Quote:
|
On the subject at hand, I'm not alone among AS members in thinking that the industry has taken a turn for the worse over the past couple of years. The range of subject matter has narrowed greatly and seems largely designed to sell more hugpillows to 20-yo Japanese otaku. I'm down to just a couple of shows each season, and I don't expect to see things change much until the Japanese economy turns around. When money's scarce, only shows with a solid expected revenue stream will get the green light.
|
Let me propose another theory to explain the shifting genres: the increase in Japanese-otakubait shows is a direct result of the decline in anime sales in North America and elsewhere around the world. Take a look back to 2002-2004, when you had more series like Haibane Renmei, Paranoia Agent, Kaleido Star, Witch Hunter Robin, Last Exile, ROD TV, Trinity Blood, Gankutsuou, Chrono Crusade, Koi Kaze, Kino's Journey, Kurau Phantom Memory, Scrapped Princess, Texhnolyze, GitS:SAC, etc. Whatever the relative merits of these shows, they were all relatively free of the cheap/exploitative elements that the OP railed against.
Back then, foreign sales were higher, and the R1 industry was healthy enough to directly contribute to the financing of some of those series. Back then, it was more feasible to make anime that wasn't directly intended for hardcore Japanese otaku, because they were likely to make up the difference in overseas licensing and sales. But ever since we the overseas fanbase became more interested in making excuses to stick to fansubs ("waah waah, dubs suck, subtitles are too ugly, DVD resolution is too low") instead of supporting the kinds of shows we liked, those kinds of shows have dwindled away. Now, I'm not trying to say "I'm perfect and you all are a bunch of dirty pirates," because I'm certainly a dirty pirate as well. And I'm not saying that nobody here buys any anime, because I know they do. What I
am saying is that we as non-Japanese fans need to take a look at ourselves and our actions, and what role they've played in bringing things to the state they're in today.
Personally, I don't mind the Kanokon/Yumeria/Magikano/Sekirei/(anything based on visual novel) types of anime. In fact, it annoys me
more when I'm watching a fun and sexy fanservice series that kills the mood by actually bringing some serious plot in.
---------------
tl; dr -- You can't blame studios for creating anime for the fans who
actually buy it.