Twice
in 2004, leaders of the anime industry in Japan and the U.S. have
warned that they are losing sales to DVD piracy, especially where
videos downloaded from the Internet are copied onto DVD's and
bootlegged in Asia. Masao Maruyama, the head of the Mad House
production studio, was asked about that situation at an Anime Expo
interview session. He noted that any piracy in the U.S. is on a small
scale compared with the problem in Asia. "There are movements to reduce
the piracy in Asia, but we can not do much to reduce that movement,"
Maruyama said. "We would hope that America would do more to reduce that
piracy, but were are not sure how much can be done to reduce that."
There could be new efforts to find a way to copy-protect DVD's he said.
However, Maruyama seemed to have some sympathy for those who are
tempted to buy pirate discs. "First are people who copy DVD's because
they don't want to pay full price, and then people who can't afford it
and copy it from a friend. In other words, I think there are bad
situations for making copies and good situations for making copies -
and I can't really just come out and say what's good and what's bad.
So, I'd like to leave it up to your conscience to decide what do to do."
For
several years, much of the low-level work in Japanese animation has
been farmed out to Korean subcontractors. Now, that experience, along
with the growing popularity of Japanese animation, is leading to the
development of a Korean animation industry. And, just like the auto
industry, Japan is the Korean target. "I see a lot of Korean animation
that's very similar to Japanese animation these days," said Maruyama.
And when I think to myself `Why are they airing animation that was made
ten years ago in Japan,' I scratch myself and say `This is new Korean
animation.' " The Korean government is backing their animation industry
to the point that Mad House has Korean students who are studying
animation. Taking that into consideration, Maruyama noted that "I once
read an article that said Korean animation will surpass Japanese
animation in five years. I think that's too optimistic, but I think
they will surpass us in ten years." Maruyama sounded totally serious
when he said that.
Twice
in 2004, leaders of the anime industry in Japan and the U.S. have
warned that they are losing sales to DVD piracy, especially where
videos downloaded from the Internet are copied onto DVD's and
bootlegged in Asia. Masao Maruyama, the head of the Mad House
production studio, was asked about that situation at an Anime Expo
interview session. He noted that any piracy in the U.S. is on a small
scale compared with the problem in Asia. "There are movements to reduce
the piracy in Asia, but we can not do much to reduce that movement,"
Maruyama said. "We would hope that America would do more to reduce that
piracy, but were are not sure how much can be done to reduce that."
There could be new efforts to find a way to copy-protect DVD's he said.
However, Maruyama seemed to have some sympathy for those who are
tempted to buy pirate discs. "First are people who copy DVD's because
they don't want to pay full price, and then people who can't afford it
and copy it from a friend. In other words, I think there are bad
situations for making copies and good situations for making copies -
and I can't really just come out and say what's good and what's bad.
So, I'd like to leave it up to your conscience to decide what do to do."
For
several years, much of the low-level work in Japanese animation has
been farmed out to Korean subcontractors. Now, that experience, along
with the growing popularity of Japanese animation, is leading to the
development of a Korean animation industry. And, just like the auto
industry, Japan is the Korean target. "I see a lot of Korean animation
that's very similar to Japanese animation these days," said Maruyama.
And when I think to myself `Why are they airing animation that was made
ten years ago in Japan,' I scratch myself and say `This is new Korean
animation.' " The Korean government is backing their animation industry
to the point that Mad House has Korean students who are studying
animation. Taking that into consideration, Maruyama noted that "I once
read an article that said Korean animation will surpass Japanese
animation in five years. I think that's too optimistic, but I think
they will surpass us in ten years." Maruyama sounded totally serious
when he said that.
