American Anime Industry

That is an excellent article, thanks! It touched on a lot of issues I wasn't even aware of, but it also supports my summation that anime is in a decline in America. It really is a shame. You'd think these companies would be able to smell what's coming and adapt better policies. Hopefully they will...

I didn't even know Code Geass Part 2 LE was out yet. I'll have to go pick it up...


Hypnotic, isn't it? I could watch it for hours. :D

you may call me an outsider since I'm Asian but after reading the whole discussion and even reading the one posted by ZeroOBK something hit me...

I can only think of one thing that's making things worst...

at the past where anime is a boom in America the companies still value the worth of the anime but it seems nowadays they are only thinking about their profit we may think this is because of the value of licensing or the rights to release and the amount they've been spending to dub, sub, ship etc. but they have to think of the ones buying their stuff more than that... fanservice isn't just about the anime but how they present it to the fans what if it's a bit expensive(although I don't buy expensive stuff) if it's of high quality, fans can do anything to buy their favorite anime even if it's expensive, it's another thing that's making fans resolve to just downloading them, cause they don't get the quality service they deserve unlike fansubbed where the subber would make his favorite anime into a subbed masterpiece.

I don't think that the shallowness of the anime industry in America is due to the fact that many people can't afford animes, rather buyers are disappointed on how they are being treated, who's gonna like it if someone sold you a tasteless cake? its the same, for a business to fully grow to success they have to consider the buyer cause it's what makes them grow, the buyers are the one buying their product and those buyers would deserved a heart felt treatment...

you see this does not apply only to animes but to the business community too although its a different story so I'll stop from that...

sorry if I butted in a bit I just wanna express my opinion that's all...

@ ishiroyuka: I'm not quite sure what you are getting at with the "quality" view. Are you talking about subtitle quality, customer service, or something else?

the whole product,in this case the anime box set, as I've read from the site that you posted earlier and some of my overseas friends, they both give me the same complains about the anime they buy such as episode glitchs, some translation errors, not working DVDs, cd plating is deformed, poor subs and such which most of the fans complain about which is not answered by the company most of the time they don't even consider revising it, their just happy that the fans are buying it... they would go low the price of anime down, true, but it's value is the same which is low too...

in japan those anime fans out there would buy anything anime related even if its very expensive cause they know that it'd be in good quality, and I think those American fans deserved the same, they want a collection of the anime they want in good quality too from the casing to it's content...

One thing I have thought about is why haven't anime dvd's gone the route of music? All sorts of shows are available through places like Itunes. So what if anime went digital?

Many have already mentioned these points but, I'll reiterate them

1). Dubs are piss poor. They actually annoy a portion of the customers. Terrible dubs lead to less interest. Less interest means less money

2). Information isn't getting out to the public about anime. Most anime I see in stores, I have never even heard of!

3). Less airtime for shows and the reason is because of less interest (because of the piss poor dubs). Want the mainstream to embrace you? Then don't market a product that actually annoys them. I refuse to buy dvd's on the fact that every anime dvd/vhs I have ever watched had voices that would make paint peel from the walls.

4). C.N. played anime I assumed for the lead into Adult Swim since A.S. used anime as a way to set up a base but, started playing this trash people call entertainment. A.S was never about anime so that leaves channels like sci-fi with their small anime section and Encore/action with animidnight but, still it's paltry at best.

The niche will remain but, they have to step up on their end to get the mainstream. They need to start with getting awesome voice actors like Steve Blum and McGlynn, Mary Elizabeth

I see your point, ishiroyuka, and I agree for the most part. The difference is, in Japan anime is an established form of entertainment with a large, often fanatical following. What that means is, there will ALWAYS be a market for anime and even products that are based upon anime. If a company takes a loss on one product, they'll be able to easily make it up on a more reliable one. What that means is they can afford to take chances and put a lot of time, money, and effort into the products.

In America anime is NOT a stable market. Not by a long shot. It's a niche market and doesn't make nearly as much money as other, more established ones. Most people in America still dismiss anime as just being cartoons, i.e. only for children or really weird adults. As a result, most companies putting out anime products would rather guarantee more of a profit from what they DO put out than take a chance of taking a loss or breaking even.

It's a vicious cycle, really. Would putting out a more guaranteed, quality product ensure that more people would be interested in purchasing said product? Probably. Would ENOUGH people buy said product to cover the cost of increased quality and still make the company a profit, though? Or even AS MUCH of a profit as before? That is NOT guaranteed. As a result, most companies would rather put out mediocre, stable products and take in as much money as they can in order to stay afloat.

Sure, a lot of anime distributors are very interested in spreading anime through more mainstream channels to garner more of an interest in it from all kinds of audiences. By and large, though, companies are still corporations... They do what they do in order to make a profit. People still buy their products, even if they aren't of the same quality as their Japanese counterparts, because they're the ONLY products of that kind available in America. They won't create any unnecessary expense if they can avoid it.

To bring up yet another issue:

A while back, the fansub group The Triad made a news post saying that they were removing the episodes of Futari Ecchi that they had subbed off of their torrent tracker because the series had been licensed. Here's what they said:



http://www.the-triad.org/Article472.html

Licensing is what really costs the companies a lot, so why would a company license a series that's already been freely available (subbed, too) on the internet for years? Especially when it's four episodes based on a manga series that only internet otaku in America have read, and the episodes don't make sense unless you've read the manga?!

I doubt they're as stupid as most people make them out to be. They might be getting the licenses for cheap, cheap enough that whatever low volume they sell would still turn over a large enough profit to make it all worthwhile (on average at least, they do make mistakes, occasionally).

On a side note, there's a Futari Ecchi anime?...I just can't imagine there being one, got to give it a look.

(I like discussions like this it enlightens me about things...)

yes it's true, absolutely true, the anime industry in different countries(except Japan) is lame, still, it is what you call a responsibility of the company to the consumers, which in this case the fans, to ensure the quality of their products as much as possible, they may not make it japan quality but it should be close, close enough to satisfy their costumers, even how many they are their still the ones making those companies afloat, what would happen if all of those costumers get tired of buying their products cause of quality issues and resort to just downloading it in the net for free(even thought it's already happening), something like "it's the only thing I can buy" is not an appropriate reason to neglect quality, a company should always take care of its costumers well, isn't it why there's costumer care service?

I may not be right but I think each company release different animes and don't have same title releases, so why go on a competition? why release earlier than the others. it's one of the things that lowers the quality, the company would rush things forgetting the quality of their products just to make an earlier release than the other companies...

here's what I think...
even though we know that it would be impossible but why not all of those anime companies in America team up and make a single centralized company that would release anime both in the market and the internet accessible to all American anime fans with a price reasonable to it's quality...



well I think that those companies would only get license to animes that has gotten good and positive impacts from rumors, news and info sites, the Irony in this is that many fans do the same and have watched it even before they were able to get it licensed, we could say it's stupidity but I don't know what's on their minds...

You're right, it could have been a good decision, if the license was cheap, but it still doesn't make sense.

The Futari Ecchi anime is an okay watch, if you've read the manga. Otherwise, it's confusing and pretty much just sex (that isn't explicit). The first two episodes take place at the start of the series, but the other two episodes take place far ahead and have characters like the gynecologist cousin that are introduced way into the manga. Unless you've read the manga, these are random people that mean nothing to you.

I can only assume that the company that licensed Futari Ecchi advertised it as a sort of hentai, hoping people will buy it for the sex. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense.

We're getting into theoretical territory now... :)

I like the way you think! Unfortunately, there's no business in America that's nearly idealistic enough to do what you suggest. Greed is a horrible concept, but it's one that truly makes the capitalist world go 'round. People frequently say that a company should focus on quality when releasing a product for sale. The truth of the matter is that profit is the main goal of corporations. For a company dedicated to making money, "adequate" is enough when it comes to quality.

It would be pretty amazing if one sole company had the rights to release anime in America. Unfortunately, being a realist, I have to admit that it would likely end badly for the fans. Think of it... only ONE company has the right to release anime in America legally... They could charge any price they like, release titles as slowly as they like, and put out whatever quality they want. And no one would be able to do anything about it. Luckily, monopolies are illegal in America. :D

Still... it'd be a beautiful thing if anime were more readily available for cheap with good quality. Manga, too!



The Futari Ecchi anime was kind of a waste of time. I agree with ShaggyJebus about it. If you watch the first two episodes ONLY then it's pretty decent as an introduction to the manga. Otherwise... *shrug*

true, many people can do anything because of greed and it's always in the bad side..

well as much as it truly hurts we have to accept reality I suppose...

:D Maybe that's their intention, spreading hentai to more people around the globe.

@SunQuan

Monopolies are as extreme as you make it sound like they are, monopolist can theoretically charge at whatever price they want BUT their goal is also maximizing profit which means there's an optimum price for them to sell at.

Monopolies do operate at with dead weight loss, though the amount depends on the elasticity of the product (which I think would be fairly elastic as if the price increases the majority of people will access fansubs/other TV shows instead). Though this still means that competition is still better, but it also means that monopolies are not the end all of capitalism (in fact in certain situations natural monopolies or variations like oligopolies are preferable).

Ah the industry in America...
I hate it to pieces at times, but its ok. The voice actors have awkward speech patterns when they do the voice acting here, so I just leave it on the subbed version either ways.

Until we are out of "recession" times, I'm not going to believe fansubs are the cause of company fallouts. Hell, 70% of the anime in my room were because i saw them subbed. (The other 30% I got from old toonami. Ah... Rurouni Kenshin, and Ronin Warriors...)

But at least it isn't like in japan, where a dvd of around two episodes can cost from $40+

I really don't mind if my anime is from america or japan as long as i can understand what their are saying in japanese or english (altho I do prefer my english anime)I really only think the only people who should stop buying it is 4kids Tv they change all the stuff around(they feel the kids should be watching something about america so they get rid of anything that could remind you of any other country). Let me watch my anime the way it was meant to be