I’ve spoken before about the economics of anime but, in that article, I was more focused on the sources of revenue rather than the actual production of the anime themselves. Today, I’d like to take a look at the world of anime production committees and why I find them so fascinating.
To begin, let’s discuss what a production committee is. When an anime is being developed, a committee is established where companies invest money into production and are awarded certain rights such as merchandising, domestic broadcast rights, overseas distribution etc. These investments help to minimise the risk to any one company by spreading costs while allowing them to make money in their field of expertise.