Read a newspaper
and you're flooded with stories about factory closings, bankruptcies and
layoffs. If the U.S. economy seems to be in bad shape, what does that say
about the U.S. anime industry? When industry leaders met fans at Ohayocon,
they were confident that their businesses - and anime sales - were in great
shape, despite what's been called a recession. "Things are so tough in
the world that entertainment is a good escape for people," said Toshifumi
Yoshida of Viz L.L.C. One of the ironies of the hard economy in Japan,
which appears to be in worse shape than the U.S. economy, is that it's
led to the rise of late night anime TV series which are then picked up
by U.S. companies. those late night series are made for TV to get a little
sponsor money, then quickly sent to video to make some more money, said
Yoshida. "There's always a classification for the mass market like Hamtaro
and the niche market for fans who want the robot action shows that may
not be as widely accepted," he said. "We also do some comics
every month - if a title has an original comic that it's based on, we try
to license that as well."
Another result
of the hard economy in Japan is that U.S. companies are having a larger
influence on which shows are produced and imported. Matt Greenfield of
AD Vision noted that his company, and others, are co-producing titles and
being approached by Japanese companies that are creating shows. "Now it's
more a matter of picking the directors whose works have been successful
in the past," Greenfield said. These companies are getting work to keep
up with U.S. fans' demand for new shows and to feed the home market, Greenfield
said, acknowledging that "Fans are screaming for product." One way they'll
be able to get that product in the next few years is through the Anime
Network that ADV began one week before the convention with a test market
in Philadelphia. "I don't expect to see the Anime Network completely saturate
the cable systems in this country for a couple of years. It's been on the
air for a month in Philadelphia and the initial response has been very
strong...whenever it comes to your neighborhood depends on your cable company.
All of these companies are very aware of how strong anime is."
AnimEigo
hasn't had a reputation as a cutting-edge anime company in several years,
and Scott Carlson of AnimEigo noted that "Most of the stuff we seek are
the classics." But AnimEigo was among the first to get their series on
television with some limited broadcasts in California, and they were among
the first companies to start moving from VHS to the currently hot DVD format.
That led to some talk about the importance of "extras" on DVD's. "DVD's
sell well without extras. Someone who really wants the show will buy the
show - it's the content," Carlson said. The ADV representatives said that
extras are fun but time-consuming, an extra production pressure at a time
when that company has nine dubbing studios running every day to churn out
their titles.
The gradual
rise of high-speed Internet access has changed the fansub world; once it
was the domain of tape traders, but a person with broadband access can
download videos. That trend worries the industry representatives because
it takes money out of their pockets - and away from the Asian animators
who make the shows. "There are fansubbers who say that series aren't licensed,
but they have been licensed, they just haven't been announced yet," said
David Williams of ADV. Added Greenfield, who came from the fansubbing world
when he co-founded ADV, "Once upon a time there was a logical time for
fansubs, when we were doing it there was no domestic anime industry." He
said that buying a licensed copy gets more anime made, but fansubs don't.
Yoshida said fansubbing was a question of ethics. "Do we know its out there?
Yes. It's up to you to see if its done. It's like a computer with bootlegged
software, it's a value thing. Do you have a right to do this? The answer
is no."
Read a newspaper
and you're flooded with stories about factory closings, bankruptcies and
layoffs. If the U.S. economy seems to be in bad shape, what does that say
about the U.S. anime industry? When industry leaders met fans at Ohayocon,
they were confident that their businesses - and anime sales - were in great
shape, despite what's been called a recession. "Things are so tough in
the world that entertainment is a good escape for people," said Toshifumi
Yoshida of Viz L.L.C. One of the ironies of the hard economy in Japan,
which appears to be in worse shape than the U.S. economy, is that it's
led to the rise of late night anime TV series which are then picked up
by U.S. companies. those late night series are made for TV to get a little
sponsor money, then quickly sent to video to make some more money, said
Yoshida. "There's always a classification for the mass market like Hamtaro
and the niche market for fans who want the robot action shows that may
not be as widely accepted," he said. "We also do some comics
every month - if a title has an original comic that it's based on, we try
to license that as well."
Another result
of the hard economy in Japan is that U.S. companies are having a larger
influence on which shows are produced and imported. Matt Greenfield of
AD Vision noted that his company, and others, are co-producing titles and
being approached by Japanese companies that are creating shows. "Now it's
more a matter of picking the directors whose works have been successful
in the past," Greenfield said. These companies are getting work to keep
up with U.S. fans' demand for new shows and to feed the home market, Greenfield
said, acknowledging that "Fans are screaming for product." One way they'll
be able to get that product in the next few years is through the Anime
Network that ADV began one week before the convention with a test market
in Philadelphia. "I don't expect to see the Anime Network completely saturate
the cable systems in this country for a couple of years. It's been on the
air for a month in Philadelphia and the initial response has been very
strong...whenever it comes to your neighborhood depends on your cable company.
All of these companies are very aware of how strong anime is."
AnimEigo
hasn't had a reputation as a cutting-edge anime company in several years,
and Scott Carlson of AnimEigo noted that "Most of the stuff we seek are
the classics." But AnimEigo was among the first to get their series on
television with some limited broadcasts in California, and they were among
the first companies to start moving from VHS to the currently hot DVD format.
That led to some talk about the importance of "extras" on DVD's. "DVD's
sell well without extras. Someone who really wants the show will buy the
show - it's the content," Carlson said. The ADV representatives said that
extras are fun but time-consuming, an extra production pressure at a time
when that company has nine dubbing studios running every day to churn out
their titles.
The gradual
rise of high-speed Internet access has changed the fansub world; once it
was the domain of tape traders, but a person with broadband access can
download videos. That trend worries the industry representatives because
it takes money out of their pockets - and away from the Asian animators
who make the shows. "There are fansubbers who say that series aren't licensed,
but they have been licensed, they just haven't been announced yet," said
David Williams of ADV. Added Greenfield, who came from the fansubbing world
when he co-founded ADV, "Once upon a time there was a logical time for
fansubs, when we were doing it there was no domestic anime industry." He
said that buying a licensed copy gets more anime made, but fansubs don't.
Yoshida said fansubbing was a question of ethics. "Do we know its out there?
Yes. It's up to you to see if its done. It's like a computer with bootlegged
software, it's a value thing. Do you have a right to do this? The answer
is no."
