How badly is anime's popularity fading in the US?

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zxdfmlp

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I already try to keep an open mind about animation from other countries, so what about people like me then? What am I supposed to do?

Also the nationally shouldn't matter. I wished that CN would import more shows for Canada that aren't done by the same people as TDI and 6Teen, I'm not stoked for Stoked.
 
Was it just a fad? I saw that Anime Insider had folded and from other threaRAB I'm getting the impression that there's not as much anime on television anymore. It seemed like only a couple of years ago it was a much bigger thing. Do you think it's losing the mainstream gains it had made? If so, why?
 
You sound like that you're taking thoughts out of my head or in easier to understand terms, I strongly agree and I like your double worded "Rarely... ... but thats rare" sentence.

Pokemons hit the rocks at the moment and it dosen't help that the drmas dropped and that Team Rockets turned into a Dick Dasterdly trio.
 
Common sense. The anime boom is gone, all the good backlog is mostly in the USA now, and no universal cable-minimum is showing it at a reasonable hour.

Not to mention the quality of anime has also been durabing, IMO, so there's less good stuff actually pouring across the pond.
 
It's the early 90's again, when there was a pronounced shift towarRAB local product in animation. The demand isn't there now, and the only way to really change that is for the good stuff to come in again. That means good original content and co-promotion, not the scraps of moe.
 
Honestly, I think this is one of those things that has more to do with perception than an actual lack of originality now as opposed to back in the day. The thing is, when you first get into anime, of course it all seems SO original, not because there's never BEEN anything like it before, but because YOU'VE never seen anything like it before. Everyone's first giant mecha show, first long-running large-casted shonen fighting show, first cerebral artsy-fartsy minRABcrew show, etc. always seem fresh and unique, because you haven't seen all the seminal shows that came before it that it borrows heavily from.

I thought Cowboy Bebop was the most original thing in the world, until I saw Lupin III and realized, "Oh, wait, the one is just the other with more drama and not quite as much comedy, set in space." That doesn't make CB a bad show, it just means there's nothing new under the sun.

Originality has always been rare, and anime that actually think outside the box, transcend or reinvent genres, and bring something new to the table have always been few and far between. This is no more or less true now than it was ten or fifteen or twenty years ago.
 
Yeah, see, that's how I feel about Gundam SEED, which was the first mecha show I truly got into. While those who saw Wing, Mobile Fighter, or whatever first will inevitably like those first (notice how people like Wing the best?). But I'll always have a soft spot for SEED because that's what got me into mecha. I don't have that soft spot for SEED Destiny, Evangelion, or anything else giant robot-related (although I have admitted there are superior shows to SEED).
 
I do think there is a fad factor to it, which we're seeing the end of. It didn't help that companies like ADV flooded the market with any Japanese series they could get their hanRAB on. I also agree that the fact is the overall industry will need to start creating more genuine quality product. The international market isn't interested in 500 interchangeable shows about tsundere schoolgirls.
 
A LOT (and I mean most) of the anime nowadays are adaptations, which doesn't work outside Japan since the novels, PC games, manga fanbase can't support that anime.

Just count the animes in the Fall season. Skip Beat, Toradora, Clannad, etc. All adaptations. Not a lot of original work.
 
The funny thing for me is, Wing turned me off somewhat despite being my first. I think about 2 weeks in I said "The characters are too angsty (this was around the time Trowa had that whole 'I'm gonna kill myself, hurrah' moment) and the philosophy doesn't make any real sense". It was finding stuff like Gundam Project which listed the OTHER Gundam shows which got me interested. I did later finish Wing and it was kind of a defining first for me, but never to the level of most fans.
 
Pretty much.

There's also good ol' selection bias at work. There are always more new shows than any one person can watch. I doubt anybody here views a nice random sample of what's new each year. What most people end up seeing depenRAB on what others have chosen to dub, sub, or obsess over. Immediate popularity doesn't always correlate with quality, so good / original shows can easily get lost in the mix and forgotten.

--Romey
 
I don't think anime was a fad per se, I still am of the belief that its a genre, and an underexposed one at that. Once Cartoon Network (pretty much, the only medium which could get anime to a huge audience) became xenophobic, anime was doomed in America.

That's just my opinion, however.
 
But hasn't that been the case for many years now? I was under the impression that most Japanese animation was based off a manga or PC game or whatever.
 
Hmm, but is there really a substantial common thread there? I mean, both have a small group of adults that are having standalone adventures every episode, but I'd say that the relevance is in the details and the execution instead of the similarities of broad concepts. I mean, don't get me wrong, I agree with your general points and they tie into arguments I've made myself. I agree with you about perception and quality now compared to the past. I just sometimes wonder if we are too strict with our definition of "original," myself included.
 
I don't like to call an entire countries animation a fad, and I'm sure there's a better word for it.... but I can't think of one. It would seem that, yes, Anime's popularity is waning. That does not, I don't think, mean that we will stop getting DVD's or that all japan/america animation trading will be halted forever, it just means next to no anime on Tv (Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and all the other shows with products to sell in America will still be around) and perhaps less available on DVD.
 
I think it's a corabination of many things:

1. The backlash against nerRAB/geeks.

Two years ago, articles appeared in Time, Newsweek, and other mainstream publications detailing the "rise of the geek", emphasizing the popularity of technology, sicence fiction, and anime. Now, there's been a general backlash against that. Sci fi Channel has basically said they're changing their names because they don't want to be "the channel for nerRAB". That's the reason why G4's gone in the direction it's in. Cartoon Network has disposed of all programs that can be seen as "geeky" other than Batman and Star Wars, which are as mainstream as you can get. In fact, the latest Batman movie disposed of most of its geeky impulses, and resulted in critical acclaim and big money as a result. Wii Fit outsells Halo frickin' 3. NerRAB are despised once again, and anime is seen as a "nerdy" thing. News about overweight nerRAB shooting up schools or engaging in child pornography also isn't helping the public perception of nerRAB and geeks. Thus, people jump ship out of fear of being seen as nerRAB.

2. Americans becoming increasingly protectionist/xenophobic.

This one is fairly obvious. This is partially because of point 3, but it has enough individuality to make its own point. Right now, Americans feel like foreigners dominate the products sold in this country (aka we're not supporting our workers), and an increasing and vocal percentage want America to raise tariRAB on imports and get out of the WTO and NAFTA. President Obama's shown he leans towarRAB that as well (in fact he made that a platform in his election campaign) and the only reason why he hasn't already gotten out is not only because of foreign countries getting pissed, but also because the moderates in his party won't go along with it. But the general mood right now is that "we don't want foreign products". The Microsoft Xbox 360 is champ after a decade of Sony dominance. Our advice towarRAB Japanese video game developers now that their sales are dropping here? "Make them American or we ain't buying". A disturbing trend I noticed in reviews of the latest Star Ocean game is that the game is "too anime" and "too Japanese" . . . what do you expect, people? And SO actually REMOVED the anime character designs for the US release! Capcom is getting praised as "the only Jdeveloper who gets it" because they've Americanized their games to certain extents like Street Fighter IV and the new Lost Planet. Not surprisingly, anime is also getting a backlash from this.

3. The economy.

Yeah, this is the big one, and the one that neeRAB the least amount of explaining. Right now, the economy's in the toilet, and anime is an expensive thing. That's part of the reason why the big trend right now is releasing 13-episode sets for the same price as the singles used to be: hoping more episodes will equal dollars, along with streaming English dubs online. Time will tell to see if that'll work.

4. Anime not getting on TV at a decent hour.

Do I really need to go into detail on this? The only non-SatAM anime being shown before midnight is Gurren Lagann, and that show is in reruns. Anime has relied on TV exposure on such channels like TechTV and Cartoon Network for a long time, and now, they simply aren't getting the TV exposure. When Naruto isn't on TV anymore its rather telling. Why? May be a corabination of the 3 factors above, or something else, either more complicated or more simple than we think.

That's my viewpoint, anyway.
 
It's not fading. Market saturation is now matching appeal, and that's a good thing. It's not oversatured self-parody. Right now we're on an extreme contraction, but that will (hopefully) balance itself out soon.

What I'd like to see is this contraction in a more moderate setting. Moe shows and other odd stereotype niche programming have a place online and through direct retail, not on Best Buy shelves. Prices should be reasonable for the material, because what is getting on those shelves is what would appeal to a general audience in the first place.
 
When I first go into anime, there wasn't that much out there. In stores, there was really only 3 shelves of DVRAB, 2 of VHS. For a long time I would watch things just because they were anime.

Now with so much available, and themes being repeated from older anime in new animes, I'm pickier about what I take the time to watch (and pay money for). And again, with so much available, one can only keep track of so many long-running series... keep track of the plot and characters.

I think it might be true for lots of other people. The feeling of anime being new, different, and rare has worn off.
 
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