I've wondered about this myself, sometimes, as a sort of hypothetical situation - "What would happen if the anime industry totally crashed in the U.S.?" It would be like some strange time-reset to the early 90s. I think AnimEigo would still be around, though. They're built like a rock that weathers all storms, operating with the same principles as they probably did back in the 80s.

I think anime has reached a point in cultural awareness and made enough fans that even in the event of a U.S. anime industry crash, there would be enough interest to keep fansubs for all the new stuff coming in, and enough interested viewers to make the potential of market re-entry an easier task than it was initially, where the companies had to make an effort to -build- a market from a fairly small initial fanbase. Also, I don't think an anime market crash would actually affect manga that much, as from what I know, manga is not only easier to license and distribute, but easier to make a profit on as well.

The anime industry has become "desaturated" in the U.S., but I think it's okay for it to lie at a low level for a while. With each year, more anime fans become workers, and then have a disposable income with which they could buy some anime. Not that they all will - your blog post is about piracy in the first place - but there'd be money being spent on anime goods - not DVDs from Japan (which are ridiculously expensive, contain fewer episodes than Western releases, and have no subs), but maybe an increase in figures, plushies, and other merchandise.

Well, there's always the "third option" - that to cut overhead expenses, companies would throw out disc-based releases and just sell digital downloads or access to streaming services. I'm not wild about either of those options, but then, I'm cantankerous and resilient against change. :P

I completely disagree. The anime industry is incredibly weird in the sense it's one of the highest fluctuating industry's out there. If you make BAD anime it's not going to sell, if you make GOOD anime it will sell.

Another issue is the internet. Your not going to see as much anime on store shelves since the main frontier of anime is the internet and it always will be. So your going to see more people ordering from stores like Rightstuf.com then in actual stores.

I've wondered about this as well. Sometimes, it seems as if all this nonsense about DVD quality and censorship and piracy should all just go away so we can go back to enjoying anime like we used to.

I'll be frank: It doesn't EVER matter to me if a series gets licenced; the anime industry will always be strong in Japan, and there will always be fans willing to subtitle it.

As long as the internet exists, people will always be downloading anime straight out of Japan.

Phantomile speaks the truth

As long as they keep on censoring, altering and overpricing licensed anime I don't care. They should know by now fans are fucking picky, and if you censor or alter anything a shit-storm will happen.

My problem with the anime/manga industry in the USA has always been how they treat it like China treats foreign investment, you HAVE to partner up with a local person. I swear if I knew my money was going directly towards Shueisha instead of Viz, I'd even go the extra mile to buy Viz manga. As it stands I'm just paying for anime that I can pay for directly. I have no desire to give money to American companies. I want the original creators to recieve my dollar.

Phantomille sums it up for me as well. I just pay my CR subscription to help negate the guilt of barely buying any DVDs ever. I only buy the stuff I really love or the really cheap on-sale digipacks. Hell if the industry died then I wouldn't have any guilt, maybe it should die then?

"Little effort was being made back then to license series out of Japan, so fansubs and scanlations were not only perfectly legal, they actually were a welcome source of free advertisement for anime and manga worldwide."

I disagree. I don't think fansubs and scanlations are legal in any form, regardless of the presence of a local industry. The fact is that you are taking a product and redistributing it without having the rights to do so.

However, I do agree that they were and still are effective advertisements to the rest of the world. Bandai's methods of promoting Haruhi is proof enough to me that they recognize fansub's role in the industry. It's also probably one of the reasons that fansubbers haven't been more aggressively prosecuted. They act as tests for what shows in Japan are or could be popular stateside.

Also, "tough, old-fashioned way"? Fansubs will NEVER go back to the old methods of distribution now that the internet is here. XP

Also, Phantomile speaks truth as said before. If the American industry dies, the fans won't just vanish. Fansubs are easy enough to create that they'll still be around.

Spoiler Alert!


Before that happens, Rorschach will have sent Genshiken Vol.1 to The New Frontiersman and it will be discovered by the guy in the smiley face shirt eating a burger, meaning the peaceful Otaku world will go back to it's natural chaotic ways and it all begins again.

Just to correct a point, it is not legal to copy (make fansubs, scanlations, etc.) a piece of work because it is not distributed in a particular country.

As noted in the article, this kind of piracy plays a role in the growth of the industry -- as long as it goes away when the industry is established.

One of the reasons the US anime industry is in crisis is because of massive piracy.

IDK, you certainly make a good arguement. It's the same thing with Toku, with nobody wanting to license it anymore and Fansubs of it on the rise, Toei is becoming an anal bitch a forcing popular subbers like TV-Nihon to take the eps down

^ Kilkrazy wins.

We need more services like Crunchyroll around. The problem is not so much that people steal is that people WANT it now. And we can get it now. The internet is not the enemy it's people who think $50 a dvd makes sense. It does not. Stop dubbing, stop adding extras and watch the dvd price go down to $20.
Crunchyroll is leading what I believe will be the downfall of DVD anime, and the rise of the streaming revolution. $14 a month to watch new shows as well as old ones is a great deal. The more people do that the more money can be shared in the industry. Sure some people will still want a DVD but they are really becoming the miniroity when it comes to anime.
I say free the system, bring instacast to the fore front and watch anime grow and grow.

@Everyone: Thanks for reading! Thanks for commenting!

I know that the fansubbing of the past wasn't legal back in the day. I think I was thinking more along the lines of prosecutability, or something. Mainly I was trying to string together a series of provocative statements, in the hopes of spurring discussion, which is the most important thing when it comes to piracy: It must be discussed; it can't just sit there as our albatross anymore.

@darknightmare: This is my feeling as to what the eventual solution will be as well.

"The internet is not the enemy it's people who think $50 a dvd makes sense. It does not. Stop dubbing, stop adding extras and watch the dvd price go down to $20"
This trend is starting to gain some steam as of lately, since I've been seeing whole seasons of anime sub-only go for about $30-$40, which is roughly about what box sets of US shows will go for (give or take, don't start quoting me on prices). Hopefully, shrewd marketing and trimming the fat will give the box set sales a few more years of life.

Personally, I loathe streaming and I hope someone creates a DL-to-own model, or some other alternative (or we could just keep around disc-based media?). Thanks to vicious telecom oligarchies, not everyone in the US has equal internet as a country with less land mass and more density, such as Japan or Korea. I absolutely love (read: sarcasm) having a stream hang in the middle of a show, and having to wait 5 minutes for it to load more, when I could just click on a file in my hard drive and watch it whenever I want.
That's just me. Your Milage May Vary.

majority of dubbs are done horribly. it also ruins several things that cannot be accurately conveyed even if close to accurate as possibly translated. It's just the culture barrier... like how yakuza 3 US version will lack the hostess clubs. Unfortunately the general public does not know or care for the culture, and first and foremost these companies are here to make money. Fansubs are there to promote the series from love. Our anime niche is so limited. And as licenses expire and companies go under we see re-releases for better or worse... If you can find a MovieStop usually once a month they have a week long 40% off anime sale, and then with their card additional 10%. I buy whole series for cheap and they have lifetime warranty though it is limited to stock on hand or credit. Hell even my copy of city hunter the music sequences in Cantonese are in Cantonese even when english track is selected and there are no english subs for it only chinese subs. it just makes more sense in original filmed language otherwise you get the weird lipsyncing. I see why the expense in manga for the translators and formatting etc. but manga will not explode in america until it becomes affordable like in japan. In taiwan they even have manga rentals like 50 cents a day. average manga japan 400Yen (4USD) vs 10USD stateside. hell 5 dolla foot long 5 dolla dvd 5 dolla downloadable game 400SMP XBLA 5 dolla manga. i'm much more willing to part with 5 than 10. granted comic books here are what 1.50 haven't seen much in the way of comic books overseas... and always bringing back those games not released in the US for DS PSP and PS3. 360 and wii are region locked, less expensive to get that "fixed" there.

Answer is simple: a new business model

Commercial companies speedsub the releases within a week, put it out for $2.50 an ep, with the price being a discount on the box set if they want it.

Put the eps on Steam and Impulse, and make your money on the box sets for the people willing to pay the big bucks for it.

You do this, and keep the prices reasonable, you can go after the animesukis and other sites, and people will pay for your business since it's reasonable.

The problem is that the current business model is inferior to the pirate model in every way.

Oh, and even Crunchyroll is inferior to the fansubbers right now. I'd rather get Sora no Woto from a fansubber then from their service, and it's not a pricepoint issue.

Thing is, I want to support the so called anime industry. But I want to suport the creators, people who put their effort on creating great animes, thinking about storylines, character designs, concepts and everything. I want to support the japanese anime industry, they are the people who make anime and deserve our support.

I couldn't care less about local industries. And they don't even exist where I live.

@ Phantomile I agree 100%.

I sometimes, a lot more often now, wish that the market would fail, so I could watch my fan subs without fear of licensing making it harder, or impossible to find. Honestly, until they can give me the quality I want for a price point that is affordable, 20 + dollars for 3-6 episodes, with inacurate unstileized subs, is not the right direction for the market!

I'm far more willing to pay for a service like crunchy roll where for 15 dollars or so a month I can watch whatever I want as much as I want.