I think a lot of people have touched on the key points that I would echo. I think that nowadays people in general are not so afraid of the anime
art style (in a broad sense), as it's been around enough now that most people (at least from certain age groups/demographics) will get it. But the most important thing to remember is that, whether it's in Japan or wherever else, anime is in competition with popular culture, and people have limited time to take in entertainment. And, by the way, "popular culture" has a much higher budget and reach (media presence) than anime ever will.
For example, I personally don't have Cable/Satellite TV or Netflix (etc.), and am basically ignorant of most of the new American TV shows I hear people raving about. I hear that a lot of shows are very well-produced and engaging, and I bet I'd probably enjoy it. Likewise, there are a lot of videogames out there these days that are extremely well-produced and engaging in all sorts of genres. Nevermind all the other sorts of pass-times I could have. All these things and more are potentially in competition for my time and attention, and they're using the power of the media and word of mouth to try to get my attention. The only reason I'm here is because I basically turned most of that other "noise" off, and i found in the past that there were things I found in anime that I didn't find in popular culture.
For anime to really go "mainstream" you'd have to first answer the question in reverse: what sorts of content/stories that would appeal to a mainstream audience are
best told as anime? Given that most people have a more natural acceptance of cinema, and a still-engrained view that "cartoons are for children", you're left with a pretty narrow list of cases where it's worth the effort to overcome the trends, or where your specific audience is more likely to accept it. So that's why things like the Halo Anthology, Afro Samurai, and so on actually do sell well to as-close-to "American mainstream" as you can get. It has the anime aesthetic, but is linked directly with popular culture (popular franchise, popular actor, etc.) and is targeted specifically at an age group/demographic most likely to accept it. It's not trying to take Japanese culture (particular niche culture) and make it mainstream elsewhere.
(By the way, I used the American market as the example, but I think the same basic principles generally apply in many other countries. Local popular culture tends to trump imported culture, except maybe for Hollywood with its huge budget and reach.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
If anime DVD/Blu-Rays aren't selling, then why does WalMart so often stock a lot of them? Or if they are selling, then why is there not more reports of this? Why did the American marketplace for anime DVD/Blu-Rays implode?
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It's not so much how much stock they have on the shelves, it's more how fresh/complete is their inventory. There have been a
lot of anime SKUs over the last ~10 years, so even if they tried to keep just one of each title, they'd easily fill that much space. (How many of the shows have been sitting there for years and they can't get rid of it?) And it's not like nobody buys anime at all any more... but there's still considerably less money to be made compared to years back. Shows used to get released as singles (3-4 episodes/disc for ~$30 each or more), and now are released as boxsets from just a bit more than the single used to be (usually $40 for the box). So in order to keep selling enough volume to warrant the store shelves, they had to cut the price dramatically compared to the "boom days". Even if they theoretically sold the same quantity per SKU, the gross revenue is much lower.
Incidentally, I did a search to look for previous similar threads, and I found one
interesting one from nine years ago that gives an interesting perspective from back when things were still on the up-and-up.
One random ironic post:
Quote:
Originally Posted by CC Ricers
You can get DVD sets of Family Guy and The Simpsons at $40 for over 25 episodes. The day that legitimate anime becomes that cheap is the day that it is mainstream.
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Or it was decided that this was the only way retailers could sell enough product to give it shelf space in the first place.
Ah the benefit of hindsight...
(Of course, now you have some distributors going the other way, but they have a big benefit: 100% online distribution means bypassing traditional retail completely.)
Other threads...
"What is mainstream anime?"
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=113046
"Why shows like Baccano, Samurai Champloo etc. not produced anymore?"
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=111442
(The latter may not seem directly related, but it touches on why the industry isn't producing more shows that are generally considered more friendly to Western markets.)