blog好き

Aug 14 2005

Categories: anime, commentary

1 Comment »

In Yakitate Japan!, everytime one of the contestants question why the Pierrot (the clown) can judge bread, he always replies “Because I’m a clown!” I couldn’t help but think of this when reading Senbei’s post about the state of the anime industry.

(Usually, I would include a manga scan or something with Pierrot saying this… but I’m having computer difficulties this week.)

The key is that anime is, well, anime. For as long as I can remember, people have been trying to mainstream it and hoping it would catch on like video games or pet rocks. Well, I have news for you: most of America don’t care about nekomimi meido. Yes. Tragic. Sad. Unimaginable. But imagine it… what original form of American programming makes it seem like anime or animation in general has the potential to go mainstream? Survivor? Wheel of Fortune? Harold and Kumar Goes to White Castle? The first attempt at mainstreaming anime happened back during the “Giant Robot Invasion” back in the early 80s with Robotech, Voltron, and Transformers. I still remember Transformers the Movie fondly. Rigid grille structures aside, the fad came and gone… and by the early 90s there weren’t any giant robots to be seen in the US. Not a one.

That sparked the “Is it okay to gawk at schoolgirls if they’re cartoons?” age ushered in by Sailor Moon. Kinda sad that back then the only anime available to the US audience was, uh, girls in short skirts. And it didn’t even involve meido, nekomimi, or symmetrical docking. Dire times indeed.

By the late 90s, something called a “Pikachu” arrived and ushered in the current golden age of anime. Pokemon, DBZ, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the rest of their ilk generate most of the $ for the anime companies while the good stuff stayed mostly unnoticed. Well, it was noticed if one owned a “VCR” and obtained subtitled anime on “VHS” format. It was the only way to watch Escaflowne or Child’s Toy or even Ranma for many years. The golden age for people who actually enjoy the rest of what anime has to offer started with the DVD. Finally, fanboys can watch anime without having to debate whether or not to get the subbed version or the dubbed version since it had two in one. Truly revolutionary. You had to be there to appreciate it.

Now? It’s a buffet of anime thanks to digital fansubbing and BitTorrent. Series like Sister Princess, Full Metal Alchemist, and Child’s Toy made it over in no small part due to their appeal generated through fansubs. I can only imagine ADV HQ…

“Hey, let’s license this show about this guy who tries to get lucky with his thirteen sisters.”

“Are you mad? Think of all the VAs we have to hire alone!”

“But it was downloaded more times off of animesuki than Turn a Gundam.”

“Mmmm…”

But the companies are making two big mistakes. The first is that at first when anime was a rare find, people did not mind paying $30 for four episodes. Now when I go to Fry’s and see Electra for $11.99 and season 7 of Deep Space 9 for $39.99, I’m asking myself why would I pay $30 a DVD for 10 DVDs of Gundam Seed? Or why would some crappy series be available whereas I’m still waiting for my Do You Remember Love DVD?

The second is that their hubris has taken over their thinking that fansubs promote piracy over promoting their product, which could use every ounce of promotion it can get its hands on. Because it’s anime, it is harder to for the product to be accepted in America. Because it’s anime, it’s going to be a niche product in the end, hence even more need to keep the core audience in mind. Because it’s anime, it shouldn’t be treated any differently than mass media if it wants to be accepted as mass media.

Looking at Senbei’s post, here’s some key points that were brought up:

-2004 was the first year fewer anime DVDs were released into the market
versus the previous year

-an ADV rep is quoted as saying they need to rethink their release schedule
b/c the market is saturated.

Yes, when I see stuff like Gungrave and Piano sitting on the shelf at Best Buy, I’m thinking, “It won’t outsell Biodome…”

If it bombed in Japan, bombed in fansubs, it’s not going to sell.

-anime DVDs account for less than 7% of the releases in the DVD market, and have to compete for shelf space against all other genres, such as Hollywood hits, kiddie stuff, and the new big one: tv dvd.

Anime should learn from the TV DVD releases. Anime, at least most of it, are TV series, and I do not see why anime has to be sold on a DVD per DVD basis whereas Buffy and Babylon 5 get season collections. I don’t want to wait 2 months per Gundam Seed DVD and pay $30 a DVD. I want the whole season in that $100 price range. At once.

-bootlegs over the internet and increased licensings [SIC ^^;;] fees are also a problem

-piracy: “You can get an episode of a show that aired in Japan, subtitled, on BitTorrent two days after it airs. Now, when I release the DVD, how am I
supposed to sell it?” asked the CEO and prez of The Right Stuf, Shawne Kleckner

-to fight the proclaimed bootlegs, comapnies [SIC ^^;;] are offering goodies with DVDs to lure buyers, such as script books, action figures, DVD special features, T-shirts, art boxes, soundtracks, etc. These goodies are becoming expected for any A-list anime title.

I think the anime industry needs to look at how the movie industry is battling piracy. The movie industry switched their release schedules so that instead of having Titanic open in the US then open in Europe like a month later and then Asia, etc, they decided to open Titanic worldwide on the same day. There’s no reason to fansub if we can get the product the same time the Japanese does.

I think watches and stuff are nice, but most of the special features found in R1 DVDs still lag R2. And I rather they use the resources for faster, cheaper releases than that Jubei-chan T-shirt I got.

(Just as an aside, I have seen pirated anime, and these DVDs generally aren’t based on fansubs, instead use poorly generated subs of their own and usually are found in places like Hong Kong, Malasia, and Toronto where US companies don’t have copyright rights anyway… well, except maybe Toronto.)

-even the price of licensing B and C anime titles has skyrocketed. “A title that cost $2,500 an episode a couple of years ago would now cost $20,000 or $25,000 an episode,” said one industry head. The price hike is forcing some companies out of the domestic anime business. “Now, when it gets to be a bidding war for a title, we can’t compete,” said Tokyopop spokesman Matt Nixon.

That sounds like a lot until you realize that if they sold a DVD for $10 net, they need to sell 65,000 DVDs for a 26 episode series. So if they split it up as six DVDs, that’s about 11,000 people collecting the series to be profitable. That’s not hard for Full Metal Panic or other popular shows… but probably difficult for something like Piano. Which brings up the question once again: why license it? There was a time when there was too much irrational exhuberence in licensing anime… finally the companies are realizing that it’s like American TV. Some good. Lots of crap. Don’t license it all.

(Tip: if they are asking for $25,000 an episode for Gokujo Seitokai, pass on it. Trust me.)

-huge titles like Miyazaki and Ghost in the Shell sell very well, but the less exposed stuff is lost in the morass

It’s no different than Madden and Suikoden 2. Just Ghost in the Shell is Madden while Sister Princess Repure is Suikoden 2.

-the domestic anime business is waiting for the next Pokemon to reel in more American fas [SIC ^^;;] beyond what already exists. (I guess the Inu Yasha influx wasn’t big enough…)

Because it is anime, it’s on the whims of the public. Maybe it’s giant robots? Sailor scouts? Yellow rodents? Who knows?

Then there was a listing of the top DVD sellers, and I find it interesting that the the poster didn’t know Gantz since it was a huge hit in fansubs last year. I’m pretty sure most people didn’t know what Gantz is, but the popularity of the fansub helped gain it some traction to hang with the Madden-like franchies of Ghost in the Shell and Pokemon. Also, there wasn’t any One Piece (*cough* hack something bad enough you will kill it *cough*) and Gundam (*cough* running original Gundam on Cartoon Network was a bad idea *cough*).

A good start is to provide the fans with faster and more economical releases. A better start is to start promoting series better on TV to try to capture a larger audience. Paranoia Agent? On Adult Swim? That’s a good idea? No wonder they had to bring Futurama back after shounen bat cratered their ratings. While Paranoia Agent is a solid and entertaining series, it is not for everyone. In fact, I would only recommend it to the hardcore fanboys… it’s not something to air on cable TV in the US.

I only hope that the fans and the anime companies can someday bring anime to the forefront and into mass media. Maybe, then, having people know about the nekomimi meido won’t be so unimaginable after all.