Forum - View topicINTEREST: Cowboy Bebop Writer: Anime Will Die Out in Few Decades
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NimbusRain
 Posts: 148 |
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This guy is clearly overreacting. Sure, there might have been a lower ratio of good anime to garbage in the past couple years, but that's hardly cause for saying the whole industry will die in a few decades.
Just look back at what came out 10 years ago, heck even 5 years ago. The anime industry is just like anything else, it has its fair share of ups and downs. It's only a matter of time until that next masterpiece is revealed. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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All of ANN's regularly reported Top 20 charts are Japanese sales figures, mostly from Oricon. There are no such statistics for the US unfortunately. There are other places that compile cumulative figures for all titles from various sources to give you a better picture over time, but this is still a pretty good indicator of those that manage to have pretty successful DVD/BD sales.
Ok to finally dispel the myth about the "tsunami of moeblob" shows, I painfully compiled a list of 2009 shows  , includes those few shows starting in the last quarter of 2008, but with half of its season or more in 2009.
http://freetexthost.com/zmapmr5prl There are 260 series, OVAs, movies. Mostly tv series of course. I partially broke it down. Those that might be classified as predominantly "slice of life moe" (or what you'd call "moeblob")
(does not include shows which can have moe elements, like Shugo Chara Doki, Kimi ni Todoke, Clannad AS, but are not purely moe; i.e. Sato's so-called "atmospheric" anime. I'm not even sure if Minami-ke should be in this list, but oh well) I also noted the "pure", fan-service-heavy shows:
(excluding the many other shows which include the usual "bonus" ecchi moments, but are not reliant on them. Ironically also excludes most romances and harems) I would point out:
.. and on and on.... this small sample already exceeds those moeblob and pure-fanservice shows! This doesn't even include the shows which started at the end of 2008 with half a season or more in 2009 like Casshern Sins , Clannad AS, One Outs, Tytania, Michiko to Hatchin, etc
I agree that the working conditions should be better. But I doubt he can do anything about unless he is seriously willing to take the initiative and get other people on board, invest tons of his own money to produce and bring to market, real anime with an alternative, production-committee-free business model. (although again, this is a different issue) |
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Beruda
Posts: 114 |
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I doubt seriously that he is alone in some of his views. I'm sure there are others in his industry who would agree with him.
I'm sure there will be anime and manga industry in Japan but I think he's lamenting the fact that the industry he loves is dying in some respects. The freshness and creativity that's needed is not there in his opinion. The real issues of wages and such. How do you get new talent to come into an industry that has crap wages for the most part and always will for most of the people working in it? How do you get people to stay when you out source every thing? From the outside looking in it dosen't seem that the industry as a whole is very forward thinking. And I don't think he's a pompus ass just because he thinks highly of his own work. He has an opinion just like anyone. B. |
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Sariachan
 Posts: 1494 Location: Italy |
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About anime showing how anime are made and all the troubles that come with that, there are some episodes of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (check the first two seasons and the OAVs at least), too.
On the thread subject, I didn't make any statistic or stuff like that, but after more than 20 years of watching anime I can still find really good series (and also masterpieces like Gurren Lagann, which has everything: from plot and characters to awesome animation and even fanservice). So, I'm not worried. After all, also Disney "died", then Pixar came and now it's as good as before, if not better (really, every Pixar movie is at least very good, if not a masterpiece... it's becoming scary  ).
In other words: good writers/animator will always exist, but we could have to search for them in different places (or studios). 
P.S. On another hand, I would also like to add than "serious" isn't always good, and sometimes more mainstream stories like One Piece or Fullmetal Alchemist (I'm talking more about the manga here, even if their anime adaptations, the second one in FMA case, aren't so bad) can be better and have more value than the supposed "serious" stories. After all, we can't have something like Legend of the Galactic Heroes everyday, and even that was entertaining, other than truly deep and full of contents. |
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LUNI_TUNZ
 Posts: 809 |
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That said, if people took him at face value, then everybody would be trying to ape his style, then we'd be right back into the same creative rut. That also said, I hate when people say "X" is gonna happen in "Y" number of decades, as if the current trend is going to continue until they toss themselves off a cliff. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Amethyst Alchemist
Former ANN Editor
 Posts: 312 Location: where it's always a good morning |
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Thanks, that makes more sense. You're probably right.
It's a trite comment at this point, but it would be nice to see less shows about Japanese high school kids and more about . . . something else. It's obviously appropriate since they're trying to appeal to a certain demographic, but I would think even Japanese high school kids would eventually get sick of seeing depictions of themselves. Consumption shows that's just what lots of otaku like to gobble up, though . . . . It would be interesting to see if that trend would shift if more international hands got involved. |
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Pippin4242
Posts: 111 |
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Thanks for your hard work there, configspace. Confirmed my own suspicions. And as an aside, I've only seen one of the shows tagged as moe there - and it was totally subversive and hilarious, and got rave reviews here at ANN (Strawberry Marshmallow). I hate the term 'moeblob.' It's a fun idea to make fun of - like in Welcome to the NHK! - but seriously, how many anime have any of us actually seen that seriously went like that?
- Pips |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Well yeah obviously if you do that. You're being tremendously misleading though with that list. You're choosing some awfully narrow definitions to suit your point. If you look at the post you were responding to, he did say not just moe but also harem shows and cliched cash ins in general (basically the kind of shows that Sato is complaining about). You've also gone ahead and included every little couple minute special and little think you can possibly add. It's not exactly fair to throw in some of these long running shows either. I think if you actually make a fair comparison and exclude all that okaku crap and also all the little meaningless stuff you get something more like this: maria holic shikabane hime kuro Viper`s Creed Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou Fuyu no Sonata (winter sonata) Druaga no Tou: the Sword of Uruk Kemono no Souja Erin Tetsuwan Birdy Decode:02 Ride Back Genji Monogatari Sennenki Soukou Kihei Votoms: Pailsen Files - Gekijouban Afro Samurai Resurrection Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari Sengoku Basara Basquash! Pandora Hearts Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom Slap Up Party: Arad Senki Cross Game Guin Saga Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Natsu no Arashi! Shangri-La 07-Ghost Higashi no Eden Ristorante Paradiso Summer Wars Utawarerumono OVA First Squad Umineko no Naku Koro ni Canaan Tegami Bachi Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini Aoi Bungaku Kuuchuu Buranko (Trapeze) It's not that much. Certainly there's still a decent number of titles there but without a doubt it's outweighed by all the otaku crap. |
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GarrettCRW
Posts: 1 |
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Sato has extremely good reason to worry about outsourcing in Japanese animation. The history of American TV animation is littered with examples of shoddy work by artists who either lack the ability or lack the emotional investment in the material. (And that doesn't even take into account the horrors that have happened in camera rooms across the globe.) America hasn't seen a 2D cartoon produced completely in the country in 21 years (and then it was only being done by Filmation, a studio so fanatical about keeping the work in America that they told TMS where to stick their pens after one season of their Zorro series), and the day is slowly approaching where the entire industry only knows about sending the model sheets, layouts, storyboards and voice tracks off to some country and essentially praying that it isn't a disaster. Granted, Japan doesn't have the legacy of unionized labor among its artists that America has (and the relatively high wages that go along with it), so the push for cost savings has not been as severe as it has been here, but it's still an issue nonetheless.
I do disagree with the disdain for merchandising, though. Selling swag based on a cartoon show (or even the reverse, IMO) isn't a bad thing-in fact, it's a sign that people like what you're doing! The problem starts, though, when merchandising concerns override creative concerns. It was that sort of thing that led to Mickey Mouse becoming excessively bland after about 1933 or so up until MouseWorks and House of Mouse-Disney got piles of angry letters any time a new cartoon featured the Mouse doing anything even slightly "mean". It happens a lot with the US toy shows (just look at the modern Transformers shows and compare what they do to what Sunbow was crazy enough to do in the 1986 movie with Prime, Starscream, and Megatron), and I'm sure it happens with many a Japanese show, as well. |
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Pippin4242
Posts: 111 |
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It's not really like anime and manga merchandising is anything new, though. There's been character goods produced since the days of Ma-chan's Diary afaik, and probably earlier. That's 1947.
-Pips |
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Bingal
Posts: 95 |
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He sounds awfully bitter, but nonetheless does provide some good points. Personally, I feel that the market is becoming very insular.
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ShadowRayden
Posts: 7 |
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This is what I think of American TV and its reality shows. As I rely on Anime to escape the drabs of american television this comes as a complete surprise.
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ragnawind
Posts: 68 Location: Florida, USA |
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My opinion is this:
Anime will not die out unless there comes a time when there are few to no fans. That just doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. There are too many fans for it to die out so easily. Also, even with anime that comes out in japan lately, there is still a fanbase for it that is rather large in and of itself. It is just that anime is currently trying to adapt to the modern era. They will start getting better after a period of experimentation.
Most people I know prefer anime style graphics over CG. It just looks more appealing, to most of them at least. It is more colorful. Oftentimes, people watch anime because it doesn't look realistic and most of the time, their themes aren't realistic. That it was makes anime so entertaining. |
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ThePoliced
Posts: 130 |
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Sato is just saying:
"Ok yo, anime should tell a good story, and nowadays thats the last thing they do, so if you dicktwats keep it up, we're gunna be dead like MJ. Sayonara" |
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