Anime Magazine: 2013 Summary & 2014 Roadmap

Happy new year folks! What are you doing over the new year? Having fun is important but while you have a wee bit of time off, I strongly recommend that you spend a bit of time reflecting on the past year by listing up all the things you did in 2013 that you feel worth writing down.

Does your list look good? if so great! If not then write down what you are going to do in 2014 and aim to achieve so that you will be happy with your list when reflecting on it in 2015.

Below is a list of some of the notable stuff that I done in 2013 with my small team.

Product & Content development

Launched our second Japanese learning deck of cards Moekanji

Launched Japanese learning series MoeManga

Mirai Suenaga

Mirai became an official mascot for Japan Tourism - first project is Japan Map

Became official mascot for Penang Island Malaysia

Collaborated with the designer of Gundam on a car for Mirai in Mirai Project

Became mascot for convenience store LAWSON

Became mascot for Air Asia

Became mascot for Volks

Became members card for Kinokuniya

Increased variations of Mirai Suenaga Touch n Go

Increased variation of apparel line of T-shirts

Rolled out Mirai LINE stickers and official account now nearly 2 million followers.

Mirai Water

Mirai Macarons

Government work

Appointed by Japanese Government as member of the Creative Industries Internationalization Committee for METI (Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)

Start working with Japan Tourism on Mirai Suenaga projects

MC for Manga Festival Singapore organized by METI

Appointed as a judge for the British Business Awards by the British Government.

Attended and rolled out Culture Japan booths at:-

Thailand Game Show

Anime Expo 2013 in LA

Culture Japan Con in Penang Malaysia

Animangaki in KL Malaysia

Anime Festival Asia Indonesia

Anime Festival Asia Singapore

Comic Fiesta 2013 KL Malaysia

Held Culture Japan Night in the following regions

Penang Malaysia

Bangkok

Los Angeles

Jakarta

Singapore

Seoul

KL Malaysia

Other stuff

Rolled out our first ever convention Culture Japan Con in Penang Malaysia

Looooong awaited redesign of Culture Japan website

Move into new place in Tokyo

Linus joined us in Tokyo

A load of other stuff which I forgot ><

Smart Doll

Read more about my new product at http://smartdoll.jp

This time last year I had just a 3D sample print out of a body - today we are nearly ready for international rollout ^o^

3D Design of Outer Shell and Inner Frame complete

Slush Casting and Injection Molds complete

Wig production line complete

Eye production line complete

Apparel production line complete

Shoe production line complete

Started production on Smart Doll 002 : Kizuna Yumeno

Mark I & Mark II version of the Automated version complete

And below is a list of some of the things that I want to do with my team in 2014. Its kind of a roadmap without dates on it ^^;

However - most of the stuff that we did in 2013 was not planned at all which came about from meeting and networking with new folks.

Smart Doll

Launch Smart Doll Manual Version at events in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, United States.

Start Rest Of The World online orders.

Launch Smart Doll 001: Mirai Suenaga in Spring 2014

Launch Smart Doll 002: Kizuna Yumeno in Summer 2014

Launch Smart Doll 003: Chitose Shirasawa in Winter 2014

Increase line of accessories and apparel

Launch Smart Doll Attributes 001: RoadBike1 (RoadBike for 1/3 scale dolls)

Launch Assembly lines in various locations worldwide - parts are manufactured in Japan but will most likely be assembled outside of Japan to lower import costs and thus pass on savings to our consumer - similar with what they do with cars.

Continue to develop Smart Doll Automatic version with aim to release in late 2014 or early 2015.

Identify distributors in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong etc

Events

Culture Japan booth to attend the following events

Culture Japan's first Industry Booth at Wonfes Tokyo (Feb)

Aiming to attend Anime Expo 2014, AFAID (Indonesia), AFA14 (Singapore), CF2014 (Malaysia).

Also looking to attend events in Bangkok, Hanoi, Manila.

Roll out Culture Japan Con2 in August (Malaysia)

Each region that we attend events at will also have a CJ Night the day after.

Mirai Suenaga & Friends

Expand Mirai-chan's role as official mascot for Japan Tourism in all regions worldwide.

Increase collaborations with various governments & corporates worldwide but particularly focusing on Asia

Publish Mirai Millennium which has already been written by Sato Dai (Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Eureka 7, Eden of the East etc)

Increase variations of Touch n Go cards in Malaysia

More illustrations by Japanese illustrators including Nishimata Aoi, Ito Noizi and more

Permanent LINE stickers

Release icons for Desktop and Android

Release official Winter and Solar Marine uniforms for cosplayers

Launch Culture Japan Online Store to accept worldwide orders of Mirai Merchandise

Setup logistics, storage, order management, quality control etc for online orders.

Broadcasts

Film Culture Japan Season 3 from Jan - March and broadcast across asia and US from April (possibly Summer)

Start regular online live broadcast of Tokyo Teatime

Start filming Culture Japan Season 4 in Q4

Launch Moekana 2nd Ver (includes Katakana) in Q1

Release OTACOOL 5 with Kotobukiya in Q3

Start pre-orders for Mirai Suenaga Scale Figure in Q3

Clean up Mirai's official home page! ><

Relaunch of Doll.fm

Relaunch of Figure.fm

Full Responsive layout of all Mirai Gaia websites

Other stuff

Move back into our house (which is now just office) and move our team into larger offices

Get bigger offices in KL and fill with warm bodies to work on Smart Doll Marketing an Assembly

Get new passport (no more pages left ><)

I'm going to leave you with a wall of photos in no particular order which cover just some of what we did in 2013.

Before I leave you however, I would like to thank all veterans for your continued support and a big Hello! to all our new comrades who have decided that they want to support what we do by reading my babblings on this site or following me on my various social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LINE, Google+ or my RSS feed.

There is just one more thing I want to leave you with - one of the learnings that I gained in 2013.

"The bigger your goals are, the bigger the hurdles will be and the harder you shall fall."

If you are experiencing constant hurdles such as disappointments, back stabbing and facing a huge void of unknowns - just as long as you get up quickly each time you stumble on a hurdle, you are on your way to reaching your big goal.

Did you fail at something when trying to reach your goal? There is no such thing as "failure" - only "learnings" which you will need to reach your goal.

Experiencing constant disappointments will provoke you to easily throw in the towel and when you do that then that is the moment when you give up on your goal.

Goals that you set for yourself have varying difficulty levels - its up to you to decide whether you want to live a life fulfilling small goals easily or take on bigger goals which demand more from you. Which are you?