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NEWS: TV Tokyo's Iwata Discusses Anime's 'Road to Survival'

Right, let's stop trying to appeal to a wider cultural audience which will limit the appeal of anime even further outside Japan, and let's simply gloss over the efforts of studios such as Gonzo to make shows that can appeal to people from other nations. Limiting the appeal of anime to focus almost exclusively on notions that are inherently Japanese is going to do a troubled industry that relies on profits made in countries other than Japan is so brilliant.

海外対策には、全作品にキリストとかコーランを侮辱するアイキャッチいれれば大丈夫！

In Iwata's view, there is no room for growth since Japanese animation has reached the saturation point in the global marketplace. Due to the worldwide recession and illegal net distribution, Iwata concluded that the North American marketplace is battered, the European marketplace is in grave condition, and the Japanese companies cannot rely on the Middle East, Asia, and other regions as potential new marketplaces. He added, "as it stands, we may have to go back to the way it was in the past — back to selling Japanese animation only to the Japanese marketplace." In order to survive in the current adverse climate, TV Tokyo is proceeding with new initiatives that include animation on American video-distribution sites.

このままでは、日本のアニメを日本の市場だけで売る一昔前に戻るかもしれない
"as it stands, we may have to go back to the way it was in the past - back to selling Japanese animation only to the Japanese marketplace."

It's also very important to note that TV ratings for otaku anime almost never determine their success. One such example would be Code Geass R2 that had piss-poor ratings for its TV time slot, yet it has managed to outsell pretty much every otaku series last year except Macross Frontier (that also didn't make it to your precious Top 10).

Right, let's stop trying to appeal to a wider cultural audience which will limit the appeal of anime even further outside Japan, and let's simply gloss over the efforts of studios such as Gonzo to make shows that can appeal to people from other nations.

Limiting the appeal of anime to focus almost exclusively on notions that are inherently Japanese is going to do a troubled industry that relies on profits made in countries other than Japan is so brilliant.

Since Pokémon and Naruto were both mentioned, I have to wonder this: how much longer will the "really really long shonen show" model prove viable?

Sure, ever since DBZ, there have been plenty of hundred-plus episode series, but a lot of them do follow more or less the same formula, and I can imagine some people getting tired of the same thing ad nauseum.

Sure, these shows have a metric farkton of merchandise, too, but even so, it's not the freshest or most innovative genre. In fact, I wonder if being innovative would help at this point? I imagine they're afraid to try any shows that'd be considered ballsy or daring, preferring to play it safe, as it were.

To quote FUNimation: There is a new 9 year old born every day.

bayoab wrote:

To quote FUNimation: There is a new 9 year old born every day.

In america, maybe. In Japan it's more like every other day.

Heck, just the shows on Crunchyroll now reflect that diverse-but-fandom-appealing base, from Natsume Yuujinchou to Neo Angelique Abyss to Shugo Chara and yes, Naruto and Gintama as well.

1. Research about hardsubbing on fansubs! Try to observe their quality (from karaoke, translations, Fonts, colors, effects, etc)

Unit 03.5-ish wrote:

Right, let's stop trying to appeal to a wider cultural audience which will limit the appeal of anime even further outside Japan, and let's simply gloss over the efforts of studios such as Gonzo to make shows that can appeal to people from other nations. Limiting the appeal of anime to focus almost exclusively on notions that are inherently Japanese is going to do a troubled industry that relies on profits made in countries other than Japan is so brilliant.

To be honest, actually, it might be a brilliant idea, if a number of things come into play.

If MOST anime companies begin to make things for global markets, there will a backlash in the Japanese community... Someone posted this on AoD forums, but there is a sense of "Butter Kusai" = Stinks like butter, that some consumers have in Japan.

If some anime companies (like gonzo, for example) try to appeal too hard to the west, there will be a vacuum left in Japan for "pure" anime made directly for Japanese audiences that a studio could fill.

If, in a troubled economic period, you are that one company that looks inward while all the others look outward, you could be the one that weathers the storm while the others are battered by the global recesion far worse than you.

(Not that this is a good thing for the global consumer, but I could see how a strategy like that MIGHT succeed in the short term if they are lucky)

configspace wrote:

Heck, just the shows on Crunchyroll now reflect that diverse-but-fandom-appealing base, from Natsume Yuujinchou to Neo Angelique Abyss to Shugo Chara and yes, Naruto and Gintama as well.

I wouldn't put too much stock on CR's lineup being eclectic because they wanted "diversity".

Trust me, if they could have traded Natsume and Angelique for Bleach and One Piece they would have in a heartbeat .
The shows they have are the ones they could get, that's all. There might be some amount of experimentation on TV Tokyo's part as well, like with completely unknown shows like "Web Ghost Pipopa" and see how something aimed at a distinctly younger crowd does.

But diversity is a side-effect, not really a goal for them.