By Tadashi Sudo

The 6th Tokyo Anime Awards Film Festival was held from August 24 to 26 at AKIBA 3D Theatre, Akihabara, Tokyo.
This festival introduces prize winning works of Tokyo Anime Awards. In this occasion, Korean animation was screened with a cooperation of KOREA CULTURE & CONTENT AGENCY.
The selected 9 Korean animation works screened at the festival accurately showed the current situation of Korean animation industry. Its strength and weakness are revealed.
The works screened can be grouped into three categories.
1. Works related to online game and online game-like world
“Green Nights”, “Koongya Koongya”, “Mix Master”
2. Anime of popular drama
“Jang Geum’s Dream ”, “Unni Francesca”
3. 3D animation works for infants and children
“Aesop’s Theater”, “Z-Squad”, “Pororo”

In addition, what’s distinctive is that original manga for Anime does not exist like Japanese Anime. Furthermore, there are no works targeted adults or manias.
This is due to Korea’s small domestic contents market and situation that it is difficult for manga writers to make their livings. Because manga culture does not develop, complicated stories like Japanese Anime based on manga and manga for adults do not develop as well.
However, weakness can be strength and vice versa. The small domestic market is indeed the strength of Korean animation industry.
In short, because it can ignore the domestic market, Korean animation works can be created completely for overseas users. As a result, Korean animation is securing a considerable share of broadcasting market of Western countries today.
This success is concentrated especially in the infant/children market because Japanese animation cannot be broadcasted due to its violent and sexual factors.
Successful works include 3D animation “Pororo” which was a big hit in the Europe and “Pucca” which was not screened at the festival.
Today, production of Japanese Anime is mostly done by oversea commissions. Due to this, there is a fear of de-industrialization and therefore the decline of Japanese production ability is discussed. Furthermore, some says countries that accept production, such as Korea and China, will overtake Japanese Anime industry.
De-industrialization itself is a critical topic. However, the basis of Japanese Anime production is supported by its creativity. Its level of foundations such as planning, plot, character design, etc. are much higher than those of two countries.

Actually, globalization of Korean animation has already started in a completely different part from the competition against Japan. Korean animation can answer to the needs of clients in a flexible manner. This can be understood from the fact that Korean animation is often co-produced with overseas companies.
The development of Japanese Anime lies in the success beyond the mere modeling or extension of American animation. The same can be said to the globalization of Korean animation—it cannot happen as an extension of Japanese Anime or American animation. Korean animation is spreading globally not by competing with Japan but by finding a different niche market from Japan.

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