MovieChat Forums > R.O.D the TV (2003) Discussion > it's been an interesting decade for anim...

it's been an interesting decade for anime in America

posted 14 years ago by thecalhouns
8 replies | jump to latest

this'll probably be my last imdb post for this decade so I thought I'd just take a quick moment and talk about the anime industry in America over this past decade and the future...

well it was a damn interesting decade for anime, at the start of the decade anime went from being a relatively obscure niche, to pretty large heights.....and then down again...

in about the mid years of this decade (2003 2004 2005) anime was steadily growing and growing, however in 2007 with the death of Geneon (which was my favorite anime company) signaled dark times for the industry (hey! sort of like how the collapse of Lehman Brothers collapse signaling all the economic troubles!)

now freakin' ADV has died, ADV man, the company that started it all...

so now Funimation basically rules the roost, they're a fine company, but it's still disconcerting that there's only one anime company out there that's still doing good,I hate to be a cynic, but let's just say that I have worries for the future of anime in America

it also makes me sad to think of so many series (R.O.D being key among them) that were really poplar back when they first came out, but seem all but forgotten these days

anyway I'm not gonna go into too much detail as to the cause of the industry's woes, I'll just say that I think it was a combination of internet piracy and the companies charging pretty outrageous prices for dvds (over 100 bucks for a boxset? who has that kind of money?) that did it, plus there was the fact that for the tech savvy anime fans who downloaded fansubs when an anime company would finally get around to releasing a series it would seem old hat

of course here's some hope for you, I've noticed now that boxsets are released more frequently and they're priced at more reasonable prices and there's websites like Crunchyroll and Hulu that stream anime (in the case of Hulu it's free) and I think that's what the anime industry really needs to do is to adapt with the times and thankfully it seems to be doing that

anyhoo those are just my thoughts, feel free to debate me, see ya in 2010!

back in 98 I did a titty comedy for Skinemax. Sex Camp, ya remember it?

[–] CountOroku01 14 years ago

It was terrible for Mexico.

[–] CountOroku01 14 years ago

In Mexico it sucked.

[–] thecalhouns 14 years ago

yay, someone else has posted here

come visit my review blog!

http://griffsrandomreviews.wordpress.com/

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

What do you think of the current decade so far?

Can't stop the signal.

[–] thecalhouns 9 years ago

Things have gotten way, way better, in fact I've even heard some people say we're already in another anime "boom".

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

There have been a lot of good movies released.

I particularly enjoyed Welcome to the Space Show and Patema Inverted.

Can't stop the signal.

[–] thecalhouns 9 years ago

I think what happened was this, the 00's was the decade that nerd culture became mainstream and because it was the early days the rules had not yet been written and those working in anime publishers in the US did not know what the limits were to anime fandom in the US, how mainstream it could get.

Because of this they overestimated way too much, printing too many dvds, licensing too many series, in the case of ADV they infamously wasted a bunch of money trying to get a live action Evangelion movie made.

But anime was never going to be as big as say Marvel and DC superheros, anime, being foreign, is always going to be a bit of a niche in the US, but publishers understand that better know, they know the audience better and can estimate how many dvds/blu rays to print, no longer waste money on merchandise like ADV did etc.

Plus services like Crunchyroll help prevent fansubs from undercutting the industry as much as it used to.

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

I agree. They figured they could bring over any and all anime, and it would sell. They failed to realize that anime, like any other form of story telling, has its good stories and its crappy stories. There's more bland than awesome.

Can't stop the signal.