Anime industry figures say the anime boom of the past several years is ended, and the industry is quick to point fingers.
There seems little doubt that the production of anime has cooled off of late: in 2000, 124 anime titles were broadcast on Japanese TV, but in 2006 this had risen precipitously to 306; in 2008 it declined to 288. The latest season sees 30 shows airing, whereas the same season in 2006 saw 60.
A director of an industry group is gloomy:
“The bubble of a few years back is well and truly burst. With declining birth rates and a recession it is downhill from here on. The industry has gone from boom to bust, and restructuring looks likely.”
Much of this success is attributed to a steady series of hit late night anime starting in the nineties, some, like Neon Genesis Evangelion, spawning entire industries unto themselves. In this boom, domestic sales rose to 97 billion yen in 2005, but have since slumped to a “mere” 78 billion in 2008.
One anime producer has no doubts about where to lay the blame; he places it squarely at the feet of the increasingly unadventurous studios themselves, who have been endlessly churning out moe and mecha anime:
“The reason this stuff isn’t selling is because people have cottoned on to the fact they’re just rehashing the same moe and mecha anime over and over. With less disposable income and the diffusion of HD, youngsters have become very careful about what they buy; as only the best products can weather this, there’s nothing for it but to make more of them.”
The disastrous mishandling of the international markets is another worry for the industry, which has seen the US anime market shrink from $4.8 billion in 2003 to $2.8 billion in 2007, with DVD sales collapsing even as the online popularity of anime has been stable or risen.
Publishers blame the pernicious influence of fansubs and P2P, rather than their own willful failure to adapt to the digital distribution model, which has seen international anime fans left with no legal options in most cases.
Considering that Japanese P2P networks have been transferring vast quantities of data at rates most countries can only dream of for years now, the notion that torrents are a major drain on sales clearly has some problems.
Fortunately, publishers are finally beginning to take halting steps in the direction of a workable online distribution model, with anime viewable over a variety of video sharing sites legally, if with excessively restricted regional availability.
These efforts seem to be meeting with some success, so growth and supplantation of the ineffectual direct DVD sales model seems likely.
The collective realisation in the industry seems to be that quality must now come to trump quantity.
Prior to the boom of the late nineties, output was steady at 100 to 150 titles for many years, producing great hits such as Evangelion and Gundam all the same. This is taken as evidence of the fact that massive output is not necessarily appropriate.
The industry group director puts it plainly:
“We have to change fast. China already outstrips us in quantity of titles produced, so from now on it must be quality over quantity, with anime production taught properly at universities in order to create human resources of great quality; this can become a national forte.”
Via Asahi.
Not due to fansubs. Due to recession (not willing to green light as many shows if they aren’t going to sell) lack of variety (go ahead, count how many anime harem shows are releasing. Over 50% of new shows seem to be of the genre, and they are all pretty much the same) and censorship in japan.
No spare income means less anime purchases.
If anything, fansubs have been increasing my purchase power here in the states.
It’s not fansubs, it’s this.
Shitty marketing
Shitty Shows
Shitty charachters
Shitty Animation
Anime nowadays is s♥♥t, it declined with moe, I used to not think this but now I do, considering that most anime nowadays is the same re-packaged s♥♥t. Luckily I just got into it like frour years ago so I still have that pile of old stuff to go through while waiting this out.
K-on was the new lucky star, and now sora no woto is the new K-on what’s next?
Quantity over quality? I see a lot of quality in that picture though…
A lot of anime today are airing before the manga even finishes… What do you take of them then?
They can’t POSSIBLY “finish” the series on TV when the mangaka himself isn’t even done yet…
That’s why you have so many anime that felt very “incomplete….”
What solution do I offer? I don’t know the answer to that myself…
The morons obviously don’t understand that in a STAGNATING CUSTOMER POOL you’ll get peaks of revene followed by periods of backlash, NO, they just want MOAR MONEY! MOAR EVERY FUCKING QUARTER! If the profits DROP BY 1.25% they go all apeshit and start blaming it on the customers (and pirates arrrgh, matey!).
Finally someone who isn’t an idiot.
It’s just that simple…
“There seems little doubt that the production of anime has cooled off of late: in 2000, 124 anime titles were broadcast on Japanese TV, but in 2006 this had risen precipitously to 306; in 2008 it declined to 288. The latest season sees 30 shows airing, whereas the same season in 2006 saw 60.”
Quote says it all. Market was just incredibly over-saturated to unrealistic levels. Most people just got bored with the same moe s♥♥t repackaged. Throw in a slowing economy and you got yourself a stagnating market for this moe s♥♥t (and even generic garbage mecha Code Geass – and while I’m ranting, f♥♥k Clamp’s stick character design).
Those retards will try to blame anything and everything, from low japan birth rates to fan-subs. About time they start thinking of making some quality before expecting their sales to rise. They are lucky their production levels haven’t gone back to what they were in 2000.
And they keep bitching about not making enough money from licensing fees. Can’t they realize that if they add professional subtitles to their anime they can sell it internationally and make a shitload more? There’s plenty of people that would buy HQ blu-rays.
They can also make ad revenue from streaming episodes online to people for free. Except the subtitles have to be better quality than crunchy-s♥♥t. Oh and for free. They can make plenty of money from ads. (or in the worst case scenario they can make *some* money which is better than not making anything since people will never stop torrenting)
LoL.
Finally someone who isn’t an idiot.
It’s just that simple…
“There seems little doubt that the production of anime has cooled off of late: in 2000, 124 anime titles were broadcast on Japanese TV, but in 2006 this had risen precipitously to 306; in 2008 it declined to 288. The latest season sees 30 shows airing, whereas the same season in 2006 saw 60.”
Quote says it all. Market was just incredibly over-saturated to unrealistic levels. Most people just got bored with the same moe s♥♥t repackaged. Throw in a slowing economy and you got yourself a stagnating market for this moe s♥♥t (and even generic garbage mecha Code Geass – and while I’m ranting, f♥♥k Clamp’s stick character design).
Those retards will try to blame anything and everything, from low japan birth rates to fan-subs. About time they start thinking of making some quality before expecting their sales to rise. They are lucky their production levels haven’t gone back to what they were in 2000.
And they keep bitching about not making enough money from licensing fees. Can’t they realize that if they add professional subtitles to their anime they can sell it internationally and make a shitload more? There’s plenty of people that would buy HQ blu-rays.
They can also make ad revenue from streaming episodes online to people for free. Except the subtitles have to be better quality than crunchy-s♥♥t. Oh and for free. They can make plenty of money from ads. (or in the worst case scenario they can make *some* money which is better than not making anything since people will never stop torrenting)