A career in anime, but not an artist...

[red_LED]

Ever considered a career or job in the anime industry, but realize you are not artistically gifted?

To immerse myself in the anime/manga field in America or Japan has been a recent wake up call, however, I am not seeking to be an artist, animator, or voice actor. Seeking help for suggestions as to what major career options there are perhaps in a licensing company, distributing business, or other? Thoughts?

[Animematt55]

never considered it. I might think about working in the marketing or something like that for the company.

[kenshinbebop]

I've never considered it, but their are plenty of jobs. Licensing, distributing, advertising, basicall everything you can do for a big business...financial stuff, stock stuff, cubicle work, interviewer...if your really lucky you can become writer or interviewer for a mag or editer...

There are limitless possibilties...though since you don't want to ahve anything to do with the actual show like voice overs, it might limit the fun factor.

You could always do stuff to do with the scores or soundtracks...musical engineer?

[Waynestock]

Unless you don't have time to become fluent in another language, translators are high up there among the jobs most American companies demand in the biz.

[Suiko Eiji]

Unless you don't have time to become fluent in another language, translators are high up there among the jobs most American companies demand in the biz.

Not to mention brutally competitive and the requirements are much more than "becoming fluent in another language".

To directly answer the OP, yes; I thought about it, inquired, and was basically shot down. And it was concerning translation. More recently (three year ago or so), I thought about getting into the licensing and distribution game.

I changed my mind and pursued other options.

EDIT: This was a two-part question. Oops.

KenshinBebop's onto the right idea - think of the typical business functions that a company needs. Accounting, Finance, Sales/Marketing, Corporate communications/"tech writing", etc. Study these and see what opens up. Everyone comments on how hard it is to get into the Industry as far as artists go and I would say it is almost equally hard to get into the Industry just being an "average business person". It simply boils down to economy of scale. Most anime licensors, distributors, et al, are still small companies (who get financial backing from much larger companies) and there simply aren't many jobs available. I recommend, should you choose to follow this path, that you throw resumes out to the anime companies to see what sticks, but don't buy the farm over it.

[Bernard_Monsha]

You could be a sanitation engineer at ADV or Funimation.

[earsofdoom]

work at a convention? though thats probably not exactly what your asking for i thought it was at least worth mentioning.

[SSB]

I would like to be a voice actor for an anime, but I don't know how good my voice acting is relative to the others out there :P.

Would be nice to be a voice actor, a bit of a different from engineering all the time.

[KyouryokuSenshi]

I've considered it, but I'd also consider myself talented at drawing anime. If you want a career in anime, sure, you'd have to be a director or something.