Things are
looking tough for Fuji TV. According to the Anime News Network team in
Japan, the network is having serious trouble finding sponsors for its anime ,
and this is already raising eyebrows among both fans and the industry.
For
example, reruns of "Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (Assassination Classroom)" and
"Yofukashi no Uta (Call of the Night)" are airing without any
third-party brand ads, which is extremely rare. Instead of regular commercials, they are
only showing promos for other programs on the same network, such as live-action
dramas (Hitomi no Jinji, Dr. Ashura), films like "Black Showman," or
Yokohama DeNA BayStars baseball games.
And it's
not just reruns. Other current Fuji TV anime are also being affected.
The most notable case is "Chibi Maruko-chan," which is celebrating
its 35th anniversary with specials in April and May, but has already been
without sponsors for four weeks. This all began after a school chain,
Kobetsu Shido Campus, pulled its ads on March 16.
Some shows
still have sponsors here and there, but most of the ads during anime are for
internal network events, like plays, movies, or more dramas. In short:
brands aren't putting in money like they used to. And why is this
happening? Well, everything seems to have exploded after a scandal at
the end of last year. Weekly Bunshun magazine reported that Masahiro Nakai, a
former member of SMAP, was involved in a sexual abuse case in June 2023, and an
out-of-court settlement of 90 million yen (about $580,000) was reached.
To top
it all off, the magazine also mentioned that Fuji TV staff may have been
involved. Although
some of that information was later corrected, the damage was done. As a
result, the channel's president and the president of Fuji Media Holdings
resigned. So far, there's no news on whether sponsors will return or
if new brands will enter the game.
And what
does this mean for anime? The truth is, this could have a very strong impact on the anime
industry, especially on broadcast television. Productions today depend
heavily on sponsors, and if a major network like Fuji TV doesn't get support,
others could also find themselves in trouble.
Many fans
are already saying that this highlights how fragile the anime sponsorship
system is, especially when a network's reputation is affected. Now
the big question is: will we see other networks or streaming platforms take the
initiative and save these projects? Only time will tell.
