アニメ Republic

Anime Expo recently posted up their schedule for the 2009 convention at the Los Angeles Convention Center. After taking a look at it for a few minutes I realized that there were even less industry panels (from US based anime and manga publishers, as opposed to companies that are industry related but do not actually publish or release the stuff) then there had been last year. No longer do you see companies like Geneon, Central Park Media or even ADV as these are just a few examples of those who have folded up, reduced to just re-releasing old stuff or gone dormant.

In the past 18 months there has been a high number of what some people call “license rescues” of various anime titles. The sad fact is that, as noted by John Sirabella on the AnimeonDVD forums, these are less about rescuing anything and more about getting a cheap, already produced (translation, subtitles, dubbing, etc.) show that they can move quickly out the door in Stack-pak type cases. Sadly, it seems that gone are the days of higher end packaging that we once saw in abundance in the early 2000’s. While this doesn’t seem to be a big deal to many of today’s fans who appear to be in an ever increasing quest to find that “absolute zero” of price points, it is still somewhat disheartening.

Some folks have speculated that with the current state of the anime industry and these trying economy times in general that anime and manga in the US will shrink back to the levels it was in the mid-1980’s and prior. Given the degree of impact that technology has had on the anime market/fandom/industry over the past decade I doubt that will ever be the case. A few industry folks have claimed that the dreaded “fansubs” have caused all this economic tragedy. They fail to mention (or realize?) that fansubs have been around since the 1980’s. It’s the delivery method that has changed making it much easier to make and distribute these items. Baring a giant asteroid wiping us all out, technology will continue to improve and therefore as long as anime and manga are made in Japan, there will always be a high level of access available to pretty much anyone who wishes to put in even a minimal amount of effort. And of course you will also still see some amount of commercially released anime in whatever form is the hottest thing at the time whether it be Blu-ray, on-line streaming, crystal or digital projection into your own mind.

One thing I would love to see is anime companies stop trying to please all groups of fans. They try to release one product that will appeal to everyone and at the same time end up appealing to mostly no one. You will never get it cheap enough for the cheapest cheap-ass anime fan and you will never release the highest of high-end for the collector/fan-with-money with only one release. I would love to see companies try a two tier level to releasing anime in the US. If you are going to do “series sets”, as is common with main-line US TV DVD/BD releases, then consider this: two versions where one is ENGLISH AUDIO ONLY and priced VERY low (the Japanese companies will not care about this as there would be no Japanese audio track so what Japanese fan would EVER consider reverse-importing it!) being released as a mass-market item to the likes of Wal-Mart and Best Buy and others of the like. While the other version would be a mirror image of what is released in Japan (but with the obvious additions of English audio and subtitle options) and would be priced much higher – say about 20-30% less then what is charged in Japan, so even if a Japanese fan imported it back to Japan once they added in shipping costs it would be about the same as going down the street and buying it locally – reverse importation eliminated. The only group you haven’t pleased with this scenario is the cheap-ass whining “fans” who want everything in ultra perfect packaging with multiple language options on Blu-ray for $5 per season delivered to their home yesterday by a hot supermodel – naked.

Enjoy!!