Market Overview

Of major 14 genres of Otaku market, those that grew in FY2022 were 10 genres (anime/cartoon films, doujinshi (fanzines), plastic models, model figures, dolls, model railroads [including dioramas and other peripheral products], popular idols, professional wrestling, costume play clothing, and services by girls in maid costumes or in costume-play clothing). On the other hand, the market of toy guns and survival games diminished. The toy guns market saw a negative growth due to a postponement of new product release by major manufacturer. Meanwhile, the market of survival games waned as a consequence of having no significant changes in the number of survival game fields, while many of the existing facilities failed to attract as many players as pre-pandemic times, especially new players.
Please note that we cannot make comparative analysis on the market of indie games and speech synthesis as we redefined these markets.

Out of the 10 growing genres, the doujinshi (fanzines) market remained robust as download sales complemented online sales of printed media, while the increase in the number of digital sales platforms that enhance support for creators contributed to strong sales. Moreover, the growth of plastic models and collectible figurines was propelled by the increase of at-home consumption during the pandemic. As these markets remained strong even after the convergence of COVID-19, the market sizes exceeded the pre-pandemic, FY2019-level.

Meanwhile, although the number of performances and events returned to pre-COVID conditions, the markets of 6 genres, i.e., anime/cartoon films, dolls, popular idols, professional wrestling, costume play clothing, and services by girls in maid costumes or in costume-play clothing, did not recover to the pre-pandemic level.

Noteworthy Topics

Growth of Text-to-Speech Software Backed by Popularity of Live Commentary Videos

We estimated that the market size of Vocaloid (speech synthesis) attained 21,330 million yen in FY2022, based on the user consumption amount. Here, the Vocaloid market mainly refers to speech synthesis software such as Vocaloid software (software that enables users to synthesize voice of a singer by typing in lyrics and melody), text-to-speech software (TTS, software that converts texts into audio), and voice changer software (software that alters voice captured by microphone and create a custom voice effect). The market also includes product sales of items related to Vocaloid characters.

Vocaloid software has been gaining attention in recent years as it became known that some celebrities in subculture field have created music as Vocaloid Producer (‘Vocaloid-P’, a musician who produce music with Vocaloid) in the past. During the COVID-19 crisis, online events for Vocaloid-P were held regularly. For instance, a contest of internet videos for rankings in various categories increased popularity, serving as a gateway to success for new Vocaloid creators.

Text-to-speech (TTS) software are used for game streaming, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, as well as for live commentary videos and anime production. It is believed that there are overwhelmingly larger number of TTS creators than Vocaloid-P, for the reason of TTS software allowing video production by simply typing text, while Vocaloid requires music composition. With another representative TTS character created in FY2022, TTS software sales expanded.

Meanwhile, the voice changer software also expects continuous growth in accordance with the rise in demand for voice software, although the commercial demand for voice changer software is fairly limited at this time.

For the majority of product sales, it relates to famous Vocaloid characters developed by major businesses, including the iconic "Hatsune Miku". In particular, the release of Vocaloid games for smartphone in FY2022 has widened the range of fans.

Future Outlook

Of major 14 genres in Otaku market in FY2023, as activity restrictions have been alleviated throughout the fiscal year, 13 genres, i.e., doujinshi (fanzines), indie games, plastic models, dolls, model railroads, toy guns, survival games, popular idols, professional wrestling, costume play clothing, services by girls in maid costumes or in costume-play clothing, and Vocaloid, are projected to grow.

Meanwhile, in the market of anime, anime character products are selling well, thanks to the increase of customers to anime events throughout the fiscal year. However, the recovery of customer foot traffic also meant the shrinkage in the number of people spending time at home watching anime. Subscribers to video streaming services are projected to decline as a result of this trend, decelerating the business growth of major video streaming providers. Moreover, with not as many hits of animation movie as in the previous fiscal year, and with the projection for a decline in the number of new TV anime productions, size of the anime market is projected to shrink.

Research Outline