Slashdot Mirror
Profitmon Catches The Dollars
An anonymous reader writes "The mainstream press has finally discovered the cash in anime. Fortune's Daniel Roth profiles ADV, the largest anime distributor in the U.S.. He uses it as a way to talk about how the anime and manga business has, in what's become a rarity in showbiz, managed to find a way to do 'more than not alienate its customers: It has found ways to keep them buying and buying.' The article also details the madness of the anime superfans--the Otaku--and the likely Neon Genesis Evangelion live-action flick that Weta's Richard Taylor is pushing for." Good Content + Bittorrent = Profit?
Profitmon, I choose you!
It's a hand twinkler, you dumbass! And I got a bag of whoopass for you!
I've been an anime fan for a while, but it's spreading quickly. It seems like most of my friends watch it now. Not just geeks, but even Jock types.
Someone save me from this sanity.
The more mainstream anime becomes, the worst it will get. I like anime because it often has much different story lines then traditional North American movies & cartoons.
LINUX ONLINE POKER: Linux Poker
anime is taking over the world. HEAD FOR THE HILLS.
Methinks you mean WETA.
I think the money is from the fact that they can import on demand pretty much, they don't have to overproduce in case there's a large demand for it. The Anime sub-culture of the US is interesting in that it seems to often times follow certain trends and when something is popular you can just import it and sell it for a lot more than you usually would a normal DVD.
There's also the fact that a lot of anime sales are online which can be on demand as well, it's just a safer business I think than producing large numbers of an item and hoping they all sell.
$fortune
Tomorrow has been canceled due to lack of interest.
And thanks to ADV's insane pricing, I'll probably never be a customer again. Of course, Geneon et alia have the same mindset when it comes to price points.
Production costs for Anime are less because they can repackage content that is already made and add north american dialogue at marginal cost. Add to that licensing fees from action figures etc. unlike regular content they are not totally tied to advertising revenue because there is low overhead and multiple streams of $$.
When customers are OBSESSED with your product, they'll usually buy it no matter waht. Many anime fans seem to have nothing else on their minds but seeing the latest season of Bigeyes Tokyo, or whatever the hell it's called.
hello dear sirs my name is jamesh i are india (bihar) can u guide me install red had linux 9?
It fails to mention ADV's recent financial troubles, highlighted by the fact that in the past year they've had to give up funding the creation of several new shows and didn't announce any licenses during this year's con season (which is very unusual.)
It also fails to account for the fact that despite how small all of the anime companies are compared to say the music and movie giants in the states, the size of the warez base is MUCH LARGER relatively. There's a prevalent attitude among anime "fans" that paying for it is somehow supporting "the man" despite the fact that international licensors provide the japanese with a non-trivial amount of funding.
Bad Content + Bittorrent + **AA = Lawsuit for everyone!!! iff user == you
Same thing Whedon did for Serenity. Hmm trendy. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/07/214240 &tid=97
"Will the highways on the Internet become more few?" -George W. Bush
Weta, not Meta. What kind of nerd are you?
ANIME EXPLOSION It's... Profitmón! From Pokémon to Full Metal Panic, the anime industry is doing everything the rest of show biz isn't: embracing technology, coddling fans--and making a killing. FORTUNE Monday, November 28, 2005 By Daniel Roth It was 2 a.m. when John Ledford heard the banging at his door. Stumbling from bed on that night in the fall of 1999, he threw on a robe over his boxers and opened the door of his Houston apartment to a twentysomething guy with glasses and a face full of freckles. Ledford was about to tell him he had the wrong apartment when the stranger launched into a speech. At that moment, Ledford knew: This visit was no accident. This stranger was an otaku. Translated literally, the word is Japanese for "your household." But for obscure reasons, otaku morphed in modern Japan to connote a scarily hard-core fan, a nerd obsessed with a hobby to the point of unhealthiness. In the U.S. the otaku's infatuation is focused on anime--the Japanese style of animation that typically features saucer-eyed women and giant mechanical men. American otaku wear the label with pride. The specimen at Ledford's door was going on about an anime TV show called Neon Genesis Evangelion, a series about humans fighting an alien invasion. He had a problem with the ending. "I don't like the direction you went in and I want you to go back and fix it," he demanded. Ledford explained that he didn't make the show and closed the door. He was rattled by the nocturnal visit--later that morning, leaving for Japan, he called his assistant and told her to find him a new place to live. But he should have known: That's what happens when your customers are wild with desire. Ledford is CEO of AD Vision, the largest importer and distributor of anime in the country. ADV may not have made Evangelion, but it did get the show into the hands of American otaku. "The hard-core fan base is very rabid," says Ledford. "They will get behind you as a company. You don't have to spend a dollar in marketing; you just have to be friends with them." (With the understanding that any true friendship needs limits--and visiting hours.) There must be a few studio heads out there who would accept 2 a.m. chats with customers in exchange for a rosier state of business. The numbers in mainstream entertainment are bad: Hollywood box-office receipts are down 7% over last year's middling performance. Home video, which in the past couple of years accounted for about a quarter of the profits on average at the major studios, is losing its shine too. Goldman Sachs forecasts virtually no growth in DVD sales for the major studios in 2006 and an outright decline in sales the year after that. In TV land, prime viewers are fleeing prime time: The networks have seen a 7.4% drop in viewings by 18- to 49-year-olds so far this fall compared with last year. There are plenty of reasons for these declines--fickle tastes, videogames, piracy. But there's also the fact that, frankly, the entertainment industry tends not to show the fans much love. Any business that prices popcorn the way gas stations price gas, encodes software into its CDs that compromises computer security, or persists in building sitcoms around Jim Belushi needs work in staying close to customers. Yet with anime and its print cousin--the paperback-sized cartoon books called manga--the otaku keep showing up, cash in hand. This tidy little corner of the show-biz universe--a market worth more than $625 million last year at retail in North America, of which AD Vision captured $150 million--makes for a rare example of an entertainment niche that does more than not alienate its customers: It has found ways to keep them buying and buying. In the process, anime and manga firms have taken on forms very different from Hollywood studios or publishing houses. They more closely resemble the constantly updating startups of Silicon Valley. Their ethos is to get the product out to the right people--whether it's on a DVD or over a
ADV has to be one of the worst business's i have ever come across. It seems to want to shut down the fansubbing industry just because it takes alittle bit of money away from them. I dont understand how they can charge nearly 10-20 dollars for a few episodes while those episodes aired just a while back in japan on television for FREE. I'm sorry if i cant afford 150 dollars to be able to watch an entire season of an anime, but i cant..so i'm sticking to fansubbing untill they can charge a normal price for an entire season, like every other show on american television.
FTFA: Certainly the aging of the Pokémon generation--the first to have widespread exposure to anime at a young age-- When did Speed Racer start airing over here? That was the first anime I ever saw.
"You know you're narcissistic when you quote yourself in your sigs." -- PRoPAiN!
Bring me Bleach in English, and Gantz. And Yakitate. Yeah, bring me Bleach, Gantz, and Yakitate. Oh, and Initial D. Bring me Bleach, Gantz, Yakitate, and Initial D. Oh, and......nevermind. Bring me them all.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Hmmm... I have no freaking clue what you are talking about. I have Cromartie High and I can pretty much skip through any of the intro animation that I want to. By intro animation you do mean the annoying ads at the beginning right?? Yeah I can skip through those.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
To be perfectly honest, the reason ADV is raking in the dough, is that as one of the biggest anime distributers in America, they can charge an arm, a leg, and three kidneys for their product, and it will sell. You'll notice there are not a lot of anime distributers out there, so there are only a few mediums where you can get it from. While it is still cheaper to obtain it from online sources (AnimeNation and the like), it is still costly. I could buy all of Buffy, Angel, or even Hercules right now, and it would be cheaper than getting a box set of a particular anime series.
They won't come down in price, cause pretty much there is no reason for them too. While I download the occassional anime series, I still buy some of my stuff from Brick N' Mortar, or other various online sources. Hell, I am going to buy Grenadier, even though I have the fansubs to it on my computer.
Seriously, if they want to really rank in the dough, start dropping the prices to under the $20 level. At least then, it might make is justifiable to only the DVD for its extras. Keeping it at $29.99 might net you big profits in the short term, but as the years progress, there is only so much people are willing to take before they forever go the way of fansubs.
The Galatic Freedom Force marches on! Defend!
Most paying fans I know have moved to Netflix.
I pegged anime for a fad in the late 90's. There was some incredible stuff coming out, but there was a TON material dating back to the 1970's that still had not been shown to outside [of Japan] audiences. Most people outside of Japan didn't watch Akira or Vampire Hunter D until they were 5 - 10 years old. I figured the well of good old material would dry up and there wouldn't be enough new material to keep interest going. Looks like I was wrong.
No, he's just posting them anonymously.
You forgot the missing ingredient
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
But I don't see what that has to do with collecting underpants...
And why does my copyright infringement sense keep tingling? Something about a "Toei Animation"...
Why SHOULD we have to pay for badly translated dubs and/or censored subs? Why in the hell should we have to wait months for some asshole corporation to pick up the license and then sell everything to us at inflated prices when there are people out there willing to volunteer their time to do it for free?
This isn't a cost/loss issue, companies like ADV are just trying to take advantage of other people's work.
Just want to put my two cents in. Neon Genesis Evangelion DVD was nothign more than a bad VHS capture. Macross was done so badly, the another company asked the Japanese animation studio for the negatives... and they agreed. Voice actors are amateurs they pick off the street with no talent, pay nothing, then throw away. They do the same with anime. Pick every anime under the sun, if it makes no immediate profit via fad, they sit on it until someone wants it. Okay... I take it back, they're not like MS. They're like MS and the RIAA combined. They do charge an arm and a leg *still* for their products. I still hate them with a passion... with good reason.
Of course, all the fanboys that have confronted me face to face that defend ADV are usually people that worked for ADV or people that have only seen 8 anime titles.
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
I think this could work.
BITCOM FAQ's:
What is a bitcom?
It is a sitcom distributed by BitTorrent.
Who can view a bitcom?
Anyone with a computer, high speed internet, and custom BitTorrent software.
How much does it cost to view a bitcom?
Nothing.
How do I view a bitcom?
You download custom BitTorrent software, create an account, and log into the website. Once logged in you search for a bitcom you want to view and click on it.
How much to set up an account?
Free. You do need to provide a name, email address, zip, age, and whether you're male or female. We also would like you to answer one survey question per week to build a profile of you.
How can it be free?
Advertisers pay all costs. You will have to view a 30 second commercial before you can watch the bitcom. It is a part of the BitTorrent file and is targeted to your profile.
I don't want advertisers knowing this info about me?
They won't. They will only know your profile. Your name will never be provided. The closest they can come is your zip code.
I'm still nervous...
Then make up a name. Please try and be honest about your profile though, it is for your benefit.
Is it limited to sitcoms?
Nope. I just haven't come up with any witty names besides bitcom. Anything that has not been copywritten and can be uploaded to the website can be viewed. In fact, the concept is completely scalable. Local programs such as weather or sports can be created that would include advertising targeted either by national or local business.
Who owns the file?
As soon as the file is uploaded it is considered copywritten by the creator. The creator and the website are the only ones that can get revenue from the file.
Who can make a bitcom?
Anyone with a video camera, computer, high speed internet, and custom BitTorrent software. They will also need a creator account.
Who gets the revenue from the advertiser?
Fifty percent goes to the creator of the bitcom. Fifty percent goes to the website.
How much do ads cost?
Advertisers will bid against each other based on the number of advertisements they want to send out and the demographic they wish to target.
Why do advertisers have to bid against each other?
Because I have no idea how much per person an ad is worth. But I bet advertisers do.
What does the website do with its fifty percent of the ad revenue?
Technology and development, employee salaries, headquarters. Possibly advertising the website using other mediums.
Why can't I start a company producing bitcoms?
You can. In fact, it would probably be a good idea.
If I produce a bitcom how do I get paid?
All transactions will be made electronically through Paypal and/or Automated Clearing House (ACH). Ideally I would like to have as little latency as possible. Advertisers would pay nightly and creators would be paid as soon as that batch is run. It would all be automated.
Why would advertisers agree to pay daily?
Because this is a more effective way to advertise. It will also be easier for them to evaluate the effectiveness of an ad by being able to target specific areas and take note of any changes in sales.
Are you one of those guys that hates network television commercials?
No. I just don't think it is a very effective way to market anything. You really don't know who, if anyone is watching.
How do you know people will agree to watch one commercial?
Because the business model will be done in the spirit of open source software and available for anyone to look at. They will see that half of the revenue is going to the creator.
How do you know they wouldn't agree to watch more than one commercial?
I don't. Maybe users can have preferences and if they are willing to watch more than one in order to support the artists that create the programming, they can choose to do so.
Why does the website get half?
Seems like the logical place to start. Maybe i
Profitmon! i choose you!
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
I just hope that the story lines in general don't get 'dumbed down' for a more 'general' audience (and by general I actually mean stupid) the same way Hollywood films have
most Hollywood films these days are complete garbage because they're so formulaic (or is it the pirate terrorists ?I can never remember) i.e. bad guy fights good guy, good guy suffers humiliating defeat, good guy comes back anew and pounds bad guys ass, the end
most Anime seems to have pretty good story lines (or in some cases ones that are so complicated that your left scratching your head wondering what the hell went on)
after just finishing watching ghost in the shell stand alone complex I have to say it beats the pants off of anything I've seen from Hollywood recently Lord of the Rings is probably the only exception I'd make to that, as the CG didn't look mostly fake or overdone like some other films I could probably mention
I'd just wish they'd bring Adult Swim back to the UK
goI wouldn't worry too much about anime and manga being mainstream in the U.S. just yet. Until I can see prime time anime series on the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC every week or cable networks other than Anime Network or Cartoon Network, anime has not made the mainstream. As a fan, I'm more worried about American fandom beginning to influence how anime and manga are produced in Japan. I want to see the stories as the Japanese see them, not (dubbing notwithstanding) as Japanese producers think American audiences want to see things. In any case, I'll keep watching and reading as long as the stories are good. Of course the other downside of anime becoming mainstream would be the likelihood that crappier anime will start being imported by people wanting a quick buck.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
From what? It doesn't cost anything to copyright something, unless you mean from selling something, in which case no copyright law is needed, just sales tax. Your ranting in incoherent and at best smacks of entitlism.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Rentals contribute more than Fansubs.
Not hard when fansubs contribute $0.
I think that really is a large part about why I watch anime or read manga. Appreciation for art and animation, which is on the downturn in this country, probably helps as well. The unfortunate trend I've been noticing is that the imported media is very rapidly becoming everything I started to dislike about its domestic counterpart.
Lupin III is a smart cartoon, though visually very early 1980s looking. Yet, I would say it ranks up with Batman: The Animated Series on my list of preferred viewing. They're totally different in every way, save that the characters drive the stories and neither treats the viewer like an idiot.
On the other hand, much of the manga/anime coming into the country over the last couple years has been very uninspiring. Pokemon's a popular target, with the "gotta catch 'em all" consumerism angle we've all heard at least one snide remark about. About the only thing I personally enjoyed from the show were Team Rocket's antics...it's lifeless otherwise, whether you're talking the plots or the animation itself.
And it's not alone.
I tried to give the last 3 TransFormers shows a chance, I really did. However, I really couldn't find a complaint that didn't work. Animation? Armada's was markedly limited from the start and only got more disfigured in the second half. Energon's 3D models were very good but movement was hokey, while Cybertron can't even do basic facial expressions. Voice casting was decent for the first 2 but all 3 suffer from poorly translated dialogue (they can't even remember each others' names half the time). And the stories, who can forget the stories?
Well, I can and did...even if I'd just come from a 4 hour marathon which, incidentally, was the only time I felt like I hadn't completely wasted TV time. The 52-episode "epic" plot (or the ever-increasing threat borrowed from DragonBall Z) only works when something really major is going to happen. I just don't believe they needed even half the episodes, because if you only watched 1 or 2 you had absolutely no idea if anything progressed. It was all just filler!
It's an interesting contrast to the shows of my youth. A contract for X episodes resulted in X slightly connected short stories. Personally, I enjoyed that more than watching anime characters take 17 just to order dinner. And, yknow what? You could jump in any time and even seeing a handful of memorable shows made it more likely to stick with you in the future!
But I suppose I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here. My points are:
1) An awful lot of the animation coming over does what Hanna Barbera used to get slammed for (repetition, less movement), except it looks brighter in most cases. I invite you to count how many long pans, reused speech scenes, stock animations (say, transforming), etc are used in your average anime. You'd be surprised how much of a 22-minute episode that can eat up (in Energon, Optimus and company spent more time transforming and powerlinking over an Autobot symbol backdrop than actually fighting the Decepticons).
2) The characters are dull and cliche right off the bat and what passes for a plot just drags and drags and drags. Part of it's because they pitch to a younger audience and part of it's the homogenization of our media due to political correctness and plain ignorance. Would you expect otherwise from a culture than practically bans Looney Toons and reinvents everything to a lower and lower common denominator ad nauseum?
Roth makes some interesting points about the profit model but his premise is really weak because he doesn't understand the word he's using. The reason otaku can mean a household or a hardcore geek fan is because it describes someone who is so into something, not necessarily cartoons, that they don't tend to get out of the house. They can have whatever it is they're into -- and food -- delivered. This does not describe what Roth is talking about. I can think of a few people who would love nothing more than to watch DVDs of "Good Eats" and order All Clad cookware to experiment with, and they are more otaku than someone who really likes Furikuri.
* * Beatles-Beatles is going to continue to taint every single freaking slashdot article, regardless if he is the submitter.
Its a difficult situation, on the one hand, people will continuously complain, on the other, doing something about it will require the editors to (some might say unfairly) selectively target the guy.
As I see it, the editors will either continue not doing their jobs/allow the whining to go on, or they'll probably just silently start ignoring Beatles... while allowing the whining to go on.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
one possible reason for the success of anime specialists like ADV is that they don't have very much competition for product. Big Media (TM) has, so far, ignored much of anime, choosing only to acquire kid friendly titles. when Big media companies have tried to bring in more adult fare, they've edited the life out of it short circuiting its success.
this leaves the market for anime to a few companies willing to experiment with alternative distribution and not afraid of competition from fans (such as fansubs, fandubs, etc.) they've even learned to use fan culture to generate interest and promote sales, something Big Media has a hard time doing.
i fear they day when a Big Media company recognizes the big profit margins available from anime and starts to buy anime up in a big way. a big Big Media company could outbid small outfits like ADV for the best material, threaten the fan culture with legal attacks, and ruin the animes they bring in with aggressive and insensitive editing.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
I'm an Otaku - An Anime Fan Elite and Anime Fan Fiction Writer.
Japanese Anime has seen an explosion of popularity in the US over the past few years. What attributed to this was the broadcast of Anime on TV. Cartoon Network's Toonami accelerated this and the popularity of Pokemon also helped. Not all Anime is for kids, though, but the mentality of most American's is to catalogue all animated TV shows as kids shows. This is dangerous thinking, and its caused several good series to be ruined when released in the US.
"Dragonball Z" and "Card Captor Sakura" are two series that were released in the US in a highly edited form. Fans spoke out and now you can get unedited versions. The distributers of Anime have been very good at listening to the fans. The number of "edited" Anime DVDs on store shelves has dropped dramatically since the 90's due to the fans. I'm waiting for the fan blacklash against 4Kids for their hackjob on "One Piece".
It goes like this, the Anime producers in the US make money because they make the fans happy. Make them unhappy and you start to loose money. Unless the rest of the music/movie industry they listen to their customers and the fans. The RIAA should take notice.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
Stop kidding yourself. Real equation is
Good Content + Bittorrent + Fansub Groups that stop releasing licensed anime + Starved fans who have nowhere to get said licensed anime = Profit
I've been following it, and it seems safe to say it comes out after Duke Nukem Forever...
Sendou Wave Kick!!
My family and I just finished watching all of "Last Exile", which we enjoyed despite much confusion with it. Any recommendations for other anime along those lines?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
I pegged anime for a fad in the late 90's. There was some incredible stuff coming out, but there was a TON material dating back to the 1970's that still had not been shown to outside [of Japan] audiences. Most people outside of Japan didn't watch Akira or Vampire Hunter D until they were 5 - 10 years old. I figured the well of good old material would dry up and there wouldn't be enough new material to keep interest going. Looks like I was wrong.
I'm actually surprised that anime isn't as popular as it could be. I'll admit that the growth of the anime/manga industry over the last 15 years has been pretty phenomenal considering that the availability has basiclly gone from a couple of shelves in a comic/hobby store to entire sections in the largest national chains. Unfortunately it still carries the stigma that animated shows are only for (a) little kids, (b) freaks with too much time on their hands, or (c) contain thoughtful social commentary that the public 'doesn't want to think about'.
The article says that there has been a 7.4 percent drop in prime time viewership, and IMHO I believe that people have become bored with the stream of cop/law dramas, forensic scientist doctors, and alternative domestic relationship shows that derive their entertainment value from sexually implicit humor. 500 channels and nothing good on? I do however, think there is a change in the way studios produce shows and they seem to be shifting to serialized shows that an actual storyline (i.e. 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives). This is one of the reasons I got interested an anime, because it was different, it had an actual plot that I wanted to follow to the end, and it doesn't patronize its audience. I've had more personal revelations with series like Evengelion, Lain, Lone Wolf and Cub, OMG, Ranma 1.5 and so forth then I have from American television.
I'll agree that there is a lot of good stuff that hasn't been released in the States, but there are also a lot of gems from Hollywood that have been buried in the sands of time when actors actually *had talent*, but you're not likely to find unless you really go looking for them. The industry is always looking forward.
Also, animation, not just japanese, can sometimes express things in ways that a flesh and blood cast can't. For example flash back, hazy memory etc. It comes down to the right tool and medium for the job. For example, Full Metal Alechemist would be hard to pull off with flesh and blood for pragmatic reasons (Walking Armor?), same with the transformers.
Try netflix, or if you're lucky enough to be in the San Francisco Bay Area greencine. You no longer have to suffer with the laughable selection of your local Blockbuster, and the economics is better too. I agree, I don't want to pay bundles of money for a TV show I'm not sure I'll like and I'm only going to watch once and should have been able to see on TV, but until advertising-supported video-on-demand with a full library of anime is available, renting at about $1.50 a disk isn't a bad compromise.
Now that virtually everything gets licensed eventually, I've quit fansubs. Aside from some annoyingly long release schedules and the occasional translator cock-up (It's Alucard not Arucard morons, GITS:Innocence's lack of dubbing AND subtitles for the non-hearing impaired, music licensing issues for Kodocha, and of course shitty dubbing), it's worked out fine for me. Although of course not all shows get picked up, including good ones... Ebichu for instance. If someone would just pick up Daa Daa Daa and Sexy Commando Masaru-san I'd be set for now, especially since the fansubs for those have effectively stopped.
The US distributors of course make their money on sales, not rentals, but tough tits to them for that.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Arg... ADV rant coming on... run!
:/ That is, with the exception of fansub and fansub pirate groups. :) I'm not using this as an excuse to get fansubs... I still buy plenty of manga, mostly Del Rey, and *gasp* Tokyopop (apart from certain cases like Initial D, they're pretty good now!) but I'm done playing games with ADV. They're monopolistic gougers who will do anything to an artists' work if it boosts the profit a little bit, and I'm not going to pay to support that.
:/) I guess history has shown us: If you translate carefully, include additional subtitles for cultural notes, and include copious amounts of liner notes further explaining translation to the curious, then charge the least possible amount, you'll have no chance compared to those who rewrite the shows to fit their translation, include no notes, and charge 2x what someone would pay for a video of any other genre/medium. Kinda sad, really...
I couldn't agree more. If ADV has taught me anything though, it's that most of the anime fan community is very faddish. Lots of people love ADV now, but I've yet to find one who remembers the Slayers movie impro-dub they did... or the fact that their tapes used to cost 2-3x as much as anyone else's, and sometimes contain a single 30-minute episode.
Though then again, CMX, and even Viz are censoring manga these days. Now that anime has gone mainstream, it seems that it's ok to redraw, rewrite, adlib, and just generally shred and reconsitute titles to get them to a wider audience. ("Robotech it!") Basically, if you like anime/manga and didn't start learning Japanese at the turn of the century, you're outta luck.
If I had to guess, I'd say the catalyst was Evangelion. ADV sucked before that, but they didn't own half the titles in the industry because they were still somewhat small. After Eva, they suddenly had new logos, new promos, and a swack of licenses they probably still haven't moved on. If AnimEigo got it instead, the anime industry in North America would look a lot nicer... and pigs would be flying, since they could never afford it! (Who's even heard of AnimEigo now? Bubblegum Crisis? Urusei Yatsura? Riding Bean? Otaku no Video? Meh... forget it... if you haven't heard of any of these, just go back to Digimon.
BT may just be a big move for these companies; but not without pairing the downloadable anime with their american televised counterparts: edited and nerfed into a smoldering mass of nonsense.
I say that if they want to be more successful online, they should stick with 100% original content and 100% original dialogue. Hell, SUBTITLES.
and I'm tired of people complaining it is. The art and animation are high quality, the plots are complex (for a children's show), creative and fun (the whole majin buu arc was particularily goofy). Near as I can tell it became fashionable to bitch about dbz when 'normal' people began buying the shirts. I can understand not liking the show for what it is (fighting anime), but I don't like seeing it thrown in with a glorified advertisment (pokemon).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I just hope that the story lines in general don't get 'dumbed down' for a more 'general' audience (and by general I actually mean stupid) the same way Hollywood films have
Too late.
One Piece, anyone?
I think ADV's success has a lot to do with their relationship with their fanbase. They've been pretty receptive to suggestions, and the founders are actually fans themselves. The companies that were founded by fans are typically more attentive to details. They make a lot of trips to anime conventions and mingle with their fans. Heck, the co-founder is married to a voice actress. One of their main producers maintains a blog. All three were at a New York anime convention a few years ago and were quite obviously very passionate about their work.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
i got all the stuff with the pupeter it's the politics that flew other my head.
The sex scene? shes some sort of virtual whore. Being a cyborg she acts as a sort of server for the others(i think)
silver medal?
Some suggestions:
Frist Post!
You Have Been Trolled
SlashDot: Anime for nerds, mechas that matter (notice the BiCapitalization. When an anime has an Englisch or German name it's often strange in some way)
Roland de Piquepaille and the Karma Whores
Repost Warrior CmdrTaco
CowboyNeal
And let's not forget the OVAs:
Slashdot: Beowulf Cluster
Slashdot: Hot Grits Panic!
Slashdot is dead - Confirmation: Netcraft (gotta love Engrish)
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot watch YOU!
Internet Crisis: Slashdot Effect
Slashdot: $sys$Goatse
And of course the manga, Slashdot: RTFA.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Does anyone know how to remove Anime stories from the front page?
Worse,
Rent 1 = BitTorrent +infinity.
AVD has been dumping videos at rock-bottom prices since the summer. $6.00 for a DVD that sells (or doesn't) in stores for $40 or $50. Dozens and dozens of titles all at bargain prices.
How long before the stores and middlemen disributors get pissed that they're being severely undercut by ADV selling direct at what has to be a loss? Why so many firesales? Is warehouse space THAT expensive?
Sig for hire.
To say something like that!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
FLCL is a six episode series spread 2 episodes per disc across 3 DVDs for $30 each at release. The data on disc 1 totals 2.26 GB and the other two are of similar size. In all, you end up spending $90 for 1 disc worth of content. As much as I enjoyed the series, I certainly felt cheated by the 75% empty DVDs.
I own a fair number of anime DVDs but I don't see myself buying anything but the better feature length, feature-laden discs in the future.
It's just absurd to pay $100 or more for the "standard" set, $200-300 "special edition" set and/or $200 for the inevitable "remix/director's cut/limited edition/anniversary" set.
BT currently brings me excellent quality TV/DS rips with superior fansubbing that can be burnt by the dozen to 4.5GB discs.
I see them as fufilling two different roles: Subs should be the more literal translation for people who know the original language or culture while dubs should be a cultural translation for those without that knowledge.
I think a lot of the problems with anime not appearing to make any sense is that they try to make a literal translation but since Japanese and English are so different, a ton gets lost in the translation. If they started from scratch in writing a script that aims to convey the same *meaning* as the original, I think they'd be better off than simply trying to convey the same words.
Fitting name for a finance department? :)
:: Profitmon : Profit Monster ?
Pokemon : Pocket Monster
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I will NEVER buy anime from an american distributor untill they start translating things CORRECTLY. The poor quality of dubs aside; for some reason, they see fit to mangle even the subtitles. That and they release faaaaar too slow for my liking.
I just want to be free to take what I want and give what I want.
"The differences between theory and practice are greater in practice than they are in theory."
I'm sorry, but if he doesn't realize Evangelion wasn't made by ADV, he is no real fanboy. Might as well complain to an ISP about the bad grammar in a fansub he downloaded. Except I doubt this guy has ever heard of fansubs.
Whether or not the quality of their DVDs is good or not, the fact that ADV is doing well for themselves is a good sign. The better they do, the more other companies will take notice. That means more anime will be brought to the Western Hemisphere. Just look at Disney/Miramax. They sat on some of the finest anime films (Laputa, Nausicca, Kiki's, Totoro, anything else by Ghibli / Miyazaki) of all time for years because they believed it wouldn't make money. However, due to the popularity of anime / manga AND because of companies like ADV, Disney finally released these films for U.S. consumption in high quality 5.1 surround sound DVDs. You can question these distributors for their high prices but there are places on the net where you can get them for under $20 a pop. You can say their translations suck and the voice-acting is horrible. Just listen to the original tracks and learn Japanese. The point I'm trying to make is, I no longer have to perform surgery on my copy of a copy of a copy VHS tape to watch my favorite anime. I can go to the store and browse titles, rent from Netflix, or lend out DVDs as easy as any other mainstream movie. Sure there is bittorrent and IRC. I love fansubs as much as the next person. They deserve credit for the popularity of anime as well. But I can't reward the creators through them. I can give the creators some inkling of my cash through companies like ADV and end up with a decent quality pressed DVD. Like it or not, ADV is good for anime.
sorry I did mean CNX sort of the equivilent of Adult Swim back in it's day but I do remember a lot of Anime being on late on the SCI-FI channel (instead of the cheap porn they have at the moment) also there was a lot of Aqua Teen hunger Force / Harvey Birdman / Outlaw Star (inspired me to buy the box set) / A lot of other Anime on the CNX channel that I miss I'll have to see if I can find Rapture on Cable
Anime producers to America: We love you long time!