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Anime Weekend Atlanta - Day Two - Industry
Talk
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So why would those American anime companies replace the atmospheric
title "Rurouni Kenshin" with the cliche-ridden "Samurai X" when they released
the story of a rootless wandering swordsman in feudal Japan? Because it
sells tapes, that's why. That revelation came when industry officials spoke
at Anime Weekend Atlanta. The owners and producers were asked about the
difference in sales of anime videos to hardcore fans and to people in video
and music stores... |
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| ...and Matt Greenfield of ADV Films noted that packaging and marketing
makes more of a difference to the general audience than to anime fans.
While the fans go for their favorite series, often the general public looks
first at the titles on the tape. That leads to Rurouni Kenshin. Greenfield
noted that it's one of the best-selling home videos of September, but as
"Samurai X" and not under the title which fans grew to know. "Everyone
said nobody's going to buy it because of the title, but they're buying
it by the truckload," Greenfield said. |
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John Sirabella of Media Blasters expanded on that point, noting that
anime titles with "ninja," "shogun" and "samurai" in the title have a marketplace
advantage over other titles. "The buyers for the stores know that `ninja'
titles sell, so that's what they buy," Sirabella said. Greenfield added
that he knew of a case where a video was released under one name and didn't
sell well, so the title was changed to include "ninja" and the re-release
outsold the first release. |
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| What about online animation? There are several of ways of looking at
this idea, according to Sony animator Tim Eldred. On the one hand, the
release of the newest Flash animation program has encouraged animators
to make more shows in this format, and there's plenty of growth happening
there. Second, the rise of broad band Internet access will lead to more
cel and CGI animation through formats such as Apple Quicktime, formats
that work poorly at dialup Internet speeds. However, there will be a problem
with universal broad band access, the panel said. How can you get people
to pay for the animation, and how can you stop sharing/piracy of the kind
seen with Napster? No one was sure how that would work out. |
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