Approvals (監修 / kanshū): concept, pre-production, final sample

Nearly everything you create with a licensed property must be approved by the licensor before it reaches customers. In Japan this review is called _kanshū_ (監修), meaning supervision or oversight. Approvals typically happen in stages, and planning for them is one of the most important skills a licensee can learn.

Key terms

Kanshū (監修): The licensor's review and approval of licensed products, artwork, packaging, and marketing.
Style guide: The licensor's official reference of approved artwork, logos, colors, and usage rules.
Concept approval: The first review, of the product idea and rough design direction.
Pre-production approval: Review of detailed artwork and a pre-production sample before mass manufacturing.
Final sample approval: Review of an actual production-run item before it ships.
Approval submission: A formal request for review, usually sent through a form or online portal.

The three main stages

Most licensors use some version of these stages, though the names and number of rounds vary.

Concept — You submit the product type, rough sketches or layouts, and intended character art. The licensor checks that the idea fits the property and brand.
Pre-production — You submit final artwork, color specs, packaging, and often a physical prototype or pre-production sample. This is where most detailed feedback happens, such as a character's eye color or proportions.
Final sample — You submit items from the actual production run to confirm they match what was approved.

Packaging, hang tags, product listings, advertising, and social media posts often need their own approvals too. Check your contract for what counts as a "licensed material."

Why it can take a while

With anime, approvals often pass through several parties, such as the licensing agent, the rights holder, and sometimes the original creator or publisher. Each can request changes. It's common for a single round to take one to several weeks, and multiple rounds are normal. See 6.2 for how to plan around this.

Making approvals smoother

Use only approved artwork from the style guide, and don't alter it without permission.
Submit clean, complete packages with clear labels, specs, and questions.
Keep a tracker of every submission, date, round, and comment.
Fix all requested changes at once, and note how you addressed each one.
Never manufacture or publicize before the required approval is granted.

Example

Moonfox Apparel submits concept sketches for six Starlight Paladins tees. Hoshizora Licensing approves five and rejects one that crops the lead character's face awkwardly. At pre-production, the rights holder asks Moonfox to correct the shade of the heroine's armor on two designs. Moonfox updates the files, notes each fix, and resubmits with physical samples. After final samples are approved, Moonfox also submits its product page images and launch social posts for review before going live.

Common mistakes

Starting mass production before final approval.
Modifying official artwork, such as recoloring or redrawing characters.
Forgetting that packaging and marketing also need approval.
Scheduling a launch date with no buffer for extra approval rounds.