Forum - View topicNEWS: Kodansha Reports 5.7 Billion Yen Loss in 2009
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Pedestrian A
Posts: 160 Location: Toronto, ON |
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Ouch, what the hell is happening?
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acadia2
Posts: 4 |
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Global recession. A switch to internet base magna subscriptions(maybe). Rise in fuel/energy costs, paper manufacturing, and less subscribers themselves due to unemployment and/or reduced salaries. Some have speculated this thing called an Anime/Manga bubble that's bursting due to a flood of poor quality manga/anime's being made. ANN ought to study that last thing I mentioned for a future article on the State of the Anime/Manga industry. The industry is not dying by any means, it is overdue for a bit of 'pruning' one would say. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23759 |
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If I had to guess, I'd say it's because Japanese people are having fewer children and fewer of the children who are growing up buy manga as compared to previous years. Declining sales + hard economic times means companies aren't buying as much advertising in magazines ergo the precipitous 25% decline in ad revenue. Pretty ugly stuff.
I blame the manga cows. |
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28076004505531
 Posts: 124 Location: Ohio, USA |
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people are getting smarter.
or tired of repetitive collecting of mangas when they're available somewhere else. or just don't have budget for mangas when it can be used for more important stuff. or the company just overproduced.... or the mangas cost too much.... or not that interesting. or it's a thing of the past...lol |
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The Naked Beast
 Posts: 1028 Location: A Blue Planet |
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I agree with this statement. For most part, I have read that Japan will have a age demographic (people in the young adult age when compared to the elderly aged) imbalance within a few decades. It surprises me to see even a big publishing company like Kodasha struggle like this. I thought that the entertainment industry usually fares well in times of recession. |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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That WAS the common wisdom until THIS recession. Entertainment and media in general has really gotten sucker-punched in every direction this time around, and only theatrical grosses on big blockbuster movies are proving immune this time. Every other aspect of entertainment -- television, indie theatrical, home video, book and magazine publishing, internet ads -- is in a state of deep hurting right now, not just anime. |
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RedZ1900
Posts: 10 |
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I'll tell you why this is happening. It's all happening because of cheap ba****ds who don't buy their manga because they read it online, and also because of scanlators who scan and translate full chapters of manga without paying for them. That's what's happening
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Daemonblue
 Posts: 701 |
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Yes, because people who download manga online caused the global recession. In all seriousness, that may be part of it, but it's such a small part of it it's barey worth mentioning. It's like the people who cry foul of people who download music when those same people are the ones that buy the most music. @ jsevakis You're slightly off there, in that even indie movies have been a fairly decent hit, mostly depending on how good they are though. Just look at Ink for reference, where it jumped several thousand places in the imdb after its "worldwide" release (on torrents yes, but they have a donate option at the website and they've made a lot more than the production costs already). Also, several publishing companies are foregoing DRM e-books and have seen a rather healthy increase in sales compared to previous years, though not all companies have that option available (since distributors like Amazon require DRM). The problem is more than just one thing or the other, but one major marketing flaw is DRM, in that it makes the pirated versions more desireable than legal versions, which has been put into a very good infographic which can be seen here http://t1.xavimg.com/2010/02/piratelegal.jpg |
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nhat
Posts: 922 |
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I don't see how DRM applies in this discussion. The anime/manga industry is nothing like the music/movie/gaming industry. A lot of the anime series rarely have DRM on them but guess you don't know that if you don't really buy or download legally from legal sources or not from the right places legally. Also piracy is impacted on the anime/manga industry a lot more because it is smaller than the movie/music industry. Pirating is a more acceptable practice then in the movie/music industry. Most fansubbers nowadays don't encourage viewers to support the industry but the fansubbers themselves. That is the fundamental issue. Fans are supporting fansubbers instead of the actually studio that is producing the material in the first place. |
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adam_omega
 Posts: 256 Location: Seven Seas |
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This is Japan we're talking about. Instead of buying a magazine to read on a train, they're likely using their cell phones nonstop.
And when they're at home, chances are that they are likely doing something other than reading manga. Perhaps they are playing video games or surfing the internet. There are simply other options out there other than books or manga. It doesn't have to have anything to do with book piracy. Last edited by adam_omega on Tue Mar 02, 2010 3:45 am; edited 3 times in total |
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ac195
Posts: 48 |
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If something is great... people buy it. If it's cr@p... people don't buy it. All scans/streams/fansubs do is let people try before they buy... and guess what... most of the stuff that's out there is crap... don't blame the audience if companies pump out soulless products one after the other. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Than explain the massive online presence of One Piece while its sales are only above average.
Is Negima such a better manga than One Piece? Is Twilight one of the greatest novels in the past decade? Gundam Seed was hugely popular and incredibly well received and the series completely flopped when it came to America. |
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ac195
Posts: 48 |
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Demographics... you clearly do not understand them. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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It's debatable how big of an effect scans have on the manga industry. It's certainly possible it plays some role in this. When you ignore the mammoth sized elephant in the room (economic troubles) that coincide almost perfectly with this and instead choose to rant about the evil pirates...well it's just pointless nerd-rage.
I think perhaps the problem is just how easy piracy has become. I mean, a person can be so brain dead that they can't even find the menu or top menu button on their remote but they can still figure piracy out. Hence the problem demonstrated by that 'infographic' as you call it. 
Yeah...that's fine in some people's cases. The problem is that to a lot of people, something more or less the same was what they can get free online seems pretty 'crappy' regardless of the content. I mean, I totally agree that the anime and manga industries need to improve the content offered to keep people interested. At the same time though, simply saying that people will buy it as long as it's good is naive. Some people just don't give a damn. |
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ac195
Posts: 48 |
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And those people that just don't give a damn... wouldn't have bought the product anyway... I fail to see your point. |
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