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Oct 4, 2014 10:30 PM
#1
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Oct 2014
2
Hello everyone! New forum user here.

Now obviously, from the title, this thread invites a discussion about the possibility of crowd-funding another season of the Spice and Wolf anime adaptation. But before you shoot it down, hear me out.


There has been countless posts on the topic of a third season, and I think I'm safe in saying that the two seasons of the anime were fairly well received by both the Japanese and Western communities. Producing more Spice and Wolf anime would most likely attract the attention of many new viewers (since the last promotion of the anime was 3 years ago).
"But that doesn't mean the anime will fund itself!" I hear you exclaim. Yes, well, just hold on, (topic title) we're getting to that.

There has been this 'petition', or something, floating around in the forums.
I personally consider such an idea to be stupid in its own right. Since when has any business invested in something because the internet told them to?
What would be different is if each of the supporters of this petition were to pay $100 towards the production of a third season. Simple maths tells us that it would fund at least five episodes of a new season.
The Spice and Wolf community is much, much bigger than the signatories of that petition.

Lets say, there was to be a crowd-funding project for the production of another Japanese/English season of Spice and Wolf.
If we say that each episode would cost 200,000 USD (that's about 22,000,000 Yen) for both production and dubbing, and the season would consist of 12 episodes, then you have a total of 2.4 million USD (265 million Yen). If every supporter paid $100 towards Season III production, receiving the season on DVD when it is produced, this would need anywhere between 25k to 30k supporters.

Now, there was a CrunchyRoll article which outlined the average costs per anime episode, which was 11 million Yen. So, I'm clearly /overestimating/ here.


This is all well and good, but I'm well aware that Ookami to Koushinryou II was aired over 5 years ago. And I'm also aware that the anime was probably used as a way to promote the light novels, and since the LNs are finished, and the anime didn't appear to boost sales greatly, it's likely that the anime will not continue.

Even if we disregard that, there would still be the questions of whether the Spice and Wolf community would actually have enough keen supporters, and if it did, how such a project would be organised.

So it may be true that I am naive in my thoughts here, but from a business point of view if all your expenses are paid for, the only major consequence would be that of profit.
Anime studios have no reason to care about the swathes of people who simply try and ask them nicely, however, they do care if you have money in hand.

To say that you loved the anime to the point of buying the novels, that's one thing. To say that you liked it so much you want to pay for another season, that's what should be seen as a business opportunity.

So, what does the forum here think? It's a long way off being the ultimate solution, but it gives reason for Spice and Wolf III to be produced. I welcome your replies, just make sure you give a bit of detail. I won't take straight 'Yes' or 'No' for an answer.


Too long; didn't read? I don't blame you.
Crowd-funding Season 3 of Spice and Wolf... Your thoughts?
Oct 5, 2014 7:16 AM
#2
Offline
Sep 2014
2
Nice in theory, but I doubt you could find enough supporters to donate $100. Even if you did find enough people who would be the caretaker of said project? The group would need a representative and a secure way of transferring funds. What if people start donating and there just isnt enough of them, what happens to the money? Idk. this is just a on the spot analysis. Either way get it organized correctly and im in.
Oct 5, 2014 8:56 AM
#3
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Aug 2009
194
It's not a bad idea, but as Dur0077 it presumes that enough fans will be able to pitch in to cover the costs involved. But there are another options. Perhaps we could gather up enough supporters to make a fan-produced continuation (or even reboot) of the series. That's not to say it would be able to be as beautifully animated as a full-fledged modern anime, but given how many anime these days are cheap little Flash-like things, there's no telling how good a studio-produced version would be anyhow.

I'm also sure it wouldn't have to be an amateurish nightmare, given the quality of output from students in art schools. Plus it would allow us to experiment with the format to adapt to the costs. That way if all we could scare up was a few dozen artists and writers and such, we could still produce a more limited or stylized version - like a visual-novel/storybook style thing with limited animation, but with much nicer artwork to compensate, and pitch in the money we could make to hire professional voice actors, if that's all we can afford.

So it's worth debating the options and not just shooting for the stars outright. I'm sure that the fan community could get *something* going that would be worth our time, especially if we don't limit our options. Spice and Wolf is the type of story that doesn't even have to be told in anime-style, after all.
Oct 5, 2014 10:14 PM
#4
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Oct 2014
2
I share the same concerns on how the project would be overseen. It’s not so much the fundraising part that is complicated, it’s the conversing with the studios which would make it difficult.

I have never followed the production of a series like this before, so I do not know of the formalities when it comes to anime adaptations.
Who exactly authorised the production of the two anime seasons?

In terms of fundraising, the crowd-funding project shouldn’t have to rely on being fully completed. Even if the goal was only 50% met, it would still cover half the possible costs involved with producing the season. The rest could be covered by future DVD sales, and the airing of the show.
It’s better for an entertainment company to start production knowing that a large amount of their costs are already covered, rather than hoping that enough people will buy it in the end.

But I digress, it would probably need at least ten thousand supporters to make any meaningful impact.
So that petition could have been more useful if supporters were signing for whether they would buy the anime or not.

As for the fan-produced continuation, that is an option nonetheless, however, I feel that few people would find it as satisfying as ‘authentic’ content.
Oct 6, 2014 6:47 AM
#5
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Aug 2009
194
Afiaki1 said:
As for the fan-produced continuation, that is an option nonetheless, however, I feel that few people would find it as satisfying as ‘authentic’ content.


It could, if the resources are well-utilized. It's not like the first two seasons were heavily animated, and some shows like Bakemonogatari aren't very animated either. I'm sure artwork and voice acting/music are more important to most people for a slower and more dialogue-centric story like this. But again, it's down to whatever resources can be acquired. Just getting the license and professional voice actors is a substantial chunk of money. If even those aren't doable then a fan adaptation might be all that's possible to begin with.

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