Why has the anime industry shrunk?
0
So as you may or may not know, 2003 was the largest year for the anime economy in america, with a $500,000,000 market in america alone, this is incredibly small compared to japan, but it should pretty much be acknowledged that ever since 2003, the market has been shrinking, the main question is why do you think this is?
as we all know there were plenty of shows on adult swim that were anime, and ever since then it's been declining, my guess would be wolf's rain would be the tipping point, i read an article that claimed the 2010 year for the anime market was only 200,000,000 dollars with, less than half in seven years, that means the american anime market is shrinking by about 42 million per year,
if you want my guess on the issue, it would be that the average anime consumer is a bit thrifty, young, tech savvy, and not with a large disposable income, so combine these things together and i feel that the average anime consumer tends to watch anime illegally or in an inexpensive way to them, not to mention with a lack of presence on television, it's hard for the public at large to even think of it, people may enjoy it, but if they're unaware of it, they probably won't find out about it, my main idea of what makes anime so difficult to acquire is the box sets, 10 dollars on average for a 3 episode disc out of a 26 episode series, coming to 80 dollars when watching it online or illegally downloading it is free, not to mention retailers tend to have no real way of fluctuating prices, to help sell something that may be considered expensive to its base,
but enough of my ideas, i would definitely like to hear your opinions of why the anime industry in america has had a hard time thriving, because it seems to have a lot of things americans would like, harems, action, science fiction, girls in skimpy outfits, big tits, guns, and super powers,
as we all know there were plenty of shows on adult swim that were anime, and ever since then it's been declining, my guess would be wolf's rain would be the tipping point, i read an article that claimed the 2010 year for the anime market was only 200,000,000 dollars with, less than half in seven years, that means the american anime market is shrinking by about 42 million per year,
if you want my guess on the issue, it would be that the average anime consumer is a bit thrifty, young, tech savvy, and not with a large disposable income, so combine these things together and i feel that the average anime consumer tends to watch anime illegally or in an inexpensive way to them, not to mention with a lack of presence on television, it's hard for the public at large to even think of it, people may enjoy it, but if they're unaware of it, they probably won't find out about it, my main idea of what makes anime so difficult to acquire is the box sets, 10 dollars on average for a 3 episode disc out of a 26 episode series, coming to 80 dollars when watching it online or illegally downloading it is free, not to mention retailers tend to have no real way of fluctuating prices, to help sell something that may be considered expensive to its base,
but enough of my ideas, i would definitely like to hear your opinions of why the anime industry in america has had a hard time thriving, because it seems to have a lot of things americans would like, harems, action, science fiction, girls in skimpy outfits, big tits, guns, and super powers,
0
I think the most reason why it has shrunk would be because of the economic state right now. I would go out and get a ton of anime dvds and manga and doujin, but I'm a college student that has a very, and I mean VERY, tight budget. I think another reason would have to be that most of the anime that they are coming out with nowdays, it takes American anime companies too long to get the rights to the animes and to start dubbing them. An example would be Naruto (just as an example). The shows that came out 3 years ago, still are not dubbed in English, they are still in Japanese. Now that is a big gap in years. As people learned, it was easier to learn to read subs and just wait a couple days for the Japanese anime companies to release the subbed anime. But this is just what I think, I may be wrong.
0
Anything ever released on a disk is most likely on torrent. 50$+ for a 26 episode series or a 1 hour download?
0
Perhaps just because the economy. If you say that the demand for anime shrunk because of the were less fan, you are dead wrong each passing year there were more and more human became addicted to the anime. Just like me i spend $500 a month just to buy anime my parent tell me to stop but NO! anime is the new platform of creating and discovering new ideas.
Well i don't know about others but myself have some habit making something that i like. currently i'm trying to recreate the technology that were use on one of the anime that i like. It's a remote controlled helicopter but i plant it with some camera and a small bomb (c4) and to see if that have the same effect or bigger effect as the grenade bomb.
But seriously i will never stop watching anime, well maybe after i died but for now i will keep watching anime. Plus it's fun.
And i prefer anime on disc. Copy it to my hard disc and kept the original for my kids in the near future. By that time i'm sure my kids will love it just like me.
Well i don't know about others but myself have some habit making something that i like. currently i'm trying to recreate the technology that were use on one of the anime that i like. It's a remote controlled helicopter but i plant it with some camera and a small bomb (c4) and to see if that have the same effect or bigger effect as the grenade bomb.
But seriously i will never stop watching anime, well maybe after i died but for now i will keep watching anime. Plus it's fun.
And i prefer anime on disc. Copy it to my hard disc and kept the original for my kids in the near future. By that time i'm sure my kids will love it just like me.
0
animefreak_usa
Child of Samael
Anime was hard to come by in my day... like a 8hr drive to la or sf. BBS and the 8th gen dub vhs tape with photocopied translation on a dot matrix printer and weeb spewing on a 28.8 fax modem. The down fall comes with the fact that it costed too much then the price came down a little and still we rather rip. torrent and pass along a file or dvd copy. I rather watch the fansubbed or buy imports since meh why paid the premium cost when half the dub and sub shit is shit. Plus the time... only 5 % of the anime get licensed after a year after the japanese release.. let's say usagi drop... it won't be here until three years at the least since.. only weebs are watching it... it might get here faster because the manga is up to the point of teenage version of rin... also i blame crunchyroll.
0
I too think it may be due to internet downloading. Why pay money$$ when it's free on the internet right? I'd still buy if I had the money
0
Takerial
Lovable Teddy Bear
There are a few factors that contributed to this.
First is the economic state of things. People spend less on luxury goods when the economy turns bad, anime is no exception. Of course that didn't truly hit until a couple of year ago so it's really only a factor that has brought it down so low, not the initial decline.
Probably the main reason is that for awhile there, anime was still relatively knew to America. There hadn't been much of a generation that grew up knowing what it was, and most of what they knew was cursory knowledge.
It wasn't until about the time when more and more people gained access to faster internet that a lot greater knowledge was gained about the anime, and a lot more diversity was gained. This was around the late 90's early 2000's.
Before this, it was relatively hard to gauge the market and a lot of the anime being released were more mainstream.
So when there was a means to gauge the market, companies were able to start scooping up animes and such that did well online, licensing several older ones and so on.
The only problem is, that the more they pull from the pool, the smaller it got.
Instead of having large amounts of titles they can cherry pick for popular animes, they now have to get licensing from new anime titles based on manga popularity which can be difficult to get in a timely manner, or they have to get the less than popular older titles which do not sell as well.
This breaking point was probably around 2003, the year it was at its peak.
The decline started, and companies started losing their buying power, which stifled their ability to get licenses even more, creating further delays in getting many titles.
This frustrated anime fans, which caused them to become more reliant on getting the media via online. Couple this with the decreased income of a depressed economy and you pretty much get the situation today.
First is the economic state of things. People spend less on luxury goods when the economy turns bad, anime is no exception. Of course that didn't truly hit until a couple of year ago so it's really only a factor that has brought it down so low, not the initial decline.
Probably the main reason is that for awhile there, anime was still relatively knew to America. There hadn't been much of a generation that grew up knowing what it was, and most of what they knew was cursory knowledge.
It wasn't until about the time when more and more people gained access to faster internet that a lot greater knowledge was gained about the anime, and a lot more diversity was gained. This was around the late 90's early 2000's.
Before this, it was relatively hard to gauge the market and a lot of the anime being released were more mainstream.
So when there was a means to gauge the market, companies were able to start scooping up animes and such that did well online, licensing several older ones and so on.
The only problem is, that the more they pull from the pool, the smaller it got.
Instead of having large amounts of titles they can cherry pick for popular animes, they now have to get licensing from new anime titles based on manga popularity which can be difficult to get in a timely manner, or they have to get the less than popular older titles which do not sell as well.
This breaking point was probably around 2003, the year it was at its peak.
The decline started, and companies started losing their buying power, which stifled their ability to get licenses even more, creating further delays in getting many titles.
This frustrated anime fans, which caused them to become more reliant on getting the media via online. Couple this with the decreased income of a depressed economy and you pretty much get the situation today.
0
Of course the state of the economy has been a huge factor, but I don't think it's the only one. I think the average anime fan has changed, at least in America.
Like Takerial said, anime isn't new anymore. While there are still young kids that are just learning about anime this year (which will always be the case, for everything), most college-age people already know about anime and are used to it. They cannot look at Naruto or Dragon Ball Z and see this amazing thing the likes of which they've never seen before. First, because everyone and their grandmother knows about the popular anime and manga series. Second, because American movies and TV shows have been influenced by anime and are showing that influence. Any kid that saw Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example, probably wouldn't be shocked by anime, whereas kids that grew up on the 90s Spider-Man cartoon or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would see something very much unlike what they were used to.
Furthermore, I think the average anime fan nowadays is a person who just watches it every now and then. It's not a lifestyle, like it used to be. Even the average fans that watch a ton of anime don't make it the center of their lives; they don't buy all the merchandise they can or long to own every series they love. (Not directly related, but in the past, anime fans used to be hardcore about their fandom because only hardcore fans could really watch a lot of anime. There either wasn't any internet or it was slow or not had by all people, and American companies that sold anime or manga were few and far between. Alas, that's a different discussion entirely.)
I could write more about the differences in fandom between now and ten years ago, but I think the most important thing is simply that things have changed. Anime is more popular now than it used to be, in that more people are fans of it, but perhaps the quality of the fandom has gone down, and fans don't feel the need to purchase things. And that could be because they can just get it off the internet. Or it could be that the newest series aren't really worth owning. I mean, I can't think of any series released in America in the past year that I would buy. But that may just be me.
Like Takerial said, anime isn't new anymore. While there are still young kids that are just learning about anime this year (which will always be the case, for everything), most college-age people already know about anime and are used to it. They cannot look at Naruto or Dragon Ball Z and see this amazing thing the likes of which they've never seen before. First, because everyone and their grandmother knows about the popular anime and manga series. Second, because American movies and TV shows have been influenced by anime and are showing that influence. Any kid that saw Avatar: The Last Airbender, for example, probably wouldn't be shocked by anime, whereas kids that grew up on the 90s Spider-Man cartoon or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would see something very much unlike what they were used to.
Furthermore, I think the average anime fan nowadays is a person who just watches it every now and then. It's not a lifestyle, like it used to be. Even the average fans that watch a ton of anime don't make it the center of their lives; they don't buy all the merchandise they can or long to own every series they love. (Not directly related, but in the past, anime fans used to be hardcore about their fandom because only hardcore fans could really watch a lot of anime. There either wasn't any internet or it was slow or not had by all people, and American companies that sold anime or manga were few and far between. Alas, that's a different discussion entirely.)
I could write more about the differences in fandom between now and ten years ago, but I think the most important thing is simply that things have changed. Anime is more popular now than it used to be, in that more people are fans of it, but perhaps the quality of the fandom has gone down, and fans don't feel the need to purchase things. And that could be because they can just get it off the internet. Or it could be that the newest series aren't really worth owning. I mean, I can't think of any series released in America in the past year that I would buy. But that may just be me.
0
Several reasons come to mind. The majority have already been hit though.
Popular titles still do well, but the glut of shit on the market means a lot of failures. All the companies are banking their success on a breakout hit, and except for a few titles it hasn't really happened. Modeling your industry after the other entertainment industries was a really dumb move.
Anime is a collector's market in Japan and America. People talk about anime being mainstream in America, but it never was. It divided itself into the elitist camp and the fad. The fad lost steam and now you see the backlash.
If you want a good picture of what the anime industry's future in America is. Look no further than the Japanese market. TV channel (CR and it's ilk here) which drives a collector's market.
Blaming the recession is just dumb. It wasn't the reason nor took a major role. It made the elitists more picky and the fad's loss exaggerated, but that's it. This market never hit mainstream like people hoped. The ratings on AS shows never really hit the figures people wanted to see.
Popular titles still do well, but the glut of shit on the market means a lot of failures. All the companies are banking their success on a breakout hit, and except for a few titles it hasn't really happened. Modeling your industry after the other entertainment industries was a really dumb move.
Anime is a collector's market in Japan and America. People talk about anime being mainstream in America, but it never was. It divided itself into the elitist camp and the fad. The fad lost steam and now you see the backlash.
If you want a good picture of what the anime industry's future in America is. Look no further than the Japanese market. TV channel (CR and it's ilk here) which drives a collector's market.
Blaming the recession is just dumb. It wasn't the reason nor took a major role. It made the elitists more picky and the fad's loss exaggerated, but that's it. This market never hit mainstream like people hoped. The ratings on AS shows never really hit the figures people wanted to see.
0
I will be the first to admit that I have never bought any anime in my entire life (I buy manga, so I feel no shame), so yes part of it is because most anime fans can just download/stream. It might also be because, well honestly there isn't a ton of variety in the stuff that does get brought over to the states. More often than none it's some dull, cookie cutter shonen action (LOOKING AT YOU NARUTO), while stuff like Higurashi Kai I have basically given up on it ever being released, and that is truly sad.
0
The internet and piracy. It is much easier to download today than it was in 2003. This has other implications (other than the straight up piracy):
More discerning tastes, and faster (And sometimes better) translation online. Let's face it, online is always faster than DVD release in the US, and there is no guarantee that a show will be imported at all, or even if the localization isn't crap.
More discerning tastes, and faster (And sometimes better) translation online. Let's face it, online is always faster than DVD release in the US, and there is no guarantee that a show will be imported at all, or even if the localization isn't crap.
0
Because it takes ages to localize. If Japanese and America wish to make a buck off it, they gotta step up to the plate, can't always pick ten year old anime and make a profit. One thing corporations really hate is the new trends and stuff thingies, they have to face the facts that world's alot more connected than it was in the past.. like, you can just log on a mmorpg and say hi to players in japan and ask what's going on now over there on that side of planet instead of sending a paper mail which take several weeks possibly to reach the same region.
Admittedly I do not have the money to buy all the anime I watched but I'd buy what I liked, like, Dragon Crisis! That show's totally awesome Loli dragons and all. I'd buy it if usa ever got off their butts and localize it, again, I'd rather wait til its a boxset so I can buy it in one go instead of paying 30 dollars for like 3 episodes per disc. Too much especially because a story cannot be told on a single disc but instead it takes several hours compared to typical hollywood movies. But again, that's why I prefer anime, much more interesting usually.
Admittedly I do not have the money to buy all the anime I watched but I'd buy what I liked, like, Dragon Crisis! That show's totally awesome Loli dragons and all. I'd buy it if usa ever got off their butts and localize it, again, I'd rather wait til its a boxset so I can buy it in one go instead of paying 30 dollars for like 3 episodes per disc. Too much especially because a story cannot be told on a single disc but instead it takes several hours compared to typical hollywood movies. But again, that's why I prefer anime, much more interesting usually.
0
Personally I think it's time we all learn japanese. There is in no way, harm can come in doing this. Not only will more doors of opportunities open for you, but you can read and watch anime that can take years to come to the US or will not come at all. Even for those manga that never get translated that are laying around on the internet. And really, truly great manga that are out there almost never make it to the US. Only stories that become mainstream and have a high chance of success actually make it here.
0
I think it has a bit to do with a bad economy, no one has any money to spend on anything outside of essentials. Also, it is never publicized on anything other than the internet, give me a time you have seen an anime commercial, hell, even Gears of War was advertised on the Fox News Channel a time or two... Also the developers (or who ever is in charge) seem to have issues with wanting to release in America, leading to two things: A: Won't be dubbed/subbed and B: it is just downloaded illegally, which is probably the LARGEST reason, is illegal downloads. Although I used to, I quit and began supporting the companies, and this is particularly true as the large manga publisher went under due to heavy amounts of downloading and reading online.
-2
It's hard to support DVD's and BlueRay stuff especially if its pricey. To matters worse, some dubs just sound so stupid when we hear it. It's easier to watch fan-subbed anime since the anime is in its natural voice and story, no alternations made.
I seriously never bought original CDs or any anime stuff. I just buy bootleg DVD's since they're better and CHEAPER. Bootlegs got a whole season of an anime we watch(or maybe more). Originals got 3 or maybe less in it.Yeah, you guys might say,"Don't support piracy!", but in reality, we just can't afford this stuff and we can't just stop, can we?
I seriously never bought original CDs or any anime stuff. I just buy bootleg DVD's since they're better and CHEAPER. Bootlegs got a whole season of an anime we watch(or maybe more). Originals got 3 or maybe less in it.Yeah, you guys might say,"Don't support piracy!", but in reality, we just can't afford this stuff and we can't just stop, can we?
0
HentaiGod3 wrote...
Personally I think it's time we all learn japanese. There is in no way, harm can come in doing this. Not only will more doors of opportunities open for you, but you can read and watch anime that can take years to come to the US or will not come at all. Even for those manga that never get translated that are laying around on the internet. And really, truly great manga that are out there almost never make it to the US. Only stories that become mainstream and have a high chance of success actually make it here.To that, I would say that all the people that already know Japanese need to just translate everything they can. But the trouble is that is that people don't always have the time or energy to do it. It's the same with learning Japanese - some just don't have the time or energy to devote to learning another language.
0
The internet and free downloads are causing it I suppose.
I've been trying to do my bit, but with import prices so high, it's kinda hard. And the hard core elite stuff is only really available in Japan and the only thing I can really buy here are manga and DVD's.
I've been trying to do my bit, but with import prices so high, it's kinda hard. And the hard core elite stuff is only really available in Japan and the only thing I can really buy here are manga and DVD's.
0
The anime industry in developed countrys like the UK and America have gone pretty low (money wise(especially in the UK)) that we can see, But the fan base is huge in both.
The anime fans where I'm from (the UK) all watch anime online for various reasons. Mostly because they are in school and arnt able to buy the disc so they go to the internet where it is free. Another reason is because they don't show much anime on TV anymore, we can get some anime movies now and then on film4 and some anime get dubbed for kids channels. Thats it right their, we have cartoon channels but no proper anime schedules and they can't show any anime 13+ because of it, no Chobits or anything echii obviously because its echii, no Hellsing or Black Lagoon because well its too violent and such and no Durarara because they dont have a appropriate channel to view it on to suit its genre and because of licensing issues blah blah blah. Because our TV channels are all focused on adult comedies and live-action dramas all focused on adults. Because of that the current trend of adults here are "live action" not anime. A majority of anime watchers here are young, they find LOTS of different anime on the internet that will never show on TV plus its free (excluding the price for their broadband). And not too mention when they actually show anime on TV they only show the first few seasons (they only showed the first 24 episodes of Naruto).
The manga industry is going pretty well but thats a different story.
Another issues maybe because of the dubs in general, their have barely been many good dubs lately (inazuma eleven.....eew) and voice actors arnt cheap...I think.
The anime fans where I'm from (the UK) all watch anime online for various reasons. Mostly because they are in school and arnt able to buy the disc so they go to the internet where it is free. Another reason is because they don't show much anime on TV anymore, we can get some anime movies now and then on film4 and some anime get dubbed for kids channels. Thats it right their, we have cartoon channels but no proper anime schedules and they can't show any anime 13+ because of it, no Chobits or anything echii obviously because its echii, no Hellsing or Black Lagoon because well its too violent and such and no Durarara because they dont have a appropriate channel to view it on to suit its genre and because of licensing issues blah blah blah. Because our TV channels are all focused on adult comedies and live-action dramas all focused on adults. Because of that the current trend of adults here are "live action" not anime. A majority of anime watchers here are young, they find LOTS of different anime on the internet that will never show on TV plus its free (excluding the price for their broadband). And not too mention when they actually show anime on TV they only show the first few seasons (they only showed the first 24 episodes of Naruto).
The manga industry is going pretty well but thats a different story.
Another issues maybe because of the dubs in general, their have barely been many good dubs lately (inazuma eleven.....eew) and voice actors arnt cheap...I think.
0
I think it's shrinking in the UK due to the lack of desired anime I don't buy a lot of anime mostly because what I want isn't for sale. And Titles I may like but haven't actually seen are too expensive for a show that I haven't got too sure of a feeling it's worth it. If they showed anime on TV again it would defiantly give it a boost mostly for those that don't know what anime is and for those that do a little.
Then there are those dub haters that refuse to buy the DVDs just because they have this moronic idea that they should just download it just so the dubbers don't get the money and that if they were going to buy they would buy the original ones from japan or some thing like that. But in the end no one gets any money if you buy from the dubbers I'm sure some of the money goes to the original creators. I have a friend that thinks like that but he does buy some DVDs but I doubt he would do it for series just for movies.
Then there are those dub haters that refuse to buy the DVDs just because they have this moronic idea that they should just download it just so the dubbers don't get the money and that if they were going to buy they would buy the original ones from japan or some thing like that. But in the end no one gets any money if you buy from the dubbers I'm sure some of the money goes to the original creators. I have a friend that thinks like that but he does buy some DVDs but I doubt he would do it for series just for movies.
