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INTEREST: Gainax Co-Founder Okada Shares Thoughts on Illegal Copying

These arguments express entitlement more than almost anything else.

HBO's business model is wildly successful for them. They have millions and millions of subscribers.

It's like pointing to a crowded bakery with a line out the door and down the block every day and saying "I don't like the way they sell bread there, that place is a failure".

The example presents a non-sequitur. The fact a given bakery is crowded doesn't mean it's being run properly. It could be that that bakery is taking a loss on each piece of bread it sells and will eventually fail.

Sure, but are you saying it's impossible for them to do better, simply because they are doing well? This is a non-sequitur that you don't state but you certainly seem to imply.

While the Japanese industry has never been okay with illegal copies of the original anime or manga (that is, simply making unauthorized copies of an anime episode or a manga chapter), they generally tolerate and have even offered tacit endorsement of fans making (and also selling) fan works that use the original's characters or situations--I'm talking about doujinshi, of course. To show how long this co-existence has been around, consider that Comic Market was founded in 1975, before the anime boom of the late 1970s, and twenty years before manga would reach its circulation peak in Japan.

There have been cases where a particular Japanese company cracked down on a doujinshi. But generally speaking, a fan in Japan can draw a short comic using some anime or manga's characters, and perhaps even sell several thousand copies of it, and they are not going to get into trouble over it with the industry, the way people involved in illegal copying have been in Japan. If this weren't so, Comike and other doujinshi cons could not have grown to the size they are, not to mention brick-and-mortar doujinshi stores like Toranoana.

People sometimes say here that Japanese companies are behind the times, but there have been other Western IP commentators who are amazed at the relatively open and progressive environment toward intellectual property that the doujinshi scene represents. But like all environments, it requires a balance, and part of that balance in Japan has been that the original works themselves would be purchased, not just the doujinshi

That's just doujinshi though. That's a little different from how they are responding to actual piracy.

But on that subject and digital, didn't Yoshitoshi Abe try to self-publish a Manga on iOS a while back? I remember he tried to simultaneously publish it in several languages too. Given your description of the doujinshi market, I wonder if the onset of digital has had any effect on that.

Unfortunately, anime is severely underpriced

Since this is a business model which mainly concerns money, the adage "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" fits awfully well here. "If the model works, why complicate things?" is probably on the company's mind.

Lastly you've got Manga - a medium in which the bootleg distributors are light years ahead of the official industry. We need the manga equivalent of simulcasts with digital subscriptions, or just put everything on Kindle. Again, Shonen Jump Alpha is a nice start.

Well, take into consideration anyone who watched/watches anime on television. They do not buy anything and simply view it on television. They never miss an episode, even if it is a rerun, but they never buy anything. In a scenario where the show is available on basic television stations and not cable or above. Are they considered a fan?

This is really an empirical argument, and if you really believe it's true you should probably start a business and prove it by outperforming the existing companies outside Japan.

Carl Horn wrote:

While the Japanese industry has never been okay with illegal copies of the original anime or manga (that is, simply making unauthorized copies of an anime episode or a manga chapter), they generally tolerate and have even offered tacit endorsement of fans making (and also selling) fan works that use the original's characters or situations--I'm talking about doujinshi, of course. To show how long this co-existence has been around, consider that Comic Market was founded in 1975, before the anime boom of the late 1970s, and twenty years before manga would reach its circulation peak in Japan. There have been cases where a particular Japanese company cracked down on a doujinshi. But generally speaking, a fan in Japan can draw a short comic using some anime or manga's characters, and perhaps even sell several thousand copies of it, and they are not going to get into trouble over it with the industry, the way people involved in illegal copying have been in Japan. If this weren't so, Comike and other doujinshi cons could not have grown to the size they are, not to mention brick-and-mortar doujinshi stores like Toranoana. People sometimes say here that Japanese companies are behind the times, but there have been other Western IP commentators who are amazed at the relatively open and progressive environment toward intellectual property that the doujinshi scene represents. But like all environments, it requires a balance, and part of that balance in Japan has been that the original works themselves would be purchased, not just the doujinshi

That's just doujinshi though. That's a little different from how they are responding to actual piracy.

Xanas wrote:

This is really an empirical argument, and if you really believe it's true you should probably start a business and prove it by outperforming the existing companies outside Japan.

Aniplex USA has already proven that it does work. They sold out of their Kara no Kyoukai Blu-rays during preordering. The day it came out, it had been sold out for months. The collection of 7 movies went for $398.98. That's 640 minutes, which equals about $0.62 a minute or $37.39 an hour. You can still buy the collection for over $700 at the cheapest.

Honestly, when was the last time an anime company sold out in the United States of an item aside from Aniplex USA? Plus, I remember many people complaining about the price, but the company still sold out, why might that be? For outperforming, I'm not sure, since I do not have the numbers for Aniplex USA nor other anime companies. It seems that Aniplex USA outperformed Bandai, as Aniplex USA is still acquiring anime licenses.

Aniplex USA has already proven that it does work. They sold out of their Kara no Kyoukai Blu-rays during preordering. The day it came out, it had been sold out for months. The collection of 7 movies went for $398.98. That's 640 minutes, which equals about $0.62 a minute or $37.39 an hour. You can still buy the collection for over $700 at the cheapest.

Honestly, when was the last time an anime company sold out in the United States of an item aside from Aniplex USA? Plus, I remember many people complaining about the price, but the company still sold out, why might that be? For outperforming, I'm not sure, since I do not have the numbers for Aniplex USA nor other anime companies. It seems that Aniplex USA outperformed Bandai, as Aniplex USA is still acquiring anime licenses.

But, in the case made, being underpriced would be why the industry is failing in the U.S.?

...... "Your animator needs cookie money".

Aniplex USA has already proven that it does work. They sold out of their Kara no Kyoukai Blu-rays during preordering. The day it came out, it had been sold out for months. The collection of 7 movies went for $398.98.