The Anime Economy

[PyTom]

A fairly interesting 3-part series from Anime News Network:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-05
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-07
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-09

[jack_norton]

Interesting, I see quite many similarities with the game development world

[LVUER]

Ah, very interesting, thank you, PyTom. It's enlightening to see that anime industry is finally catching up with internet technology (when will manga industry do that?)

Now we have to educate all people to watch (stream) anime from those legal sites since they could watch it for free (only few ads here and there, no prob, I think) but at the same time supporting all people who make it possible for them to enjoy those animes for free. It's a win-win situation.

Besides, streaming (and torrenting) from illegal sites always risk for virus infection. Who knows what kind of hacker lurks there...

[DaFool]

I've recently given up on almost all TV anime series due to lack of time and the fact that most of them were just about the characters and not really going anywhere, plotwise. I've found more satisfaction with OVAs, miniseries and movies, since they remind me of how plot-packed anime used to be (the eighties and nineties OVAs, before late night runs changed everything by allowing every visual novel derivative -- even the ones that sucked --, and shows started adopting the 4-koma approach after the success of K-On).

It's these B-grade anime (as well as western films) that are suffering. I like them because they're not about the hype, not about the celebrity actors or seiyuus, they're just about the plot, weird as they can be. They're the ones that have low viewerships, can't be sustained on internet impressions and are the ones that really need the DVD sales or the high prices paid by rental shops. They're the shows that are subsidized by the Narutos, DBZs and Full Metal Alchemists. Similar to the games and Hollywood industry, they're the "middle ground" that is now cut out, so now the market is only made of AAA blockbusters, and C-level cheap indie stuff.

Also there's mention of the return of upfront licensing fees and subscriptions... so basically, the publisher model is back with a vengeance... they're now called 'portals'.