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?
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
Yeah unfortunately a lot of that anime has the terms "DragonBall" or "-mon" in it. :-/
Well this makes sense, because anime isn't necessarily one big genre. Often anime movies and shows have similar themes / plot devices / etc., but when you get down to it Bubblegum Crisis is really pretty different from Neon Genesis Evangelion. I'm not too much of an anime geek, but I watch anime occaisionally. I think it should be phrased "Anime gains acceptance as a medium" rather than "Anime gains acceptance as a genre."
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.
I like to call you the anti-fan.
The money is from the fact that a lot of morons will pay $24.95 for a DVD with three or four episodes on it.
Yeah, because that's near full MSRP. I buy online at dvdpacific.com where I can get them for $16 to $19 per disc. That's the price to pay if you want to support what you enjoy. And it's probably the best price the world over, considering the Japanese pay 5x that for TWO episodes.
Thanks, but I'll take a fansub instead.
You may think you're only spitting on the US licensor, but you're also spitting on the creator as well.
It's available earlier
You can do that when you ignore both the law and paying the creator for their time and effort.
the translation is rarely better (although rife with typos and other silliness)
Fixed that for you.
and I don't have to rip it to avoid the stupid non-skippable intro animations on anime DVDs, especially those from ADV films.
What non-skippable intros? I hit the menu button during the FBI logo on all of my DVDs and it jumps right to the menu. Every anime company does that (even ADV.)
I have been one of those morons on occasion
There we go. Only morons support that which they like. Everyone else screws them over.
You should watch good quality animes instead of Pokemons and Digimons.
Quite a lot of them, even though they won't be released any soon in the western world, actually have a damn good animation and art, check Elfen Lied, Blood+ or Air for good examples. Others, such as Stellvia of the Universe, have extremely impressive CGs and soundtracks. Some more are genres on their own, or truly stand apart from the crowd because they're Just Too Good To Be True (Wolf's Rain, Juuni Kokki, Witch Hunter Robin) or because they're just Too Stupid To Be True (Oruchuban Ebichu, FLCL, Excel Saga, Sexy Commando, Jungle Wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu).
At the bottom are the fanservice(read: boobs)-laden, plot-empty animes such as Green Green and the regular-good Shojos and their caricatural heros (Bleach, One Piece).
And then, you have the Pits, the mass-produced 500 episode with no art, no voice actors, no animation, no spirit. Pokemon, Naruto and Digimon are fine examples of these.
Japanese animation and comics are extremely varied, they're much closer to occidental novels (as a medium) than to occidental comics (including the european ones).
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
Well do you mean the first Evangelion release? The one from back in 2000? Yeah, that was made from the best analog masters they had at the time, but the Japanese video wasn't much better. Then GAINAX remastered it and ADV released the remastered version here in the US, which is phenominally better than the old release.
Other than that I don't see how you can compare ADV to MS and the RIAA. And everything else in your rant makes no sense, or is completely false.
- amateur voice actors: they've gotten some fairly high profile people, and many people working for them have been doing this thing for years. Of course, if you want a fair discussion of dubs you'll have to do it at animeondvd.com because I don't listen to dubs.
- sitting on series: every company licenses a series then releases it down the line. It's called building a back catalog and is insurance against something happening that stops new series. Also, they can't pick up a bunch of new series then dump them on the market, as that'd damage it. Also, ADV has not announced any new licenses this past year, which is uncommon for them.
- Unlike MS, they have neither a monopoly, nor engaged in anticompetitive practices. Their products are generally good to great in quality, and they listen to the audience.
Oh, and they don't use Macrovision or CSS on --ANY-- of their DVDs. How about that?
Imagine if you took all of American television, and took out all the crap you don't like. You'd probably be left with 3-4 series you really enjoy and a bunch of crap you will watch cause theres nothing better on. When you open up a whole new genre to yourself, you are bound to find some new gems in all the crap. It's the same thing with anime, a massive variety is made and almost everyone is bound to find some they really enjoy. Theres cop shows, and romance shows, and sci-fi shows, and comedy shows, etc. And while the OVA market has pretty much dried up, TV anime and movies are still going strong in Japan, with tons more being made every year. Fansubs are so prevelant and easily available now you could literally watch nothing but newly released anime all day. Also, instead of self-contained 30 minute episodes like most American series, Anime tend more towards long story arc, with each episode connecting directly to the next. So it can be easy to get drawn in and want to watch "what happens next" every week. So even if you've watched all the "classics" theres tons of new material out there and access to it is easier then ever. Everyone in my group of friends watches 3-4 shows every week like they would a tv series, and we talk about it "over the watercooler" so to speak like we would a normal television show. In short, anime is not going anywhere, and I really think a cable network that showed NEW anime shows, subtitled and uneditied within a week of them airing in Japan (some fansub groups put out a decent quality sub within 24 hrs of the show airing, and they do it for no profit) could be really successful. However most forays into anime on tv have been A. Dubbed, the dubs are generally either very innacurate or just low quality B. Editied for time and content (Japanese TV seems to have less time dedicated to commercials and the show is only interrupted once for a longer commercial break), and C. given no respect for the original work or it's creators and their artistic vision.
"And then, you have the Pits, the mass-produced 500 episode with no art, no voice actors, no animation, no spirit. Pokemon, Naruto and Digimon are fine examples of these."
Having 2 young lads (8+10) Ive had the luck to watch most of big imported animes. While its easy to knock Pokemon and Digimon they are GREAT *KIDS* entertainment - and Naruto *in its original form* is actually FAR FAR *FAR* better than I would ever have imagined (I downloaded the fansubs for my kids and they watched eps 1-110 over a couple of months and loved it...even though they were subtitled. GREAT speed reading practice for them [although that said, they have learned how to spell some of the swear words that they knew from school *sigh*]). Seriously *I* was bloody-well crying after Choji took the red-pill ; Ive constantly been amazed that what is essentially a kids/young teens program has touched on some of the issues that it has, AND done it so sensitively!
And dont get me started on Bleach....*grin*.
Anyways, Bleach, One Piece, Pokemon, Naruto, Digimon, Bedaman (Blegh!)...they arnt meant for you. They arnt meant for me either and I wont say I like all of them but SOME of them I download weekly (for myself)!! Guilty pleasures or WHAT!!??
P.S. "Futakoi Alternative" Id recommend as one of those "Too Good To Be True".
You make a very good point about not confusing quality with taste. It is sad that so many people assume that anything they don't like is bad quality. I for example personally rate Cowboy Bebop quite low, but I can see why others may like the style.
Naruto is an interesting case. It suffers from the filler-itus syndrome. The main storyline in Naruto is pretty good with a lot of interesting action, but the filler episodes, which is needed because anime progresses faster than manga, range from watchable to pure crap. It is a good example to bring up to demonstrate that a single series can be both good and bad quality.
One of the best things about anime in my opinion is that there are a lot of story based animes with a planned beginning, middle and end.
This is in contrast with american tv series that seem to be produced on the basis that there will be several seasons and therefore are construct in such a way that it always is possible to append another season.