Is the anime Industry dying?

[mathew101281]

what are your opinions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYGj7...ccFAAAAAAAAAAA

[C. Earl]

It's definitely not as robust as it once was--on either side of the Pacific.

I think anime is going through now what the comics industry went through in the 2000s, coming down from a previous very high period in which there was a lot of content being produced to a new period where there are much less customers (or rather paying customers) than there were before. Only the strongest and/or smartest companies can survive the course correction by going after projects they feel confident will sell.

[The Transient Guest]

God, I love bandwagon fear jumpers.

I've lived long enough to watch ET and other horrible games "Kill the gaming industry."

I've lived long enough for uber violent games and other horrible things "Kill the gaming industry.....AGAIN!"

I've lived long enough to watch downloadable content "Kill the music industry."

I've lived long enough to watch downloadable content "Kill the movie industry."

Comics have been mentioned....we'll skip them.....

Anyways....I think my opinion has been voiced.

[Holy Spirit]

what are your opinions?

It will be ok.

[Light Yagami]

i believe the industry would be fine, it probably slowed down for a while but it will pick up eventually

[davidn15]

i believe the industry would be fine, it probably slowed down for a while but it will pick up eventually

Dropping 50% in 5 years is a bit more than slowing down.

[Nik Hasta]

I don't think the industry is dying. It's standard rise and fall of economics there. Yes, hard times are definitely ahead for the industry and some stuff might be hard to come by for a good few years but the artform will endure because the concept animation isn't going to disappear off the face of the earth.

I do agree with bloke in the video's thoughts on the sense of entitlement, lack of support and the misconceptions that a lot of Western fans have for the industry. That is really fucking prevalent, is doing a lot of damage to the industry and is really fucking annoying that people think that they shouldn't have to pay for content that clearly costs money to make. I mean, I watch pirated anime (a little) and read scans (a whole lot), but I buy a whole bunch of licensed anime and manga as well. I never pretend that my illegal activity is anything but that and I certainly don't feel like that getting translated comics from the other side of the planet the very next day after they're released is something akin to a right.

So yeah, I echo the sentiments but I don't think the industry is going to completely die out.

[Legato]

More in a slump than dying, every industry has their share of slumps before they bounce back again

[Manga4life]

Anime in Japan is as popular as ever, here in the United States it's entirely different story thanks to piracy, legal streaming, and networks not taking the gamble on airing anime related programming like they did back in the day. Anime is still very popular in the U.S though, it's just that people are getting it from other places instead of on DVD, thanks to Crunchy Roll, Netflix, Hulu, Funi and Viz's websites, and illegal downloading, people are finding tons of other ways to watch their favorite anime's without much money (if any) going to the licensing companies in return for their enjoyment.

All in all I don't think the industry is hurting from an interest standpoint, but from a financial standpoint I would say that it's suffering quite a bit.

[davidn15]

All in all I don't think the industry is hurting from an interest standpoint, but from a financial standpoint I would say that it's suffering quite a bit.

This basically sums up the industry right now. The fanbase has continued to grow. The problem is very little of that growing fanbase is contributing financially. The market peaked financially several years ago and has been dropping rapidly ever since.

[Manga4life]

I can't help but to wonder if anime will ever be financially viable as it once was in the United States as it once was, I'm personally thinking that it probably won't but things have a funny way of "booming" after a long layover of time where it's been in a rut. I often think of these situations and I've seen quite a bit of mediums experience highs and lows and then highs once again, but a small piece of me is thinking that anime just isn't going to be one of those mediums thanks to viewers being able to scope out their favorite shows from the palm of their hand rather than going out and purchasing the DVD's.

[Nayrman]

By dead do you mean here or in Japan? Here, yeah, it's a LOT smaller than it was in the late 90's early 2000's. But that was kind of known considering America had about 30 years of backlog of the great stuff to show on TV before they caught up. As a big anime fan, I still keep up with things, but ugh, things are getting so expensive, especially when Aniplex or NIS America do nothing but release "Special Releases" of series, and not normal versions. Thus marking up the price and making it hard to resist since there's unlikely to be a lot of printed copies.

In Japan, eh, it's certainly not doing quite as well as in previous years, but there is still a good amount of things being produced. The last season or two (yes, I torrent a good chunk of the time) have been much better than the previous year and a half. I think they're realizing cramming nothing but moe shows doesn't lead to a whole lot. I'm looking forward to Fate/Zero season 2 as well as Watanabe's latest project in a few weeks. So there's enough coming out over there, but much less of it actually gets brought over here anymore.

[Jmacq1]

More in a slump than dying, every industry has their share of slumps before they bounce back again

But some industries really don't bounce back.

Monthly comic books, for instance, have never really recovered from the 1990's crash and burn. The intellectual properties of the comics are still doing well in movies and animated programming, but the comics themselves are a slowly dying medium.

Honestly, over the next decade or so television entertainment as a whole is going to undergo some pretty drastic changes, I think Anime is just one small part of that, but will be carried along with all the rest. Though as it stands it might already have settled into the niche it will occupy in the future (streaming from sites like Crunchyroll, etc...).

[Marie August]

I just can't see this industry dying completely. There are too many fans out there. It may not ever reach it's former glory, but it will still continue to exist.

[davidn15]

I just can't see this industry dying completely. There are too many fans out there. It may not ever reach it's former glory, but it will still continue to exist.

There are a lot of fans and that number continues to grow. But as the fanbase grows the portion of the fanbase that actually supports the industry shrinks. Fans that steal everything you put out aren't much better than no fans at all.