles compared to other distributors — FUNimation brings a lot of titles, Aniplex brings supposedly the top tier or titles that aren’t able to be streamed or distributed by any other company?
EJ: Well with us, of course we definitely get our titles from Aniplex Japan, but we actually started licensing titles outside of Aniplex — for example God Eater. So we do get a steady amount and we know FUNimation does handle a lot of titles, but like you asked before, we do have a small team to handle so many titles. So we get a steady stream and with our team I believe it’s a good fit with the workload we have.
OASG: I think also getting merchandise, like postcards, soundtrack, etc, it does tie into some of the reasons Aniplex titles seem to stand out from other distributors. Exactly how big of an advantage is that?
EJ: It’s definitely good. We noticed a lot of other companies have started putting out their own limited edition sets. We definitely try to think of alternate versions of releases too so it’s not just the same thing, but yes you see the postcards, yes you see the booklets, but we also make sure — like one of our producers makes sure there’s always something different, like a folio stamp collectors, as well as the plastic signboards that we have for Magi. So we do see it as the Aniplex way of putting out items.
OASG: What’s Aniplex gonna be up to in the next couple of months and a little bit into next year?
EJ: Well, the upcoming month in November, we have a movie playing in theaters called The Anthem of The Heart. It is from the same creators that did AnoHana. It’s actually set in the AnoHana timeline. So fans who definitely like to watch anime in theaters, they can check it out, it’s the anthemoftheheart.com, and they can pick up tickets for streaming there.
Some things we just announced here at NYCC, or two confirmations actually: There’s going to be a Sword Art Online movie, which is animated. I want to make that clear because a lot of people were thinking is a live action, it’s–
OASG: *laughs* Really?
EJ: *laughs* The minute we posted it on our social networks they were like, “Is it a live action or animated?” And we said it has A-1 Pictures so it will be animated *laughs*. It has a character designer, the same character designer, so it will be animated, trust us.
And we also confirmed the movie Kizumonogatari’s gonna be coming out. It’s gonna air in Japan. No new info about the U.S though.
OASG: So it may not come next year, but should we expect it to come next year?
EJ: It depends on where we can work with the Japan office. It could come sooner or later, we just have to see what we can work with with Japan.
OASG: EJ, thanks for your time today.
EJ: It’s my pleasure, thank you very much. Is it ok if I do a plug-in?
OASG: No problem, go ahead.
EJ: If you guys aren’t following us, you can check us out on Facebook and Twitter at AniplexUSA, and if you want more information on our titles you can go on Aniplexusa.com.
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