HP 0

Hand-drawn art may be on the ropes, but it’s not quite dead yet.

For years, when anime and manga artists in Japan have needed a colored pencil, many of them reached for one made by Mitsubishi Pencil. There’s probably a bit of home-country favoritism in that choice, but thousands of satisfied customers can’t be totally wrong, and some studios have even made them the designated pencils that must be used in tasks such as checking and correcting animation sequences.

However, as the art production process, both professional and amateur, becomes an increasingly digital affair, there’s less and less money to be made producing and selling consumable art supplies, and so Mitsubishi recently announced that it will be almost entirely discontinuing its line of hard colored pencils, with red being the sole survivor in the spectrum. With so much brand loyalty built up, though, the news has come as a shock to those artists who have grown accustomed to, and are still using, Mitsubishi’s products. So strong is their preference for Mitsubishi’s hard colored pencils that trade group JaniCA, the Japan Animation Creators Association, is looking to make an appeal, on the behalf of anime and manga artists, that Mitsubishi continue their production.

First, though, JaniCA is trying to get a better picture of the market, and is currently carrying out a three-pronged survey asking for artists’ opinions. First, the organization is looking to see how many hard colored pencils artists use each month, and how many they’ll need to buy to make it through the end of March (which corresponds with the end of the business year in Japan).

HP 1

The above fields, from top to bottom, translate as:
● Company name (if applicable).
● Division/title (if applicable)
● Respondent’s name
● Hard colored pencils used each month (in units of 100-pencil boxes)
● Hard colored pencils used each month (in units of 12-packs)
● Hard colored pencils used each month (in units of single pencils)
● Predicted shortage of colored hard pencils through the end of March 2016 (in units of 100-pencil boxes)
● Predicted shortage of colored hard pencils through the end of March 2016 (in units of 12-packs)
● Predicted shortage of colored hard pencils through the end of March 2016 (in units of single pencils)
● Current stock of hard colored pencils, planned purchases of colored hard pencils

HP 2

The survey’s second portions asks for:
● Company name (if applicable).
● Division/title (if applicable)
● Respondent’s name
● What difficulties or problems, specifically, do you expect from Mitsubishi halting production of its hard colored pencils, and what has been your reason for using the company’s products until now?

HP 3

And finally:
● Company name (if applicable).
● Division/title (if applicable)
● Respondent’s name
● What other company’s pencils have you been considering as a replacements? What other products have you herd make suitable substitutes?

If the survey response is strong enough, JaniCA is ostensibly going to try to work with Mitsubishi to see that the pencils’ production continues, so if you’re a Mitsubishi-loving artist, go ahead and fill out the survey’s three parts, which can be found here, here, and here.

Source: JaniCA via Jin
Top image: Forestway
Insert images: JaniCA (1, 2, 3)