well at least in america...its a fun lil article.

http://anime.ign.com/articles/881/881499p1.html

"hip-hop been dead, we the reason it died"~ Nas , the irony.



________________
"Hip-hop was set out in the dark. They used to do it out in the park"

This is what they get for importing so many bad titles and shoving in so many (bad) OEL's. More regular manga, lessen the damn prices, keep them in print and there we go.

Hmm... well, the craze might decline a little, but I don't think there will ever be a time when no one wants to read manga anymore. Manga is like books or the tv... its a form of media...? Ermm... kinda, you know what I mean. And it still has room to improve and evolve and stuff...
Heard about Tokyopop's big retrenchment exercise though... sad, ain't it?

Interesting, though I probably haven't really noticed that in the titles were all watered down (titles that i haven't even heard of being licensed)

But yeah, if it's like this (especially some of those OEL random 'comics' [manga should refer to the asians mostly]), then yeah, this is getting really depressing. It's the same with the dub too right?

Like in anime, the subs/dubs from the licensed version of anime are either:
totally off
out of character
bad timing
poorly translated
or any combination of the above.

Either way nowadays, more people rely on the internet where it's free, they can readily access it and they can get a higher quality (both the video and the sub) for not much at all. Besides, I guess it's also what keeps those who don't live in Asia, somewhat up-to-date with the manga/anime world (IMHO).

I seriously did not want to wait for Suzumiya Haruhi (where the light novels have been produced since back in early 2000) to be 'just licensed' and released in 'Janurary'. *sigh* so sad...

________________

TRULY EPIC

DVDs are a rip-off to begin with and Anime is probably the number 1 offender. It's what 3 or 4 eps a disk when we know they could easily fit more, crap extras if any and they often force in ads... I mean I wouldn't mind being bombarded with ads if they'd at least be nice enough to pass the savings to me.

As for manga I think the main problem is speed. If random unpaid teenagers can crank out a new chapter of chapter of naruto in a few hours, there is no excuse for Vis to be 13 volumes shy of current or over 30 volumes shy for One Piece. People who read manga are not fond of waiting and there is no reason for there to be more than a month long gap between volumes. I get that companies feel they have to milk their titles by pacing releases so that they don't run out of source material but catching up is the entire ****ing point.

Finally I think it's an overall attitude of that companies have adopted of telling the consumer what they want by forcing them to take what you have rather than giving them what they actually ask for. Music industry, movie industry, video game industry and the anime/manga industry... it's all the same. They fail to give us what we want so instead we show them exactly what we and snag it from an alternative source in the format we want and for free. Then that blame that source for the downfall their incompetents and greed caused.

Interesting, and unfortunately true. Though, at the same time, I've been seeing more and more actual good dubs (well, more than none anyways) in the last few years. And the market is far from dying in Japan, what with new(er) anime titles like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Code Geass (and R2), and some ongoing good manga titles like Berserk, Claymore and Air Gear. So, as long as Japan stays on the internet, we should be fine (Vexille anyone?). Just wait for American companies to figure out that they were morons, and hopefully a lot of the crap that has inundated the US market will go away...and hopefully leave the good stuff behind. And I for one would welcome at least a partial return to the days of exclusivity....and the death of Narutards...

also..

Where have you been "bombarded with ads" on a retail DVD? I've never seen this happen on any retail DVDs, anime or otherwise.


Try waiting a year between Japanese and American releases (Hellsing)...then come complain about having a month-long gap... Personally I read the scanlations online and then just buy the actual volumes when I can get them...whenever that may be....

I actually enjoy purchasing licensed anime. Especially (almost exclusively) Funimation Licenses. I have half the Kodocha series on DVD, all of Basilisk, all the DBZ movies save 2, and a bunch of other random series. I actually like the audio commentaries and so forth (Commentary on Dead Zone=Epic). But I go into stores and read whole volumes of manga without purchasing a single item. Why? Because I'm broke as hell, as most manga fans (in the U.S.[being minors for the most part]) who don't have access to scans. If the licensing companies broadened the demographic range of their properties, they would sell more product.

________________
Listen here
Livin just to keep from dyin

Here's my take.

I don't live in America, so I won't claim to understand how the market there works. What I do know is R1 DVD's are pure rip-offs. 3-4 episodes for USD 20-30.... no thanks.

Where I live, our anime/manga culture is much more mature than it is in the west, but there are drawbacks. For manga, while we get tons of titles, most are translated in Chinese (which I can speak but can't read, same for my Japanese). For English translations, we depend on some local publishers and also your usual Viz, DelRey...etc. I buy as many as I can, but since my tastes are mostly 'seinen' I don't really get much choice. DelRey's Mushishi, ADV's Gunslinger Girl and Infinity Studio's Blood Alone are the only 'western licensed' titles I constantly pre-order at KinoKuniya or Borders.

For anime, I buy most stuff online, at www.discountanimedvd.com. There I can get a full-season, 24-26 episode, free-region 'import' title for the same price (or less) as 6-8 episodes of it's R1 counterpart. Yeah, the translations are iffy at best and there's no extras and no English-dub, but I understand a bit of spoken Japanese, don't care for extras and hate dubs, so it works for me.

With regards to the problem the industry is facing in America..... IMHO, your publisher's lack taste. Most titles they license are crap and the few good ones take forever to come out. Of all the licensed dvd sets released by R1 companies, I've only ever bought 6 complete seasons: MuShiShi, GankutsuOu, Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, Noein and Last Exile. I may buy Gurren Lagann but a full box set will probably take a decade to come out, knowing them. The rest are mostly free-region imports, locally licensed or R2 stuff.

At Crunchyroll, the most common complaint when a series is licensed and removed is, "The Publishers seem to license everything but I can never find anything at the stores."

A few industry-analysts (I call them paid otakus), say the solution is advertising, and I somewhat agree. Why not provide free content online and include adverts. The sponsoring companies would make up for the licensing/server/translator costs and bring the profits to the publishers, and they would be able to make their products known to a global audience at the same time. Whether the sales of the advertised product goes up would depend on the it's quality, wouldn't it .... somewhat similar to what CrunchyRoll is doing with some Gonzo titles, I hear.

I was in a Southeast Asian country a while ago and went to a pirated-dvd store. I had a nice conversation with the owner (who spoke excellent English). In his words, "A guy who flips burgers at McDonalds in the U.S could probably afford to buy 2-3 original DVD's of Hollywood films a month. A guy who has the same job here can't even afford to buy one. Whether it's the fault of American or local publishers, I don't know, but everyone has the right to entertainment. They call it piracy, we call it stealing from the capitalist pigs and providing to the poor." I gave him a smile, thanked him for sharing his opinion, bought Rambo 4(crap) and some porn and went on my way.

Cheers.

Last edited by gan17 at 12:36 pm, Jun 15 2008

________________
~Point & Squirt~

That just about sums up why the companies are doing bad. Smaller companies which have a broader range than just 10 year olds are doing fine.

i agree with bbojs cuz its true wen we can get a new chapter in a matter of hours there's no reason that a manga company needs months 2 do like 3 chapters wen they have a whole staff at their disposal. It's also that these days ppl whether read online cuz we get 2 find out what happens then wait months just 2 noe who ends up with who. It's also alot of the titles that kept them with good sales are ending and they been publishing sucky titles lately

Ever stop to look inward. Perhaps part of the reason anime is in decline is because people don't want to buy it because they think fansubs are better. I'll admit there maybe three or four sub groups that could make it as pros but thats still three or four out of hundreds of groups. if you want to see more anime buy what you like. Don't use the excuse "Its too expensive." You're lucky the price is so low. Back a few years when vhs was still popular you'd have two episodes a tape at thirty dollars; just for the dub version. The sub cost extra.

Ofcourse, taste does account for something. In the least couple of years people were licensing everything, including the things that sucked.

And manga sales are actually still rising. Its not the meteoric rise it had back in the former half of this decade, but its still climbing. I don't count what happened to tokyopop alarming. It just means they aren't the top dog anymore. Which is a good thing since that means the other manga publishers are bringing better quality stuff over. Del Rey manga doesn't sell at such a high price because it sucks you know. Even VIZ are starting to move things around in their manga. For the first time ever they left the color pages in their tankobons. ES21 atleast. That good shit.

________________
Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

I think manga/anime is declining because a lot of people are getting their things online now. It's cheaper, quicker, and sometimes even better quality. People are impatient and want updates quick. I, myself, prefer scanlations than waiting months for the next volume to be released in America, while there are perfectly good scanlations right here on the internet. Like someone already said, if people can get one new chapter of Naruto in a few hours, why does it take months for companies to get 3-4 chapters. That's just crazy. They should pick the series more carefully instead of picking any kind of crap that comes their way. Dubs suck too.

________________
♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

Whoa. Lets not get carried away here, and just dismiss all dubs completely. There are perfectly good dubs out there on par with the original voice acting. Some are even better than the original. :V

And like I was saying. manga is in no danger of declining. Yes, eventually it'll plane out, but its not there yet. Besides the quality of manga is going up. Atleast in terms of printing and whatnot. Except TP. Over the years they've only gotten worse.

Last edited by silent killer at 2:23 pm, Jun 13 2008

________________
Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

i have to agree with pretty much every1

america dumbs down it's tv so every1 can understand
it and it turns ppl off to the show
for example tokyo mew mew it was a pretty cheesy
show to begin with but the japanese version was
deffinantly for teens so there were more ppl watching
it now when they did the show in america they shrunk the
50(ish) episode teen show into a 20(something) episode
little kid show that was so bad most older grls who could
of been interested in it couldn't stand to watch it ...
they do it to everything xcept for adult swim and still
they don't have much selection

it's not dead to me cuz i get it and read it
just not from the bad american sources

________________
IS it so selfish to ask for something in this world to be mine and only mine... belonging to no one else. that is what i wish for most

Examples, please??

With the exception of Cowboy Bebop, I can't think of any,.... and wouldn't R1 releases be cheaper if they didn't bother with dubs in the first place.

Besides.... I believe we should watch stuff in it's original intended language, whether Japanese, English, Turkish or Icelandic. (unless subs aren't available)


________________
~Point & Squirt~