How to:

Get Your Idea Made Into an Anime Show
Get Your Manga Published in Japan
Get Your Game Idea Developed

 It won't happen.

  It's a nice idea to think that if you have a cool (or what you think is cool) idea for a show or something that there is a Japanese company who will want to pick it up and you'll someday be watching it with your friends.

  The ugly reality is that it is 1000 times harder for a non-Japanese person to get an anime made than it is for a novice American writer to write the year's #1 blockbuster movie. The latter happens from time to time. The former never has.

  You have to pay for it. Studios can't pay for it and sponsors aren't going to raise money for you when they can do that for their own internal projects and make more. Don't even consider setting up a meeting unless you have money. Not guaranteed, not in the mail, not that you think you can borrow but money you can transfer to them tomorrow to get production started. The anime industry is extremely tightly knit. If you show up at Studio A and have any sort of trouble with them, Studios B, C and D will not deal with you. Promise a show and don't deliver a budget and you might as well consider yourself blacklisted from Japanese production forever.

  If you're going to pay for it then why do it in Japan? The anime industry is dying and quality has dropped dramatically. Unless you have personal connections to the studios who can do a good job you will only be able to talk to hacks who will waste your money. You could spend the same money somewhere else or raise more from sponsors in the US who want it done in the US. Unless you place an experienced monitor in the production studio then the quality will not be what you were hoping for. On the other hand you could contract me to do this for you and you would get maximum results. (Serious inquiries only please!)

  It must be in Japanese. Not your friend who studied Japanese in college for 2 years Japanese. Not even just professionally translated. It must be translated and made into art. The Japanese are extremely critical about the quality of written language and any mistakes or oddly written prose will get you labeled as an incompetent. If you cannot do it perfectly then you must hire someone who can. The sponsor will not provide this service.

  If you have a concept that's basically a rehash of a bunch of elements from popular anime shows nobody (sponsors, studios, viewers) will be interested. The spin-off stories that do well do so because they have original twists and are also based on a great knowledge of the source material. Much of the work shown to me by Western writers who want to do anime is very derivative and this is usually because the artist is so excited about discovering anime that they don't see that they're "borrowing". (I was that way too.)  That's fine as a fan artist but the Japanese companies won't get past the first few pages before rejecting it.

 The publishers and readers will want to see something that they can't get from a native artist. There are a LOT of Japanese fans who want their own ideas made into shows too. This can be your main market leverage. Use it! Create something that only you can do. (And the Japanese viewer are not interested in your version of Japan. More often than not they just dismiss you as being an ignorant outsider. Do your story about something else or do your show outside Japan.)

 Studios have no money. A Japanese studio is usually scraping for money any way it can and if they had money to develop new shows they would be developing the ideas that their staff comes up with rather than ideas from outside. If you had money then they would be interested in making your show for you but they aren't going to even talk to you if you don't.

  Sponsors are the only ones to talk to. Due to Japan's economic problems most sponsors have very little money to produce original content and the money they do have they want to spend on sure things - remakes, sequels, works by popular creators, adaptations of very popular manga, etc.

 They already have a lot of submissions, many by very respected and experienced artists. If a company does have money they are going to look at the backlog of submissions they have and choose the best one. When I was at IG we had submissions from the creators of Ghost in the Shell, Akira, Blood and a number of other major creators. Not counting submissions by anime deities, there was enough stuff in the filing cabinet to keep us busy for another 165 years. If there was a new submission it had to be amazingly hot before it would even make it into the door.

  If you do not have an established track record they will not consider your idea.  If you haven't proved you can create a popular manga or novel with an idea they're unlikely to test it in animation. It's very expensive to animate a show and Japan is broke - there's no more money for experimentation.

 Then there is the Japanese reticence about dealing with foreigners. Some animators will see your idea submission as an invasion. They would be very uncomfortable to even have meetings with you much less than work for/with you.

 In order to get it done you have to give it up. You will have to give up ownership of your idea to get a sponsor to pick it up. The first couple times it happens you get a pittance and a pat on the head. If it happens enough then you can make real money at it.

 Even if you don't give up complete ownership the animation staff have more control over the show than you do. The director can change anything he wants and there is nothing you can do about it. They're not going to be able to use your designs unless you are an experienced animator.

  If you have the financing arranged and you are interested in having me direct it, then I would be happy to review it.
 Caveat: I can only review paying projects. While I am happy that fans create new ideas and projects my work schedule is very full and I can only accept paying work at this time.

Please do not send me your unsolicited project ideas!

Due to the planning and development work I do, I absolutely cannot accept any unsolicited art, manuscripts or anything else that is unpublished or unreleased unless we have a contracted agreement (that's express written consent) about it first. I am a content developer and in some cases I may be your direct competition so please do not mail me your script or character designs out of the blue. I immediately delete all unsolicited materials from my e-mail box and will immediately return (or destroy) any unsolicited materials mailed to me.