Kadokawa
Photo taken with the big boss of Kadokawa - Shinichiro Inoue. Inoue-san joined Kadokawa as a part timer while he was still studying at university. He dropped out of school to continue as a part timer and started to make his way up the corporate ladder. 7 years later, Kadokawa hired him as a full time employee and he continued to climb the food chain.
In 2007 he had made his way to the very top and became the president of Kadokawa.
I only spent time interviewing him for Culture Japan so didn't really get a chance to talk about anything else - but got a meeting with him tomorrow morning to go over some nitty gritty. If you got any messages or questions for him then leave em in the comments!
Inoue-san is a visionary especially when it comes to overseas expansion. They have already set up office in Taiwan 10 years ago.
In the immediate future, they will be working with writers in China to translate local short novels into Japanese for the Japan market and viceversa.
The next Haruhi publication will be released on the same day in Japan, Taiwan and China too.
Established in 1945, Kadokawa went from inventing the Bunko [文庫] book format, to producing movies, video games, anime and own titles that we all know and love such as Haruhi and Lucky Star. They own many media properties including Ascii Media Works who use Mirai Gaia to run their publishing solutions for Tokyo Kawaii Magazine.
How did you like the latest Haruhi flick "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" ?
Its not my fault but my eyes always look at the thighs first when I see this Amagami poster.
More kadokawa properties - Oreimo and Toaru.
While Kadokawa does not particularly focus on anime alone, the entrance is plastered with a load of anime posters.
For quite a while, I didn't understand the appeal of Keroro Gunsou until I actually took time out to watch and found it to be a gem. Natsumi is such a cutie.
After being lead through a load of corridors and elevators all plastered with anime goodies, its time to set up the camera equipment for the interview.
This particular episode has already been broadcast in Japan and will be broadcast across asia in a couple of weeks on Animax Asia. You can see some of the show in this post.
After the interview, its time to go and explore the rest of the offices. A small meeting area near the entrance has a load of their publications - many of which you may already be familiar with.
Voice New Type is a publication covering everything in the seiyuu (voice acting field). This cover has cutie Aki Toyosaki on the cover - the lady who does the voice of Yui from K-ON!
Heading into the Media department.
Most Japanese offices have an open layout like this where the head of the department would sit on a table facing his or her staff.
The first Japanese office I worked in had no partitions at all and for the first few weeks I was embarrassed to speak on the phone as everybody around could hear.
Done quite a few tours of offices in Japan and one thing you will notice are the piles of paper everywhere. Japan is still a fax society which increases the promotion to use and print out stuff in general.
I personally cant stand having piles of paper here n there so try to digitize everything where possible. I made the decision not to buy a fax machine and insist that whoever needs to send us stuff do so by mail.
In most Japanese offices, you will find the Oyatsu Table [おやつテーブル] where there are usually stacks of yummies to munch on. If you have eaten Japanese snacks, you will notice that items in the snacks are wrapped separately. This is because folks over here usually purchases snacks to share with others rather than scoff em down alone - handing a snack over which is wrapped up is much easier to do than with bare grubby mitts.
A load of goodies! Haruhi, Lucky Star, Strike Witches and more!
Very cute Haruhi wall scroll. Me spots the Freeing Lucky Star girls on the floor.
An essential item in any Japanese office - Health Mousepad also known as "Oppai Mousepad."
A work environment surrounded by anime goodies - what more can you ask for?
Some more Kadokawa publications including Megami Magazine, Nyan Type, Animage and more.
Fortune Arterial girls.
A corner with a load of wallscrolls and calendars.
This seasons anime includes Gosick - a title which is a stronger candidate for search engine optimization purposes than "Gothic" I guess.
How many of you watched and enjoyed Panty & Stocking? Didn't see many anime blogs outside of Japan talking about it but was very popular on this end.
Kadokawa have a huge hall like meeting room which looks like a cathedral! Inside they got more of their goodies for me to salivate over.
Rei Ayanami to cool you off and calm you down while looking at all the goodies.
"Minna no daisuki OPPAI set" meaning "The Oppai set that everybody loves."
Mirai Nikki anime version coming soon.
Kadokawa owns a couple of buildings in the same hood.
Entrance to the head offices.
At the entrance of one of their other buildings.
More lovely girlies to look at while waiting for the elevator.
In the Kadokawa carpark they got some lovely Yuki Nagato coffee.
