Hey, Answerman!

Here's last week's question:

From Mr. F:

In addition to my love for anime, I'm also a lifelong science fiction fan, so to resolve the current  issues in the R1 industry I'll employ one of my favorite s.f. staples; the time machine. First, I'd travel back about nine years, right as studios were beginning to gorge themselves with licenses in anticipation of the likes of Tokyopop (or Mixx, back then?) and demonstrate that they also need to exercise restraint when licensing, and that trying to farm domestic talent would render naught but barren coffers. After forcing a pinky swear that they would only troll for hits and leave any would-be American Toriyamas flapping in the wind, I would return to the future, confident in my salvation of domestic anime for everyone.

What would I find upon my return? Well, after the unfortunate destruction of my machine by a misplaced cat, (seems to happen a lot in science fiction), my near-fatal guilt after realizing I'd wasted my time in the past on anime, and the revelation that I am my own grandfather, (one of the hazards of time travel), I would open my door to the golden paradise of my creation. And what a sight. All series are an offshoot of a single entity, called Dragon Ninja Sword Battle Robot Angel (DNSBRA), that simultaneously embodies every shonen AND Ray Bradbury).

Maybe I'll just stay home and wish that some of these companies had pursued the dollar less aggressively, but with the somber realization that without the "mistakes" associated with their greed, some exceptionally neat stuff never would have happened in the industry.   

From Patrick Castleberry:

Pure and simple, the biggest mistake the R1 industry has made in the past few years is not going after the fansubbers.  They're killing the industry and if the companies continue to refuse to address the issue, they're g their own death warrants.

From Pat Payne:

The number one mistake that I can see, as an interested outsider (in that I'm an Macross, and am eternally grateful that ADV bought one and ressurected the other license, but, really, just how many units of both did ADV really sell?), and others that just weren't that good to begin with, believing that "big eyes small mouth" animation would sell no matter what it was. In the end, there was too much product for too few buyers and the structure contracted under its own sheer weight.
 
Then there were, along with the licenses, a number of high-profile flops in of subsidiary merchandise, which was another symptom of the massive overexpansion. Bandai Visual in the lurch as only well-heeled uberfans were apparently willing to shell out the money needed to buy their discs.   
 
Really, the situation is eerily analogous to the video-game craze and then bust of the early '80s. Back then, after the success of 86.
 
That's where the anime industry, in my opinion, is heading. They can still halt the decline, though, by throttling back. Don't buy every license under the sun -- buy mostly what will sell, a mix of cutting edge shows leavened with timeless classics. Don't try to expand far and fast into radically different arenas -- magazines ought to be left to magazine publishers and toys to toymakers. And for Pete's sake, don't cheese off your core customer base by pricing them out of the market.

From Peter Laliberte:

Bandai Visual USA. I don't know what's worse, the fact that they thought $50 for 3 episodes was a good idea, or the fact that I actually bought all of Super Robot Wars.
 
My wallet, she cries.

From Faulken:

At the start, it was horrible dubs. Now I would say its the unabashed marketing of "mainstream" titles. Don't get me wrong, some of these series do have merit, but I believe there should be more money spent on marketing "niche" titles. Alot of the large publishing companies have more then enough resources to "take a chance" on a niche title. (I never once saw anything in the real-world for Paprika, Plannetes, Five Milimeters Per Second, the three-story mini-serial: Memories. By comparison I am surrounded by merchandise and advertising DBZ, Bleach, Naruto, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc.) Maybe I'm sheltered, but I think that if more exposure were given to less known titles after something like Naruto is well established, it would help draw in wider audiences then companies are currently.

From Angelica Brenner:

As far as I'm concerned, the biggest mistake that American anime - and manga - companies have made is licensing so many titles. It's not the number of titles that bothers me, as much as the number of lame titles.

There are two kinds of titles that make sense. The titles that have a lot of anime-fan appeal - Shounen Jump titles, series from a long-popular creative team, etc.. - and titles that are very, very good. Things that might make a Japanese anime/manga enthusiast's list of "classics", or newer titles with innovative art, stories, or writing.

Lately, certain anime companies have been having trouble, and bookstores are starting to worry they're running out of space for manga. Certainly fansubs, a crummy economy, and a small army of other troubles are to blame for bits of this, but I can't help but feel that the sheer number of low-appeal, low-quality titles out there have done their damage as well. Burn Up!" anything? Certainly there are handfuls of people who absolutely love such titles, but I'll be darned if I ever met 'em.

Now, as far as I know, American companies are doing none of this is on purpose. There could be some sinister conspiracy where Japanese companies hold top-tier licenses ransom until American companies agree to take "Mitsuru no ~Kankiri~" and "GothBots Revenge EX" with 'em. But if that's not the case, I have only one question:

What the hell, man?

From Patrick Schulz (I think we have a new record for number of Patricks responding to a topic this week):

There are two things that I think are at an equal level here.  First is the price point set for most anime.  Yes, as some have said before it is somewhat comparable to other multi-episode media.  However, that media usually comes down in price.  The only places I have seen any anime cheaper than normal prices is sales on The Amazon.  Even if I had a job (And one that paid really well) I would still have to be selective of the series I buy.  I've missed out on several series because I didn't have the $45-$55 to buy the boxed set for 26 episodes (Barely a season).  And the prices don't seem to be changing.

Secondly, it's the snagging of different series.  Many anime that I would like to see are only available via fansubbs (Which I will not .) or untranslated versions ed to YouTube or other video sharing sites.  This has started to change (As some companies are now offering series not normally released in the US on their websites in high quality formats) but there are still a lot more Gundam variants available in the US.  Do we really need another Gundam variant">Gundam fans, more of a slam on the studios for constantly producing the same thing over and over again.)  Now, maybe it's just me, and I'm getting crusty and old, but I'd like a little more variety in my selections, without having to take advanced Japanese classes.


Finally, from Troy Williams:

I brush against the idea that the R1 industry's situation is due to a mess of huge "mistakes" they made. I don't feel that their problems were even within their control to manage.

For instance, around the time that able fansubs started to proliferate and diminish sales, license fees for titles were rising sharply. Expenses went up, sales went down. Some fans shouted for day and date releases as the "obvious" way to fix things, but Japanese companies couldn't grant that even if they wanted to due to exclusivity agreements with Japanese television, among other constraints.

Then there's the demise of Musicland/Suncoast. They were the biggest and most critical outlet for anime products. Their fall was an epochal moment which almost all of the companies got caught up in and still have yet to recover from. Was that within their control at all?

The situation has yet to get better. Today's fansubs are in HD and in a quality beyond anything the DVD specification itself is capable of. How can even best R1 DVDs compete? Blu-Ray is the answer, but that's not cheap to produce (and that's assuming they DON'T have to renegotiate for HD materials). Again, expenses go up, but will sales follow?

I don't see anything the companies really could have done differently. They simply got caught--and are still caught--in a perfect storm.

So here's the question for this week: