Anime - R.I.P. (An open letter to Himuro)

[Ichirou]

From the desk of the President of Bang Zoom! Entertainment, Eric P. Sherman:

You must have noticed by now that many of the publishers that brought anime to the West have been shut down or substantially down-sized. There are only a few places left still able to bring titles to our shores. This is a critical year for anime. There’s no other way to say it. And I realized this morning that it was time for me to sound an urgent alarm.

If people don’t resist the urge to get their fix illegally, the entire industry is about to fizzle out. It won’t be a big dramatic change at this point. Last year we saw Bandai fire 90% of their staff on one Monday in January, and two years ago we saw Geneon (neé Pioneer) shut their doors and auction off their wares to the highest bidder. CPM died a slow, painful death. And ADV fell hard and fast, the way mighty giants will. But from here on, it won’t be so exciting. Japan is already suffering and struggling to bring out quality titles. They can’t rely on everything being picked up by US distributors anymore. And little by little, it just won’t be here anymore.

You can’t find much anime at Best Buy now. In fact, where can you find it for sale? Think about that.  There are fewer new titles coming out, and less and less stuff will be in English, because it’s just not worth the cost of dubbing it. It’s true that entertainment distribution models are going to be changing dramatically. DVD may be on the way out forever, and online TV is becoming a reality very quickly. But so far, there are no successful ways to monetize online entertainment. Not so that creators can afford to produce and distribute quality content.

Anime is going to die.

Unless YOU change. Right now. Stop stealing. If you have committed theft, robbery, shop-lifting, or just “downloading some stuff through torrent reactor,”  then just stop doing it — now.  You probably wouldn’t go into a supermarket and put a package of swiss cheese under your shirt and walk out without paying. Nor would you walk into Best Buy and try to walk out with Guitar Hero, bypassing the cash register. Why? Is it because you might get caught? Or are there other issues, such as standards of morality, that dictate how you live your life.

The net, for all it’s charms, is also a dark and dangerous place. When you’re navigating it, you need to ask yourself this question:  Is this right, just because it is so easy? You need to understand that quality entertainment costs a lot to create. And if there is no one paying for this content, it just won’t be made anymore. If no one bought tickets to a Lady Ga Ga show, she would not do the tour. That’s just how it works. For some reason, people don’t mind stealing their anime. I’m here to tell you flat out: This is wrong. You are doing something bad. And you need to stop it.

I’m sure that some of you reading this will laugh, close this window, and go download some more torrents. Why not? Who’s going to know? Who’s going to catch you?

I think this bears repetition, so I’ll say it again: Not getting caught does not make what you are doing right. And I am pretty sure it doesn’t make you feel good about yourself.  What you are doing is not only illegal, it is actually hurting many people. From the artists and creators, to the voice actors in the studios — all working to put food on their tables for their families. You can’t see them, and you can’t see the immediate results of your actions. But believe me, you are hurting people.

If what I’m saying resonates with you, then consider this a wake up call. A call to immediate and profound action. It’s very easy to do.  You should support anime if you love it, by paying for it. Do the right thing. Plain and simple. Because if you don’t, I can guarantee you that this time next year, Bang Zoom won’t be bringing you anymore English language versions of it.

To all of those who support anime: a heartfelt thank you from all of us at the studio.

http://goanimetv.com/?p=668

An addendum from me: Viz recently fired 55 of its staff and closed its New York office.  It seems the view from the hill is that anime is definitely on its way out (to no one's tears?).

[Ichirou]

I like owning actual physical media.  Bandai Entertainment currently has the second season of Haruhi Suzumiya in the pipeline.  If that doesn't sell enough to be profitable, they're going to close their North American branch by the end of the year, according to Bang Zoom! Entertainments president.

So basically distantmantra and I will be fucked if we ever want to own new mecha anime DVDs at non-rape prices.

[MCD]

i need blu ray box sets if i am going to support animu and so far there is no darker than black blu ray box in america.

not my problem.

edit: haruhi 2nd season shouldn't be allowed to sell, troll shit.

[Ichirou]

I like owning physical media too, but I got no money so I pull a Mupepe.

Gotcha.

[brawndolicious]

Eh I don't care, its still successful in Japan right?

Aren't the prices ridiculous though?

[Ichirou]

Eh I don't care, its still successful in Japan right?

Aren't the prices ridiculous though?

Yes, the Gundam Unicorn OAV was $40 for less than an hour of anime.

Wrath doesn't care though, since he's just going to download them.

[brob]

let's say this old geezer's wish came true and people stopped downloading anime. They would just go back to that old, outdated and consumer hostile business model that they reveled in (4 episodes per dvd release, etc).

It's not on the consumer to keep a company alive. If your consumers illegally obtain the product you're selling, maybe you need to re-think your business strategy?

 

[brawndolicious]

It's not on the consumer to keep a company alive. If your consumers illegally obtain the product you're selling, maybe you need to re-think your business strategy?
 

don't be in the entertainment industry?  Don't get me wrong, I couldn't possibly criticize somebody for pirating stuff but don't act like it's your right.

[Ichirou]

You pirate stuff, nintenho?  Kind of surprising, considering your profession. 

I would say that's the part I find annoying - nerdlingers pretending like they have a "right" to download movies and TV shows because they "can't afford it" (more like they don't wanna spend the money on entertainment and want to pretend like it's their inalienable right to have it for free).

[brob]

It's not on the consumer to keep a company alive. If your consumers illegally obtain the product you're selling, maybe you need to re-think your business strategy?
 

don't be in the entertainment industry?  Don't get me wrong, I couldn't possibly criticize somebody for pirating stuff but don't act like it's your right.

I'm not saying it's a right, I'm saying it's the reality of the situation. People feel entitled to everything these days, and if you as a business can't adapt you're pretty much fucked cus there's no changing the rampant narcissistic self-importance that's a huge part of today's youth culture.

[brawndolicious]

well that makes sense yeah, it's just hard to imagine any reasonable strategy to get their profits up.

And ichi, I don't have a job and I'm not pursuing any type of entertainment career.

[Human Snorenado]

PLEASE KEEP STEALING ANIME

THEN AFTER IT DIES STERILIZE YOURSELF SO THIS DISEASE ISN'T  PASSED ON TO FUTURE GENERATIONS

[Ichirou]

Triumph, you're so badass. 

[Disposable White Guy]

...and less and less stuff will be in English, because it’s just not worth the cost of dubbing it.

[brob]

Isn't the reason we're seeing so much moe these last few years that only the hardest of uguu~ weeaboos are the only ones left supporting the industry in terms of day one purchasing? I suppose when they over saturate the uguu~ market we're probably going to see faaaar less shows each season. How is the OVA market doing in japan? maybe they can try to salvage themselves by going fully OVA or something close to that...

[Ichirou]

OVA market basically doesn't exist anymore in Japan.

[MCD]

most tv shows nowadays have dvd only specials/ovas though.

stealing incomplete tv shows.

[Disposable White Guy]

What's the word on anime switching over to digital distribution?  I'd pay a fair amount of of fish money for episodes of stuff I never got around to buying on DVD, especially if it were presented in HD.  Is it just not worth it based on the pirate to legit consumer ratio or like too much weird loli shit that would turn people away from the good stuff or what?

[GilloD]

SUGGESTION: New pricing model outside of "3 episodes for 27 dollars!". Maybe that'd help.

[brob]

OVA market basically doesn't exist anymore in Japan.

That's too bad. I don't really watch that much anime anymore, but I would want the market to be viable cus there's always a couple of shows every odd year that interests me. Like, not too long ago there was a show called Mitchiko & Hatchin that was really cool but it was never localized to western markets. Not even in a dvd release with subs.

I tend to check out the listings on gaf each season to see if there is a show on the level of Planetes or something, but it's usually kinder-gardeners and breast milk drinking warriors.  

[Disposable White Guy]

OVA market basically doesn't exist anymore in Japan.

That's too bad. I don't really watch that much anime anymore, but I would want the market to be viable cus there's always a couple of shows every odd year that interests me. Like, not too long ago there was a show called Mitchiko & Hatchin that was really cool but it was never localized to western markets. Not even in a dvd release with subs.

I tend to check out the listings on gaf each season to see if there is a show on the level of Planetes or something, but it's usually kinder-gardeners and breast milk drinking warriors.  

Clearly this is why the industry is failing, because I can't access this easily enough without resorting to some sort of piracy!

[ch1nchilla]

SUGGESTION: New pricing model outside of "3 episodes for 27 dollars!". Maybe that'd help.

BAM

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Whatever hastens the death of anime is fine by me.

Maybe anime at one time had potential but it is now dominated by big tittied lolis and fanwank with fannerds who hug their jizz caked love pillows in delight when the next insipid harem nerdime is announced.

[Don Flamenco]

SUGGESTION: New pricing model outside of "3 episodes for 27 dollars!". Maybe that'd help.

Whatever hastens the death of anime is fine by me.

Maybe anime at one time had potential but it is now dominated by big tittied lolis and fanwank with fannerds who hug their jizz caked love pillows in delight when the next insipid harem nerdime is announced.

combine these things. 

That shit is stupidly expensive and stigmatized for good reason.  There are no quality shows that have widespread appeal...it's all tweeny witches

I can't say I feel this guy's plea for help.   They need alternate streams of revenue.  I'm sure the Japanese branches of these companies have insanely rigid rules about licensing though, which is probably at the root of this crisis.  They'll either sell $30 4 episode DVDs or nothing at all.

[Disposable White Guy]

So then what's the real issue here?  Do Japanese animation studios pump out moe after moe after moe to saturate - what I always assumed was - a niche market or do western production companies simply decide to publish that crap?  I don't have my finger on the heartbeat of the anime world, but I can't remember when the last time was that something really good came out on either side of the ocean.

Before someone restates the obvious, I get the whole piracy issue and that stealing crap is still stealing.  I'm more curious what the current state of anime "quality" is these days.

[Diunx]

 

*Downloads the latest fma episode*

[Van Cruncheon]

i only watch one piece these days, and that's free (subbed, even!) on the web and hulu from funimation itself

like the folks said, it's mostly harem and moe shit these days, so fuck it. occasionally we get a shonen or space series that isn't total wank, but that's a once-every-three-years event. the preznit of bang zoom needs to understand that playing on the morals of animasturbators is a losing proposition.

[Eel O'Brian]

they need to start packing in things like love pilowcases (change to a new girl every week! - wait, this is filthy anime tards - change to a new girl every six months!) and fleshlights with googly loli eyes glued to the top, you can't pirate that shit

or personalized gimmicks,  like an anime tard could pay to have his name dubbed in as replacement for whatever name the subteen is squealing when getting stabbed in the crotch by 800 tentacles at once

instant sales recovery

[Vizzys]

What's the word on anime switching over to digital distribution?  I'd pay a fair amount of of fish money for episodes of stuff I never got around to buying on DVD, especially if it were presented in HD.  Is it just not worth it based on the pirate to legit consumer ratio or like too much weird loli shit that would turn people away from the good stuff or what?

there is a site called crunchyroll that streams anime within a reasonable timeframe of it airing in japan with english subs, they seem moderately successful so far, funimation streams dubs of their stuff online for free i think. And hulu has some stuff as well.

anyway the topic at hand, I dont buy the whining about pirating anime hurts people, it doesn't hurt the Japanese creators who usually don't consider America in their audience/budget. Hurting companies that buy American rights and add soulless dubs to their overpriced/slowly released dvds? Sure I can see that, but its up to them to factor in the numbers and choose to take the risk.

I like Bang Zoom and some english dub actors but dont buy the sob story

Fansubbers do a faster and usually better job, for free. Personally I can live without physical media for 90% of the shows out there. I'm not going to rewatch something unless its really, really up there in quality which nowadays is pretty rare.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

WHERE'S MY DARKER THAN BLACK BLU RAY BOX SET? HUH? HUH? WHERE'S MY MICHIKO AND HATCHIN BLU RAY BOX SET? HUH? HUH? TELL ME DAMMIT!

[drew]

WHERE'S MY DARKER THAN BLACK BLU RAY BOX SET?

in your sisters pants

and eventually yours

[Beezy]

I've stopped downloading anime only because there isn't shit new worth watching.

[Junpei the Tracer!]

WHERE'S MY DARKER THAN BLACK BLU RAY BOX SET?

in your sisters pants

and eventually yours

I have no idea what you're talking about.

[Himu]

I only watch One Piece these days and Funimation offers that for FREE, subbed within the hour of Japanese release, released on the official site.

And I've been supporting One Piece dvds and manga.

I don't give a fuck.

[Himu]

manga > anime

I SUPPORT MANGA. I BOUGHT THE RECENT TEZUKA RELEASES, I BOUGHT THE 800 PAGE TATSUMI BIOGRAPHY.

Keep manga! MANGAMANGAMANGA!

[Diunx]

Comics>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>manga

[Himu]

Manga are comics.

[Phoenix Dark]

If anime cared so much why doesn't it go on tour lolol

[Himu]

I love how the anime industry acts like piracy is the only reason ever for this downfall. Oversaturation, prices, banking too much on the premise that people will buy this shit just 'cuz it's anime, importing just any ol' thang like Super Chocolate Strawberry Princess Jam;etc had nothing to do with it. It was all those filthy pirates!!! I think Funi got it right: release episodes the day they come out in Japan. It's a shame that we could only do this recently due to web video technology, thus making it too late for many companies to attempt recovery, but hey...that's capitalism. /Chris Redfield

[drew]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

i knew id have to spell this one out

WHERE'S MY DARKER THAN BLACK BLU RAY BOX SET?

[Phoenix Dark]

Yea Himu is right. Piracy is speeding up the death, but the companies made their own bed. Looks like it's time to change the business model, but they'd rather sit around and complain alongside music label execs. The market moved whether they like it or not. Embracing Hulu and digital distribution seems like the way to go.

[Stoney Mason]

It's already been discussed so I'll just re-iterate.

A.) Appealing to a wider and broader audience because of a wider and broader subject matter would help.
B.) Having DVD's price properly would help.
C.) Actually putting out really good stuff like at certain times in the past would help. Anime in a general sense has been awful to me for a long time.

The guy who wrote the letter has a point but its a point that isn't relevant to how actual people behave. If your target market is pretty much young people who have a lack of income but who are computer savvy and can get the same material for free, you aren't going to change that behavior by lecturing them on morality. Because lots of people believe it is more moral to keep what money they have in their pocket

[Madrun Badrun]

Anime is too fucking expensive and varies too much in quality to buy without first having seen it.  But then the problem is that hardly anything gets aired on tv, so the only real way to test it is to torrent it.

[Himu]

That too.

But you poor high school and college students don't have MORAL obligations to support our industry?! HOW COULD YOU. 

[Great Rumbler]

The fact that it often takes a year or more for a series to make it from Japan to America is probably at least as big as piracy in killing American distributors. I can wait a few days and download an HD sub for free or I can wait 18 months to pick up a 480i DVD set for $60+ with no special features and MAYBE a boring dub. And they're SHOCKED that people picked the former!

[drew]

finally read the op

die anime DIE

dieeeeeeeeeeeee

[Madrun Badrun]

And shit like this bugs me http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Advd%2Ck%3Aflcl&keywords=flcl&ie=UTF8&qid=1274029613

2 fucking episodes per DVD?  give me a fucking break.

[Himu]

And shit like this bugs me http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Advd%2Ck%3Aflcl&keywords=flcl&ie=UTF8&qid=1274029613

2 fucking episodes per DVD?  give me a fucking break.

I BOUGHT THOSE AT 30 BUCKS A POP

90 bucks for flcl

[Great Rumbler]

And shit like this bugs me http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Advd%2Ck%3Aflcl&keywords=flcl&ie=UTF8&qid=1274029613

2 fucking episodes per DVD?  give me a fucking break.

It's hardly a common thing anymore.

[Himu]

SUre, it's not. But FLCL came out on dvd when this wasn't a common thing anymore. Most shows offered 4-5 eps a dvd and here comes FLCL with 2 eps per dvd and it's a fucking 6 ep show.

[Madrun Badrun]

And shit like this bugs me http://www.amazon.ca/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_i_0?rh=i%3Advd%2Ck%3Aflcl&keywords=flcl&ie=UTF8&qid=1274029613

2 fucking episodes per DVD?  give me a fucking break.

I BOUGHT THOSE AT 30 BUCKS A POP

90 bucks for flcl

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU that's complete bullshit

[Great Rumbler]

SUre, it's not. But FLCL came out on dvd when this wasn't a common thing anymore. Most shows offered 4-5 eps a dvd and here comes FLCL with 2 eps per dvd and it's a fucking 6 ep show.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, Synch Point went out of business not long after releasing FLCL.

[Himu]

I know. I pissed on their corpse.

[Vizzys]

himuro you should check out manga by inio asano, he has some nice english translated stuff

[Bebpo]

Himuro, go watch Baccano & Tatami Galaxy.

Eh I don't care, its still successful in Japan right?

It's not.

Anime is doomed unless they can get digital distro working.  With shows like Tatami Galaxy and House of Five Leaves (best two shows this year) available legitimately on funimations site for streaming, I don't think many people are bothering to pirate it.  If the ads from doing this are enough to support the costs of the show then I think Japan has found their solution (although they need to stream them on the Japan-side as well).  If that's not enough income...well they're fucked.

[Himu]

...

Wasn't I the person who *suggested* you Baccano? I distinctly recall you saying," Himuro was right about Baccano!"

[drew]

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[Himu]

What is Tatami Galaxy? What about the anime from the Baccano folks? I still haven't watched that. Is Funimation offering that via streaming?

[Great Rumbler]

What is Tatami Galaxy?

An awesome show.

[cool breeze]

Didn't fansubs provide a whole lot more exposure for anime.  Before what you'd see a few shows on Toonami or Adult Swim, or butchered shows on other networks, but I don't remember anime coming as fast to America as it did before fansubs took off.

I tried crunchy roll in the past and it seemed to have bad quality and limited featured in hopes of gaining subscribers.  I don't know if they have improved or if there are other solutions now, but if there was a proper Hulu for anime, I don't think there will be much reason to pirate.  Hulu has the show up less than a day after it airs on TV at good quality.  I understand there is more to providing anime like translating and licensing issues, but it seems like downloading anime is more convenient and better quality.

For DVD sales, I buy anime on DVD/bluray if I like it regardless of price.  I bought Gundam Unicorn on blu-ray and it was one episode for like $30-some (right now going for close to $50).  Wow, that's expensive..what the fuck.  anyway, yeah.  Even with something like Doctor Who, I own all the DVD sets.  But I don't buy the dvds for every anime I watch.  It always sounds like when people complain about anime piracy, they think all these people were potential DVD buyers.  Again, provide a proper Hulu like service that can match the convenience and quality of fansubs and I think that could help.

there is also the problem of focusing on the popular shows, which are generally things like Naruto or filthy uguu cartoons.  most new anime is trash.

wow, this tatami galaxy show is on hulu.  this is very convenient.  I will check it out 

edit:

checking out crunchyroll briefly, it seems like it is all membership based.  pay for early access to episodes, 480p or 720p.  seems like $100 a year.

hulu seems fairly current and good, though.  One episode behind on Naruto.