Ask John: Is The Anime Industry in Japan Dying?

Question:
I recently read an article at Animefringe, in which the good folks at ADV made a comment I thought was strange. They said that anime is on the outs in Japan. Frankly I was very surprised by the statement, since it seems that there is quite an abundance of anime series out there still being produced. How true was this statement, exactly? Have the Japanese been cutting back on production lately? Is the well in jeopardy of running dry?

Answer:
I dread using the grandfatherly “in my day,” but it’s somewhat unavoidable in here. Having been a devout follower of the Japanese anime industry for years, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard that the anime industry in Japan is in its final generation and anime as we know it will soon come to an end. Yet over the past roughly 15 years that I’ve been hearing this prediction, the anime industry has yet to crumble into dust and vanish. I’ll concede that Matt Greenfield of AD Vision, who made the statement about the stagnation of the anime industry that Animefringe Magazine quoted, is in a position of greater perspective than I am to be able to make such a statement; however, from the perspective of a pure fan, I do not see the anime industry in Japan “on the outs.”

Beyond debate, the OAV market in Japan has significantly lessened. While there are still as many as a half dozen new hentai anime OAVs released directly to Japanese home video each month, the production of mainstream anime for direct to home video sale has decreased significantly within the past 2 years. During the “golden period” of the mid and late 1980s, OAVs seemingly outnumbered television animation productions in Japan. With the changing Japanese economy of the late 1990s, though, the OAV market has dwindled to only a small handful of OAVs released annually. But just within 2002, the release of titles including Sentou Yousei Yukikaze, Koroshiya Ichi Episode Zero, Gatekeepers 21, Hare Nochi Guu Deluxe, Cosplay Complex, Green Green, and Futari H should be adequate enough to confirm that OAVs are still viable anime productions in Japan.

It is the TV animation industry that seems to offer the most telling diagnosis of the condition of anime in Japan. In fact, there is more TV animation being produced now than ever before. In 1982, 35 new anime TV series premiered on Japanese television. A decade later, 49 anime TV series debuted on Japanese television. Now in 2002, with nearly two months in the year remaining, 66 never before seen anime TV series have premiered on Japanese television.

In a less scientific analysis, based on my own recent brief trip to Japan last month, I personally found five new anime shops that did not exist when I first went to Tokyo three years ago. Based on nothing more than subjective impressions, there seem to be more anime stores in Tokyo than ever, suggesting that, if anything, the market for anime in Japan is steadily increasing rather than diminishing.

If it is indeed true that anime is not exactly “on the outs” in Japan, it is true that anime is evolving, as it has done numerous times through its near 50 year history. Those critics that argue that anime has lost its originality would be advised to rethink their opinion in light of identifying some mythical past time period when all anime was highly unique and individual. As someone who tries to maintain an awareness of all styles and types of anime, I would argue that anime writing & visual style is no more or less original or seminal now than it’s ever been. What has changed about anime is its sophistication, especially in production methods. Anime produced in the 1960s and early 1970s doesn’t look like anime produced in the 1980s. Anime in the 1980s doesn’t look like anime made in the 1990s. Current anime is now beginning to distinguish itself from anime from the 1990s as well. In my own opinion, this doesn’t mean that anime is a dying art form. This means only that anime is evolving once again through the use of digital animation and computer animation enhancement.

The appeal of anime is primal. Anime offers an escape to an alternate world that may be as familiar as our own homes, or as foreign as a distant galaxy, yet the entertainment value of purely fictional characters, events and pure visual stimuli will always be attractive and appealing to human beings. As long as viewers enjoy watching anime, Japanese creators will enjoy creating anime. Anime is definitely changing, but I honestly don’t foresee anime either becoming extinct or evolving to a totally unrecognizable and foreign style within this generation.