[...]AnimeNation Anime News Blog » Blog Archive » Ask John: How Can America’s Big Three Save the Anime Industry?[...]…

[...]AnimeNation Anime News Blog » Blog Archive » Ask John: How Can America’s Big Three Save the Anime Industry?[...]…

I would say the price is the biggest issue, if anime was cheaper I would buy a lot more.

But back on the subject, anime and manga have never been as popular in America as in Japan. I don’t expect that it will ever come close.

I think Viz and Funimation are doing reasonably well, but I’m not really sure where Crunchyroll comes into this… I think as long as good companies like Funimation keep bringing in anime titles then the anime industry will never truly die.

They replied that they only take videos down if the licensor contacts them, and that’s there policy, they claim. So it’s okay to steal as long as the owner doesn’t know about it. Someone should apply this policy to there homes and see how they like it.

What irritates me is now that they’ve taken away enough revenue from the industry, companies are turning to them to sell their product. That’s like if I steal from Best Buy and sell their wares, and then they decide, what the hell, they might as well sell me their stuff at a fraction of the price so I can sell it.

Now their execs are jumping up on their pedastals and raving about how wonderful they are for helping the anime industry and bringing us into a new age. Who do you think helped get us into this mess in the first place? I refuse to give Crunchy Roll a cent of my money.

Funimation had a solid and practical business structure that I’ve been supporting: release DVDs in 13 episode sets at the price DVDs were at seven years ago and you have a hit. This is where my cash is going.

John, your the last great voice for us who really and truly respected this genre.

Your saying the domestic business is dead because these new uneducated horny 15 year old sexually confused SOB’s want there anime cheap and free?

That isn’t the only reason. The other reason being is that the networks (or should I say the mainstream folks) have taken the whole animation industry back and its seems to me Disney and the like are remaking it into a image that isn’t anywhere what any animation fan worth his salt would like.

Lets make things clear – the anime fans who are now the leaders of crunchyroll, I have DEALT with them. I have fought them tooth and nail. But these idiots in CR are no better than the idiots over at Foggy-Bottom who stole our tax money to feed there buddies. They said crap about 4Kids, DIC, Saban – all who brought this anime genre to its forfront – well guess what Saban and DIC are SHELLS of there former selfs and 4Kids had to go through BS litigation from FOX in order to live… They have done more than CR will ever do.

You know why the anime fan-base lost respect? They lost respect because they kept fighting petty conflicts against the Hollywood big shots and now the majority of these live action movies based on anime is to break the fan-base into a million pieces. Funi and all these boys know it. All the fanbase want is a broken english translations, because that same fanbase cannot write a essay in english themselves and I bet you they taking remedial courses over at a community college near you, because they longed around in HS being full of it, getting beat up and shot down by the jocks and there girlfriends because they have no souls or no damn idea about themselves. So anime (and Japan to some degree – and to Japanese men and women in some cases as well) is now their escape from an american society that wishes they were dead in a forest, bleeding on a mossy rock over in the bayou.

But the fact remains, the business has major problems. If I was a smart man, and im looking to get things back to a good state – I would make blu-ray a way to get the real fans back. I would look at a Syndicated TV deal in the vain of Tyler Perry’s deal with Debar Mercury for the House of Payne, I would do branded blocks in the vain of Toonami, because many anime series are not strong enough or not LONG enough to survive on their own, and the Digital content would have to be in a ITUNES or Amazon like format because this BS with CrunchyRoll and the Japanese TV stations is the biggest ponzi scheme i have ever seen. And I like said in other places, you want to get respect back from the animation fans who TRIED and I MEAN TRIED to give you a Hand up not a hand out from CrunchyRoll for the last 10-15 years or so – do more cons like the one in Providence RI and have some respect for your damn selfs and maybe we could talk again. But until then **** OFF.

The American anime industry is dead (and now admittedly outdated). None of the remaining companies (with the POSSIBLE exception of Shonen Jump/Viz) are long for America. Anime’s future (such that it has any) is digital distro. And all the Japanese studios reliant on the licensing fees that American fans bitch about are either going to have to be sold off to become part of larger Japanese TV networks (like the Shin-Chan studio) or go bankrupt (like Gonzo).

Fact is, people don’t want to pay for the anime they consume. For every person who says “I BUY!!”, there are _hundreds_ who do not. Over 300 million episodes of anime every year are stolen off the Net to American audiences. The DVD-based industry cannot compete with that.

The fact that Crunchyroll is one of the Big Three is all the evidence you need to know that the American anime business is dead. The people behind CR should be behind bars. Instead, they have a legitimate place at the table they have no freaking right to.

Right Stuf saw at least $500 from me this past month. In a digital age, that number could drop to $5 when I need my fix (after getting though the library I have on hand now, of course). I’m just a crazy old otaku in my twenties, and this is how I was brought up. While there are still a lot of true fans out there, good luck surviving in a world of fan sub-happy posers.

The only way for American licensing to keep up with the technical aspects of the industry is online distribution or (prohibitively expensive) Blu-Ray.

The online distribution of X’amd: Lost Memories via the PlayStation Network in 720 resolution is an example of this new method.