Opinion: Anime-only TV channel is not as cool as you thought

[Kameruka]

As an AXN viewer in 2000-2001, I was amazed with anime that were shown there. They all in native language(Japanese) rather than with Malay dub in Malaysian terrestrial TV channels. I asked myself, why not someone make an anime-only TV channel so I can watch my favorite anime 24/7! Actually Sony, the company who owned AXN also had the same thing in their mind and in fact its already in the process of making it real. Not long after that Animax is born and dreams of anime fans(I avoided myself using word "otaku" because its too stereotypical and too insulting) are fulfilled,well sort of.

While Animax not yet reach its 10th birthday yet but it already had long history with me and some other Southeast-Asian viewers. All I can say is Animax sucks and I barely can accept its existence, let alone watching it. Here's couples of my problems with Animax I can share with:

1. Licensing issues:
Instead of showing top-shelf anime, we may got some titles we may never heard of. Why? Because its much cheaper to license. Some other anime were already licensed in some countries and Animax-Asia, being multi-national TV channel can't violate the law. They also had problems of licensing issues from its native country as well,in this case Japanese people themselves.

2. The invasion of non-anime programs, mainly K-dramas:
Like all TV channels, it cannot survive for so long by sowing anime alone. Hell even I spent my time with AXN(which no longer showing anime today) than Animax because it had more variety like gameshows, non-fiction documentaries and of course TV series and movies. Even FOX TV had more variety than Animax. By violating its own nature, Animax decided to shows some K-dramas in prime time. Fortunately its over by now as too many anime fans complaining about it in their forums and Facebook page. Perhaps Animax also had same problems with MTV: Both find themselves lack of variety and betrayed their own name by trying to do so.

3. There's better, cheaper alternatives:
Unlike in 2001, there aren't many fansub groups and anime DVDs are expensive, few and hard to find. Now its 2011 and anime is increasing easy to find, both in internet and real-life. You can download it by using torrent or from popular file sharing sites. Don't want to download it? You can stream it instead in many anime streaming sites or in Youtube if you desperate enough. Anime DVDs are now cheaper and increasingly easy to find. In fact some stores already had "buy 1 free 1" scheme and you guess what: It just too damn many anime DVDs nowaday and consumers aren't growing in numbers. Why bother watching Animax when there are too many better alternatives?

4. Anime that they are showing did not meet viewers' taste:
As a seinen fans, I get sick with Animax showing too many shoujo shows like Black Butler, Maid-sama, Nodame Cantabille and in this November, Vampire Knight. So what should I do? Turn off the TV and get the laptop instead streaming my own favorite anime instead. At least just once, Animax did show Lucky Star and K-On! but only to find themselves some shoujo fangirls throwing shits at them(no joke) in their forums claiming Animax try to attract some no-life jerks to see their channel rather than being faithful to them, I mean shoujo fangirls. Unless Animax decided to chage their name as "Shoujo Channel" or "Shoujomax", they couldn't able to fulfill every single demograpics out there, like all TV channels.

5. It just flash in the pan:
Do you still remember when you ride on push scooters? I didn't. I guess Animax is heading into that way too.

[Marcus H.]

Philippine Cable TV doesn't have a problem with that: we have Hero TV (yes, that's the name of the channel, and it predates Tiger and Bunny).

1. Licensing issues
See anime broadcast list. Hero TV has quite recent titles on broadcast, including Heroman, One Outs!, Major Season 5 and the recently-concluded Break Blade and Needless. I don't actually know how much money they invest in acquiring licenses, but the fact that Hero TV manages to get relatively "fresh from Japan" anime series amazes me.

The only downside is that most of these are dubbed in Tagalog, except for movies and OVAs they release in a separate timeslot, which is released on original Japanese Audio with Tagalog subtitles.

2. The invasion of non-anime programs, mainly K-dramas
So far, Hero only manages to insert animated series from other countries like America, Japan, China and Korea, but they are mostly outnumbered by Japanese anime releases. There's also tokusatsu series, but surprisingly, although Hero TV's main broadcasting network does show Power Rangers in morning TV, the more recent shows are not added to Hero TV. However, they seem to endorse a slice-of-life live-action series about a group of students who are anime fans themselves.

4. Anime that they are showing did not meet viewers' taste
I don't know. I think Hero TV handles everything, from the action-packed Kurozuka to the childish Akazukin Cha Cha and from the mainstream Naruto Shippuuden to the obscure Kotetsu Sangokushi. Hero TV's a surprise, actually; I can find series that I haven't heard before just by tuning in.

5. It just flash in the pan
I hope not. They are doing a great job in offering anime series on cable, and it represents the Philippines' love for anime.

[HasuMasu]

Hero TV ftw, the dubbing ups the comedy way over the limit.

[Pink Cow]

Originally Posted by Kameruka

2. The invasion of non-anime programs, mainly K-dramas:
Like all TV channels, it cannot survive for so long by sowing anime alone. Hell even I spent my time with AXN(which no longer showing anime today) than Animax because it had more variety like gameshows, non-fiction documentaries and of course TV series and movies. Even FOX TV had more variety than Animax. By violating its own nature, Animax decided to shows some K-dramas in prime time. Fortunately its over by now as too many anime fans complaining about it in their forums and Facebook page. Perhaps Animax also had same problems with MTV: Both find themselves lack of variety and betrayed their own name by trying to do so.

THIS.

Animax is a Japanese based channel. I don't see the logic of having K-dramas airing in it. If they want to show dramas, they should have shown J-dramas. Even the live concerts they show are all Korean. >.<

[Jeffry2009]

Originally Posted by Kameruka

2. The invasion of non-anime programs, mainly K-dramas:
Like all TV channels, it cannot survive for so long by sowing anime alone. Hell even I spent my time with AXN(which no longer showing anime today) than Animax because it had more variety like gameshows, non-fiction documentaries and of course TV series and movies. Even FOX TV had more variety than Animax. By violating its own nature, Animax decided to shows some K-dramas in prime time. Fortunately its over by now as too many anime fans complaining about it in their forums and Facebook page. Perhaps Animax also had same problems with MTV: Both find themselves lack of variety and betrayed their own name by trying to do so.

They also show some non-anime shows like 'super big product fun show' few years ago.

[MeoTwister5]

I'm never home enough to watch Animax these days, but suffice to say that I have lost interest in their shows after they started dubbing everything. It's not that I prefer subs over dubs, but sometimes the dub work is borderline atrocious.

Sometimes I think the only reason they have K-dramas is because the fandom for the shows is insane here in the Philippines.

[Haak]

I'm not aware of any anime only TV channels here in the UK. *sigh*

[Pink Cow]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

I'm never home enough to watch Animax these days, but suffice to say that I have lost interest in their shows after they started dubbing everything. It's not that I prefer subs over dubs, but sometimes the dub work is borderline atrocious.

Sometimes I think the only reason they have K-dramas is because the fandom for the shows is insane here in the Philippines.

GMA and ABS-CBN show enough K-dramas already. D:

[HasuMasu]

^ Yes, I suppose the demand was high enough even so.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Sometimes I think the only reason they have K-dramas is because the fandom for the shows is insane here in the Philippines.

You're not alone buddy. It happens here too, in my country. Oh yeah, K-pop (read K boybands & girlbands) fandom here is Crazy too !

Well, don't get me wrong, I have no ill feelings towards those Korean boy/girl bands. Their performance is good, their songs are easy for the ears, their choreos are energetic and the MAIN factor: they're all pretty (yes, even the boys ). And this comes from a total non-fan. Hey, I can still be objective, sometimes .

Back to topic. Well, yeah, anime-only channel won't survive easy in this day and age.

[Vexx]

There's really no effective access to any substantial japanese programming in the US. If you happen to have dish/cable, there are some "summary" channels that show random highlights of Japanese tv... sumo, baseball, game shows, some anime. but to just say "I want NHK" or whatever: not available.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by Vexx

There's really no effective access to any substantial japanese programming in the US. If you happen to have dish/cable, there are some "summary" channels that show random highlights of Japanese tv... sumo, baseball, game shows, some anime. but to just say "I want NHK" or whatever: not available.

And people didn't like the Anime Network just because the series were broadcasted in English. If it weren't for fansubbing, something like this would be the only access to anime in America. But alas, there were alternatives to the Anime Network. Thus, this lead to the network becoming defunct; if it isn't defunct, I would be surprised if the channel is still operating.

[creb]

You would think in this Youtube age, with millions of people making videos of themselves speaking about...well...anything, a fansubbing group would have transitioned to fandubbing by now, especially as more and more shows are being picked up for simulcast every season.

So, while the current market makes an anime-only channel seem a bit superflous, I'm not sure it's because of the fansubbers. As much as I love them, half (or more), of them are just cleaning up a stream's subs these days. I predict within five years everything will be streamed, and the only real fansubbing groups left will be the oldies like Live Evil who sub old shows, and not whatever is currently airing.

Anyways, channels of any kind are outdated in today's world imo. TV programming should be completely up to the user. Pick shows you want to watch and make your own channel. Consolidate every media company on the planet so I can realize this dream, Ted Turner!

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by creb

fandubbing

Think about it: Amateur English Voice-Acting. That's what "fandubbing" is. People complain enough about professional work.

As for TV networks - just broadcast it according to audience demands: Japanese with local language subtitles. This would save the pain of resorting to downloading virtually everything. And yes, sometimes, y'just end up getting tired of doing that. Personally, I would not have cared for either English voice acting or usage of subtitles. Either way, it'd be nice to just flip the channel - and voila.

[creb]

Originally Posted by Kyuu

Think about it: Amateur English Voice-Acting. That's what "fandubbing" is. People complain enough about professional work.

As for TV networks - just broadcast it according to audience demands: Japanese with local language subtitles. This would save the pain of resorting to downloading virtually everything. And yes, sometimes, y'just end up getting tired of doing that. Personally, I would not have cared for either English voice acting or usage of subtitles. Either way, it'd be nice to just flip the channel - and voila.

You're forgetting about commercials. As a download/stream guy, I almost never watch TV through my actual TV anymore due to commercials. I honestly wouldn't mind paying a little more for a cable subscription that removed commercials completely. If it wasn't for the occasional football games people come over to watch and and the beer that is consumed, I could probably do without a TV completely.

I just think in this digital age, TV is still really far behind the times, and that stations/channels are completely nonsensical and a relic of the past that the industry just hasn't evolved out of yet.

I really do believe in my lifetime we'll reach that point where you can program your own TV schedule. Legally. Even if it'll cost a pretty penny.

As far as the amateur voice acting goes, /shrug. I've watched plenty of Joe Schmoe-made fan videos of various things on Youtube that sound just fine. Besides, as I said, everything is likely to be streaming/simulcast within a few years at the rate things are going, so why not do something that could at least provide a few laughs once there's no real need for fansubs?

[Sides]

Originally Posted by Haak

I'm not aware of any anime only TV channels here in the UK. *sigh*

There used to be animecentral on eurobird/sky package. I think it only lasted for about a year or so.

Personally I think an anime channel should be used as an promotional platform for the license holder, production company or publishers. The current practice in the west, where TV channels buys a production, I don't think it will work in long term. Instead it should be the other way around, the publishers should buy the time slots, as they are trying to sell their IPs, like bluray/dvd and other merchandising.

[darkchibi07]

Originally Posted by creb

You would think in this Youtube age, with millions of people making videos of themselves speaking about...well...anything, a fansubbing group would have transitioned to fandubbing by now, especially as more and more shows are being picked up for simulcast every season.

You have no idea how much time and effort it takes to do a fandub. I've seen fandub projects that are in progress for WEEKS just to do a 3-5 minute clip.

[mechdra]

I understand how you feel, Animax got invaded by korean culture and the anime keeps on repeating and repeating for many times. They could have updated some shows like Hyate, Fairy Tail or bring in some new JC Staff anime or Gonzo anime.

[SeijiSensei]

For the record, Funimation maintains its own cable channel in the US, and it's available on some of the large services like Verizon FiOS and, I believe, Comcast. Obviously it only carries the shows Funi has licensed, and it only carries them with dubs.

While the usual argument for dubbing is that it increases the size of the audience, I've wondered from time to time whether the contracts with the voice actors require that the dubs be shown. Do R1 VAs get "residuals" like actors in American programs and commercials do?

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

For the record, Funimation maintains its own cable channel in the US, and it's available on some of the large services like Verizon FiOS and, I believe, Comcast. Obviously it only carries the shows Funi has licensed, and it only carries them with dubs.

While the usual argument for dubbing is that it increases the size of the audience, I've wondered from time to time whether the contracts with the voice actors require that the dubs be shown. Do R1 VAs get "residuals" like actors in American programs and commercials do?

I'm betting they do (I think they're in the same guilds) but I doubt there's a contract clause that prevents the original audio track from being offered with subtitles. Its purely the "but 'Murricans dun like furrin talkin' moving pictures" syndrome (coupled with the fact entertainment executives across the board have a historically documented incompetence at discerning what audiences would like).