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INTEREST: Director Hideaki Anno Laments Over Anime's 'Decline'


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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:15 pm Reply with quote
He really is Miyazaki's pupil!

I think he's just unable to see how the modern production system works. He's a creative type, not one to fiddle with the overall mechanics of the industry. He's also been saying the same thing for decades.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
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Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:18 pm Reply with quote
I think the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie is bigger proof of aniime's decline than anything else.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:31 pm Reply with quote
H. Guderian wrote:
He really is Miyazaki's pupil!

I think he's just unable to see how the modern production system works. He's a creative type, not one to fiddle with the overall mechanics of the industry. He's also been saying the same thing for decades.


Exactly. Whether he is right about a "decline" in anime is debatable, but I've seen him make similar comments for quite some time and anime keeps on trucking. I might be inclined to agree that there is a lot of "sameness" in the industry, but that has been a problem for a long time. The truly unique series have always been fairly rare.
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
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Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:31 pm Reply with quote
It seems 55 is the official age when people start thinking everything is wrong nowadays and everything was golden 20 or 30 years ago. Maybe they think that because they can no longer procure the funding for their old fashioned projects thru traditional channels, then everybody must be in the same boat. I might give him the benefit of the doubt if the previous year we were not having a record of anime series produced, even though sales of discs took a nosedive in said year and the trend seems to continue unto this year. To me it is clear that streaming is bringing in profits that were not on the table a decade ago and cgi is bringing the production costs down.

His comment about anime leaving towards another country and that in doing so it will spark "something new" is wishful thinking of the highest order, he can no longer cope with the fast changes in the industry and wishes that all goes bust so that "something new" that resembles what he knew 30 years ago magically appears.


Last edited by mangamuscle on Tue May 26, 2015 3:38 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Carlooo



Joined: 10 Apr 2008
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:34 pm Reply with quote
Yeah, indeed, after reading the title my first thought was "He has been talking to Miyazaki too much".

I'm just wondering how he envisions an industry that produces so much content at the moment just being completely eradicated within five years. I do predict some animation studios going out of business in the coming years, but not the collapse of an entire industry. That would be crazy.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:39 pm Reply with quote
He makes a good point about the rise of other animation industries from other Asian countries. But I doubt the industry in Japan will die, if they can come up with some more big hits like Attack on titan, then a lot more revenue will pour into the industry, and can see more big budget films like Redline.

I mean it can't be too bad, if Uru in Blue, the sequel to Royal Space Force - The Wings of Honnêamise, is getting a $40 million budget.

Some of this is just wishful thinking, trust me there are people whose attitude is, "If it's not how I want I to be, then it should just die."
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Moroboshi-san



Joined: 06 Apr 2015
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:42 pm Reply with quote
mangamuscle wrote:
His comment about anime leaving towards another country and that in doing so it will spark "something new" is wishful thinking of the highest order...

I don't think so. I think he means countries like China, Vietnam, Korea, etc where practically all anime is animated these days anyway. It is easy to see that these guys will develop beyond just in-betweening work very quickly.

K-pop has completely beaten J-pop these days so there is an example how this will go.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Indeed, while I love many kinds of anime (I just got a shipment of GitS and Sailor Moon today, for example) and give a fair chance to overseas animation (of the 2D variety), I don't see any country coming up to do what Japan does.

France has amazing animators for some time. Just watch what the students at Goeblins put out. European animation schools constantly have stellar work come out but fail to materialize commercially as a whole industry. I was thrilled to see "The Reward:Tales of Alethrion" is going to be more than just a school project thanks to Kickstarter.

We have many projects coming up through new methods. Yet even the Japanese folks behind "Under The Dog" point out that while it worked this time, using Kickstarter has made them realize the many benefits that the Production Committee system has. You almost always hear people complain about that.

Infact, maybe the Production Committee system is a big chunk of the reason anime endures.

Miyazaki hates Production Committees and Tezuka's anime, because he feels they ruined the art form. I can easily tell you there are a near unquantifiable amount of good anime-as-art given to us by this system.

AAaAAaaaalso!
Anime has become a Culture unto itself. It'll keep going.

As to other asian countries where the inbetweening is shopped out to coming up with their own domestic industries.
The USA has it's own industry. They went 3D or bust, and even before animation was for kids. Even Adult Swim with Cartoon Network hasn't become "Mainstream" like a Disney movie.
Europe has TONS of great animators. There's a Toei-France collaboration. My Little Ponies was shipped out of the Philipines, iirc.

The rest of the world wants to make 3D and Vector based animation. Even Anno himself says 3D animation is the future. Japan's anime has a niche no one else is really trying to fill at this time.


Last edited by H. Guderian on Tue May 26, 2015 3:48 pm; edited 1 time in total
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:46 pm Reply with quote


Move along, nothing to see here.
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Hameyadea



Joined: 23 Jun 2014
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:49 pm Reply with quote
I understand what he tried to convey: in an industry where those in the bottom can barely earn a living (and it doesn't matter if they like their job or not; fondness towards one's occupation while earning very low salaries can't magically put more food on the table), the increased number of anime projects, longer work days, with the rest off-loaded to abroad.

Like the bubble burst of early 00's, Anno thinks that this Mainly Digital bubble is reaching its breaking point.
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rizuchan
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Joined: 11 Mar 2007
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:50 pm Reply with quote
Truthfully I've been wondering about the sustainability of the current anime model of turning out 30+ new shows a season, especially since they then attempt to charge so much for LE releases when the vast majority of the shows (by Sturgeon's law) are crap. It just screams of impending industry crash.

But despite generally low sale numbers this model appears to be profitable. We just have to hope that the animators don't start demanding livable wages.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
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PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:53 pm Reply with quote
Well, I read the article and he mostly seems to be concentrating on the sustainability of the industry in Japan from a production point of view, as opposed to, "zomg, everything new sucks." I don't know enough about the nuts and bolts of the anime production industry to judge whether his concern is merited or not, but it strikes me that the current system might be unsustainable. The Japanese anime production system seems to be based on a relatively small cadre of otaku who are willing to pay steep prices for titles. What happens if this cadre continues to age and shrink and isn't replaced by new, like-minded otaku? It's hard to see how anime production would adapt to a new financing model other than to shrink the number of titles made and concentrate on ones that have a shot of something approaching mass appeal.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
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Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:54 pm Reply with quote
The only thing I'm certain of after 56 years of life is this, I have no idea what exactly will happen next and neither does anyone else.

So whatever happens with Anime in the next 5 or 10 years it is virtually certain that it won't be what Anno, Miyazaki, the ANN Braintrust or least-of-all I think will happen.

Mark Gosdin
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:54 pm Reply with quote
You know, it might help if anime didn't become a crass merchandising gimmick meant to legitimize and cash in on self-absorbed otaku. But Anno wouldn't know anything about that, now would he? Rolling Eyes
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2015 3:55 pm Reply with quote
...actually, unlike other people, I don't understand what he's trying to convey: he says that anime is declining and won't last other 5 years, but I don't see any specific reasons listed, or whether he means that the medium will completely disappear to give rise to something new, or that it'll become something new.

Though this could very well be the original article's fault, I'd really like to see his actual reasons for believing this ("apprehensions over a looming potential loss of both funding and human resources" is not really an in-depth explanation, and there's only so much we can assume from this) before seeing if I can agree with him or not.
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