The continued decline in anime produced.

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ikillchicken

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So the info on the fall season has surfaced and it looks like there will be about 29 new shows according to the encyclopedia. That seemed pretty low for a fall season which prompted me to compare some of the numbers over the last few years and I was rather concerned to learn that we've continue to see a somewhat drastic slide in the number of TV shows produced each year.

Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
2007 26 52 24 47 149
2008 26 43 24 41 134
2009 29 40 21 36 126
2010 24 31 20 29 104

(Note: All these numbers are based on titles listed in ANN's encyclopedia. They obviously may vary slightly as series do not always fit perfectly into seasons).

I didn't do a full breakdown but I did add up the yearly totals for TV shows as well as movies and OVAs for the rest of the decade and threw together a graph:

Year TV M OVA Total
2000 57 27 24 108
2001 92 35 37 164
2002 91 32 51 174
2003 107 26 55 188
2004 121 30 53 204
2005 119 34 46 199
2006 158 34 52 244
2007 149 51 49 249
2008 134 29 42 205
2009 126 40 51 217
2010 104 40 41 185

[img]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/532/43195317.png[/img]

OVAs and Movies have remained pretty consistently inconsistent and adding them tends to skew the total a bit. Just looking at TV though you can see a fairly smooth slope peaking in 06 and steadily declining afterward.

It's interesting to see. There's obviously a ton of speculation about the situation the industry is in and whether it's getting worse or better. Purely in terms of volume output though it seems it is definitely been shrinking and continues to shrink. I guess you can interpret that as either cause for concern or simply the natural shrinking that follows a boom. Although if the latter is true, I have to wonder just how much things have to shrink before they stabilize.

It's rather disappointing to see that the number fell by a huge 22 shows from this year to last. Especially in light of the fact that the R1 industry seems to have at least moderately recovered or at least stabilized and simulcasting has really taken off. Of course there are numerous factors that come into play that could outweigh changes in the R1 industry. It also may be that there's a bit of a delayed effect so maybe we'll see a better year in 2011. Of course it could also indicate that the R1 industry at least as it now is, simply isn't that significant.

Anyway, there's no real specific question I'm raising here. I just thought this was an interesting trend and wanted to toss it out there.
 
Maybe, but what this upcomming season lacks in quantity it makes up for in increased quality, it seems. There's considerably more interesting looking shows I want to see this season than any other 2010 anime season. I'll be giving at least 9 shows a shot's over twice as many as I watched during the first half of the year which was two whole seasons. :lol:

So maybe 2011 will have things starting to get better. It's a good sign.
 
I don't know dude. Go back to see all the shows that came out in Fall 2007 and there's some serious stinkers in there.

Like, that season had good stuff like Gundam 00, Clannad and Shakugan no Shana II, but it also had Ninomiya-kun, Prism Ark and....*ugh* the worst anime ever, Dragonaut the Resonance *shudders*. Horrible, horrible anime.

Plus, it was also the year Kodomo no Jikan came out. Which brought Zac to his knees in despair.
 
I don't know if the decline is necessarily a bad thing, so long as the talent becomes more concentrated on fewer titles. Looking back at the beginning of this century when the production numbers were relatively low, some of my favorite titles ever were being produced. Seriously, Spring 2002: Azumanga Daioh, .hack//SIGN, Ai Yori Aoshi, Chobits, and Twelve Kingdoms, to name a few. Granted there were and always will be a few stinkers as well, but that's how it goes. I think we could use a little contraction in the industry to hopefully focus on higher quality work.
 
Thanks for putting this together, ikillchicken. I had been curious about this very topic but never summoned the energy to crunch the numbers as you have (not to mention present them in a purty graph which is beyond my meagre technical prowess).

Personally, I am not alarmed by the drop in TV output. I think the bulge that started in 2004 and ended in 2009 was an aberration. I don't think the anime industry can sustain those bulge numbers and still maintain a decent level of quality. Talent is finite.

Now if output drops to, say, 50 TV shows a year, then I might start to get a bit nervous.
 
If the decline in the number of shows each season amounts to less derivative and pandering crap, and more creativity and good storyelling, then I'm all for it.
 
This is a good thing. The 90s and early 00s had some amazing stuff, while these past couple of years have been... lacking. Is there even such thing as an original series any more? It's all about adaptions, sequels, and clones of popular Moe series these days.
 
Jaymie said:
Is there even such thing as an original series any more?
Click to expand...
Yes there is.
Jaymie said:
It's all about adaptions, sequels, and clones of popular Moe series these days.
Click to expand...
It was all about adaptations and clones back then too. In fact, just as much as today. Except instead of moe, it was probably mecha that was the hot spot.
 
If you actually look at charts of TV anime produced in the 90s, it's pretty horrible. The overall numbers of anime is extremely low, and until you get to 1996 or 1997, you only have a terribly small number of actual shows that were worth checking out. And years like 2000 or 2001 are some of the worst I've even seen. There's so few decent shows it makes the head hurt.
 
Very nice chart, well composed. I think the status of anime is fine, but the data always tells an interesting tale.
 
What about the number of shows getting licenced each year I would like to know that. I have personally noticed about an average of 5 shows being released on DVD every month (this is an estimation ofcourse). But that also includes shows that are ongoing already and re-releases.

Im not worried yet with those numbers though. I mean if studios focus on quality as opposed to quantity im down with that.

oh by the way those DVD releases apply to Australia only not too sure bowt the other regions.
 
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