Anime Failing in the U.S. as Fan Base Increases



In the airport yesterday, I grabbed a copy of Future Anime. Amusingly, there was an Editor’s Note on the state of anime since mid-2006 and how downloads have been hurting the industry as the progression of broadband has…
(via 8asians.com) by autoSubmit 103 days ago

Category: Culture | Tags: japanese, people, world, us, movie, anime, media, fans, release, series, live, online, couple, future, 2006, rights, problem, game, otaku, funny, actors, pirates

Level 5
Vote +
Vote -

Print this article.
Add to your list of favorites.
Email to a friend.

16 total votes, most recent votes from:
AsianBoi • minty • sweetpea • proAsian • japangirl • inu • Jekki • arkarna • iPsD • niichan • snowdropz • tofu • Hitomi • elrich • Cherry • lan •

How is Anime failing in the US?

That’s what I’m wondering. I thought anime was doing well. I see all these little kids running around pretending they’re ninjas.

It’s because of downloads. Plus english dubs sound horrible.

Yeah tell me about it…

Yeah most people I know prefer Japanese.

If the voices weren’t so different, I wouldn’t mind.

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like it.

Also the culture is a big part of the anime sometimes and they take that out of the anime when dubbing. =

Hrm not always. Sometimes they try to keep it.

The animes that are American made are good though like Avatar.

I read the editor’s note in that magazine a while ago. Seeing this article about the editor’s note, I just had to comment. I can understand why it’s titled “Anime Failing in the U.S. as Fan Base Increases.” It’s due to competition with downloads or FREE anime access of licensed and unlicensed material in the US, whether it be episodes, movies, or any Japanese animation. The fact that some fans are getting it for free from places like the internet, companies who brings the anime in the US are losing money. It’s possible that because of the internet or free access to anime, the profits or monetary value in anime in the US are decreasing. As a result of such a possible decrease, there might not be anymore anime available in the US from a US distributor. That means that anyone who would like to BUY the anime on a medium like DVD will probably have to buy it as an import from an outside source or from a place in the US that gets imports. Of course more and other domino effects might follow like companies laying off people or going bankrupt.

What can one do? The internet is a world wide access and even if places limit internet access, there are probably other ways of getting such items.

Any other ideas on why anime could be failing in the US?

Avatar might as well be an Japanese anime. It’s more similiar to a Japanese anime than an American cartoon.

People can get it commercial free for free. Why bother with TV?

Because it’s wrong?

US anime is failing because its US anime. They take japanese series and mutilate the episodes with dialog thats fit for grade schoolers. Don’t get me wrong I love that Anime has a place now on TV and such but it seems when they take a series like Hack Sign or Card Captor Sakura and change the episodes to play them out of order its unfair. I love adult swim but even the english dub of Inuyasha makes me wanna choke some of the voice actors.
Even Yugiyo episodes were all out of order.

I rather watch Anime SUBbed by fansubbers then dubbed by weak voice acting and bad dialog. Very very rarely does a anime do right by its voice actors. I did love the english versions of Death Note, Witch Hunter Robin and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Anime has come so far but it still has a long way to go to stand on its own the way it does in Japan.