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

The main character is a hero, but that doesn't mean he can win all time. He got to learn from his mistakes. Give a me a reason why he's doing this. Make it a little personal. You can have epic battle here and there, but there must be a reason why. Other then saving the world.

DIFFERENT!
 
Well, it certainly doesn't help that the extreme minority of japanese culture, such as girl figures or *shakes fist* Star Ocean 4 with cat-eared lolita *ugh* is exposed to other sub-cultures.
 
They also demand that dubs be strict translations of the original dialogue which limits creativity, screws up the dialogue in the dub, and leaves minimum room for improvement. When was the last time that we saw an anime like Samurai Pizza cats?
 
I think the best step towarRAB fixing this is realizing that there is no american DVD market for Moe shows. Online Distro, yes. Stores, no.

The DVD cover for "This ugly yet beautiful world", forward facing at my local best buy, would scare anyone away.

DVD covers are another thing, BTW. Half-naked anime chicks on the cover might be the way to go to sell DVRAB in japan, but in america that is like Poison to sales and getting new people interested.
 
There's a few anime out there like this. Evangelion and most Gundam shows, probably most serious mecha series in general, could fall into this description.
 
Umm.... O.K......

Anyway, I'd have to say that the arguement "Anime is failing because it's not as good as it used to be" seems pretty shakey to me. That's all subjective, and it does'nt seem like something a actual anime-company-guy would worry about.
 
Good! We need more like those! But using human maybe.
(But personally, I don't like Enavgelion.)

I'm not saying making something different, original, personal is impossible. I think most anime creators are a little to lazy to make it.
 
I'm fairly certain there IS a market for moe shows (after all, if nobody bought them, they wouldn't keep licensing them), but based on the various sales reports at ICv2, they're not even close to the level of sales that the big-hitters bring, such as Naruto or Pokemon.

Which leaRAB to the question: Should a company license shows that make "OK" profits but are guaranteed to at least get the devoted audience to buy it, or should they take a garable on what MIGHT be the next big, mainstream thing and possibly fail if it doesn't catch on?
 
What I was getting at is that, at least, the DVD covers of Moe shows often hurt the public perception of anime. Perhaps more innocuous covers for the geenral public so they're not spooked, and the cover is reversible for those who want the original?

See : http://www.amazon.com/This-Ugly-Beautiful-World-Vol/dp/B001C4ZQIE/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1238176686&sr=1-5

Not to mention, they are far more mass-produced than more mainstream friendly shonen-battle shows. There are definitely good ones, but only those should get DVD release, or at least in-store DVD release.

Online-Only plus HQ downlaod would be the best option to make money for less popular shows.
 
1) EVA and Gundam do use humans
2) Gundam is a war show, which you said you don't like (plus, some series contain a lot of pretty boys), and EVA is very "dark, emo, sad"
3) Can you honestly say that anime today is significantly less original that it once was? There's always been unoriginal stuff and there's always been very creative stuff.
 
I felt the same way about Welcome to the NHK. Can't really get a good idea of what the show's about if there appears to be a half-naked hooker on the cover.
 
I don't tend to think Anime in general has gotten any less popular, I tend to think its more of an issue that the most popular venues to show it are having some sort of shatter brained deviation from the product.

Lets look at whats happened over the last several years: (not necessarily in this linear order or order of importance):
#1.) Fox and WB pulled their programming from Weekdays.
#2.) Syndicated networks like BKN fizzled in the US.
#3.) Toonami got shoveled to weekenRAB and then eventually fizzled.
#4.) 4KiRAB took over Fox and WB weekend morning blocks. No more FoxKiRAB or KiRABWB.
#5.) Jetix got pulled from Family Channel.

All of these factors have destroyed any GOOD venue on basic cable for Anime.

I tend to think people who are still fans are still finding their outlets. Hell, while comic book stores in my area are closing down, the store that specializes in imported Manga and Anime is THRIVING. It's bussleing every weekend!

It just feels like the venues who once brought anime to the US have basically said to its consumers "You're going to watch what we want to show you and if you don't like, tough, this network is no longer for you". Cartoon Network is a classic case study of this position.

I cant fathom why, but it just feels like within the last 3 years, networks in general have found this need to force us to watch crap we don't want to. To boot, they are trying to charge more and more for it.

I think the wise anime fan is taking to the net. Places like Hulu and Crunchyroll are giving fans what they want, not trying to force fans to watch their garbage. Who neeRAB TV anymore when I can watch Hulu, Youtube, Crunchyroll and other similar online networks .. on my TV to boot.
 
First off, Samurai Pizza Cats wasn't a dub. It was a complete rewrite of a Japanese show. It was essentially an American cartoon that used Japanese animation.

Second, that sort of thing would never fly today. Back then, nobody had the Internet or knew what anime was. Heck, a lot of people didn't even have VCRs. Now, any kid could go online and find out about their favorite show within minutes. If the found out it had been severely changed, their desire to watch it again would definitely diminish.

I don't think accurate dubs are really a problem.
 
I'll definitely agree that if a show isn't heavy on T&A, don't make a fanservice-y cover. Besides NHK, another example is Excel Saga's 2006 collection. Why are Excel and Hyatt in lingerie, and how does this in any way reflect the content of the series? (besides episode 26, I mean. ) The Im-Perfect collection had a much more appropriate cover.
 
The xenophobia bit is directed more towarRAB the Cartoon Network executives.

Would you mind backing that statement up please? I'd like to know why you think that everything I have learned in my various Economics classes is a lie.
 
Back
Top