Japan's anime industry has fallen on hard times, a decline felt acutely by young animators who enter the industry with much passion, only to be confronted by grueling conditions and meager pay. 90% who enter the field, drop out....

Meanwhile, free internet services are hurting sales of DVDs and high-quality programs from studios in China and South Korea are crowding the Asian market.



Slideshow:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124894486860193163.html

Video:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... bs%3Dvideo

edit: fixed video url

I predict that there will be a crash much like the 90's comic book crash for the anime industry. Having said that, It may not be a bad thing. Many of the current offering nowadays seem hollow and watered down and a winnowing maybe in order. I feel bad for those aspiring animators. I know how it feels trying to break into an industry just when it's going into a downturn.

as long as they keep producing One Piece im happy

woah....she lives 2 hours away from work.

the video link is the same as the slide link.

i'm happy just rewatchin FLCL over and over and over

Fixed video url:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... bs%3Dvideo

those people who live 1.5-2 hours or more away from work are retarded!

you can find cheap studio rooms even in the city. Usually people like that are traveling so far cause they are living at home for financial or family reasons. I would assume its from pressure of family to stay at home, cause the time and cost of traveling that far does not justify "free" rent at home.

You do get the salarymen living that far away so they can give their family a large home outside of the city, but really IMO its cause they can't stand their family and the long ride is time away from home/family.

This just reminded me that while watching the extras on one of the Futurama movie DVDs I saw that a girl I went to high school with is one of the animators for Futurama! She demonstrates how to draw Nibbler. Back in HS she had a job with a local animation company that made educational computer games (I think) - she got me an interview with them but apparently I wasn't good enough.
Futurama rocks!

so true.
boogiepop phantom is another anime i could watch over and over.

but yes,
most anime has sucked big time in the last 5 or so years.
same rehashed crap over and over.

thanks!

The state of the animation industry really sucks all around. But seeing a country, that produces more animation than anywhere, in a slump is kinda disappointing.



all 6 glorious episodes, love it too.



My GF worked on a few of the Futurama movies as an animator

Isn't the reason animation is dying is because video-games give tons of folks all the eye candy without the need for animation.

Not saying that's bad or good, but given the choice of passively watching a film or playing a game that looks like a movie where you control it, most folks will go with the games.

Also for me, anime died when I realized what the dialogue was and finally got my hands on original Gatchaman episodes which is really what I always wanted to watch but didn't know how to get back in ye olden pre-Internet days.

The decline is definitely lame; hate to hear about that happening. I was really out of anime for years, but started watching a lot this year. Some of the new stuff is really, really good, and that's coming from a guy who used to only watch stuff from the 80's or earlier. But the marketing strategies for anime in Japan are ridiculous, and I think that's what is killing it. Basically, for most of the anime made for adults (i.e. whatever isn't a 30 minute Bandai commercial) the studio pays for air time at around midnight and shows it as an infomercial. Then they recoup their losses by selling $60 DVDs and merchandising rights. But when the core fanbase either loses their discretionary income (recession) or finds methods of "alternate distribution" (Internet) the business model falls apart.

If they can fix their sales model and make this stuff available to people other than hardcore fans then I think we'll acually see growth, not collapse. Look at manga, which is serialized in giant $4 magazines that anyone can pick up... I haven't heard about any huge losses there as of yet.

And the international market for manga is really something that should not be underated.

Of course we are not talking about Japan's release figures, but for instance in France, 50 new titles are released every months (around $11, same format as Japan).

The kids around here only read Manga and the French & Belgium productions only reach the older readers (even though they are not especially mature readers restricted).

As for Anime, I've always thought the Japan retail prices are ridiculous. Again in France, you can get a complete series of 26 episodes for just $45 (fully licensed with amazing packaging, dubbed & subtitled). At that price there is no argument to justify illegal downloads !

interesting. i've been playing Uncharted 2 on the PS3 and it's really the first game that does play like a movie. amazing and gorgeous. graphics rule.

Theres still a few anime gems being made. If you get a chance watch Kaiba. Its only 12 episodes so wouldn't take you long to get through.

http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/kaiba/