Anime is dying in North America

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Mk23
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Anime is dying in North America

Geneon USA /closed/ without handing off distribution to ADV like they had announced.

ADV laid off 13 of its staff, and an executive was quoted as saying: "We all knew this fad would end. It's time we movied on and guided the Americain youth into a more wholsome genre."

FUNimation laid off 10% of its staff.



Things are looking bad. :x
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Can't say I care much, as anime tends to get rectally violated whenever it comes state side anyway, and even worse when it is put on the air.
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AmuroNT1
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Yeah, let's all panic like frightened children because one or two bad things happened in the anime industry recently. Let's completely ignore the companies like Bandai and AnimEgo and CPM and Tokyopop and the rest and assume that the industry is collapsing because one company was closed down and two others had layoffs.

Not to mention, to be perfectly frank, that ADV exec quote sounds like a load of BS to me.
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Mk23
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Well... to be fair, yeah I'm a little panicked.

Although I can see what happened to Geneon, since they were paying for their own dubbing and localization, so their prices were all way higher than the others.

CPM was in financial trouble last year, and that's the last I've heard of them other than tied to anime titles which I haven't bought. Not sure about them.

...For all I know, that exec was one of the 13 people laid off, and the source didn't say what his position with ADVision was. Probably one of the guys tied to their distribution of Farscape or something.
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Kenji
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Dying? Hell no.

The penetration of anime into American youth culture is now so complete that it's fused permanently. Even the teachers are taking note of this and trying to come up with ways to integrate it into their classrooms (I've seen enough journal articles to indicate this).

That, of course, doesn't stop distributor companies from making bad decisions. Too many of them assumed the numbers would just keep rising indefinitely or that they could charge whatever they wanted. So, they ended up saturating the market with too many titles for the consumer base. Geneon's problem was that they were lacking high-profile titles (they got Black Lagoon too little, too late) and, though they certainly didn't lack quality, Lain and Texhnolyze don't attract money.

This also isn't the first time ADV has downsized. They've been on the defensive ever since FUNimation got its collective act together and started making money like gangbusters, sweeping up the popular titles straight out of Japan and making increasingly competent localizations.

So yeah...
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Chris
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I'm sorry, but this whole "the sky is falling" attitude about anime dying is completely overblown. The industry is NOT dying, and anime fans need to get over themselves. And since no source is cited for this supposed quote from an ADV exec, I'm going to declare it complete garbage. That's all I have to say on the subject.
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Destiny_Gundam
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Geneon's not dead yet. Not entirely anyways. They may be in a sick bed, but the disease isn't entirely fatal. They just lost their marketing and distribution departments. They got rid of them because of their impending deal with ADV, but when that fell through, they were left hanging (I wouldn't be surprised if this was all part of ADV's evil master plan). They could just rehire those who were laid off or they could become like Kadokawa Pictures USA, who just hold main lisences and let other companies do the work. The higher ups at Geneon have said that they're in the process of restructuring and they've also said that work is still continuing on Black Lagoon, Nanoha, etc.

Don't kill Geneon off just yet.

As for the anime industry as a whole, I can't see it falling any time soon. Anime is more popular now than it ever was, so unless all the masses suddenly lose interest at once, I don't think the companies are in any danger.
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Destiny_Gundam wrote:Geneon's not dead yet. Not entirely anyways. They may be in a sick bed, but the disease isn't entirely fatal. They just lost their marketing and distribution departments.

...

Don't kill Geneon off just yet.
Forgive me for being skeptical, but every article I read on the matter said Geneon USA was closing its doors permanently. The articles didn't point out only a few departments closing, but the entire American branch going down in flames.

I'm pretty sure Geneon's dead as disco.
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Destiny_Gundam
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I'm not giving up hope just yet!

........ atleast let me have that much.... I want my R1 Nanoha damnit!
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NewtypeS3
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Honestly, if the anime industry is actually going to die, then it's going to be from oversaturation - not Genon goofing up and laying off some of their staff in expectation of a merger/deal or another company going under because of their shoddy practices.
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VR7
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Chris wrote:And since no source is cited for this supposed quote from an ADV exec, I'm going to declare it complete garbage.
What Chris said. If you have no source, like say, an actual link, then you haven't proven that something even happened.
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Weather it dies off like a rotted limb or exlodes into the greatest cultural event of American history (a bit exagerated, but whatever) - the end result is inconsequential to me.

So long as it stays firm in Japan, I'm fine. Gutting anime out of Japan would be like taking organized sports out of America. ie: Improbable to the highest degree.

However, I purchase very, very little US ported titles. The greater bulk of my collecting is imported direct from Japan. A habbit I picked up some 20 years ago and its stuck with me since. With that in mind, I unfortunately cannot adopt the perspective of one who's mainstream immersion comes from the US market. And while I have seen the US industry take a few punches in the past few months, there is still enough left that is growing to compensate.
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Nimrod
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I have to wonder if it was 4kids and not Geneon making this same announcement would folks still declare that anime is dying in North America or would they be rejoicing?

As I see it, all it means is that anime will become a little harder to come by on this side of the world.
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NewtypeS3
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It was more than likely 4Kids, considering they ditched anime shows like it was an atrophied arm... though they were the cause of the atrophy, not the anime itself.
And somehow, I don't think it'll be harder to find. Considering everywhere I've been has had at least a good sixth of their DVD sections dedicated to it (not counting Suncoast, which has more like half of that due to their insane selection and specialization), it's like going down from 1,000 items to 875 items. There's a little less - but nowhere near enough to be noticeable in the end.
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Zero Revenge
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Nimrod wrote:I have to wonder if it was 4kids and not Geneon making this same announcement would folks still declare that anime is dying in North America or would they be rejoicing?

As I see it, all it means is that anime will become a little harder to come by on this side of the world.
I read your post wrong, I thought you said 4Kids was dead. I was happy.

But now I am sad. Heh, seriously though - if 4Kids went under, I'd be ecstatic.
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Heretic
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As people have said before, anime has penetrated North American pop culture too deeply for it to die now. Even if every distributor were to kick the bucket all at once, the market for the product will still remain, and some savvy entrepreneur will wake the opportunity to fill the gap. We’ve all had a taste and can’t go without it now, if a distributor falls, then another will take its place. It is no different from the early days of motion pictures, lots of production companies closed, but we still have movies.
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MrMarch
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I personally have come to believe that anime was fated to remain a niche market in North America, if not internationally. It had plenty of room for growth and grow it did in this last decade. But in order to realize the kind of profit these anime licensing companies wanted would take a major media success and that's just not going to happen with foreign product, right or wrong.

ADV is clear it doesn't want anime-licensing success, it wants Pixar-like success. That executive's quote speaks volumes.

The sad part is anime, especially modern anime, has the potential for massive success in North America. Anime's strength has always been it's willingness to explore a variety of genres in animated form, something North American animation never caught onto until The Simpsons. However, anime must be made for North American audiences using North American appeal to find North American success. It can contain Japanese animation and japanese elements, but it has to feature North American sensibilities and North American style. Think Cowboy Bebop meets The Simpsons/Seinfeld/Friends. Naturally once that happens, the flood gates open with every TV/film production company scrambling to emulate success for more money.

But I can't blame the anime licensing companies for never thinking outside the box. Why would they? It's hard to think that way especially catering to anime fans, a market who likes anime BECAUSE it's NOT North American. For these companies, that is their consumer base. Most anime fans don't want to see some westernized anime-in-name-only. But we aren't the right market to be catering to if your an ADV executive that wants to sell "wholesome" animated productions (IE, big money makers aimed at children). So, it looks like they are getting out to realize their big ticket dreams. Can't blame em, but it is rather lousy for us.

Anime won't be going anywhere in North America, but that includes going upward. I think we're still going to see a modest amount of licensed anime but the market won't be growing like it once did.
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NewtypeS3
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...but we've basically confirmed that ADV's guy in charge didn't say that - that it was probably some random lower-exec... who has no say in anime whatsoever. And, in fact, it was probably the one from 4Kids. After all, 4Kids makes TV for children and takes great 'joy' in making anime 'wholesome.'
ADV, meanwhile, licenses the hell out of Nagai/Nadesico/Evangelion/Puni Puni Poemi/Excel Saga/Anything BUT wholesome.

I mean, while I don't think it's completely fake, it's a little hard to believe the head of ADV said that.
Last edited by NewtypeS3 on Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Well said MrMarch, can't say I disagree with you.
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Chris
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MrMarch wrote:ADV is clear it doesn't want anime-licensing success, it wants Pixar-like success. That executive's quote speaks volumes.
That "quote" says nothing because it's an unsourced piece of garbage. Don't look for insight from it, as it either came from an untrustworthy source or was just made up by the original poster.
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