Anime Expo litmus test for health of anime industry in US?
Home Media Magazine takes a look at the turnout from various anime purveyors at this weekend’s Anime Expo…and the signs ain’t good…
On the convention floor, the booth for leading anime DVD distributor ADV Films looked like a mom-and-pop DVD sidewalk store, with no signage and no representatives from the company.
“I just work here,” a young man selling DVDs said. “I can’t tell you anything.”
While ADV’s set-up was bare bones, anime powerhouse VIZ Media wasn’t on the show floor at all. Neither was The Right Stuf International. All three companies held panels to discuss their plans for the rest of the year and beyond, but their absence from the show floor was reflective of the slow-down of domestic anime DVD.
“You can see the decline in the industry,” said Adam Sheehan, senior events manager for Funimation. “A lot of the companies in the past were pushing every title as an ‘A’-list title, and it was too much for the market to handle.”
Of course, it’s nothing people inside and outside the industry haven’t been saying for the last year or so. Anime - in the U.S., at least, is hurtin’ - even when its’ popularity is at an all-time high. If you want my opinion (and I’m by no means an expert), what we’re seeing is a rough patch which represents the transition to new forms of distribution. While DVD was undoubtedly a gold-mine for companies looking to bring Japanese animation Stateside, it’s abundantly clear that the future of anime in the U.S. is online. A significant number of anime distributors have begun initiatives to push their product via the internet, and I predict the trend will continue into the forseeable future, at least for those with the vision and determination to stick it out.
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