Ask John: Has the American Anime Industry Hit a Lull?

Question:
Has the American anime market hit a little bit of a lull? I’ve noticed over the past few months that not a lot of interesting new anime (as in 2001-2003 Japanese releases) have been coming over. Companies like ADV have been releasing older aquisitions such as the Slayers movies, etc. And the new series that have been released are only 13 episodes. Have all the heavy hitters been licenced and released already in the states? Or are the American companies biding their time until the next big anime like Gundam Seed, Naruto & One Piece are available? And speaking of 13 episodes series, is that because they weren’t hits? Or are half season runs common in anime?

Answer:
I can only answer this question with educated speculation, not facts. Even as a member of the professional American anime industry myself, I can tell you secrets in this industry are kept very close to the vest. My personal suspicion is that while the increasing popularity of anime in America has been a windfall for fans, it’s been a bit of a mixed blessing for professional American licensors. As demand has risen for anime, the cost of licensing has also increased. Japanese studios and producers now know that the anime they produce has market value outside of Japan, so they demand top dollar bids for English language translation rights. Especially with larger companies with deep pockets like AD Vision, Bandai, Geneon, and even Dreamworks acquiring and stockpiling titles, there’s not very much left to go around, and these companies buying up multiple titles at top dollar drives up the price of licensing any anime.

Within recent memory we’ve seen TOKYOPOP dramatically cut back on its anime licensing and dramatically increase its manga licensing. No doubt the popularity of manga in America is one cause of this priority shift. But another reason is probably that manga is far less expensive to license, translate and release in America than anime is. Both Central Park Media and AD Vision have recently begun licensing Korean animation. And the first two titles announced by new distributor Anime Crash are Korean. Or, more precisely, Ki Fighter Terang is Korean and Geisters is a Korean/Japanese co-production that seems to weigh heavily toward the Korean side. And as you’ve noticed, there are fewer recent titles being announced lately for North American release. This may be because Japanese licensors are now seeking licensing fees that most American distributors either can’t afford, or don’t believe are feasible relative to particular titles’ North American profit potential.

In the present market, most of the “heavy hitter” anime titles do get snatched up quite quickly. In fact, in the contemporary anime market, an equal number, if not more titles are now acquired for English language distribution while they’re still in pre-production than during after-market. For example, according to reliable “inside information,” Gonzo Studios no longer produces anime without contracting foreign investors and licensors before pre-production begins. (Thankfully, that’s not the case with the entire Japanese anime industry; otherwise we would no longer see distinctly “Japanese” shows get made.)

On the other hand, we’re now only about four months away from the beginning of the summer anime convention season, so it’s reasonably to guess that one or more of the domestic anime translating companies are simply withholding their big announcements for 2004 until this summer.

Regarding the number of 13 episode series that have been released in America lately, there’s a very good reason why so many half-season shows are being licensed lately. Actually, there are two reasons. Generally a 13 episode show costs less to license than a 26 episode series. When there’s half as much animation, naturally the cost would be less than the expense of licensing a longer show. Furthermore, there are an increasing number of shorter series being produced in Japan. 13 episode series have actually been around for years. There are examples of 12 and 13 episode TV series dating back to the 1970s, but its in recent years that the half-season show has come into prominence. In fact, this year the production studio M.O.E. has announced a number of 8 episode TV series. With the Japanese economy still in recession and the size of the Japanese animation industry shrinking as fewer novice animators are joining the industry (reportedly young Japanese citizens entering the work force are now seeking jobs that have higher pay and shorter hours than the anime industry, which works on a traditional apprentice basis with new animators spending years of working long hours for poor pay, slowly working their way up the ladder), it’s more practical for the Japanese industry to develop shorter series. Shorter series are better able to hold viewer’s attention over a period of 8 to 13 weeks rather than 26 weeks. Shorter series are less expensive to produce because there’s less physical animation to make. And shorter shows require a lessened financial commitment from sponsors. So as the Japanese industry creates more half-season shows, resultantly there are more such shows licensed for English language release.

I don’t want to paint too bleak of an image of the anime industry in either Japan or America, but at the same time all signs point to tectonic shifts in the fundmental nature of the anime industry in both Japan and America. There are still major hit anime series in Japan such as Gundam Seed and One Piece and Naruto and Inuyasha, and always will be an eager demand for anime in Japan. Likewise, while anime in America is still a relatively small market (accounting for less than two out of every one hundred DVDs sold in America in 2003), demand for anime in America is steadily increasing, meaning that while we aren’t currently seeing the steady boom of current and recent anime releases to American home video that we saw a year ago, the American anime industry seems to be simply reverting to its natural position after a temporary massive expansion rather than actually constricting.