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INTEREST: Cowboy Bebop Writer: Anime Will Die Out in Few Decades

I don't think it's reasonable to say the entire industry will die out within a few decades. Certainly all industries (video games, movies, etc) are not currently willing to take as many risks because they can't afford to lose money. But high-quality shows will continue to be produced even if fewer in number--sure, there's a lot of fluff and crap out there, but plenty of people enjoy it and put their money towards it. That money could potentially fund the next great show.

Also: maybe I'm misunderstanding what Sato was saying here but aren't there too many different age groups watching anime for it to disappear? For example, when I was a kid, I didn't want to watch anything that wasn't animated. Children will still have anime, right?

This reminds me of what people say about print lately. Yeah, there's less money going towards physical newspapers and books due to computers/eReaders, but just because something is less profitable doesn't mean it's going extinct.

As a storywriter, Sato had a big axe to grind about the place of the story in Japanese anime. He complained that his works are labeled “difficult-type” (muzukashii-kei), something like the opposite of “atmosphere type” (kuuki-kei) anime. The latter is the type where nothing happens, or there is no significant plot, narrative or development. They tend to focus on cute characters and be very popular with moe fans. Sato said guys like him get no work, even as “Hollywood rips off our ideas.”

Ranma824 wrote:

rockman nes wrote: Ranma824 wrote: I'll take wish fulfillment nonsense over anything Sato can write every day of the week. I'm a douchebag. Double Fixed.

Seriously?... Seriously?..

Justify your dislike of Sato's work, or shut the f*ck up. Your choice

I love how everyone bats around terms like "good" and "bad" for various shows and genres. We can differentiate between influential shows from those that aren't, but such shows are always coming out. If you don't happen to like certain newer shows, that's fine, but you can't therefore say "anime sucks now," because that's based on your personal taste. Another self-proclaimed anime fan can just as easily say the opposite, and he would base that on his personal taste.

Amethyst Alchemist wrote:

The word "crisis" is becoming frequent in the vocabulary of Japanese anime company employees, and they are starting to realize there must be changes. Like someone mentioned, there are increasing numbers of international ventures and partnerships. It seems part of the way the industry is trying to save itself is by asking for "help" from America. More projects like Afro Samurai are probably on their way

I'd personally love to see this, you can bash Afro Samurai to hell and back but its original, as far as I know theres only ONE afro samurai anime, and its this one, and it did what it set out to do with flying colors, there are many other places outside japan that would love to do this (I'm looking at you France), would it be "traditional" japanese anime? no, but with the way the cookie-cutter shows are being flown off the assembly line, a change of scenery would only do it good, there are other things then being in a highschool japan ^_-

Dagon123 wrote:

there are other things then being in a highschool japan ^_-

(I'm not in high school in Japan if that's what you were trying to say there at the end?)

As things stand, production committees (i.e. TV stations, advertising agencies, DVD distributors) provide the funds for anime productions, and then they are the ones who get to hold onto the copyrights.

Anyway, I think that Sato is right with regards to tsunami of souless moeblob and harem shows.

He also did not criticize fan service, because, just as many Japanese film directors came from the “pink movie” industry, many animators are coming from a background in erotic material (doujinshi, eroge or ero-anime/manga). Sexual desire is part of the creative drive.