Why Anime Died in North America

[dakotasapphire]

I hate cartoon network for its new programs(they not only got rid of anime, they got rid of the good cartoons.) I'm beginning to hate Disney channel(they won't have wizards of waverly place or sonny with a chance, or the suite life of Zack and Cody... the only reasons I watch their channel they were replaced by crappy shows like good luck charlie...) and Nick(not nicktoons, just nickelodeon, for taking off the good shows like drake and josh, I carly and victorious are good, but the rest I utterly hate.) as well.

Toonami died! I'm so sad! -_- thank god for adult swim, but they only show anime once a week! This sucks! I have to watch my anime on demand on my tv if I want to watch it!

[sportsgirl1391]

I wasn't able to read your article before it was removed but.. I agree anime has gone down hill in america. There use to be more publishers, more stores that carried anime dvds, more anime stores. Over the years stores with anime either stop carrying it or close down. I saw that happen to a lot of places in my city and I live in a pretty large city. And yes there is less anime on tv, probably because kids and teens now these days are into all those reality stuff and don't have any interest for anime, most probably haven't even heard of it. Through out my life I only met a handful of people who knew what it was...and sadly i probably wont meet much more. Anime is dying, I wouldn't say its completely dead yet though.

I agree. Although, I literally just got back from buying Gurren Lagaan Box sets from a Sam Goodys nearby. I also agree on there being not enough advertisement of anime here (MOst likely because all the official trailers for them are crap). I've seen promos and trailers in the dvds I have and ALL of them suck...bad. If one of US (someone from the .org) made them, they would be a lot more interesting.

My biggest WOW moment was when Miku Hatsune appeared in the Toyota Corolla commercials. That was like a moment for me. I thought: YEESSSS!! ANIME IS GETTING EXPOSURE ON NATIONAL TV! Everything we own (and I mean EVERYTHING) we own because we were introduced to them, or were interested in them, or were at least curious. All of that is because of one thing:

ADVERTISING

Anime needz mo commercialz. How else are people gonna know about them if no one tells them about it? Hell, i'd make a commercial for free! (even though i know you gotta buy the air time on a network).

I got to go to the Miku concert in LA that was crazy I was surprised.

I have seen that the anime industry has gone down in the US but it has its ups and downs. I know that if things dont sell well they just stop dubbing it like D.Gray-Man for example, but I also know its more of a problem with people pirating as well. I know that was a topic brought up at anime-expo. Back then with toonami and CN it wasnt as much of a problem back then for pirating now you can pirate everything and anything when it comes to anime. So its more of why should ppl buy it when they can get it for free. I am not one of those ppl I buy them either straight from japan or wait till the english dub comes out. lol. CN there is only so much anime they can post that kids can watch. Because me having alittle brother I shield him from and such as Naruto Shippuden he saw the original Naruto but I wont let him watch shippuden. But we have netflix I let him watch some anime such as Sgt Frog or he likes the english dub of xxxHolic. But its very few to no anime.

[Sukunai]

"ADVERTISING

Anime needz mo commercialz."

If you think it is bad for anime, you should try figuring out why wargaming can't master the reality of needing advertising.

Ok a test, does anyone here know the names Matrix Games or Slitherine?

Those two publishers likely publish just about 60-80% of all the great wargames for PC wargaming. But the numbers sold is almost invariably incredibly minute. They tend to celebrate and throw a party if a title sells a few thousand copies.

Heck if any mainstream company had a title that ONLY sold a few thousand copies of a game considered to be a significant title, the person in charge would get lynched.

[Otohiko]

Ok a test, does anyone here know the names Matrix Games or Slitherine?

Here.

I'm not sure I see the point you're trying to make though. Firstly, both of those have effective - but highly targeted - advertising. Being a sim/wargame junkie myself I get more than my fair share of exposure of ads for these on relevant sites. Secondly, I'd consider Matrix, or other companies in this genre like Battlefront or Paradox, to be really successful in the niche - and that's what that is, a niche. Wargames and other niche products are never going to sell millions of copies not because they're not well-advertised. So their business models aren't built around millions of sales, they're built around low thousands, with prices to match. WitP:AE costs like 90 bucks, and continues to be revered in the die-hard community that has the will and energy to play months-long PBEM sessions. And it's not that I don't wish it was cheaper or more successful, but honestly, living in the real world, do you see a proper wargame succeeding among the general public? Do you really see crowds lining up outside of Best Buy to get their hands on the latest version of War in the East, even if they put an ad for it in the Superbowl?

It's a market limited by necessity and reality, namely the reality that even participating in that hobby requires extensive historical and technical knowledge, i.e. investment of time and brainpower. I can't for the life of me imagine more than a dedicated niche being persuaded by even a very good (but realistically-budgeted) advertising campaign to put their time and attention into something like that instead of a myriad other, more socially-normative things. And it's not that they need to. Because at least in the case of the companies you mentioned (particularly Matrix), they're very successful at making money from what they do and continuing their business on a sustained-niche rather than unlimited-growth model.

[ZephyrStar]

I'm an oldfag. I've watched anime go from a cult thing to a fairly common thing. It's far from dead.

[Sukunai]

Well mostly my point was Otohiko, that Matrix Games/Slitherine (they merged) while giants in their niche, still have trouble selling to only a few diehards.

You see the same effect in anime, as anime is a niche.

But one has to wonder, does it REALLY need to be as entirely niche as it is?

We say there will never be more than a few of us, but why does that HAVE to be so? Have we really just talked ourselves into it?

Games like Squad Leader were once sold in toy stores. But they went and made the damned thing so competely maxed out unapproachable, that it is no small wonder the only way to find it now, is to already know where it is to begin with.

That's lousy thinking if one wishes new blood in the hobby though.

Anime is not nearly as bad off though as it is both gender friendly and not quite so demographically limiting.

But it still is seen as something of an odd hobby. Not much different than those weird people and their role games. I can find role games on sale, but only because I already know where to look.

It's the already know where to look aspect that is broken. We need to make it simply for people that are not even aware of the existence of the hobby to at least see it.

But I think in the case of anime specifically, it needs more advertising that corrects the horrible cliche misconceptions.

A it is NOT just a cartoon for kids.
B it is not just some weird form of Japanese porn.