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Old 2009-03-11, 09:29   Link #134
Bri
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Quote:
Originally Posted by Slice of Life View Post
There is a market. And there is an audience. And there is the question whether there is a bursting anime bubble. And when you look at what generates the traffic in this forum, then - random popular example - Toradora beats Miyazaki's whole opus. So the question what happens to the anime subculture is not decided at Studio Ghibli but at the studios that produce the Toradora's.

<snip>
I think you hit the core of the discussion here. I don't think the anime market is collapsing. People still want to watch quality anime, going mainstream will not help the subculture. Going mainstream means catering for a mass audience, with the result being a bland product that is somewhat to everyones taste all over the world, like Disney.

What keeps anime interesting is that it serves a niche market ( or several niche markets given the number of genres in anime). Compare it to the independant producers in music or comics who tailer their products for a smaller fanbase that wants something else then what the mainstream delivers. Therefore anime is still as viable as ever. The current economic crisis will hurt but it wont be worse then the fallout of the 90s economic crisis for Japan, if anything the companies should be more resilient due to their previous experiences.

The current problem is twofold:

1) A sector problem:

the people who make anime are not earning enough and a lot of talent is lost as these people leave for other better paying employers. The cause is not a bubble/burst in anime but an inefficient system of subsidaries that loses to much of the money before it reaches the production companies. The solution is mergers between studions for market power or vertical intergration. Production companies merging with the production commitees or merchandise manufacturers. An example is studio Satelight which joined the Sankyo group in 2006 for financial safety or in the 80s Bandai purchasing Sunrise.

2) Captalisation issue:

Dvd sales are dropping (for whatever reason). It's not the first time the anime sector has to adapt to a new way of making money of their product. From different formats (movie/TV to OVA market) to changes in audience (tastes of a more mature audience). At the end of the day the core product is entertainment trough the medium of animation. No matter the audience or way of distribution. New ways of earning money can be online distribution (Kadokawas Yahoo experiment), more focus on merchandise (more Haruhi dolls anyone?) or a new way we haven't even thought off.

As long as people want animated entertainment there will be a way to make money of that desire and the anime industry will have a future.
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