I know the anime industry isn't exactly booming, but it seems to be stabilizing, which is definitely important. With the way things were heading, I was thinking that better times were ahead. Then I happened to stumble upon this comment while on Twitter. Now it has me wondering if I should be worried!
Sadden by the financial state of anime. But if it dies then it was a good run and I'm glad I was apart of it.
I personally think this is a bit too much of doom and gloom for the anime industry. As I said to the person on Twitter, this kind of stuff goes in waves. You can't be king of the hill all the time. There have to be periods where interest wanes a bit, and then hopefully things will kick back in towards the successful end.
What do you think of the current state of the anime industry? Is it in danger of falling apart, or are things in just a bit of a lull right now?
I think a bubble burst several years ago with Geneon collapsing, CPM dissolving, and ADV sort of disappearing then reappearing under a new name. The past year or two has seen a rise in Aniplex USA and NIS America, but at the same time I think Bandai is struggling. I'm not an analyst nor do I claim to have a magical crystal ball, but I think the future of anime will be based on what Japan is cranking out, and with people not talking about the latest seasons much, we might be heading for a dry spell, but I don't think it will die. This is just like people commenting on Nintendo to drop out. People will always predict doom for whichever industry just because they can. Unless your quote is from an analyst, insider, or someone major in the industry, I would not take it seriously.
ReplyDeleteI don't really keep up with the financial side of things when it comes to anime.
ReplyDeleteBut from what I hear about Japan, anime is huge there. So it would be like the equivalent of the NFL or something here shutting down.
The Anime industry will not die in the distant future, because it is backed up by the merchandising industry.
ReplyDeleteI believe the part of the blame of the decline of the industry goes towards the Otakus, the fact they rely on fansubs and torrents as a mean of viewing anime resulted in the deaths of ADV, Geneon, Tokyopop and Central Park Media
ReplyDeletenot to mention the fact that good anime like Nerima Daikon Brothers, Gregory Horror Show, PANDA-Z and others are over shadowed by a flood of mediocre anime like Loveless, Vampire Hunter (series) and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt along with uber-popular anime like Dragon Ball/Z/GT, Gundam, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach and others
The fact Otakus have a poor taste in quality results in good anime getting stranded in Japan like Usavich, Kaiketsu Zorori (and it's Majime ni Fumajime season), Animal Yokocho, Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, Ginga Densetsu Weed, Zenryoku Usagi and many others
Those who say the Anime industry is going strong is kidding themselves, there are only 3 anime distributors left namely Sentai Filmworks, FUNimation and Discotek Media (Sentai Filmworks and FUNimation are last 2 dubbing companies existing today because of you) and the fact FUNimation is resorting to licensing ecchi (a form of anime porn) namely B-Gada H-Kei proves that the US Anime Industry is struggling for profit