Anime Industry in Decline?
 

Source: Future of 'anime' industry in doubt | The Japan Times Online

The deepening recession and rapid shift in the overall landscape surrounding the industry have caused many to fear for the future of one of the nation's most prized cultural exports.


"The global fan base for Japanese 'anime' is increasing, but with the old business model crumbling it isn't translating into profits," said Yasuo Yamaguchi, executive director of the Association of Japanese Animations.

(snip)

Besides the gloomy economy, the overwhelmingly adult content of recent television animation — many featuring violent or highly sexual material and broadcast during late-night hours — has played a part in limiting the audience and making both marketing and merchandising of anime-related products difficult.

(snip)

"Thanks to megahits such as 'Evangelion' and 'Pokemon,' Japanese animation has fared well in the past. But it has already maxed out as an export industry," Iwata explained, adding that besides the lack of big-name titles and a decrease in overseas airplay in recent years, the greatest obstacle lies in the illegal Internet sites that provide free content.


"These sites upload programs almost immediately after they are broadcast in Japan," accompanied with "fan subs" — English subtitles translated by fans," Iwata said. "This is causing a very big dent in sales."

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There you have it, folks. A real live quote that fansubs are killing the anime industry in Japan!

Here's hoping they don't start a campaign in the vein of MPAA or RIAA against the fansub community!

Is full of bs. Were there no fansubbing and free distribution, I seriously doupt anime/manga would be as popular worldwide as it is today. Fansubbing if anything gives viewers change to sample what's worth buying and what's not.

I'll eat my mossy hat if fansubbing hasn't brought incredible (and free) advertisement for bloody many japanese products.

Cuz perversion sells, and we know those japs :)

Kiddies still have em monster collecting card whatever shows too~

Does this mean anime becomes more insular in order to appeal to the pathetic nerds that buy all the miniatures and shit?

I agree with the part that anime has seemed to have a surge in echii-ness recently that may not translate well in terms of sales in a U.S. market. I'm sort of wondering how much of this echii-ness is really even demanded by the Japanese market; I'm sure that by now most of those people who once found it enjoyable are now, like me, growing rather tired of its constant overuse. Some of the most popular manga series I can think of right now really aren't even that ecchi which leads me to wonder why the anime production companies seem to be focusing on those (usually poor) series that are. I think they need to do some market research and see what their customers really want!

I've also noticed that this whole issue of Japanese anime companies struggling isn’t really that new of an issue. Sure the recent recession(s) may have been a contributing factor, but anime companies seem to have been struggling for several years now it seems. I don't know how many times I have had to watch and suffer as the animation of a series gets worse and worse as the season progresses to the point of having nothing but still frames or blacked out secondary characters by the end. I even recall a few series over the years having rather abrupt, seemingly forced endings due to rumored money problems.

After the loss of ADV in the United States, I don't really see a bright future for the market potential over here either. I don’t really think there are any commercial companies left really that cater to the older audience. Most of the anime I see getting licensed these days seems to be getting repackaged for a younger elementary-middle school audience. Fansubs or low-quality commercial streaming sites I fear may be the only available options in the future if things keep going as they are. As I see it, you better start learning Japanese today if you want to be able to watch anime on DVDs in the future.

Placing the blame on "illegal download sites" though seems a little immature in my opinion! I honestly believe that most people who watch fansubs really aren't even part of the potential market for commercialized domestic anime, let alone the Japanese market. I feel there is a large segment amongst fansub viewers who would probably never buy an anime DVD even if that was the only available means of watching the anime. There is also the other side of that coin as well, being that there are many who watch fansubs who usually will go out and purchase the DVD(s) of the series(s) they enjoy thus helping the market. Despite this though, many of these companies love to go on about how fansubbers are hurting their sales and constantly feel the need to threaten them and their viewers. As I see it... fansubs are almost like free advertising! If only one of these commercial U.S. (or Japanese) anime companies would embrace the fansub groups and their communities and cater to them then I'm sure they would reek profits out of it.

When did ADV fold? I knew they had to give up some of their licenses, but I didn't think they actually dropped out. My cable still carries their On Demand pay-per-view network as far as I know.

If the Japanese companies are going to blame anyone for low sales over here, it should be the American DVD companies. I used to buy lots of DVDs, even if I'd already seen the series fansubbed, in part to help support the market. Then they started putting fewer episodes per disc and a lot less effort into them. ADV was especially bad for using the same few VAs in nearly every series they put out regardless of whether or not they fit the roles.

Last week I rented disc 1 of Gurren Lagann from Netflix, and not only did it have no dub, but the sub had several blatant spelling mistakes too (plast instead of past). A friend said that the lack of dub was a money issue, but even so why would I pay $20 for what equates to a mediocre fansub?

There is a dub, it's just on a separate DVD for some reason. Because apparently Bandai thinks we're back in the days of VHS when you had to choose between the two.

How does that work exactly? My friend was saying they released subbed-only first to gauge interest and then released the discs with dubs. I was confused since I'd already seen a few dubbed episodes on SciFi channel a few months ago, so I knew they existed.

Well, the anime industry is fairly saturated at the moment. On the plus side, it means that there's a lot of variety floating out there, so that means anyone can find a show or two that they'll enjoy. Ayakishei fans can enjoy shows like Natsume Yuujinchou, harem fans can take in Asu no Yoichi, and the action freaks can always depend on Sunrise. On the downside, there's going to be a whole lot of crap that they churn out as well ('sup Kurogane no Linebarrels).

My guess is that since the industry's been hit pretty hard, we're going to see a lot more sequels. That's already been happening (just check the Year in Review article over at the review site I staff) and with the incoming spring and summer seasons, I don't think the rate at which sequels/remakes will come out will stop.

I'm not even sure what their thought process was, since the dub started airing on SciFi at about the same the subtitled-only DVDs came out. That means the dub was ready in time to be on the discs, and gauging interest would be kinda pointless if they already spent the money to dub it anyway.

In a way Anime is just going through what all success forms of media go through, once too much money gets involved the companys get more wary of taking risks. The only way they know how to deal with that is new shows become more generic, they think it's a safer investment putting new characters in similar situations from other shows. The best example I can think of is Naruto, it's just Dragonball Z with angst flashbacks instead of stupidly long powering up sessions, and yet the mainstream anime community keep watching it.

There are still inovations going on in Anime and always will be, it's just got the same discouraging problem as every other media, the generic content crap gets the most community attention a lot of the time.

Edit: OK I'll admit that was a little harsh, but as for the drops in western sales that's down to often poor localization not just the online anime subs, am I the only one who thinks the west still mostly thinks of animation as a child's medium?

You're not the only one who thinks that public perception is still a cause (as well as the reason why awesome shows like Monster have yet to arrive stateside despite it being a perfectly good drama/mystery/thriller). I'd say give it about a generation and we'll see a change in the mindset as the hobby continues to grow.

People who dismiss the illegal downloading as part of the problem. I have two friends who used to buy anime alot, but not only do they refuse to pay for it now and download fansubs. They refuse to pay for much of anything they can download illegally.

I've never understood the mentality of people who think they have a right to stuff even when they're not willing to pay for it.

It's not the only problem however though. I have maybe one series that I am currently buying as it gets released. There just hasn't been much anime I find interesting since the 90s.

I'm actually kind of holding off on buying much anime. I'd actually really like it if they'd release more shows on Blu-ray because of its disc capacity and quality. I'd rather buy into a 26 episode show on 3 Blu-ray discs than 6 DVDs. I actually bought Gonzo's Samurai 7 on Blu-ray for these reasons. For the price of a videogame I think the dollar amount for what you are getting is justified. I hope to see more of these releases in the future. Obviously there are shows that don't need such treatment but highest quality plus great use of storage plus low price compared to older pricing and packaging models is a winning formula for me.

With anime and manga having no real digital distribution model like music, I argue that fansubbing has indeed put a large dent in anime sales.

Why pay for what you can get for free? Those who watch fansubs and say "You know, I want to buy that on DVD" and then actually follow through on that idea are in the minority, to say the least. I'm usually not in this minority.

The only thing that keeps me buying manga is that scanlations are usually incredibly poor quality and I'd much rather read a chapter or two of manga while laying in bed before sleeping than hunching over a computer, zooming in and out with CDisplay on each page.

Well, keep in mind the demographics too. Most of those who watch anime and read manga don't exactly have a lot of disposable income on hand to make such purchases (I know I wasn't buying much, if at all, in my teens and college years) and boxed sets are expensive as all hell. Once said fans begin entering the workforce and have some money to throw around, that's when they'll start purchasing.

At least that's how I started out. Maybe my experience is, as you said, one that's in the minority, regardless of age.

While this is probably true now to some extend, due to batshit insane weeaboos in large numbers, fansubbing in my opinion made the whole jap-phenomena big through internet.
Were there no internet, there would certainly not be fansubs, and thus the world would be "animethewhatnow?".

Sure, if you pulled the internet plug off now, I'm sure everyone would bleed money to see anything they could get.

Too late ='D

They have several different audiences in the spectrum of anime, and its not hard to appeal to several, but its hard to appeal to all. I wouldn't blame it entirely on fansubbing as well, recently, a lot of anime has been a flop, just not as interesting as it once was.

At least nothing recently has caught my eye. If I like an anime enough, I will put some money into it (whether it be buying the dvds/manga/etc). It's just recently...nothing has caught my eye or interested me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

PS: who wants to buy the umpteenth version of NGE on dvd? Silver edition/gold edition/etc. Just for a fancy new box! Maybe they need to try a different strategy than that

It's very true that fansubbing has made anime popular and more accessible. Without fansubbing we'd likely be limited to shonen jump shows or other major titles that somehow made it outside of Japan.

However, just because it made anime popular doesn't mean it made it profitable. It's popular and easily obtainable through the internet, for free. When distributors crack down on fansubs to protect their bottom line, they're often looked upon with disdain from the fans.

The fans are just too used to getting things for free.