Understanding the Backer Motivations for Japanese Anime Crowdfunding Campaigns

Miyuki Morikawa; Masahito Mizoguchi; Meimi Moriya

doi:10.21900/j.jams.v4.1189

Authors

Miyuki Morikawa Tokyo University of Technology
Masahito Mizoguchi
Meimi Moriya

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.jams.v4.1189

Keywords:

Kickstarter, fundraising, production, anime studio, fandom, data

Abstract

In the Japanese animation industry, TV stations and film companies generally take the lead in setting up joint ventures called production committees to raise funds. Although there are cases where an animation studio takes the lead in starting a project, it is often difficult for the studio to form a production committee depending on the content of the project and the career of the director. In recent years, crowdfunding has attracted attention as a way of raising funds for production from general consumers. While some projects can raise more than their goals through crowdfunding, many others do not. This study, therefore, attempts to identify what anime crowdfunding backers value in pledging their support. A total of 6,596 comments from backers of three Japanese anime projects funded on the U.S. crowdfunding website Kickstarter were analyzed using a text-mining method. The results showed that most crowdfunding backers placed importance on the rewards and that crowdfunding success is likely to be related to past achievements of the work and its creators, as well as the credibility of the studio. Compared to overseas backers, Japanese backers were found to express their support for the creators more than for the rewards.

Author Biography

Miyuki Morikawa, Tokyo University of Technology

Miyuki Morikawa is a Senior Assistant Professor in the School of Media Science at Tokyo University of Technology. Her research areas are entertainment business and marketing, and have conducted research on product placement in animated films and effective online film reviews. She was previously a producer for a motion picture production company in Tokyo.

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