Is the anime Industry dying?

[Manga4life]

It's to cool to die.

LoL, that doesn't mean that it wont. Like I said before, I don't think it will, but if it does than anime "fans" have their own sorry selves to blame. I wrote a blog about anime piracy (link in sig) and I noted that if you're going to watch anime through streams at least use a legal stream, that way the licensing companies at least get something for you viewing their programming. If people keep stealing and stealing than eventually licensing companies are going to give up on bringing new shows over the to U.S and DVD releases will not only be few and far between, but they will also be more expensive.

[Marie August]

Sure it is. There aren't any fans who don't spend any money at all on their anime hobby. Just look at the vast amount of people who go to anime conventions. All of them spent money to be there.

[littleking]

not dying . but its not as strong as it once was and i dont really see it bouncing back but hope it does ,

one of the biggest reasons that anime isnt as popular is ..... because manga was introduce
people only have so much to spend , when an anime and manga are both being sold and the anime is a watered down version of the manga which are you going to buy , the money i used to spend only on anime goes mainly on manga now , also the shift in audience didnt help , from cool over the top movies and ova's to showing little girls underware every 5 secs ,
the tone just gravitated away from people in america and england want to see its a shame hopefully it will gravitate back

[davidn15]

Sure it is. There aren't any fans who don't spend any money at all on their anime hobby. Just look at the vast amount of people who go to anime conventions. All of them spent money to be there.

If you seriously think the bit of revenue the licensing companies get from cons is even comparable to the potential income they're missing out on from people stealing from them on a daily basis, I don't even know what to say to that...

[Marie August]

If you seriously think the bit of revenue the licensing companies get from cons is even comparable to the potential income they're missing out on from people stealing from them on a daily basis, I don't even know what to say to that...

No, I was responding to this:

Fans that steal everything you put out aren't much better than no fans at all.

Fans that download anime are better than no fans at all, because they still spend money.

If I had to pay money to watch a show, or not watch it at all, I wouldn't watch it. I'd spend my time on something else. But if I download an anime, and decide I want to watch it more than once, I'll buy it. Same with American TV. I own plenty of anime and plenty of tv shows. But I don't buy something I haven't watched, so I download. The anime industry makes more money off of me because I download fansubs than it would if I did not.

[davidn15]

No, I was responding to this:



Fans that download anime are better than no fans at all, because they still spend money.

If I had to pay money to watch a show, or not watch it at all, I wouldn't watch it. I'd spend my time on something else. But if I download an anime, and decide I want to watch it more than once, I'll buy it. Same with American TV. I own plenty of anime and plenty of tv shows. But I don't buy something I haven't watched, so I download. The anime industry makes more money off of me because I download fansubs than it would if I did not.

And you are an exception. Most anime fans don't spend anything at all. They might go to cons, but that barely helps. Piracy is clearly the biggest factor in the decline of the anime industry. In the past 7 years, sales have dropped a whopping 50% while the fanbase has grown tremendously. That is a clear sign that more and more anime fans are turning to piracy for many, if not all of their anime needs. I've on more than one occasion dealt with fans who refuse to buy merchandise, and even refuse to use legal streams. For that matter you should be using streams over downloading so the companies at least get some revenue from the stuff you're watching but don't pay for.

[Angilas-Man]

An entire form of art won't just die unless there are some really crazy circumstances. Painting may not be as important culturally as it once was, and most people probably can't name a contemporary painter, yet if you go looking for 'em there are still many paintings produced by many painters the world over.

The anime industry may never be as robust as it once was, but the Japanese will continue to produce animation anyway. If, here in America, all the comic shops close down and the big two cease publishing there will still be comic books produced for those who want them.

[Manga4life]

An entire form of art won't just die unless there are some really crazy circumstances. Painting may not be as important culturally as it once was, and most people probably can't name a contemporary painter, yet if you go looking for 'em there are still many paintings produced by many painters the world over.

The anime industry may never be as robust as it once was, but the Japanese will continue to produce animation anyway. If, here in America, all the comic shops close down and the big two cease publishing there will still be comic books produced for those who want them.

Wow.....I don't think I could have said it better myself. I loved the way you compared anime to paintings, it actually works really well with the analogy you used and I truly believe this to be how it is and probably will be in the future.

Heck, even if anime does totally die in the United States (which it won't) you could always just import subbed anime on DVD from Japan and grab a DVD player that's region compatible so you can watch the discs, either which way there will always be access to anime regardless.

[davidn15]

An entire form of art won't just die unless there are some really crazy circumstances. Painting may not be as important culturally as it once was, and most people probably can't name a contemporary painter, yet if you go looking for 'em there are still many paintings produced by many painters the world over.

The anime industry may never be as robust as it once was, but the Japanese will continue to produce animation anyway. If, here in America, all the comic shops close down and the big two cease publishing there will still be comic books produced for those who want them.

Well we are talking about the industry here, not the art form.

[Professor Moriarty]

i notice that the anime section at my local Best Buy has shrunk.

[davidn15]

Here are some sales figures I tracked down. This is for dvd/vhs sales. No one's released any sales figures for last year yet as far as I can tell. So as you can see the home media aspect of the anime industry peaked in 2002 with $415 million in sales. By 2010 it had dropped 51.8% to $200 million.

2001: $344m
2002: $415m
2003: $388m
2004: $346m
2005: $371m
2006: $375m
2007: $316m
2008: $312m
2009: $306m
2010: $200m

Merchandising makes up the bulk of the anime industry. It peaked in 2003 at $4.45 billion. It seems in the past couple years that part of the market has steadied out. But it has still dropped about 46%.

2001: $4.1 billion
2002: $3.937 billion
2003: $4.45 billion
2004: $2.94 billion
2005: $2.6 billion
2006: $2.4 billion
2007: $2.512 billion
2008: $2.351 billion
2009: $2.42 billion

[Marie August]

For that matter you should be using streams over downloading so the companies at least get some revenue from the stuff you're watching but don't pay for.

I prefer streams over downloading. I only download when I can't find a stream for what I want to watch. I like the convenience of just going to a website when I want to watch something, rather than having to plan ahead and download.

[Manga4life]

What people should do is download or stream a series to check out the first couple of episodes to see if it's worth continuing on, and if you find that it is than you should support the show by buying the home releases. If you can't buy the home releases for some reason than you should at least stream the series legally so that the licensing company at least reaps some benefit for your viewership, just outright downloading a series and burning it to a disc or putting it on your computer/tablet is just downright wrong.

In the end the fans will have themselves to blame when they decide not to dub anything and bring it stateside, if all you watch it subbed anime than you really have nothing to worry about either way, unfortunately.

[HasbroSlayer84]

Anime in japan is rocking on as always but in america it seems to be hurting, especialy because there is not much aime on television now that syfy isn't airing it and cartoon channels ignore it. Dvd sales are not big it seems and more and more peoples are streaming on the web. I don't think its dieing but I think its suffering and needs a shot of adrenaline.

[Prisoner 6655321]

When I was younger, in the early 90's, and Anime was less accessible I thought it was way more awesome then I do now. Mostly because there was Akira and that was WAY sweet. As the years go by however, the more anime I have seen, the less I care about the genre.