Let Us Gnash Our Teeth and Build Bunkers for the End of Animaglion
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Loading ...There is a huge problem with your industry if the best customers are those who buy because they feel the need to "support the industry". The anime industry is not a charity. Yet as it stands, one of the more prominent reason people buy DVDs is to feel good about supporting the industry. Doesn’t this just show how fucked up the whole scene is?
I strongly urge everyone, particularly those who detest the ways of It Who Rhymes with Fedex, to read a few articles. First is the much-linked-to statement from the white man of GDH International aka Gonzo. Next is an editorial from ANN, and this is actually one of the best articles I’ve read on this topic. The content might be surprising to some, but during my interview with the CEO of Odex, he mentioned several of the points, particularly the ones regarding the Japanese side of things, many times. Finally, we have esteemed blogger Jeff Lawson, one of the Original Seven,and his honorable commenters, with a great discussion. Because it’s so high level over there, if you don’t have anything proper to add, like "wtf fansubs are good, they should be free", feel free to add it to this page instead.
But it’s a bit long, I hear you cry. And here’s a summary. And in italics, my comments.
GDH White Man says…
I am the initiator of the Afro Samurai and Witchblade projects. Holy shit, the ones which used up lots of money and were crap! He is proud of it.
Fansubs are the core of the piracy problem which makes it hard for all companies to even break even.
Fans who think fansubs are harmless or just promotions are wrong. Actually, he sounds almost like a clone of Odex CEO in this aspect. I guess it’s a view all those involved in the industry share.
We have had to cut the budgets for all our anime. I suspect that’s why Mardock Scramble got cancelled. But GDH sure are scum, they threw money at Afrosamurai in exchange. Anyway, this appears to be the official excuse for why Gonzo is so bad these days. To think I used to defend them in the good old days of Gatekeepers, Vandread, Last Exile and Gankutsuou.
The end result is less anime, less variety, less work for those in the industry, studio shutdowns etc. True, this may happen. But would it also be the catalyst for a major shakeup? It’s survival of the fittest, and I’ll much rather watch and buy 5 good series than see the current 50 bullshit limited animation moe-mongering crap.
Ok whatever, summaries are boring. Let’s just hear me talk "teeth-gnashing"-style.
I can live without fansubs. So can everyone else here. As long as you don’t watch the first episode of a series, you will not feel any desire to watch it at all. So if or when the industry collapses, people’ll just move on. The anime industry will follow the footsteps of many other industries which have collapsed as a whole due to their inability to follow the market or adapt. Take the rubber industry for instance, with the advent of synthetic rubber, they were quite screwed. Malaysia, a country which used to grow nothing but rubber trees, uprooted all their rubber trees and planted palm trees to harvest palm oil. While quite the far-off analogy, it is up to the suppliers to lift themselves out of the trouble caused by new markets emerging and old ones disappearing.
Did they, the industry, seriously think it would be the same with the Internet? Hiding their collective heads in the sand while the fire burnt their asses, was what everyone did. Unfortunately, if we look at the measures which can be done now, nothing seems to be likely to work anymore. The industry, having been passive for too long, now have no money to create the infrastructure needed to distribute efficiently online a la Steam or iTunes. Contrary to popular belief, Japan isn’t very computer-savvy. Korea is a lot more so. Japanese likes their handphones more, and it shows. 6 years back when I stayed there for a month, only my host, whose dad was the director of the school, had a computer. Nobody else had a PC, but instead had all these incredible handphones with a trillion colours when at that time I didn’t even had a handphone. But I digress.
So the industry is stuck with no money and decreasing standards of shows (Dragonaut GIOOOOO!!), the Internet continues to advance and spread worldwide, and more and more fans now grow up not having not to pay for anything online ever. As both DarkMirage and I suggested to Odex CEO when he asked us what the best solution for him was, "Just wind up the business."
The problem doesn’t lie with the fans, or even the subbers. Consumers are entitled to seek the best deals, this is the basis of the free market economy. With IP laws not particularly effective, clear or enforced, the point that this is stealing is rather moot. Urging your customer base to buy to feed the animators’ families might work for a small number, but it is essentially the same as giving alms to a monk. There is little or no perceivable difference in a free good compared to something you have to pay money for, and you can’t stop people from getting the free one. And when you can’t stop the free one from being disseminated, your product has to be vastly, vastly superior. And there is no way this can happen. Unless the DVD comes with a free blowjob by one cute seiyuu.
I’m quite a pessimist, albeit one who has the Animax channel at home. When the doomsday arrives, you can be sure that this blog will still survive. But instead of Japanese cartoons, we’ll just be talking about the latest in the desolate ex-otaku scene. It’s like Mad Max and the Thunderdome, or even Wolf’s Rain and the other trillions of post-apocalyptic series.
There is no alternative. We all have to take up knitting as a new hobby. Or cooking. Ok, short survey then. If only 3 anime studios were allowed to survive, which 3 would these be and why?
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34 Responses to “Let Us Gnash Our Teeth and Build Bunkers for the End of Animaglion”
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Do not use any < and > for your own sake. It will end the comment there and then. Also, there is an automatic IQ filter which weeds out comments made by those who accidentally got transported from the stone age.
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1. KyoAni, mainly for their passionate staff.
2. Production IG. If you need me to explain why, please shoot yourself in the head.
3. Sunrise. Mainly for the fact they can produce some really dramatic shows while managing to make some really thoughtful anime at the same time.
P.S. Actually, Gainax should be No.3, but tj threatened me with Tripeman if I didn’t put in Sunrise on the list.
“If only 3 anime studios were allowed to survive, which 3 would these be and why?”
SHAFT, and then double KyoAni’s. One to make awesome shows while the other one is busy cranking out galge adaptations.
1. KyoAni. If you must have at least one bishoujo adaptation specialist, might as well ask for the best and only the best. And they always have a good chance of churning out S-tier material like the FMPs, and phenomenon-starters like SHnY.
2. Sunrise. They’ve got a reputation for stinkers, but at least they’ve got economies of scale. And when you’ve got economies of scale, you can come up with a hit every once in a while. At the same time, their economies of scale allows them to churn out the big-earning kiddie hits at the same time, like Gundam and Pokemon.
3. SHAFT. There’s got to be an outlet for the more creative minds somewhere.
Here’s another editorial by one of the early fansubber:
Editorial: An Open Letter to the Industry by Justin Sevakis, Nov 25 2007
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2007-11-25
Considering I like what you label as “moe-mongering crap”, I’ll keep my own counsel on which studios I’d like to see survive.
Like the tech bubble, the anime bubble is going to burst soon.
It’s all cyclical.
Gainax, Bones and Production I.G. For me, they’re the three sole production companies that product anything of interest. Really, though, I just live with only Gainax surviving. My life would be pretty empty without those Evangelion cash-ins.
To go for something completely different: Studio 4C for their unique and interesting concepts, Nippon Animation for their storytelling and Madhouse for their quantity of interesting well-executed series. If there was a possibility for the fourth spot, it would be Production IG.
Didn’t condom save the rubber industry?
KyoAni because they look pretty.
Gainax because they have a small fragment of originality in a medium populated by infinite clone armies.
Bones because they make good original shows.
I agree with your stand on this issue. Anime studios are not charity.
…Industry dies, fans remain. Fans start making their own cartoons for fun. Fans get together and found studios to make their cartoons. Producers buy cartoons, studios make it big. Fans steal from creators. Business is slow, creators get tired of the crap. Shareholders get tired of the crap. Bubble bursts. Industry dies, fans remain…
“Yet as it stands, one of the more prominent reason people buy DVDs is to feel good about supporting the industry.”
You’ve obviously not bought many anime in your lifetime. Supporting the industry is a side-effect of any purchase. I won’t argue that people like that don’t exist, but I wouldn’t call that one of the “prominent” reasons of purchasing anime. I personally buy anime DVDs because I simply want to *have* them, and because DVDs are good copies for enjoying with my friends. Still, DVDs don’t necessarily hold much practical value for a collector, but the same can be said for other goodies, figurines for example.
“Unless the DVD comes with a free blowjob by one cute seiyuu.”
I lawled at this.
Merchandising anime goods (keychains, posters, other junk) instead of DVDs is progressively the best anime related business. Its not negatively affected by the internet and fansubbing, and probably the internet popularity increases their sales. Fans will gobble up anything pointless/useless for tons of cash as well, judging for the amount of money that changes hands in conventions and how well even anime goods stores with rip-off prices do here in Canada.
1. Madhouse: They’ve produced almost 100% win (ok, some of it was meh but where would we be without Satoshi Kon’s work?)
2. Gainax: yeah, they’ve been milking the NGE cash-cow for over a decade but my DVD shelf wouldn’t be the same without ‘em.
3. Bones: Rah, Wolf’s Rain, Eureka Seven…they seem to produce solidly written shows that look pretty. Reason enough for me.
@Orion: QFT.
@Zer0: that made me laugh harder than I have all day. Good work.
@psgels: I’d shamefully forgotten about 4 degrees C…a pity that all too many others do as well. They’re a pretty underrated studio.
@TFish: A whole army of Shinkais? Not such a bad post-apocalyptic scenario actually.
1. KyoAni. My (future R1) Lucky Star DVDs say so.
2. Gainax. Sez the Eva tin set on the shelf.
3. Gonzo. The Last Exile on the shelf made some noise, but I’m losing conviction.
Could very well replace (3) with independents.
Another thing companies can do is air(stream) animes on the internet in the most accessible way possible (fast and decently reliable in translation), beating the efficiency of torrents. However, include ads either mid-show, pre-show, after-show, more or less as need to make money. Heck thats how TV shows do it.
Amgine: Merchandise is one thing, but majority of the profits from these go to the producers, not the original studios. For example, COSPA might take the lion’s share of the profit from a Claymore shirt. This is also why GDH actually has a figurine division, to cut down on the middle men. Pity they aren’t very good at their figure-making.
Feng: I really liked GONZO. But I have come to conclude that the key staff who made the great GONZO shows don’t actually work for them. People like Range Murata, Yamaguchi Hiroshi, Gotoh Keiji etc.
Martin: Affirmative, I see you share the same Bonez taste as me. I liked all the shows you mentioned from Bones, plus Eureka SeveN, Ayakashi Ayashi, Darker than Black etc. They are the most consistent studio when churning out anime I like.
I-lawliet: I want Hanazawa Kana for my blowjob. She will make her usual noises and Honi Honi.
Anya: If you check out the major marketing slant the Americans have come up with, you’ll notice that this is how they are promoting their dvds. Like beggars. Whether I have a lot or none is irrelevant.
Dkellis: WOOHOO, That’s amazing! You keeping your own counsel!
Someone is already trying to do all the things the fans are saying as the “solution” to the problem, legally as well.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-11-26/bost-launches-global-anime-video-on-demand-from-japan
1) KyoAni- Everyone one of the series they have made has earned a rating of 9/10 or better from me, with consistent and unparalleled quality as it stands right now.
2) Bones- Produced some of my favorite original series (Rah’Xephon, Eureka Seven) and adaptations (Ouran, Scrapped Princess). In their original works they take old material (mecha) and shape it into something memorable with a story that goes beyond robot fighting.
3) Sunrise- Although they’ve made some stinkers (which happens when you make so many shows) they have the capital and expertise to put out some quality shows out there (Gundam SEED, Mai-Hime) every once in awhile. Plus even when the show’s were bad they looked amazing, no better studio for animating action sequences.
And I would agree with you that anime companies are not charities, and we shouldn’t feel compelled to give them money because we feel bad for them. We should give them money when they put out a good product, when I see a really good show I want to get the DVD. It offers much better quality and reliability than a fansub on my computer, but I’m not going to shell out a lot of money for crap shows. And yeah, I think Gonzo’s DVD sale drop has more to do with putting out shows like Dragonaut, Afro Samurai, and Witchblade than fansubs.
Sounds like making my own manga based on the Japanese drawing style is a good idea after all.
Top seiyuu will definitely survive and get pretty good jobs somewhere else, but the rest might have to work in one or two regular jobs whatever else they can (just a guess).
Isn’t anime like a culture? Im thinking that is one of the problems with it; there aren’t a lot of people who follow it (even in Japan the audience is very small, I hear.) In the US, football seems like a VERY BIG thing. It’s always about the Patriots, Colts, Cowboys, and when it isn’t, it’s the college game or even the high schools. But talk about soccer, and it’s almost like anime; few people pay attention to it. (Btw, the Houston Dynamo won the 2007 MLS Cup)
Oh well, the only thing I can do is keep supporting anime (and soccer).
kyoani
gainax
comix wave
well, ive always been an advocate of ‘if you like it, buy it’. dont buy anime because you pity the creators not getting cash lost from fansubs. its a slap to their face for all the work put into their works!
GAINAX - Nuff said.
Studio Bones - They’ve been coming up with consistently good stuff lately.
Kyoto Animation - Cuz they are new and good.
Sunrise will survive regardless of what happens so its not on the list above.
KyoAni - needs no explanation
Production I.G. - needs no explanation either
GONZO - because if they died off I wouldn’t get Druaga next year, which looks pretty freaking awesome.
And to the anime VoD service, HanTsuki? Shinigami no Ballad? How long ago were those shows? When a VoD service comes out that has episodes a week after it is shown in Japan, then I’ll consider it as a plausible solution.
However, as it stands, most animation companies are unwilling to give such allowances to other companies, so maybe what it really means is that the Japanese don’t give a shit about the global industry.
They have this for manga:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-10-01/toshiba-manganovel-offer-user-translated-manga-online
Could the model possibly be adapted for anime as well?
At the very least, it’ll solve the release-lag issue, if they can get past all the internal red tape and fear.
Of course, it’s a moot point if you assume everyone pays the lowest price they can, which is zilch, and stick to fansubs,
but Apple and Radiohead have proven this is not the case.
You can’t have seiyuu give blowjobs all the time. They won’t be able to keep their voices. I propose that it be changed to a foot job. socks will be an option whereby you can choose with or without socks and choose what type of socks you want.
KyoAni
JC Staff
Production IG
Footjob? I hope no weird fetishes with cute seiiyuus turn up in the comments later lol. Anyway, so far, I only support KyoAni and KyoAni only( used to support Gonzo too). If the questions says which studio to bump off, I will say Studio Pierrot.
Regarding buying the Anime DVDs, I do it partly to support the studio which put in so much work to entertain us and that I also wishes to “own” the anime itself; for viewing at anytime.
bookmarked and added to rss reader!