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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!
Yeah unfortunately a lot of that anime has the terms "DragonBall" or "-mon" in it. :-/
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.
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."
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.
I agree - I've been introducing people to it on a regular basis. I think its because of the raw quality of the work and the lack of good engaging material from this side of the planet.
I primarily download my anime via bittorrent. I check out what I like, and eventually buy the boxed set. Just this morning I recieved my box set of Azumanga Diaoh (funniest anime EVAR). If you have an easy method of previewing your content, it makes the purchase easier.
And I feel like I'm actually supporting something with anime, as most anime shops (in japan) are small and have very thin profit margins.
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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 anime fans avoid hentai...but you seem to know alot about it. ^_~
There used to be a recent trend (around 1-2 years ago) where more and more American companies are funding Japanese productions, so if that trend continues, you're going to see more anime catered more towards a North American audience. Geneon USA funds quite a few productions in Japan that are produced by its parent company Geneon JP. ADV used to fund some shows, too, or planned to anyway. Somehow, their current state of financial affairs doesn't bode well for more funding of anime.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
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
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.
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.