Anime is dead.
…so says the ‘Art and Entertainment Editor’ of The Daily Beacon, a student publication from the University of Tenessee Knoxville. Normally I’d pass on giving nonsense like this crediblilty through commentary, but I feel the need to call bullshit when I see it.
The problem this created was not only about money; it affected creativity. That’s because the only people that really bothered to buy the DVDs anymore were the hardcore fans, and hardcore fans have different interests than the regular, everyday fan. Hardcore, maniac fans tend to like their series peppered with the geeky stereotypes of anime: over-the-top violence, excessive use of Japanese cultural references, weird characters and big-busted, scantily-clad animated women (or even worse, overly cute, underage-looking animated girls). So, the animators began adding more of these things into their series to satisfy the only fans that were bringing them real business. While it saves their companies from going under, it kills the final product. Shows became stupid and lost the things that attracted fans in the first place; mostly, all of the heart was gone.
We’ve written about this many times in the recent past, and the true consensus among anime industry types is that anime as a genre still enjoys a wide degree of popularity. It’s the business model that’s tanking. This is an important distinction, and one that I believe Ms. Heriges is missing. In many ways, the internet piracy that many have been decrying as anime’s death-knell is paving the way forward for new business models which will harness the power of information technology in ways DVD-centered business can’t touch. It’s no fluke that FUNimation announced last week that they were throwing a whole mess of content up on Hulu.com, one of the internet’s best resources for properly-licensed video. YouTube has also seen a dramatic shift in licensed properites from anime companies, with some studios generating entire YouTube feeds specificially tailored for their product.
I suspect that I’m a good deal older than Ms. Heriges, who comments on watching Gundam Wing in the 8th grade. She probably doesn’t remember a time when anime fandom was a chore - when it amounted to signing up via snail-mail to videotape clubs which would trade badly fansubbed 10th generation copies of every grade-z anime series we could get our hands on. You know what was available on television when I was in 8th grade?
Voltron.
Yes, Voltron - the bastardized offspring of two relatively crap series forced into an arranged marriage and foisted on the American public as ‘anime’. I’d have killed for the anime the kids have access to today.
Rest easy, Katherine - anime will be just fine.
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Comments
Ack, can’t edit comments…and this young lady seems to think Gundam Wing was a good show? Please, honey.
Anime is 99% crap. Art in all mediums is 99% crap. There is some amazing anime out there, but you have to look for it. The problem lies not in creativity (and I dispute her description of the average anime fan) but in marketing; attend any anime con today and you will think Naruto and Bleach are the best anime being made today, since they’re so popular. Serious, powerful series like Mushishi and Monster are being shoved under the radar because anime is being marketed to teens who are malleable and will watch whatever their friends watch. I think the writer in question needed to do more research before presenting her opinion.
Fansubs don’t kill anime. Corporate greed does.
And you can say whatever you want about Voltron, just not to this guy (effing brilliant stuff):
http://pleasesavemerobots.blogspot.com/2008/07/this-concludes-voltron-portion-of-your.html
8th grade! I watched that show my sophomore year in college! I also have several series on VHS fansubs…I came in near the end of the VHS fansub era, but I remember sending off checks to get tapes in return! Kids these days just don’t get it!