“I probably sell about one 7700 red pencil for every 3,000 regular red color pencils.” Nagatsuma said.

His centuries-old business still carries the red 7700 pencils, which used to be popular with architects for drafting blueprints. “The 7700 line doesn’t sell anymore,” said Naoya Nagatsuma, the 11th-generation owner of Tokyo stationery store Soumaya Genshirou Shouten. Traditional animation dominates in Japan, in contrast to the computer animation popularized by Disney’s Pixar studio.Īlthough useful for precision work like animating and technical documents, hard pencils can be unforgiving to the amateur. The company, which dates to the 1880s, does not disclose sales figures for the pencils, she said, adding “we’ve enjoyed steady demand from a core group of users in the animation industry.” A company spokeswoman declined to elaborate, saying which raw materials are in short supply is a “trade secret.” Pencilish Animation Studios' plan is to create inexpensive IP that we can retail as much ownership of as possible, in order to reap the most from the longer-term profits of. Mitsubishi Pencil said procurement problems led to the decision. The real MONEY in animation comes from all the ancillary licensing and merchandising deals that can be made in areas like publishing, video games, merchandising, etc.

It applied simple shading without blending to make it easier to animate. Naoya Nagatsuma, 11th-generation owner of Tokyo stationery store Soumaya Genshirou Shouten, holds a Mitsubishi pencil in Tokyo, Japan, February 3, 2021. Anime-style or Cel Shading coloring is a style that mimics how traditional anime was animated.

Colored pencil animation studio