Anime! Anime! has an article up about the lack of growth in Japan’s anime DVD industry. (Link is in Japanese.)
The article focuses on DVD sales in particular, which traditionally does quite well in Japan. It also makes some comparisons to overseas markets such as North America and briefly mentions Singapore.
Surprisingly, opinions voiced in the discussion thread at 2ch (as reported by Itai News) were actually very critical of the industry, particularly over the high cost of R2 anime DVDs. I find this interesting because 2ch is generally full of right-wing xenophobic nationalists, so I was expecting them to jump at this chance to blame foreign pirates for destroying the livelihoods of Japanese studios.
[ Anime! Anime! via Itai News ]
Some of the points covered by the original article:
- 2007 was a calm year for the anime industry with a marked absence of new IPOs and mergers and acquisitions compared to previous years.
- Anime series are making less money and prime-time slots receive lower viewership.
- The worst performing sector is DVD sales. Although as a whole it is stable, sales of individual titles have gone down.
- There is still no sense of immediate danger as compared to market collapses overseas.
- Briefly mentions Geneon USA’s collapse and the Odex Incident in Singapore.
- Attributes the problems faced overseas to the development of digital fansubbing since the turn of the millennium.
- Online file-sharing did not catch on among anime fans in Japan initially, allegedly due to their more cautious attitudes towards the net. (Yeah right.)
- However, it is gaining popularity now and Japanese fans are approaching the state of the English fansubbing community in 2000.
- Fansubs used to serve as promotion for DVDs but now foreign viewers are contented with just the digital rip.
- It is very likely that Japan’s anime DVD market will eventually go the same path as younger Japanese people grow used to file-sharing technology.
- Online distribution is an important growth area and many companies, such as Bandai and Toei, are attempting it.
- However, online distribution can only produce extra income for companies with huge collections of past works and does not earn enough to substain new on-going titles.
Oh no! Anime is doomed! Anyway the article is pretty slanted towards the traditional industry view of the whole fansub debate, a stance which Anime! Anime! has consistently maintained. Perhaps this is because they have access to insider information, or perhaps this is seen as the politically-correct interpretation. (Which is how the mainstream media do it.) Either way, there’s probably some truth in there but, as a bottom-level consumer, I can’t really say that I sympathize when industries whine about changing paradigms.
I think it’s about time people realized that anime is, and probably forever will be, a highly niche market. The projected growth is just unsustainable and the whole foreign market was one huge bubble waiting to burst in the first place. Everyone wanted a piece of the action because anime was the next coolest thing, but a lot of it turned out to be hot air.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you…
Meanwhile, here are some general comments that were expressed by 2ch posters in response to the article:
- Anime DVDs cost too much, especially when compared to regular DVDs.
- There are tons of crappy titles not worth paying for.
- HD broadcasting means that DVDs are actually of worse quality than illegal rips.
- Just switch to online distribution.
- DVDs not worth buying because anime has no rewatch value.
- Buying DVD is troublesome.
- Won’t buy without watching.
Most of it is similar to what you would find on most English forums, but I think that the most important points raised are that HD broadcasting looks better than DVD and that anime DVDs in Japan are seriously overpriced.
When you take into account of the fact that DVDs actually look worse than current TV broadcasts despite costing an exorbitant amount of yen better spent elsewhere, I think the sluggish sales can easily be seen as the slow death of a format past its prime instead of the manifesting effects of increased file-sharing. In the first place, Japanese fans have always been able to record and watch whatever they want for free, so I really don’t see how the spread of P2P can have as much effect there as compared to foreign markets such as North America, where many titles are released direct to video.
Oh well. Whatever. I don’t give a damn any more. In fact, I hope the industry will get rid of some extra baggage (GONZO in particular) and down-size.
GONZO ruined one of my favourite manga series ever. Death to the anime industry!
It`s about time they complained about the inexorbitant pricing of R2 dvds. I heard that the prices were really ridiculous for non OVA anime.
;o
The fact that HD recordings look better than DVD copies is something I noticed myself when Gundam 00 began to broadcast, though initially I didn’t know the cause.
DVDs still feel like ‘new technology’ to me, but then I grew up without a television. Things change so fast now; I’m hardly old yet I can feel nostalgia. All I need is a pipe and a pair of slippers.
Fuck anime! It sucks. Let’s quit.
“Death to the anime industry!” I beg not !
I think Gonzo has its fair share of hits and misses, as do most other studios. That said, I still prefer their earlier works done by Mahiro Maeda-san, like Blue Submarine.
yeah~ GONZO MUZ DIE
Was DVD even a main source of income for the anime industry to start with? :/
do it like KnJ censor so much of it that ppl wait for the DVDs. lol.
Speaking of Gundam 00, that one is actually hitting Blu-Ray, which I guess swings the quality back in favour of physical media. Given the costs are still likely to be insane, and the small number of players in circulation, I can’t imagine it’ll sell all that well, but I guess it’s a start.
But, yeah, there’s far too much stuff out there, and far too much of it sucks.
Maybe the anime industry should focus of the merchandise and the music, or produce DVD’s in HD quality while making it more affordable. I don’t know anymore yes anime is a niche market but it can’t surely be dying as badly as they make it out.
File Sharing will forever be a problem for Digital Media companies and I like what Microsoft has done for this on the Xbox 360. I can get “300” in HD for £5. Which is one third of the shop price for the HD DVD. Maybe anime companies could do something like this.
Uh yeah….I hate the Rosario+Vampire Anime. After episode 1 I nearly dropped it, after 5 mins of episode 2 I finally did.
Yeah…dying Industrie…sure…
The good animes always made a shitload of money until now and i don’t see KyonAni or so going bankrupt. And crap animes like Rosario+Vampire sure as hell won’t lose any customers because of P2P. There shouldnt be any customers anyway.
And yes, you said it, DVD sucks. They should release on Blue-Ray Disc. That way even I could get my hands on them cuz they are Region-Code free.
I can either buy Japanese DVDs (same Region Code) and not understand a word or buy a USA one which doesn’t work in my DVD player. Great work, industrie.
Well, Anime can’t die in germany, there never was any market here -.-
Control the fansubs = Control the anime world.
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LOL “death to anime”? No more Code Geass, Nice Boat, Gundam 00 or animated fan service!
Agree with the “Won’t buy without watching.” and “Buying DVD is troublesome.” We internet dwellers are too lazy to go out and find what we want in shops.
I don’t know about “Just switch to online distribution.” though. How many would honestly pay when everyone can just steal a free fansubbed copy? You also have the problem of possible slow connections, playback, backing up your paid copy of the show, bandwidth costs, file protection etc. But yes, on demand content is what it’s about now. Technology will soon turn us all into lazy slugs. We are all doomed XD
Well, if it wasn’t for fansubs I wouldn’t even know of the existance of anime, really, in the beggining I saw anime as a normal cartoon and didn’t get into it, but now because I’m pretty much addicted I buy DVD’s form time to time just for the heck of it, I’m not gonna be paying 40 dollars for a series that I dun even know if I’s good, I need mah fansubs first and then depending on the price I think about buying it =P.
“And crap animes like Rosario+Vampire sure as hell won’t lose any customers because of P2P. There shouldnt be any customers anyway.”
Heh… That’s our main problem there. Since most of the anime being produced nowadays are so generic, there’s really no point in watching it again, especially when another series that’s almost exactly the same will air shortly after.
Is odex clamping down on IRC downloads in singapore or is it just bit torrent? Or is IRC downloads classed as direct downloads?
The two comments that reflect my attitude toward anime DVDs are:
~ There are tons of crappy titles not worth paying for.
~ DVDs not worth buying because anime has no rewatch value. (to some extent)
Season after season, there are less and less series I would actually pay for coming out of Japan. I don’t know if it’s just the entire industry suddenly getting an influx of inexperienced new “artists” and “writers” or the old-timers still in the business just loosing it.
As for the shows that have no replay value, that’s true because I generally watch the fansubs years before DVDs come out (if licensed) and quickly delete them if not worth keeping – which is almost everything except for those shows that never get licensed (like ARIA).
That’s just my feedback. Oh yeah, were’re in a recession now so nobody has money to buy this stuff anyway.
Wait…
They made an anime out of Rosario+Vampire and it sucked?
They shall feel gods wrath for that.
“Wait…
They made an anime out of Rosario+Vampire and it sucked?
They shall feel gods wrath for that.”
http://www.minaidehazukashii.com/hinano/2008/01/04/the-bastardization-of-rosario-vampire/
My favorite part is where she “grows tits and ass instead of fangs and claws”
I loved Rosario Vampire ep 1 and 2 :)
Maybe because I didn’t read the manga beforehand.
Happens a lot I guess, maybe you should stop reading manga ;)
Na, i started reading the Manga after i saw episode 1 and i still thought it was crap…
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Meh w/o fansubs I wouldn’t have any money to buy anime dvd’s anyway. Japanese people get to watch their shows via TV, I’d do the same if I could but fansubs or no fanbsubs I wouldn’t be buying DVD’s.
And who’s the cute girl in the first pic?
Can someone tell me what gonzo do to make so many ppl piss off?
They turned an awesome manga series into shit.
save GONZO, save the world
“HD broadcasting means that DVDs are actually of worse quality than illegal rips.”
I use my computer to watch everything, and for some reason, I find that images from DVDs look clearer than those from HD recordings. Why might this be? Is it because TV shows, regardless of whether or not they are HD, are somehow affected by electronic noise during broadcasting?
“DVDs not worth buying because anime has no rewatch value.”
I think you can say this about many (most?) shows on TV, especially shows that involve drama or have some sort of shock value or twist. These attributes are usually lost in subsequent viewings. Anime doesn’t seem especially different from any other show in this respect.
“Buying DVD is troublesome.”
Is it really? We have the internet nowadays — there isn’t even a reason to set foot outdoors if people don’t want to.
“do it like KnJ censor so much of it that ppl wait for the DVDs. lol.” -Lss
This is actually not a bad idea. In addition to the typical extras, the DVD version of shows should have stuff that isn’t in the TV broadcast, like additional and uncensored scenes. I’m looking forward to the final DVD release of School Days just to see what’s new.
Omai Gonzo!!(?) I actually like Gonzo, probably because I haven’t read/seen the series you’re all talking about and therefore haven’t witnessed the damage that’s been done. Besides, I like Last Exile and Bokurano.
The reason why you think DVD looks better is because most of the so-called HD raws are not actually HD but rather upsized by the encoder. It’s only recently that real HD raws are starting to become common and the difference in quality is highly noticeable.
Also, there’s no such thing as noise (in the analogue sense of the word) in digital broadcasting. It either displays the picture or it doesn’t.
I say: sell us the raws (with a reasonable price, obviously). Each time an episode airs, put on itunes, their website, i don’t care, just put to sale that same episode. No costs of making dvds, just put online the raw they have, not tv rip or anything alse, just that 100% clear raw. Let fansubbers alone by letting them do softsub. Thinking of it, it’s not like everyone knows about fansubbing and p2p. It’s just a minority. Most of the ppl still know only about dvds. For those ppl, go on and make dvds or Blu-ray. This way everyone is happy. Want Fansub? Buy raw online and download softsubs from the fansubber website. Want dvds? Wait 6 months – 1 year and go buy it. (You can even do that even if you have bought the raw and you fel like having nice case, booklets and stuff like that. That’s what i think. Nobody will listen, but meh, who cares °°
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Hm I did a trackback to this post and it isn’t showing. But nvm. But I guess that is what you can ask from ethocentric xenophobics.
Y? I watched Rozario Vampire and i kinda liked it. they rushed all the main characs out too fast though (I read the Japanese Manga too) Its alright to me i guess…so what are you disappointed about? I would like to know ^^
You know, this kind of news is a happy news indeed, considering after all the emotions that has been poured into what used to be a hobby watched by probably the minority of geek fans out there. (I’m using such words liberally here.)
The state of anime industry is the same as the state of gaming industry: from what used to be a hobby for a small, hardcore subculture, into a massive mainstream trend that has the ultimate potential to crash into the cliff (if anyone watched Akagi, the stakes in the anime industry are as risky as they are).
As a result, we begin to see some cracks showing in the anime industry structure. How people will respond to those cracks, and whether anyone bothered to research on the cracks (an analogy to looking into the problems faced), is entirely up to both sides of the industry to ponder.
For me, thank God this materialistic pursuits is going to end soon. Gives me a better incentive to start going out to the gym more frequently.
@ TP
You don’t need the gym. It is a place full of Macho Maries and show-offs.
You need more eroge. xD But seriously the gym isn’t as worthy as anime or anything else in that matter. What is the point in pumping iron when you can just go down to the market and get a sack of rice for your parents every now and then?
Grocery shopping is still the best way to keep fit.
maybe is b’coz of the downloadable anime…
Yeah. But seriously, R2 DVDs are done so badly it’s not even funny. Like, dubs are crap, so basically they kinda waste money by doing it. Secondly, their translation and subtitles are crap. Fansubs can do better than their crap translation and ugly fonting subtitles. Here I rest my case.
Anyways, just here to drop by to say happy birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DM!!!
Um,I wouldn’t say dubs are bad,I have seen a lot of good dubbing. Like Fullmetal Panic,that was awesome,or Fullmetal Alchemist.Now,some dubbing does suck as well,like Naruto,or anything done by 4kids. And for translation,that really depends sometimes,but oh well. lol
Also,Dark Mirage,curse your cute Yuki avatar,why didn’t I think of it! D: Now if I used it I would feel unoriginal. ;-;
Anime shall live for life! XD
Some of the things to be done, apart from how best to improve the process of distribution, is reducing the use of tired storylines. Rewards await for the studios deciding on true originality over make-a-buck crap.
@Wildobrown
Quote:Is odex clamping down on IRC downloads in singapore or is it just bit torrent? Or is IRC downloads classed as direct downloads?
—–
Basically this sums up everything:
Odex basically pulled off a farce last year, made a big hoo haa, then decided to make off with the money they scammed and hide in the shadows to avoid media attention so as to make people forget about them.
And their farce-front AVPAS can be described in one word: dead.
Oh i forgot to add. So far they only “caught” (scammed) people (and little kiddies as young as 9) who downloaded using bittorrent.
And they messed up big time last year when they sent their “love letters” all around the world.
—–
As for the Japanese anime DVD producers, they should seriously revamp the way they manage their business (charge less, better quality, create english subs themselves?) and stop whining like RIAA or that useless odex.
what i dont get is why they would clamp down on the individual people who download anime. i mean why not just go for the source of distribution of these fansubs? arent these sources the real infringers of copyright laws? i may have an overly simplistic view of this issue so can someone please explain?
Ain’t seen R+V yet, then again who has.
GONZO don’t seem that bad, but I do agree about downsizing the anime industry, there is just too much crap out there that deserves death.
Shame too many of the good companies have a habit of killing themselves off in one big ball of crap in scenerios like this but I do hope some of the crapper companies do rethink their fuck em all and let the anime community bitch about it policies.
Stop bitching about it , And Go fuckin’ buy the damn DVD’s … That is if you liked the fansubs and enjoyed them .
The Anime industry is supposed to be growing but as most people seems okay to settle down with piracy , Cuz apparently nobody understands and sympathize with artists studios going down. I Think all you Otaku’s wont have that much to enjoy in the upcoming years at this rate .
Honestly , I don’t want to argue and i don’t care what you or your broke friends think … This is simple logic and an international opinion.
On the other side i am really happy that Old and new Animation studios are looking deeper into legal actions toward fansubs . Cutting off anime fansubbing is easy once the animation studios start threating with the “Legal” and “Illegal” stuff .
but oh boy with this rate … It’s all going down hell ..
And i know that as an animator my-self .
I don’t think it’s the fault of the people if the industry grew faster than the paying customer base can support.
Yeah…I thought so too that Rosario + Vampire was ruined by Gonzo…Tsukune was so weird in the anime…
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does any 1 know where i can get the dvd of rosario vampire capu2
BUT uncensore, i hate that stupid BAT, he gets in the way of all season 2.
thanks
My take, if this topic is still active, is that, yes, a good portion of newer anime is corny, but that’s life. I can’t write much since I’m on a iPod, but what people hould try to do, is watch the fansubs to see if they like it, then buy into the series. I may add anouther comment later on, writing more.
But that’s my 2 cents thus far.