Sometimes I wonder why I got into anime and manga; I wonder why I couldn't find something a little more mainstream to attach my fanatical self to. Why can't I love (read: obsess over) Twilight just like everyone else instead of a silly vampire manga? Twilight's going to be around forever (sadly), but my vampire manga might not be. How depressing.
Such a not-cheerful topic to open the new year with, but after reading news report upon news report of large retailers closing their doors and then reading smaller articles on more obscure sites about manga diminishing, anime already struggling (one such article), it makes me worry about the future of this form of entertainment . I think both anime and manga will be always available and accessible. What I worry about is the variety we'll be presented with here in the U.S. I worry about some of the less popular titles that I read or want to read being cut. Of course, I could always learn to read Japanese.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the industry is going to be able to weather the economic storms, or do you think there will be some casualties? Do you think we'll see less variety, maybe less quality? Or am I just being pessimistic and worrying too much?
Such a not-cheerful topic to open the new year with, but after reading news report upon news report of large retailers closing their doors and then reading smaller articles on more obscure sites about manga diminishing, anime already struggling (one such article), it makes me worry about the future of this form of entertainment . I think both anime and manga will be always available and accessible. What I worry about is the variety we'll be presented with here in the U.S. I worry about some of the less popular titles that I read or want to read being cut. Of course, I could always learn to read Japanese.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the industry is going to be able to weather the economic storms, or do you think there will be some casualties? Do you think we'll see less variety, maybe less quality? Or am I just being pessimistic and worrying too much?
8 comments:
I can't say I'm terribly worried about anime and manga, since I've always relied more on places like Rightstuf to buy what I need than more commonplace retailers. I'm praying that it's not affected by the current mess our economy is in, and that we continue to have access to it, but at the moment I'm not hugely worried, since I have all the series I love so far and there is still easy access to the ones I still want or that are still in production. Still, pretty sad if it comes down to us all having to use fansubs or learn Japanese to view our favorites. I guess the worst that would happen right now is that we don't get the new FMA that's coming out, and that shows like Bleach and One Piece get cut short, though honestly, given their popularity and market value, I doubt it, we'd be much more likely to lose less popular and more obscure titles. As for quality, VAs need jobs as much as anyone else, and if the animation is already more or less done, it's hard to kill quality in that respect. Keep the faith and we'll see what happens.
Both anime and manga are affected by the current economic situation. It doesn't matter that you shop from Rightstuf. If other distributors cut back (which they are), then it affects the publishers, who then publish less, which affects what is available in general, regardless of the source. If they stop releasing a title, they stop releasing a title.
The heart of the problem for me is that popularity does not necessarily equate with quality. Some of the more popular titles suffer from formulaic storytelling syndrome.
You're fortunate that you follow the safer titles. I doubt tokyopop will go under before furuba is completely released (tokyopop laid off even more employees last month...), but what if it did?
It's hard to say. I think that manga and anime will continue to become more popular here in the U.S. but your fear of fewer titles may come about. I don't think we need to look much farther than [as] to see that it's still a niche market.
I also wanted to address your question about why we got into anime instead of something else. I've wondered that about myself. I definitely don't fit the typical anime fan description. Soda was the one who got me on the boards but he doesn't watch anime anymore. It's mostly just me and Q now. I wonder sometimes why I still watch and enjoy it and what other people my age do with their time. :-p
On that note, I was always kind of proud to consider myself an oddball, and anime and manga just got added to that from the people I hang out with who introduced it to me. I love it, it's given me a whole new scope of interest in a lot of little things. I was prompted to study Japanese culture, history, and language because of it, and to be honest it was one reason I wanted to go to Japan. My family mostly thinks it's weird, though my sis will watch some of it, notably Fruits Basket and Miyazaki stuff. She says the rest is too serious for a cartoon, which irks me. Dad is always on my back about spending my life watching cartoons too, but whatever. This from the man who has a temper tantrum if he doesn't get to see every single football game that's ever played in the NFL.
Well, I've got my share of "normal" pasttimes like sports I suppose, but I wouldn't say I'm particularly rabid about them watching at home. (At an actual game is another story, but then, it's hard not to get riled up in those rowdy student sections).
But on the subject at hand, of course the economy is going to affect everyone's spending decisions, and naturally that entertainment budget is going to be the first thing to be cut. Given that anime and manga have always had kind of a niche fandom to begin with, it's only natural that the industry seems to be suffering particularly hard right now. That doesn't mean I'm worried about it disappearing overnight or anything, but I do sometimes wonder about that aforementioned lack of quality shows. Seems like most of the newer shows I've seen lately have been only entertaining enough to hold my mild interest without being the kind of thing back in the day that originally drew me into the boards and made me really want to discuss them. Not that there aren't any recent shows out there like that, but those shows certainly aren't popular enough to hold a candle to the Bleaches, Death Notes and Narutos out there.
I think the decline of anime on [as] is what started getting me concerned. I'm used to the way [as] likes to treat its anime fans, but seeing a serious lack of new material coming out on a regular basis is what I don't like seeing. I remember watching new premieres every few months and the other series being treated with plenty of reairing time.
I am really glad that you enjoy anime and manga so much, Ghost, because it makes me believe I'll always love it, that it's not something relegated to a particular age group. I am sure that interests change as we grow older, but there are some things that I want to always enjoy.
I have a friend who is about 10 years older than me who I have gotten into a little manga. She just started reading the Twilight series a couple months ago, and when she told me she was going into her third reread of the series, I was like, "Okay, you really need to read Vampire Knight. If you like Twilight, I think you will appreciate Vampire Knight." Now she's read each of my VK volumes three times and when I told her that volume 6 doesn't come out until April, she expressed more impatience than me! She told me she never imagined that she would enjoy manga, and that she was hesitant to read it at first. I was a little hesitant to lend her it because it's a little graphic with the vampire stuff, but so's the last book in the Twilight series (which I thought was not only disgusting but wretched). Anyway, now I've got her reading Fruits Basket - she's reading vols 4 - 8 right now - and she borrowed my anime boxset of it. I'm probably rambling now, but I just think that first it's so interesting that I think a lot of people are hesitant about manga or anime because they don't think they'll like it - they don't want to give it a chance or they've got misconceptions about what it is. The other thing is that she's older than me and she's actually more enthusiastic than I am! I figure when she's completed furuba, I'll see if she'll like FMA or maybe Kodocha since she likes shoujo.
I'm just glad that I've met such great friends through this common interest. I have Brian to share it with at home, but aside from a few really interesting discussions about various stories (particularly furuba), he's ready to move onto something else to talk about; but of course I'm not! Thanks for joining the blog. I'm so glad to have an outlet to discuss with that works better with my current life situation that busier forums.
I'm not entirely worried about the state of things. Manga-wise, things may be a little bleak but I will admit that there have been times that I think there may be a bit too much manga being licensed (walking into my local Books-a-Million has a HUGE aisle for manga. I've seen more titles there than anywhere else. It takes up one whole aisle and a bit of another), which I've seen some "experts" (ANN, if memory serves) say as much before (due to a surge of popularity with Naruto and FB, there was a bit of a manga glut).
Anime, I'm not wholly worried about. Bandai doesn't care too much about sales it seems (though they do care to some degree, since they finally slapped AS over Code Geass). FUNimation is the guardian angel of the industry. Just look at all the rescues they've been doing.
What I see happening is pretty much what has been for some time. Things will get a bit tighter. Both manga and anime companies will be a bit more careful in what they license. Sure, this may mean that unknown titles you've never heard of may not be available, but they'll still be out there (just requiring shadier routes to obtain). They'll still continue to license stuff, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the manga aisle in bookstores shrink a bit.
As for AS and anime, they too suffered from the glut of anime. For a time things went well, with the likes of Cowboy Bebop, Inuyasha, and the like. But they reached a bit too far too fast. For example, I think Paranoia Agent was a bit of a bad move. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but decidedly not a good choice for AS. Eureka 7, which I enjoyed once though now look back and wonder just how rosy my glasses were while watching it, was another. Bleach...its keeping anime afloat, and I like it, but it isn't fully right for AS.
I do wish Code Geass would do better, I think it is more inline with AS. And I wish they had gotten both Gurren Lagann and Gundam 00 (I haven't seen it but it seems quite good), those would've given a good jumpstart.
Thinking about it, a bit of the blame in regards to anime also extends to AS themselves. While they've always had a bit of fun prodding the fans (I still remember the backlash of the Sealab episode where they mentioned "Googooyasha"), they have gone overboard to the point where they no longer cared. It took Bandai's threatening to yank Geass and any other properties from AS to get them to move them back to better hours, for pete's sake.
Where once AS stood as a...I dunno, underground-ish block where funny, adult cartoons aired has gone away. What's left is the garbage bin for Fox (seriously, the PJ's?.
It's probably a good thing for manga to scale back a little. I think I just worry that when they scale back, they'll only keep the massively popular titles (many of which I do like).
I have read about all the rescues Funimation has been doing, which is great. Maybe they'll pick up FMA2, too. :)
Maybe some of my concern just comes from missing the kind of golden age that [as] had with anime. I feel like CG and Moribito are both quality series that they've brought on, but to shuffle their time slots like [as] has is hardly good for establishing any sort of viewership. I wonder why CG isn't doing better - I have loved it. And I wish [as] had gotten GL because I had too hard a time remembering to watch it on sci-fi.
Anyway, I'm glad that most of you in here have a lot of confidence in the industry. I'll try to be more optimistic, too. :)
Post a Comment