[apt-get]

Otaku/doujin culture, and the creative industry that rose around it in Japan, is as good as it gets when it comes to finding good ideas and propping them up. Basically anyone who can draw can release their own manga/webnovel/illustrations on pixiv, twitter, and others, get a couple volumes out with this or that publishing house, see where it goes and whether the public catches on. Self-publishing plays a huge part in this, whether it's doujinshi (self-made [often derivative] books sold at conventions like Comiket, Comitia, or online, with a substantial proportion of r-18 [but not only] content), doujin music albums, indie games and visual novels, etc.

Funding for anime adaptations is plentiful, and fan support helps bridge the confidence gap where production committees (consortiums of multiple publishing/IP companies pooling the money to distribute the risk) won't go for more indie / experimental works. Profit is recouped on developing the brand and merch, while leaving plenty of room for directors and studios to establish their own auteur identity. Studios are getting leaner and more focused these days, splitting off into smaller entities kicked off with a project or two with more margin for talent to shine.

It's not all perfect, though. Freelance work and lack of mentoring has really put a dent into the supply of new animators, who lack job security and often swing between studios left and right, but there are industry efforts to fix this and preserve knowledge, with the oldest pioneer animators now starting to hit their 60's and 70's.

[6stringmerc]

Please explain how “funding is plentiful” for the industry - as an American Musician and artist, I am truly curious how money is available to creatives in Japan in this sector. Thank you!

[apt-get]

Sakugabooru's blog has much information on the internals of anime production. This article answers some questions about the production committee model: https://blog.sakugabooru.com/2017/05/02/what-is-an-animes-pr...

[astrange]

It's plentiful in PPP terms I suppose. Japanese wages are very low, they wouldn't be able to fund even one of those ugly Netflix adult comedies where it's made in Flash and called Big Balls or something.