Jean Jacket
NOPE
480k for 10%?
4.8M valuation?
I hear you.
4.8M valuation?
I hear you.
700 INVESTORS and counting, why this black owned anime studio is interrupting white power
480k for 10%?
4.8M valuation?
after just selling 30k copies?
Jean Jacket
NOPE
I need more information on that valuation. What is the money to be used for?
Is the Netflix deal pending...where is the pilot? Who are the animators?
Maybe I'm not listening closely enough. Props to the brother though.
I'm assuming that that the 4.5 valuation is after a 5 year scale.
So, I want to see some tangibles.
It's real.
Congrats OP.
edited: my comment so as to not distract from the thread. lol
Mr Hate Coffee
Veteran
I invested. Trying to convince my co-founders at my LLC to use some of our funds for this as well.
Let's do a comparison.
Analyzing the US Manga Industry with BookScan 2017
#1: Viz Media
With no surprise, Viz Media takes first place by a huge margin? Damn, they sold 3x more than their next competitor! Viz has nineteen books that have over 20k in sales and forty more that sell over 10k. They have 4443 items listed, 2,958,351 sold for a total sales of $41,594,729.
11 of their creators sold over $1 million according to Bookscan 2017 with Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul as their top seller with 272k copies sold at a total of $3.5M.
Other top sellers were Akira Himekawa (Legend of Zelda), Hidenori Kusaka (Pokemon Adventures), Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto), Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball), Kohei Horikoshi (My Hero Academia), Tsugumi Ohba (Death Note), Hirohiko Araki (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure), Junji Ito (Uzumaki), and ONE (One Punch Man).
Note: most of Ito’s titles are licensed by Viz
Within the Top 750 Graphic Novels, Tokyo Ghoul series sold reports 272k copies sold, My Hero Academia series reports 176k copies sold, The Legend of Zelda series reports 158k sold, One Punch Man series reports 179k sold, Pokemon series reports 110k sold, Death Note series reports 74k sold, and Boruto series reports around 23k sold (definitely weak compared to the heyday of Naruto).
It also shows when you look at the BookScan’s 2017 Top 20 Manga… it’s all Viz titles! Another WTF moment from me… the numbers don’t lie and with about $6M in the top 20 manga volumes alone… All Shueisha titles besides the Legend of Zelda series (Shogakukan) which shows the power of shonen aka teen titles! 8 out of 20 are superhero manga which shows the potential for major growth if comic book shops started focusing on these titles in their manga selection!
Taken from ICv2
Viz is going to do well in 2018 since My Hero Academia (season 3) is airing in the spring and season 2 hype (along with sweeping the Crunchyroll Awards and more people cosplaying the more interesting characters ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) will continue the rapid growth on another shonen series. Golden Kamuy and Tokyo Ghoul:re anime are also starting in the spring to also bolster both seinen manga series popularity.
#2: Kodansha Comics
Kodansha has eight books that sell over 10k. They have 895 items listed, 917,596 sold for a total sales of $13,616,224.
Their bestseller is Attack on Titan volume 1 which sold 18.7k copies. However, it places as #23 in the manga category for single volumes sold… Overall, Attack on Titan series reports 170k sold. They really haven’t had a hit title after Attack on Titan (which is on the decline) and now that Fairy Tail has ended, they don’t have much going for them shonen-wise besides Seven Deadly Sins. Their other titles Fairy Tail volume 1 sold 17.2k copies and Sailor Moon volume 1 sold 12k copies.
Going forward into 2018, Kodansha has invested in Crunchyroll for distributing their manga simulpub series, which will serve as long-form previews until the physical volume comes out. I might buy To Your Eternity and Our Precious Conversations after catching up to the simulpub! In addition, Kodansha is leading on digital-only releases which aren’t counted by BookScan, especially for long-running titles that might not have a chance to have a physical release. Some fans will have to buy the series twice if they really want a physical version!
#3: Yen Press
Yen Press has only one book selling over 10k. They have 1403 items listed, 928,962 sold for a total sales of $13,866,675.
Its bestseller is Black Butler volume 1 with just under 15k in the bookstore market. The Beat comments that “In the Long Tail, Yen is actually selling slightly better than Kodansha, but they need 60% more SKUs to do so.” This means that they have to publish tons more in order to get the same amount of sales. Kudos for Yen Press tenacity in the struggle!!!
They have various simulpub titles out which gives you a preview of physical releases but nothing that stands out or is award-winning. However, Yen Press is great on cross-promotional licenses like Your Name and Erased. They partner up with anime loot box companies to also spread their brand name. Yen Press tends to license some series aimed at young women or GanGan or Square Enix titles. They’re also majority owned by Kadokawa so expect more light novel print editions!
#4: Seven Seas
Seven Seas has four books that sell over 10k. They have 554 items listed, 478,336 sold for a total sales of $6,801,527.
Its bestselling title is The Ancient Magus Bride volume 1 with over 13k and the series reports just under 67k sold! Another surprise hit title is My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness with about 11k sold. My Lesbian Experience is probably going to win some awards this upcoming year and beloved by the LGBTQ community.
As for the future, they might be licensing some older hit titles like how they did with Devilman, which has a planned release in May 2018. They are a fan-favorite in the manga buying community since they’re the only publisher that has a monthly manga survey for anyone to suggest a new license! They also continue to license monster girls series and have a couple of new titles from popular anime from fall 2018 season like
#5: Dark Horse
Dark Horse Manga has two books over 10k. They have 527 items listed, 238,089 sold for a total sales of $3,795,506.
Its bestselling title is Berserk volume 1 with over 14k sold. They also did a reprint of the series in 2017 iirc and had major bundle deals at Right Stuf during Black Friday weekend for new and old collectors to get their hands on the series.
Looking towards the future, Dark Horse already has a brand around being the publisher that releases darker seinen hits like Berserk, I Am a Hero, Drifters, Blade of the Immortal, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Gantz, and more. They represent a gateway for western comic book readers to get into manga. Hopefully, they announce more licenses this year with something super exciting that’s also getting an anime adaptation that won’t suck?
Judging by this article, Black Sands is literally in the ELITE status of Mangas in the nation, though the sales are independent.
If you had to put a VALUE on Attack on Titan, or Berserk, or My Hero Academia, would you only go by the number in "sales" for the physical books or would you consider their real profitability in LICENSING AND MERCHANDISING.
We are already at major publisher numbers as the criteria for being considered a wildly popular comic is 10,000 copies sold in a year. This coupled with the licensing of other creator's works, having animators from Pixar and Disney, and also building an application to make a vertically integrated sales funnel is why we are valuated at that AND it is extremely low compared to what we could have asked for.
Here is Wefunder's criteria on a price round investment and whether it is the right choice for an investor.
That is how price rounds work. Can you "bet" that we will be worth more than 4.5 million in the future? Many would say we already are considering our numbers versus the industry.
Also, the 5 year scale will be the seed round of 2 million for 10% in 2021 after we hit 100,000 users on our comic distribution app, option 20 of the best black indie comic developers in the nation, and win multiple awards for our animated shorts.
This is the conservative round.
This is the conservative round.
LeeDoubleLee
Pro
I’m late to the party but I invested.
thanks fam
gtj1982
Superstar
I want to invest but I just want to verify if I'm reading the OP right. Are you saying that your series won't premiere until 5 years from now or is that when you plan to go public or are they one in the same?
Also congrats on your movement.
Also congrats on your movement.
humminbird
Veteran
Would you ever do full feature length films?
I’m talking like 10 years down the line
I’m talking like 10 years down the line
what's the valuation of your company and are you offering equity to investors?
Jean Jacket
NOPE
Jean Jacket
NOPE
I think that this could be big. I'm definitely watching and learning. It will be interesting to see how they flesh out the content. Egypt has been done for decades, but I'm interested to see if they incorporate Afro Futurism, or some kind of twist to keep us interested.
I'm really not feeling the characters, but I like the format. It seems like a lot is missing on the writing and concept dev., but I know that with a burgeoning team building process, the creative minds and ideas will present themselves. Props on the money spent on the animation. Interested to see where this goes.
humminbird
Veteran
Yeah I’m actually doing the same thing. I have many story ideas and drafts for books that I want to make films out of but I don’t want to go to the big studios to make them.
This succeeding opens the doors for more independent studios to thrive.