And how many people watch that copy? It takes far fewer rental DVDs to cover the same audience. Plus, what if I just borrow the DVDs from someone else who already bought them? What if my friends and I all share our DVDs?
Not unless you like the show and you want to watch it anytime you want AND be able to have a whole series without having to wait.
The problem is, I already own pretty-much every show that currently exists which I also intend to do such with. I really have no desire to show/watch the vast majority of anime I see ever again.
I might be talking out of my rectum now, but isn't it also the case that rental companies like Netflix or the video store down the street have to pay rental fees as compensation. At least a licensed copy that can be rented for profit should cost some extra. Maybe that is just the case here, but DVDs here often say something along the lines of "not for rental purpose" somewhere on the box.
What the hell? ANN has a crazy news story saying something about trailers for several ADV shows being taken down. Everyone is freaking out saying the company is the next to go, but I hope its just a misunderstanding.
Its probably a good thing that the US anime industry is failing, because then they can be replaced by people and companies that can actually do things well.
Repost for emphasis. Anime companies generally are not known for being run well. There's no reason to care if these companies go under. If they're incompetent, then someone else will come along and do it right.
If they're incompetent, then someone else will come along and do it right.
If it's worth doing at all. Some businesses are just not profitable, no matter what you do. I could start a business delivering ice like the olden days, and I could run that business the best way it could possibly be run. However, since people have refrigerators, nobody wants ice, and there's no money to be made.
Your analogy doesn't relate at all, but I understand what you mean.
There is at least a perceived market for anime. From the perspective of a buisness person looking at how many people are committed to the stuff enough to subtitle it themselves and create fan works from it, it seems like a hot and untapped market. As long as people are interested, some company is always going to try to capitalize on it.
The distributors (except one that starts with B and rhymes with...Andai Visual) are trying hard to meet fans halfway with digital distribution, VOD offerings, online stuff, and cheaper DVD's. If there's a show you loved fansubbed, throw the creators a bone. You kind of owe that to them. Hell, when I DL a show that won't come out in the US like ever, I at least buy a soundtrack or something just because I like the show (so what if I can torrent that crap).
Found this on Neogaf, said it was posted over on ANN, but I don't see it on the front page.
"ADV Cancels 37 Titles Anime Offerings on 'Indefinite Hiatus' Canceled January 28, 2008
In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately." The list includes virtually all of the properties that ADV has announced since its financing deal with the Sojitz Corporation (see "Japanese Investment Bulks Up ADV") in late June of 2006. The properties that ADV has announced (and released) since then are from a variety of anime studios but they were all licensed through the ARM Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment, an investor group that included the Sojitz Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan and KlockWorx. In its letter to retailers ADV explained: "ADV has suspended certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation, which financed the acquisition of these titles. ADV is working closely with various constituencies with the goal of restoring most if not all of these properties to our release schedule at a later date to the extent possible."
The list includes properties that have already been released in their entirety such as Nerima Daikon Brothers, Guyver, and 009-1, series such as Pumpkin Scissors, Kurau Phantom Memory, and Red Garden that have only been partially released, and eagerly awaited anime such as Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann and 5 Centimeters per Second that have been announced for later this year. The complete list of ADV anime properties on hiatus is:
009-01 5cm Per Second Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy Air Gear Air Movie Air TV series Best Student Council Blade of the Phantom Master Comic Party Revolution Coyote Ragtime Devil May Cry Ghost Train Gurren Lagann Guyver Innocent Venus Jinki: Extend Kanon TV Series King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven Kurau Phantom Memory Le Chevalier D'Eon Magikano Moeyo Ken TV Series Moonlight Mile Nerima Daikon Brothers Pani Pani Dash! Project Blue Pumpkin Scissors Red Garden Synethesia The Wallflower Tokyo Majin UFO Princess Valkyrie - Third and Fourth Seasons Utawarerumono Venus vs. Virus Welcome to the NHK Xenosaga
Coming on the heels of Geneon's departure (see "Geneon Ankles American Anime Scene") the ADV announcement is more bad news for the reeling North American Anime Industry. For the past few years ADV has been the number two anime company in the North America, with a solid 12-13% share of the anime DVD market. Recently though ADV has been showing signs of stress. It has pulled its support from its industry-leading collection of anime clubs and two weeks ago announced that it would cease publication of Newtype USA (see "Newtype USA Ending"). The collapse of ADV's deal with ARM does not necessarily mean the end of one of the trailblazing American anime companies, which was founded in 1992. ADV still has an extensive library of titles including the ever-popular Neon Genesis Evangelion. Still the fate of ADV subsidiaries such as The Anime Network, the Newtype successor PiQ (see "Newtype Successor Broadens Focus"), and the ADV manga publishing program that includes the bestselling Yotsuba&! manga remains in the balance as does the future of one of the pioneering powerhouses of the American anime market."
It was in the forum thread. I'm mostly discussing it over there. Here's a screenshot of it before it was taken down. It says it was sent to retailers but thanks to Tempest's investigating and Robert of Roberts anime corner store coming forth it wasn't the case.
Well it's leaked now so they all know by now. The Internet is fast like that.
This doesn't look like this is a problem of them getting crushed due to lack of sales, but instead was a bad business deal. Time will tell. In all honesty, Yotsuba&! is the only thing I really care about. If Yotsuba&! gets lost in the shuffle somewhere, I will start a campaign to find any way possible to continue publishing it in English.
I wanted my Gurren. I was waiting to watch that legit like. Oh well. Due to this news the only way I'm going to get it is fansubs. If things change and they bring out the series I'll buy. Just not in single in case they ut it of again.
Devil May Cry Gurren Lagann King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven Pani Pani Dash! Xenosaga
NO! Those were some of the only anime that piqued my interests in their upcoming releases! They were finally going to release the Jing movie, too! GODDAMMIT!
Never fear! I'm just reposting this stuff from another forum, but this is the story now:
"The article on Sojitz and ADV you refer to was one of several contingency articles we prepared and posted on a staging site. Although that staging site is not accessible through ICv2 navigation, an unpublished article was indexed by Google using a spidering technique of which we had previously been unaware. We discovered the Google indexing within an hour or two of when it occurred and immediately removed the article from our staging site (along with any other unpublished articles). Unfortunately, the article was cached by Google and has now been brought to the attention of anime fans. It's unfortunate because as this is written, the article isn't true. It may still be one of several possible outcomes of the current situation, but as far as we know today ADV has not sent a notice to its retailers or placed the titles in question on hiatus and may not, pending the outcome of events that are still unfolding. We regret that our efforts to prepare for any eventuality led to this draft article becoming public and have taken steps to prevent such an event from happening again. "
While it should, I know that if I were a member of the media, especially in a specific area, I'd sure as hell run my own spiders that ignored robots.txt selectively looking for just such gems.
While it should, I know that if I were a member of the media, especially in a specific area, I'd sure as hell run my own spiders that ignored robots.txt selectively looking for just such gems.
If I were evil Google, I would have a secret separate internal service that ignored the robots.txt and allowed people to only search the "hidden" web. I'd then sell or use information I found.
Here's more evidence of of why the anime industry is not doing so well. True Tears and Shigofumi were licensed by Bandai a couple days ago. Shigofumi is actually a pretty neat show and I'm sad it got licensed so soon. However, True Tears is freaking horrible! I don't understand why anyone watches it let alone paid a huge sum of money for it!
I think that the big problem is that the market is not big enough. There was a time in which all american anime distributors were getting all kind of show, good and bad. People that were not able to obtain anime that easily were happy and bought a bunch no matter how good those shows were. Now after a while those kids kind of grew up or became more knowledgeable about good anime. However, the industry did not and they continue releasing all kinds of anime.
I get the japanese industry is at fault also because is not looking at a global economy, I mean most shonen shows will always sell but there are not many that will conquers all the markets in the world. Dragonball is a rare exception. I mean Saint Seiya still huge in Asia, Latin America and Europe. However, it did nothing for the USA anime fans. However, it is still big enough to be continue being release in manga and anime. But then again that one got here late and was destroyed by DIC.
It looks that most of the shows are made for "otaku" but really I only want to watch good shows. However, now with school I barely have time to watch anime anymore. So have decided to go back to my roots and if I save some extra cash will be to travel and find olf vintage toys (just like the ones I used to play with) from my trips to different countries.
Comments
There is at least a perceived market for anime. From the perspective of a buisness person looking at how many people are committed to the stuff enough to subtitle it themselves and create fan works from it, it seems like a hot and untapped market. As long as people are interested, some company is always going to try to capitalize on it.
"ADV Cancels 37 Titles
Anime Offerings on 'Indefinite Hiatus'
Canceled
January 28, 2008
In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately." The list includes virtually all of the properties that ADV has announced since its financing deal with the Sojitz Corporation (see "Japanese Investment Bulks Up ADV") in late June of 2006. The properties that ADV has announced (and released) since then are from a variety of anime studios but they were all licensed through the ARM Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment, an investor group that included the Sojitz Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan and KlockWorx. In its letter to retailers ADV explained: "ADV has suspended certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation, which financed the acquisition of these titles. ADV is working closely with various constituencies with the goal of restoring most if not all of these properties to our release schedule at a later date to the extent possible."
The list includes properties that have already been released in their entirety such as Nerima Daikon Brothers, Guyver, and 009-1, series such as Pumpkin Scissors, Kurau Phantom Memory, and Red Garden that have only been partially released, and eagerly awaited anime such as Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann and 5 Centimeters per Second that have been announced for later this year. The complete list of ADV anime properties on hiatus is:
009-01
5cm Per Second
Ah! My Goddess: Flights of
Fancy
Air Gear
Air Movie
Air TV series
Best Student Council
Blade of the Phantom Master
Comic Party Revolution
Coyote Ragtime
Devil May Cry
Ghost Train
Gurren Lagann
Guyver
Innocent Venus
Jinki: Extend
Kanon TV Series
King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven
Kurau Phantom Memory
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Magikano
Moeyo Ken TV Series
Moonlight Mile
Nerima Daikon Brothers
Pani Pani Dash!
Project Blue
Pumpkin Scissors
Red Garden
Synethesia
The Wallflower
Tokyo Majin
UFO Princess Valkyrie - Third
and Fourth Seasons
Utawarerumono
Venus vs. Virus
Welcome to the NHK
Xenosaga
Coming on the heels of Geneon's departure (see "Geneon Ankles American Anime Scene") the ADV announcement is more bad news for the reeling North American Anime Industry. For the past few years ADV has been the number two anime company in the North America, with a solid 12-13% share of the anime DVD market. Recently though ADV has been showing signs of stress. It has pulled its support from its industry-leading collection of anime clubs and two weeks ago announced that it would cease publication of Newtype USA (see "Newtype USA Ending"). The collapse of ADV's deal with ARM does not necessarily mean the end of one of the trailblazing American anime companies, which was founded in 1992. ADV still has an extensive library of titles including the ever-popular Neon Genesis Evangelion. Still the fate of ADV subsidiaries such as The Anime Network, the Newtype successor PiQ (see "Newtype Successor Broadens Focus"), and the ADV manga publishing program that includes the bestselling Yotsuba&! manga remains in the balance as does the future of one of the pioneering powerhouses of the American anime market."
Well it's leaked now so they all know by now. The Internet is fast like that.
EDIT: I can't find that ANYWHERE on ANN.com. Mind providing a link?
I wanted my Gurren. I was waiting to watch that legit like. Oh well. Due to this news the only way I'm going to get it is fansubs. If things change and they bring out the series I'll buy. Just not in single in case they ut it of again.
"The article on Sojitz and ADV you refer to was one of several contingency articles we prepared and posted on a staging site. Although that staging site is not accessible through ICv2 navigation, an unpublished article was indexed by Google using a spidering technique of which we had previously been unaware. We discovered the Google indexing within an hour or two of when it occurred and immediately removed the article from our staging site (along with any other unpublished articles). Unfortunately, the article was cached by Google and has now been brought to the attention of anime fans. It's unfortunate because as this is written, the article isn't true. It may still be one of several possible outcomes of the current situation, but as far as we know today ADV has not sent a notice to its retailers or placed the titles in question on hiatus and may not, pending the outcome of events that are still unfolding. We regret that our efforts to prepare for any eventuality led to this draft article becoming public and have taken steps to prevent such an event from happening again. "
I get the japanese industry is at fault also because is not looking at a global economy, I mean most shonen shows will always sell but there are not many that will conquers all the markets in the world. Dragonball is a rare exception. I mean Saint Seiya still huge in Asia, Latin America and Europe. However, it did nothing for the USA anime fans. However, it is still big enough to be continue being release in manga and anime. But then again that one got here late and was destroyed by DIC.
It looks that most of the shows are made for "otaku" but really I only want to watch good shows. However, now with school I barely have time to watch anime anymore. So have decided to go back to my roots and if I save some extra cash will be to travel and find olf vintage toys (just like the ones I used to play with) from my trips to different countries.