Jobs in the anime/manga industry?

C

Cheeky

School Idol
This has been something that's been on my mind for a while... what kind of opportunities exist in the anime/manga industry aside from the most prominent jobs such as voice acting etc? Is there much of an opening for new entrants or is it a fairly closed off area of business for Mr/Mrs Average Anime Fan who wants to work in the industry?

It might be a bit of a pipe dream but it'd certainly be worth finding out what the industry looks for in the people they want to employ.
 
doubt there would be many jobs that would take fandom even into account

accounting, publicity, help desks, video editing, sound control

i supose it's really a case of u'd need to be in the book/media business to stand much of a chance
 
Unless you are Japanese, the chance of getting hired into the actual Anime / Manga industry is virtually non-existant. Unfortuantly, with the UK being a tertiary market, employment opportunities are even slimmer: if you lived in the US, France, Germany or other European country, there are more opportunities. With qualifications in Japanese / English / French / German, you could help translate new releases, create promotional materials, or provide your voice for the dub. UK releases are, in 99% of cases, hand me downs from US and European companies, which may even use US and European employees to do jobs that UK people could be considered for. With Manga, there are probably few UK based people working specifically on Manga alone, so you'd need a wider background in Graphic Novels.

So basically, if you really want into the Anime / Manga distribution and localisation the first step is to move, or sit on your hands for the once in a lifetime opportunity that may come along. You'll still probably need some proficiency in some foreign languages too.

Or you could try and go into magazine reviewing or something. That's the next best thing I suppose.
 
Yeah, the whole point of anime and manga is that it's Japanese, so there's a slim chance that Gonzo or Shoenen Jump would hire non-Japanese to work for them.

Like kupoartist said, localisation and distribution is the way to go!
 
unless you start doing your own work (like Sonia etc) then very little. However the companies such as MVM etc may take you on but outside of Japan you wont really get much hands on experience of making anything other that your own.
 
Well I can imagine there would be some jobs in the bunisess side of things such as Package design and in various departments within the companies like sales and so on but there's no doubt they would be looking for qualified people and it's doubtful that saying you enjoy anime would add much to convince them. Why not ask Andrew from Beez directly, I'm sure he'd happily answer your questions.

DVD package design does look a lot of fun to do though...

Manga UK could do with some quality control staff. Apply there. :p
 
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