Growing out of anime

[SeijiSensei]

I often wonder how anime studios will survive the declining numbers of adolescents in Japan. Surely they cannot keep churning out cookie-cutter ecchi comedies centered in high schools when the number of people in the 13-24 demographic grows smaller each year. You would think simple demographics would encourage the studios to start targeting 18-34 viewers.

[cyth]

It's not that problematic, really. The industry will adapt if it'll see the need to. It only needs two years to turn trends around. But perhaps their only option is to continue catering to the young ... If that's the case, then anime inherently repels older generations. Even though it seems unlikely, we should be prepared to face such realization.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I often wonder how anime studios will survive the declining numbers of adolescents in Japan. Surely they cannot keep churning out cookie-cutter ecchi comedies centered in high schools when the number of people in the 13-24 demographic grows smaller each year. You would think simple demographics would encourage the studios to start targeting 18-34 viewers.

I think the demand of very young main characters will remain regardless of how old the Otaku of today will become. Most of the shows portraying "cute girls doing cute stuff" which are becoming increasingly popular are already aimed at adult men.

In fact both K-on and Hidamari Sketch are serialized on Kirara Carat which is a Seinen magazine, which is specialized for that kind of stories.

You then need to consider the tons of eroge out there which are CERO18+ and yet mostly depict high school settings.

So in other words there is a clear tendency to portray high school students protagonists even for media that are mainly followed by people ranging between 18-30 years and in my opinion this will likely remain true in the future.

Since the fanbase has already passed the point where they'd demand to see protagonists they can relate to by age, I doubt their becoming older will have a significant effect on that.

[hyl]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

You then need to consider the tons of eroge out there which are CERO18+ and yet mostly depict high school settings.

Eroges aren't rated by the CERO but the EOCS, but that wasn't my main issue of my post.

The reason why most eroges have a highschool settings is because the developers are playing it safe. Unless the company has already a huge fanbase and brand recognition, there is no way that it is going to risk trying something new in an oversaturated market.

I think that i have read an interview once that some director or producer from such a company said that your game will less likely to sell if it doesn't take place in a school.

There are exceptions, like if the game focuses entirely on sci-fi, fantasy or something based on the past like the edo period. But you will still occasionally find some fantasy or sci-fi titles that still have some kind of school/academy

[Vexx]

There was a wonderful little spurt of series in the late 2000s using college or post-highschool & adult workplace settings. Unfortunately, the economic crash seems to have cashiered much more along that line for now. Hard to tell if demographics play a hand but may also be an art source problem. Manga and LN authors may simply be writing what they know and that may not include doing any research to portray settings they don't know. That makes people like Isuna Hasekura lone outliers (his works are about adults, economics, medieval fantasy).

[GDiddy]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I have a lot of hobbies ... and a finite amount of time. Therefore, in the last couple of years I've gotten very *picky* about what I'm going to commit time to. I barely watch US television at all outside of PBS/BBC. Between research, writing, relearning bass guitar, gaming, reading, home improvement projects, etc ... anime has to take its turn.

That's why I make sure I have other things than anime to do....so I don't get TOO involved to the point of where it becomes a problem like my blog, writing, baking, reading, home projects, people.

The high school settings don't bother me too much for the most part: I get it...it's the demographic and high school settings are what's popular. But once in awhile it's nice to have a series like Honey and Clover or even Servant x Service where we get adult protagionists for the most part.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Manga and LN authors may simply be writing what they know and that may not include doing any research to portray settings they don't know. That makes people like Isuna Hasekura lone outliers (his works are about adults, economics, medieval fantasy).

Hasekura just got out of his twenties though. He writes about economics and the Church because he knows a lot about these topics. He didn't just decide to do some research before writing, he's a stock/securities/futures/currency trader himself and has had tremendous success doing it. He also attends an Anglican college, where he probably learnt about the history of Church and all that stuff. I think all the young writers are less reluctant to write about topics they don't know because they lack the education, experience and worldliness at their age, but not because of the age. Hasekura is a prime example of why age doesn't matter as much. I think it's because the newer generations of creators have aimed to become writers and mangaka etc. as fast as they could. That was their sole ambition! But they've done so on the expense of skipping education and acquiring crucial life experiences necessary to have a wider perspective on things. That perspective bears fruit to more quality writing.

[Triple_R]

I think that the all-girls shows (like K-On and Hidamari Sketch) are indeed meant for adult men who feel a great need for "comfort food" entertainment after a long, hard day at work. They are healing anime in the strongest sense of the term. I think the idea of these shows is to take the viewer into a truly happy-go-lucky, blissful, vaguely magical world where nothing particularly bad ever happens and friendship/camaraderie abounds. It's a soothing half-hour that makes you temporarily forget about all of your RL troubles.

But I'm starting to have my doubts about the harem comedies and most light novel adaptations. This often strikes me as adolescent wish fulfillment in its purest and most distilled form.


I wonder if most otakus go through a transition like the following:

Card/Toy/Kid's Game based shows (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc...) at a young age.

Action-packed shounens (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) in the early-to-mid teens.

LN and VN adaptations in late teens and early College age.

Very mature sci-fi shows (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Tiger and Bunny) for adult otakus looking for something cerebral, and as I mentioned before the all-girls shows for adult otakus looking for "comfort food".


That's not to say that all otakus make these transitions, or that adults can't enjoy shows aimed at younger audiences. But I do wonder if this is the standard transition that otakus go through in recent times.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I think that the all-girls shows (like K-On and Hidamari Sketch) are indeed meant for adult men who feel a great need for "comfort food" entertainment after a long, hard day at work. They are healing anime in the strongest sense of the term. I think the idea of these shows is to take the viewer into a truly happy-go-lucky, blissful, vaguely magical world where nothing particularly bad ever happens and friendship/camaraderie abounds. It's a soothing half-hour that makes you temporarily forget about all of your RL troubles.

But I'm starting to have my doubts about the harem comedies and most light novel adaptations. This often strikes me as adolescent wish fulfillment in its purest and most distilled form.


I wonder if most otakus go through a transition like the following:

Card/Toy/Kid's Game based shows (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc...) at a young age.

Action-packed shounens (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) in the early-to-mid teens.

LN and VN adaptations in late teens and early College age.

Very mature sci-fi shows (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Tiger and Bunny) for adult otakus looking for something cerebral, and as I mentioned before the all-girls shows for adult otakus looking for "comfort food".


That's not to say that all otakus make these transitions, or that adults can't enjoy shows aimed at younger audiences. But I do wonder if this is the standard transition that otakus go through (or have went through) over the past several years.

I can definitely feel that I went through that evolution in my tastes but know plenty of people who just stopped watching much shows aside from one or two action-packed shounens from time to time. I think it may depend on the person, not everyone enjoys animated works.

[Hooves]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I wonder if most otakus go through a transition like the following:

Card/Toy/Kid's Game based shows (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc...) at a young age.

Action-packed shounens (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) in the early-to-mid teens.

LN and VN adaptations in late teens and early College age.

Very mature sci-fi shows (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Tiger and Bunny) for adult otakus looking for something cerebral, and as I mentioned before the all-girls shows for adult otakus looking for "comfort food".


That's not to say that all otakus make these transitions, or that adults can't enjoy shows aimed at younger audiences. But I do wonder if this is the standard transition that otakus go through in recent times.

I do admit I went through some of this transition. Only until I was recommended to very mature animes by one person did my taste grow spiral no matter the age. Leaving me to enjoy anime adaptations all-around (only with specific genres will I never touch).

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

I think that the all-girls shows (like K-On and Hidamari Sketch) are indeed meant for adult men who feel a great need for "comfort food" entertainment after a long, hard day at work. They are healing anime in the strongest sense of the term. I think the idea of these shows is to take the viewer into a truly happy-go-lucky, blissful, vaguely magical world where nothing particularly bad ever happens and friendship/camaraderie abounds. It's a soothing half-hour that makes you temporarily forget about all of your RL troubles.

But I'm starting to have my doubts about the harem comedies and most light novel adaptations. This often strikes me as adolescent wish fulfillment in its purest and most distilled form.


I wonder if most otakus go through a transition like the following:

Card/Toy/Kid's Game based shows (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc...) at a young age.

Action-packed shounens (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) in the early-to-mid teens.

LN and VN adaptations in late teens and early College age.

Very mature sci-fi shows (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Tiger and Bunny) for adult otakus looking for something cerebral, and as I mentioned before the all-girls shows for adult otakus looking for "comfort food".

It still lacking of other forms of anime.....

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Dextro

I can definitely feel that I went through that evolution in my tastes but know plenty of people who just stopped watching much shows aside from one or two action-packed shounens from time to time. I think it may depend on the person, not everyone enjoys animated works.

Originally Posted by Hooves

I do admit I went through some of this transition. Only until I was recommended to very mature animes by one person did my taste grow spiral no matter the age. Leaving me to enjoy anime adaptations all-around (only with specific genres will I never touch).

Yeah, I have to admit my own taste in anime has also went through those transitions. Attack on Titan is the only thing shounen-esque I've watched in ages. SAO and the Monogatari series are also the only particularly harem-esque shows I've watched recently. Almost everything else I've watched recently fits into that 4th category I mentioned (mature sci-fi shows, and "comfort food" anime).


Cyth raised a good point, though - People tend to write what they know. If more and more mangaka/LN writers are becoming full-time writers straight out of high school then their knowledge of the wider world may be limited, resulting in a lot of high school-based manga/LNs (since they do know high school at least). I find that the various otaku mediums rarely "wing it" and just hope for the best (i.e. write a major character who's a news reporter, or an adult detective, or a lawyer, and just hope for the best even though they know little about the profession itself).

This is different in North American entertainment. For example, loads of people write Superman comics without having any experience whatsoever as a news reporter (a la Clark Kent and Lois Lane). They just wing it/BS it and hope for the best.

In contrast, the Phoenix Wright game strikes me as being wrote by someone with actual experience in the legal profession, or at least someone who studied up on it extensively.

[Jan-Poo]

Originally Posted by Vexx

There was a wonderful little spurt of series in the late 2000s using college or post-highschool & adult workplace settings. Unfortunately, the economic crash seems to have cashiered much more along that line for now. Hard to tell if demographics play a hand but may also be an art source problem. Manga and LN authors may simply be writing what they know and that may not include doing any research to portray settings they don't know. That makes people like Isuna Hasekura lone outliers (his works are about adults, economics, medieval fantasy).

If I look back I seem to remember more series with adult protagonists in the past than now, for example the super robot genre wasn't really focused on high school pilots until the Evangelion revolution. For the most part they were men in their 20s.

The most famous and acclaimed romance in a university setting is Maison Ikkoku and that's from the 80s.

Tsukasa Houjo popular's manga: "Cat's eye", "City Hunter" were always focused on adult characters.

Likewise sci-fi acclaimed series like "Bubblegum Crisis", "Tank Police", "Ghost in the shell", "Captain future", "Captain Harlock", "Uchuu Senkan Yamato", do not have teenager protagonists.

Of course there were famous manga and anime with high schooler protagonists even back then, like "Uruseiyatsura" or "Kimagure Orange Road", but it seems to me that right now they have become the majority and they tend to be more successful.

Just take a look at the anime that have their subforum on animesuki right now, both current and older series.

If I'm not mistaken the only series that have a MC that graduated from high school or that is similarly old are Steins;Gate (though Rintarou is still 18 years old) Psycho-Pass and Rozen Maiden (current series only).

[speedyexpress48]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

I think it's also partly got to do with the very unfair and imo "disgusting" view that otakus have of female characters that are over a certain age being "used goods". I lost the number of times within the anime itself tend to make a friggin big deal about age amongst female characters and to be frank I think it's pretty horrific. I think that's part of the reason for middle or high school being such a prevalent premise.

Here's the problem; while it is especially pronounced in the otaku fanbase, it's a part of (East) Asian culture in general; in Japan, it's hard to get married if you're a woman past your mid-20s because no one will even look at you...though that has changed today somewhat.

Also, the reason why anime creators tend to come out straight out of high school is that it's a sucky job. Period. This industry has a turnover rate of 80%. It is a pretty miserable industry, and if you can do something else, why wouldn't you?

Let's be clear here, teenagers do not have the money to buy the merchandise that anime uses to support itself, and they don't have the time to support it anyways (in my opinion, anime presents a very rose-colored-glasses picture of Japanese high school life, which is mostly hard studying for them entrance exams and whatnot...because if you fail there, in Japan, you fail at life...it's called the "pressure cooker" for a reason.) They're studying almost all day and night...and they don't usually have the cash to buy all them BDs and goods (let's be clear here, companies buy slots for late-night anime and advertising makes little money for them).

These shows are basically targeted towards 18-30 year olds...because in Japan, there's this mentality that high school is a period of relative freedom compared to the salaryman life, which is somewhat understandable when you consider that the salaryman life in Japan is basically grinding and grinding from 9'o clock until midnight (including the drinking parties to strengthen relations with the boss that you're paying for because you really need that raise!)

Is it a case of rose-colored glasses? Of course. It's also the result of Japan's declining economy during the "Lost Decade", which for some (ok, most) has never ended. Going back to an era of relative freedom (once again, rose colored glasses come in handy) is a form of escape for the Japanese otaku population. (Of course, you can argue that college is an era of relative freedom too...but Japanese in general seem to like high school much better...for some reason that I could never understand.)

Along with that is that childishness is a heavy component of most anime, and once again that's not limited to anime..."adults acting like kids" is a huge thing in Japan. Even in series with adults instead of high schoolers in them (I'm looking at you Servant x Service,) the characters seem to have the maturity of 10-year olds. Same with K-On, Hidamari Sketch or almost any SoL comedy, and a bunch of other shows (read; almost everything made by Key)...of course, there's the harem anime where it's not really realistic in any format, but neither is porn. And a lot of harem anime is mostly softcore porn (even though I do enjoy them sometimes, that doesn't mean I don't know exactly what I'm getting and I'm NOT gonna pretend that it's a good show, save for some exceptions.)

Originally Posted by Triple_R

But I'm starting to have my doubts about the harem comedies and most light novel adaptations. This often strikes me as adolescent wish fulfillment in its purest and most distilled form.


I wonder if most otakus go through a transition like the following:

Card/Toy/Kid's Game based shows (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc...) at a young age.

Action-packed shounens (Bleach, Naruto, One Piece) in the early-to-mid teens.

LN and VN adaptations in late teens and early College age.

Very mature sci-fi shows (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, Tiger and Bunny) for adult otakus looking for something cerebral, and as I mentioned before the all-girls shows for adult otakus looking for "comfort food".


That's not to say that all otakus make these transitions, or that adults can't enjoy shows aimed at younger audiences. But I do wonder if this is the standard transition that otakus go through in recent times.

Most otakus don't go through those transitions...because of the fact that well-written drama has never sold too well anywhere over flashiness and wish-fulfillment.

Let's use an example in the realm of Hollywood. Stuff like Transformers is written like crap, directed like crap, actors can't really act and most of it is robots punching each other. (In my opinion, anyways. Feel free to disagree.) And yet it's a huge blockbuster. Sure, you could say that it's aimed at kids. To an extent, it is. But the box office results for good, dark, mature movies is mostly on the mediocre level without connecting it to something popular (like superheroes). Crap movies make up the majority of Hollywood blockbusters. Even among R-rated films, fast and flashy outsells dark drama by a huge margin. Stuff like CSI and Desperate Housewifes are not aimed at kids, but they're usually so simple that a 10-year old can understand it. Every age group is the same, and the older people just watch the popcorn crap of yesteryear, except that rose-colored glasses cause older generations to think their shows were better than modern shows (The Monkees and Dukes of Hazzard were awesomely written? Really?) And surprise! It's true everywhere. In Japan, horribly written dramas and reality shows that are the very definition of wish fulfillment are the norm.

And the otaku crowd isn't exempt. Anime fans moved away from American TV because they thought anime was darker and more mature, but here's the kick (that's been said here again and again and again, I know, but bear with me here we only got the good stuff at first, because importing series was expensive and we didn't have EVERY SERIES at our fingertips ready to watch 2 hours after it airs. And plenty of shows are basically "awesome" because we see them under rose-colored glasses (sorry to overuse this term, but...) and if we watched the same thing today if it was made today, we'll probably laugh.

See, here's the thing; we think that anime is exempt from popcorn entertainment. But anime is a medium, and no medium is exempt from such. The crap that people laughed at of yesteryear are now modern classics. EVERY medium falls victim to this, because people don't like to think. That's the bottom line.

Sigh, long post, eh...

[relentlessflame]

Really, any anime can be "comfort food" depending on the person. I know some adult anime fans who still watch certain kids' anime like Pokemon as their "comfort food", and others who just can't let go of their favourite long-running shounen series like Naruto. Others still can't be without a fanservice anime, a shounen romantic comedy, or an old-school toy anime. This isn't because they lack maturity/critical thinking, or can't appreciate the so-called "very mature shows" when they're in the right mood... it just contains something that keeps drawing them back. That totally depends on the person. And depending on the amount of anime that a person watches in a season, they may only bother to take the time for that "comfort food" and not bother with other things.

So I really hesitate when anyone tries to make broad generalities about the sorts of shows that might appeal to different "maturity levels" of fandom. It's way too easy to place people in this convenient box and think that you know them based simply on what shows they like. But just because you un-ironically enjoy Naruto or whatever else doesn't automatically mean you haven't "grown up yet". It could even be because you've grown up that you've gotten to the point where you can accept that you enjoy something even though you also see its arguable flaws. In my view, anyway, it's more important to understand yourself, identify what you like, and try to find more of it, because life's too short to chase someone else's idea of what you should or shouldn't be enjoying "at your age".


That aside...

Originally Posted by cyth

The majority of late night anime viewership consists of middle and high school students.

I would really like to see some sort of citation on this, if one exists. It would be very interesting to get a demographic breakdown of late-night anime viewership for various shows. That being said, I suspect that online streaming and other viewing opportunities may make it hard to quantify in full.

[Archon_Wing]

I think there's a certain naive attitude (and it doesn't involve age at all, since it's not actively realized) is does not follow a linear progression. Yes, when one is really young, yes, but it is more like "I'm not just a little kid anymore because" so your parents will push your bedtime 2 hours later. Beyond that, nobody gives a shit.

Point is, people entered the medium through different ways. Yes, it's likely that many came in through stuff like the Big Three or DBZ, but honestly these are just a fraction of what shounen is. And indeed, something like Hunter x Hunter IMO blows the lid off stuff that people tell me are "more mature and realistic" and w/e bullshit. Are you really gonna put Naruto and Fist of the North Star in the same box? Even the very year you enter anime and got interested matters. If you came in at 2006, Haruhi would be the big shot, but in 2013 it's hardly the same situation. You'd more likely to come across something like Madoka or Steins;Gate first. It especially breaks down for people that get into anime at a older age because they are no longer clean slates and other media has an influence after all.

Me personally, I was never that much of an avid fan of anime but some has greatly impressed me. Honestly, I registered on AS just to mess with people on the internet (my true hobby), but that has changed. (really!). So I'm just not going to grow in or out of anything, really.

tl;dr Stop looking for an endgame in anime. It most likely applies only to you and people with similar tastes; if you try to form an objective truth over it, I'm most likely going to laugh at you and call you delusional.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Endgame in anime? This is no MMO lol. Also endgame results in farming the same crap over and over again anyway, with new additional content coming out occassionally. Anyways what does this got to do with anime?

Going back on topic, just because the anime is different or " more mature" doesn't mean it's better. For example, last year when it came to dramas I enjoyed Hyouka and Tari Tari significantly more than Sakamichi no Appollon despite the latter being considered more "mature" with all that jazz and stuff because it had some severe pacing problems towards the second and some excessive melodrama. Also, you can shoot me all you want but I have a bias for shojo mangas and good shojo adaptations to the point it's probably my "comfort food". Heck, I even get mocked by certain people that even the pornography I like is girly (you know who you are, you scumbags! ) .

There is however, a fine line there that needs to be drawn when one type of "comfort food" or genre starts dominating an industry and even more so if that type of genre is the only thing that tends to sell commercially well. Now anime isn't that bad by any means but sometimes I get that feeling. I can't deny that I get worried when stuff like Shin Sekai Yori bombs when series like Infinite Stratos rakes in the dough, because there is a fear that series like Shin Sekai Yori won't get made in the future. This isn't true of course, but there are already implications in that it's extremely rare to see a series that is "outside the box" with good production values as good as Seirei no Moribito, Dennou Coil and the like because lets face it, Shin Sekai Yori was pretty damn low budget.

Variety might be the spice of life but commercial implications may limit it, and that is what makes me upset at times.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Pocari_Sweat

Variety might be the spice of life but commercial implications may limit it, and that is what makes me upset at times.

If fandom were like scuba diving, I feel like this sort of worry is a pressure gauge that's telling people "Warning, you've gone too deep!".

In the end, no matter what consumer market you're talking about, we're all both part of trends and the victim of trends, and "trendy" things tend to dominate the conversation space. And if you get too engrossed in what's trendy, particularly when it happens to not match your preferences, it's easy to start despairing that the world's going to hell. But, even though it's quaint to say, I still think the only real answer is to broaden your horizons, and engage in a more-determined pursuit of things you find enjoyable. That may or may not involve anime as much, but it's not like it's the anime industry's "fault" for not aligning with your personal tastes.

That aside, I would of course point out (as you conceded) that there's actually a pretty impressive genre-variety when you consider the top-selling anime works over the last few years. May still not be shows that you personally love, but I don't think it's easy to argue that sales are biased towards any particular genre these days.

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

In the end, no matter what consumer market you're talking about, we're all both part of trends and the victim of trends, and "trendy" things tend to dominate the conversation space. And if you get too engrossed in what's trendy, particularly when it happens to not match your preferences, it's easy to start despairing that the world's going to hell. But, even though it's quaint to say, I still think the only real answer is to broaden your horizons, and engage in a more-determined pursuit of things you find enjoyable. That may or may not involve anime as much, but it's not like it's the anime industry's "fault" for not aligning with your personal tastes.

And I have been doing just that. I'm sure a lot of people do just that. I've actually gone back to watching TV dramas over the past few years watching series like Game of Thrones, Madmen, Breaking Bad, Dexter and the like after putting TV watching on the backburner for quite a long time. In addition, I've been playing a lot of Steam Games, in particular indie publisher games which has been booming like crazy lately and Steam is probably the best thing to happen to indie gaming market in a very long time.

You are right though. It is not an industry's fault per se for not aligning with one's personal tastes, but many people including myself do express their disappointments in an industry's "tunnel-visioning" towards certain trends. No matter how great a trend, topic, theme, idea etc, too much repetition of the same thing breeds over-familiarity, boredom and ultimately criticism. As I mentioned above, I do have bias for shojos (and by extension josei) series, but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be happy if that suddenly was the "overwhelming" trend. Have a look at the Japanese and Korean TV drama industry. Shojo/Josei type soap-operas and romcoms is what dominates those industries for example.

That aside, I would of course point out (as you conceded) that there's actually a pretty impressive genre-variety when you consider the top-selling anime works over the last few years. May still not be shows that you personally love, but I don't think it's easy to argue that sales are biased towards any particular genre these days.

When it comes to genre variety (drama, science fiction, fantasy, supernatural etc.), there is no doubt it is diverse. However, based on Animemania's list, how many of the top selling series take place in a high school? How many of the top series involve a "moe" aethestic being a significant part of the series? How many of the top series is a derivation of the "harem" genre? How many of the top series contain very "anime" (aka slapstick, silly, over-melodramatic etc) type of drama, comedy, voice-acting and characters. If you look at it from that perpsective... then it's actually not very diverse.

[speedyexpress48]

The only people who brag about their maturity is the immature ones. Nuff said. As Archon pointed out, you gave up on "kiddy anime"? Great, now fuck off. (Note that I only meant that for people who brag about it; I'm fine if you casually talk to me about it.)

Anime doesn't earn money on BDs alone (obviously.) Merchandising is a huge part of the anime industry, and since online streaming and torrents are becoming ever-more popular, merchandise is going to be more important than ever.

Crunchyroll doesn't make much; streaming doesn't make much in general. And yet, the American anime industry is booming and Japanese companies themselves are targeting North America in more aggressive ways than ever, while the licensing companies are constantly in trouble. Why? Because while you won't get many people to buy a disk, even the biggest anime pirates on the net will likely buy stuff like figurines and keychains...and that's in every country. Goodsmile and Kotobukiya are making cash hand over fist in places like America.

And when it comes to merchandise...obviously females, especially cute females, tend to sell well, because they look appealing to the majority of the fanbase, which is male. (Anyone want some Aku No Hana keychains? Free shipping, I promise! Pretty sure few people are willing to take that offer. ) Plus, it's not like there isn't a huge portion of foreign anime fans that buy a lot of the ecchi fanservice shows, because the Queen's Blade license is sure a profitable one...

Outside of these forums, the most popular anime (no matter what nation you're talking about) has heavy merchandising potential, no matter how bad their plot is (oh hey, Naruto fillers! Yay!) Even the very popular and well-written ones, like Haruhi and Madoka, have the ability of moving tons of merchandise just based on one franchise (aka; milking the cash cow). A well-written anime that is barely marketable is gonna go splat, no matter how much you want otherwise. And marketability in the worldwide otaku market means cute girls. (Of course, there's the shonen crowd too who are also willing to buy endless piles of merch (neko ears here kids), except they don't have as nearly as much money as the crowd who buys cute girls.)