Anime is dying (feat. graphs)
PostPosted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:24 pm
So you might have seen me go over the state of the anime industry with respect to Japan in response to things like why things are the way they are and peoples' misconceptions about how things work. Basically, I usually go over how anything that happens in the American market is moot because it's almost irrelevant to the success of the industry in Japan. Now, I have graphs and a Japanese PDF.
Port IG, the parent company of Production IG and XEBEC has a report outlining the state of the industry in Japan. In it, there are two interesting graphs that basically summarize what I've been mentioning. Here they are, translated by some admin at MAL:
The above graph, taken from slide 25, basically gets at what I've been saying: overseas fans are essentially the cherry on top in terms of revenue. In particular, overseas sales are about as much as goods, which includes toys, figures, soundtracks, singles, and other merchandise. If, for whatever reason, a studio needed to focus on something to the exclusion of all else, they will not be targeting the foreign audience.
And this chart, from slide 26, shows that not only do foreigners not matter, but pretty much anyone who's not a hardcore otaku doesn't matter either. And this is why shows that typically air on, say, noitaminA are considered financial failures. Since such a huge proportion of the income is DVD sales and DVDs are insanely expensive in Japan, most people won't buy DVDs. This is why you get more shows that don't have broad, general appeal.
In summary, you don't matter if you're not living in Japan and spend ridiculous sums of money on DVDs (better crack open that wallet and spend $60 for a two-episode volume), and I hope you like the moeru.
Port IG, the parent company of Production IG and XEBEC has a report outlining the state of the industry in Japan. In it, there are two interesting graphs that basically summarize what I've been mentioning. Here they are, translated by some admin at MAL:
The above graph, taken from slide 25, basically gets at what I've been saying: overseas fans are essentially the cherry on top in terms of revenue. In particular, overseas sales are about as much as goods, which includes toys, figures, soundtracks, singles, and other merchandise. If, for whatever reason, a studio needed to focus on something to the exclusion of all else, they will not be targeting the foreign audience.
And this chart, from slide 26, shows that not only do foreigners not matter, but pretty much anyone who's not a hardcore otaku doesn't matter either. And this is why shows that typically air on, say, noitaminA are considered financial failures. Since such a huge proportion of the income is DVD sales and DVDs are insanely expensive in Japan, most people won't buy DVDs. This is why you get more shows that don't have broad, general appeal.
In summary, you don't matter if you're not living in Japan and spend ridiculous sums of money on DVDs (better crack open that wallet and spend $60 for a two-episode volume), and I hope you like the moeru.