Forum - View topicA look at what causes the industry to be shaky.
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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I know illegal fansubbing/other file sharing/scanlations are likely the main cause of a current shaky anime industry. But could it also be the fact the official companies themselves are also responsible for the anime industry? I do bring up Bandai Visual USA with their 2 episode discs that can be $40. That's compared to a 2 episode disc in Japan costing as much as $60+. Why does Japan have to make their DVDs in the anime homeland so expensive? Does it have to do with supply and demand. Overall, the industry for consumers might be fixed a bit if they axed the prices down even in their homeland.
A second point is in fact the licensing of titles. Though fansubs of a said series will take away the value of having it licensed, sometimes shows that are under the fansub radar (that is, shows not well enough for the masses to watch fansubbed) might not sell well here. For clarification, Cyborg 009 (which seems only to be really appreciated when people would watch on YouTube type sites) didn't farewell in the manga and anime releases here. Under appreciated shows can cause licensor's to lose money as well. Now maybe if the under appreciated shows had more advertising, they might increase in popularity. I might not be even getting these points correctly stated. |
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angel_lover
 Posts: 645 Location: UK |
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Well, the market in Japan is completely different, for one thing. Over there, as long as you subscribe to the right channels, you get to see the shows (except for OAV's of course) on TV, and record them legally if you want to. As I understand it, the DVDs are pretty much aimed at the collectors' market, so price there isn't really an issue. Except of course that if the companies then allow the cost of DVDs in other countries to be too low then there is the risk of reverse importation and they'll lose out. It's a balancing act, and one that the illegal distribution channels put completely out of kilter.
The current economic model of the entertainment industry (and that's worldwide, not just Japan) is unsustainable. They won't go down without a fight, of course, and they've struck a chord with governements worldwide who are looking for more excuses to clamp down on the Internet as a communications medium*. I don't know what the answer is. I didn't create the problem, the entertainment industry itself did that with its money-grabbing headlong rush into digital media. Let's hope there is some way out before anime just becomes a fond memory. *No, this isn't paranoia. Free communications is bad for repressive governments because it's difficult to organise a revolution without communications. The Romanian Revolution was orchestrated largely by Fax, now it would be done by encrypted email and chat. |
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