Forum - View topicNEWS: Japan Aims to Increase Anime's Overseas Market to 6 Trillion Yen by 2033
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chronium
 Posts: 315 Location: Canada |
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There's actually a simple way for the anime industry to increase their profits without adding strain to animators creating new content and that is by doing a better job at licensing out all the old anime that have been produced over the decades because the vast majority of them are just sitting around either making very little or not making anything at all.
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-Matthew-
Posts: 1738 |
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What way? |
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 2031 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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It'd be nice to have HD remastered Blu-rays of Maison Ikkoku. IIRC the rights to the anime are in limbo. |
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Ermat_46
Posts: 786 Location: Philippines |
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He can't say because the matter of the fact is that a lot of older anime are (1) hard to obtain license because of legal complications, and more importantly, (2) the vast majority of them just aren't going to earn even if you put them on most accessible streaming services like Crunchyroll or Netflix. |
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-Matthew-
Posts: 1738 |
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Oh, I see, thanks. |
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chronium
Posts: 315 Location: Canada |
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I was clear with how they would make money you just don't know how licensing works. They primarily make their money from the initial licensing fee the viewership royalty fee would only be bonus income and only becomes the main source of income if the project ends up being popular. There are also many more services that they can license to besides Crunchyroll and Netflix but Netflix would most likely provide the best return. Some anime has rights issues but there have been hundreds of thousands anime that have been created since anime first began that they could be taking advantage of that don't have rights issues. |
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SinisterOracle
 SubscriberPosts: 853 |
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They need to put in their contracts that physical media will be required for anime. I’m highly disappointed that I can’t buy many of the series I want in the US with English subtitles. Buying them from Japan is much more expensive and they lack English subs.
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Ermat_46
Posts: 786 Location: Philippines |
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If I'm not making myself clear, the vast majority of older anime aren't going to earn because people just don't watch these older anime. Exceptions are the breakout titles of past decades, but even then I won't be surprised if these are beaten by your above average seasonal anime. |
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Philville
 Posts: 186 |
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I'm with you in spirit, but sadly, I don't think that's going to happen. I'm not sure who "they" is in this scenario anyway, but it does seem like production committees are heavily prioritizing streaming licensing agreements and merchandising over physical media, and if securing a larger overseas market is going to happen, then it will be via digital platforms. I don't see how physical media can be a legally binding requirement when weighing production costs, sales and distribution. It's already frustrating enough for collectors of disc-based physical media (DVD, Blu-ray, video games) that availability is becoming rarer and rarer (and more expensive) with the transition to digital-only content. Anime is its own beast, perhaps, but it's still following other market trends. For video games, I've gradually been switching to PC (for performance and graphics) and now literally need to look up whether a physical edition exists for a game at all, since most releases are exclusively digital, or contain a code-in-a-box, even if you're getting a premium-price steelbook. Consoles aren't immune to this either, since the PS5 Pro shipping without a disc drive is a sign of things to come (if rumors about the next all-digital Xbox console are to be believed). People often bring up that this is supposedly because most PC users don't actually have an optical drive to insert discs into anymore, but it's highly doubtful that even current hit anime series will see mass-market overseas distribution of physical media such as DVD/Blu-ray that we were used to seeing in the past (with the exception of pricey collector's editions, I suppose). I don't have sales figures or statistics, mind you, but I think it's pretty safe to say that physical media doesn't sell like it used to, and I think anyone who's been collecting media for at least a decade (over two, in my case) can't escape noticing the trend. One doesn't have to be a doomsday prophet to predict that being able to purchase a figure of an anime character without actually being able to obtain the movie/series/OVA on which the character is based is going to become the norm (since this is already often the case). I'm hoping it isn't a thing of the past, but the future does look grim for collectors or people avoiding streaming, for whatever reason. Anyway, just had to vent -- call me old. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2763 Location: Germany |
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The whole comic-reading world saw the death of Paul, MJ´s ex-boyfriend, nearly 2 weeks before the release of this week´s Spider-Man issue. That´s how deep the comic piracy well goes. The growth of the manga market can´t involve them doing more than the basic necessities of fighting piracy to keep the copyrights afloat. The largest US comic or film/TV distributors on the planet threw in the towel here.
We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable. Gabe Newell |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2996 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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To piggyback off of this, it's also been admitted that there are literally titles that likely may never be licensed out again, despite not having any legal problems, simply because the Japanese licensor feels that it's worth so little financially that it isn't even worth the effort to make a deal, in the first place. But, also, there is the concern that there is likely an unknown amount of anime that actually is currently licensed by Crunchyroll... but CR is choosing to do literally nothing with them. This was revealed in late 2024 when Discotek admitted that it had looked into licensing Ashita no Joe TV a few years prior, but were told that it was already licensed. Discotek only revealed that information because in late 2024 Discotek suddenly started streaming both the Joe 1 & 2 anime, seemingly to help promote Kodansha USA's release of the original manga that had just begun at that time. Yes, Crunchyroll literally had the license to Ashita no Joe, one of the most important & influential anime of all time, for literal years but chose to do nothing with it until (seemingly) Kodansha USA & TMA forced their hand, so that there could be some sort of marketing synergy to promote the manga's English release. This would also help explain why CR randomly added titles like Offside & Minky Momo a few years back, as Ashi Pro likely licensed those titles to CR a while ago, but CR didn't actually do anything with them until (possibly) Ashi Pro confronted them about how they haven't done anything with them yet. Really, what needs to be done (first & foremost) is that licensors have to start including "use it or lose it" clauses in their deals, because Crunchyroll has clearly taken advantage of the lack of any such clause by effectively holding hostage various anime. This applies to both titles that we may never realize that they currently have the rights to, as well as titles that they currently stream but clearly have no interest in giving physical releases to, and ever since Sony acquired CR they've stopped sub-licensing titles out to those who would be willing to give them physical releases, like Sentai & Discotek. |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 5345 |
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It'd be nice if that happened. We've heard stories about how a company might get stuck with a dud of a series as part of a package to get the one they really want out of a production committee. There are also occasions where something ended up with a dub because the license required it for some reason. It would be nice if the production committees recognized that sitting on the titles with just streaming doesn't let them reach maximum potential exposure to the audience. But, I'm sure for most of them, as long as they get a good enough upfront license fee, they don't care beyond that. My assumption is that the licenses generally still come with both streaming and home video rights, which is why we don't see a scenario where maybe Crunchyroll snaps up the majority of the seasonal anime for streaming, but then someone like Sentai comes along a year later with the home video version. Netflix has no interest in doing home video, but isn't opposed to sublicensing it so long as the next company either pays for the use of the dub or does a new one themselves. Crunchyroll could do something like that, but it seems they would prefer to pay for those rights and specifically not use them.
I was browsing the CR Store preorders a couple days ago (since I still vaguely hold out hope they'll release stuff and I hate to miss something because I never bothered to look) and exactly what you described is the main thing I took away from it. Plenty of figures for preorder, and merch to browse for both new and old titles. But the shows themselves? Nah. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2996 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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Crunchyroll did use to sub-license titles out for home video all the time, most notably to FUNimation, Sentai, & Discotek... and then Sony/FUNimation bought up Crunchyroll. Aside from a handful of Sentai co-branded releases that came out a few months after the purchase (which were obviously negotiated beforehand & likely couldn't be backed out of by then) Crunchyroll/Sony has never sub-licensed another anime out to another company since then. Viz & Anime Limited have managed to do sub-license a handful of titles since the purchase, but I believe all of those were via Aniplex, i.e. Sony Music, not via Crunchyroll, i.e. Sony Pictures. Like I said, licensors really need to start enforcing "Use It or Lose It" clauses in whatever deals they make with Crunchyroll from here on out, so that if Crunchyroll doesn't release a title on home video within (say) two years of its debut on their service (or if they don't even bother to add it to their service within, like, a year after licensing it, for catalog titles) then the licensor can go elsewhere. |
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kgw
 Posts: 1536 Location: Spain, EU |
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How does this plan fit with the Japanese government's current measures? I know that the South Korean government helps and funds the overseas release of its products, whereas Japan does not, or at least not to the same extent.
And no, 'old' anime does not have such a large fanbase. Perhaps in countries where the original series were broadcast, there might be customers for Zambot 3, City Hunter, Maison Ikkoku and Ashita no Joe, but even then, they would earn a fraction of what any current 2026 series could earn. Unlike comic books and movies, anime (and manga) does not have a collector scene: i.e. no one is paying hundreds of dollars for a perfect copy of Doraemon #1. Also piracy is a problem of "I want this for free now", and you cannot fight that. Especially when almost 99% of this season's anime releases are available legally, either for a fee or for free*. By the way, what do they mean by 'overseas'? I can't see any Netflix, Amazon or CR physical releases of anime series. My cynical side can't help reading this report as 'We need more anime on Netflix!' * If you live in the right place, that is. |
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chronium
Posts: 315 Location: Canada |
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Of course old anime doesn't have a large fanbase because they don't provide any access to develop any new fans. If you put old anime on streaming services globally you inevitably create new fans that could potentially demand for a perfect copy of Doraemon. |
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