[wao]

Yeah, the thing is with manga you can license out rights to TV shows and anime and whatnot if your manga is successful, but for animators it's pretty damn difficult unless you become an animation director or something Higher Up.

Although mangaka aren't entirely bosses of themselves, they have to answer to the publishing company don't they... and the publishing company takes a good % of their profits too I suppose. It's they who typically coordinate any anime/tv/live-action/movie/whatever rights isn't it? Thoguh sometimes the mangaka can get involved in the work itself (like Ai Yazawa in Gokinjo Monogatari and CLAMP in the upcoming XXXHoLiC tv series).