Japan’s Animators Say Anime is Dying

The Asahi newspaper reports that Yasuo Yamaguchi, managing director of The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), recently described Japan’s anime industry as a “bubble that burst several years ago. The marketplace is on a falling curve due to declining birth rates and the recession.” The AJA reports that the number of annual new television anime productions rose from 124 in 2000 to a record high 306 in 2006 before declining to 288 in 2008. A record setting 60 new TV anime premiered in April 2006 while April 2008 saw only 36 new TV series premieres.

According to Japan Video Software Association (JVA) statistics, anime home video sales within Japan that totaled 97.1 billion yen in 2005 declined to 77.9 billion yen in 2008. The declines are blamed on a variety of factors including video piracy and redundancy in the content of contemporary anime that has served to reduce viewer interest in new productions.

Source: Anime News Network

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