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NEWS: Japan's Anime Internet Distribution Market Overtakes Home Video Market


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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 7:05 am Reply with quote
Really depressing news
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Punch Drunk Marc



Joined: 04 Oct 2013
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 7:24 am Reply with quote
Kougeru wrote:
Really depressing news


How so
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 9:28 am Reply with quote
Reading it now, and this is an interesting takeaway:

Quote:
The total box office arising from U.S. animations in North America in 2018 recorded 1,639,010,000 U.S. dollars, 113.8% over the previous year. Looking at shares by studios, Pixar/Disney occupies 49.4%, overwhelming others; Illumination occupies 16.5%; and Sony Pictures Animation, which released three animation works in the year, occupies 21.8%. The three studios occupied 88.7% of the total. What was remarkable was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Oscar winner for Best Animation Feature. Sony Pictures Animation won the Oscar for the first time with this work. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino quoted, “For Americans involved in the film industry, this animation would be the first theatrical animation produced ‘not for children’”. This has a significant meaning for the Japanese animation industry since it recognized that Hollywood has finally advanced into the realm overlapping with the adult animation market that had been Japan’s monopoly. If this trend shifts into high gear, the existence of Japanese animation may be questioned again.


I don't think I've ever seen any Americans describe Spider-Verse as "not for children" -- it got a PG rating. I wonder why it's perceived as such over there? I don't know much about Eirin, but I can't imagine them rating it R-15.
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Erufailon4



Joined: 18 Jun 2019
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 9:55 am Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
I don't think I've ever seen any Americans describe Spider-Verse as "not for children" -- it got a PG rating. I wonder why it's perceived as such over there? I don't know much about Eirin, but I can't imagine them rating it R-15.


Maybe what they were going for there was "not exclusively meant for children". Spider-Verse is a film that I'd argue many adults can enjoy as well, not only because it's a genuinely entertaining and well written film but also because of its visual style and production values. Kinda like how many Studio Ghibli films are rated PG but are considered works of art with an universal appeal.
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eyeresist



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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 12:18 pm Reply with quote
This is a key statistic:
Quote:
The internet distribution market was valued at 59.5 billion yen (about US$561 million), a 10.2% increase from the previous year. The home video market was valued at 58.7 billion yen (about US$553 million), a 23.3% decrease from the previous year, which marks the fifth consecutive year that the home video market decreased.

That's a 13.1% decrease overall. So how come the overall value of the anime industry has held steady? Is it the Western market, or an increase in the sale of peripheral doohickeys?

I'd say the reduced amount of TV anime (with more focus on new properties) is probably a good thing. Hopefully this will lead to a rise in quality.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 2:57 pm Reply with quote
eyeresist wrote:
That's a 13.1% decrease overall. So how come the overall value of the anime industry has held steady? Is it the Western market, or an increase in the sale of peripheral doohickeys?

First, it's important to look at the figures for the size of the market "in the narrow sense." That excludes overseas productions and other things we wouldn't consider to be part of the anime industry.

Comparing 2018 to 2017, three areas showed the most growth:
Overseas grew from 52 to 60 billion yen
Merchandising grew from 34 to 42 billion yen
TV broadcast revenues grew from 69 to 76 billion yen

I thought one of the most interesting comments concerned China. Earlier reports suggested most of the overseas growth in those years came from China. Now, however,

Quote:
A lot of people in the industry mention the slowdown of the Chinese market as the major factor. It is widely known that China imposes strict regulations on expressions in media content, including movies and TV. On the other hand, the regulations on the Internet were considered rather mild until recently. China, however, decided to impose regulations as strict as those applied on the existing media on the Internet due to its growing impact. In addition, it decided to apply the censorship system for conventional media content to Internet content, too. As a result, the reluctance of buyers due to the concern over the impact of the regulations surfaced in the middle of 2018, although the regulations were unenforced until April 2019.


If increased regulations diminish the demand for anime in China, can the rest of the world pick up the slack?
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Rentwo



Joined: 05 Oct 2019
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 5:05 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
I don't think I've ever seen any Americans describe Spider-Verse as "not for children" -- it got a PG rating. I wonder why it's perceived as such over there? I don't know much about Eirin, but I can't imagine them rating it R-15.


I think people are so used to nothing but Disney, Dreamworks, and Illumination films that anything that deviates from the standard kids movie formula even slightly will be seen as groundbreaking or adult. Tomino has always been critical of western media so I guess he's interested to see an American animated movie not in the same formula. I think he's overthinking it though and doubt many other companies will make movies like that since the average kids movie is sitll far more profitable than Spiderverse was.


Last edited by Rentwo on Thu May 07, 2020 5:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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residentgrigo



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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 5:06 pm Reply with quote
The market lost more than it gained if you compare the numbers so that´s not good and Covid-19 is destined to harm the sales of luxury goods outside of production delays. 2020 won´t be kind on this market.

Spider-Verse is a "family film" in the same way most Pixar films are. It´s not more or less mature than Coco or Onward so I don´t get this take. Is Avatar 2009 an "animated film"? Now that´s a question. Why is that film, and I am a fan, a live-action hybrid?

There were also films like FF: The Spirits Within (PG-13), Heavy Metal (R), Fritz The Cat (X), etc. We live in a world where DC heroes regularly show up in R or TV-Ma toons. These are for a niche audience but so is most anime. Even Deadpool almost had one on FX to bring up the House of Mouse before the plug was pulled (canned by Marvel itself) and... Tomino continues to have THE craziest of takes.
The US was making "adult" animation before Japan! All the WB shorts or Private Snafu come to mind.
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Shay Guy



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
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PostPosted: Thu May 07, 2020 9:40 pm Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
First, it's important to look at the figures for the size of the market "in the narrow sense." That excludes overseas productions and other things we wouldn't consider to be part of the anime industry.


I've never been entirely sure, but I think that it means the portion of revenue going to the anime studios themselves?
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enurtsol



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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 4:12 am Reply with quote
Murder, She wrote:

The summary noted that anime fans are spending less on the home video market due to the availability of other alternatives and diversification of consuming patterns.


Maybe that would lead to greater diversification of producing patterns


Murder, She wrote:

The summary noted that continuous daytime anime aimed at kids and family have decreased, but late-night anime series aimed at adults have increased.


We knew this already since the 00's - the disappearing of anime on mainstream TV slots.
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TarsTarkas



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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 8:22 am Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
From the article wrote:
This has a significant meaning for the Japanese animation industry since it recognized that Hollywood has finally advanced into the realm overlapping with the adult animation market that had been Japan’s monopoly.[/b] If this trend shifts into high gear, the existence of Japanese animation may be questioned again.


Couple of wrong takeaways.

Hollywood has not advanced into the realm of mature (usage of adult usually refers to porn) animation. Even it you considered "Spider-Verse" mature animation (which it is not), it would still be an outlier in the animation scene. America does produce mature animation of varying quality, but simply not in the numbers that Japan does.

There will be no questioning of the existence of Japanese anime. While Chinese animation is constrained by the dictates of it's Communist government, American animation is constrained by the American perception that animation is for kids, and the dictates of the religious right and the progressive left.

That still leaves Japan providing anime that hardly anyone else does since the 1980's and beyond.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 1:00 pm Reply with quote
Shay Guy wrote:
yuna49 wrote:
First, it's important to look at the figures for the size of the market "in the narrow sense." That excludes overseas productions and other things we wouldn't consider to be part of the anime industry.

I've never been entirely sure, but I think that it means the portion of revenue going to the anime studios themselves?

The official definition in the report is "estimated revenues of all domestic commercial animation studios," but given the items in the list, I suspect the real earners are the production committees. The studios might get a piece of the merchandising and music revenues, and maybe even a little of the Pachinko licensing fees, but I don't think they see much of any of that. My understanding is that the studios are guns-for-hire who get paid a fixed sum to produce a show and don't share much in aftermarket revenues. Of course, they're also protected against the risk of a flop in this model as well.
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Cardcaptor Takato



Joined: 27 Jan 2018
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PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 5:42 pm Reply with quote
I think people are trying to read too much into Tomino’s comments about Spider-verse. Likely he just means it’s an animated film that’s made for the same broad audience that Marvel and Star Wars are and had a unique art style that’s different from the usual Disney fare. He obviously doesn’t mean it’s on the same level as a hard R movie or something.
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jellybeanbandit



Joined: 18 Jun 2019
Posts: 107
PostPosted: Fri May 08, 2020 8:58 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
Hollywood has not advanced into the realm of mature (usage of adult usually refers to porn) animation. Even it you considered "Spider-Verse" mature animation (which it is not), it would still be an outlier in the animation scene. America does produce mature animation of varying quality, but simply not in the numbers that Japan does.

There will be no questioning of the existence of Japanese anime. While Chinese animation is constrained by the dictates of it's Communist government, American animation is constrained by the American perception that animation is for kids, and the dictates of the religious right and the progressive left.

That still leaves Japan providing anime that hardly anyone else does since the 1980's and beyond.


Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is far more adult than Spider-verse, if you ask me, and that came out back in 1993. As you say, these examples are outliers. There's always going to be the odd animated movie or show that deviates from the standard kids/comedy group American animation, but they're never anywhere near as profitable as the standard so they'll be far and few inbetween and made only by auteurs. Enter the Spider-verse came out 2 years ago and we haven't really seen or heard of any more animated movie being announced to follow it, unless you count the sequel. I don't see anyone rushing to copy it like I do like other fads in the animation world, like all the Adventure Time or Gravity Falls clones.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14876
PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2020 1:18 am Reply with quote
DC animated direct-to-video movies come out every year

And there have been controversial issues, to say the least

https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/dc-animated-movies/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UKbXoda8Io
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