JubJub

This week I got a bunch of panicky letters from people freaking out over a variety of topics, so I figured the sky must be falling, the bombs are dropping and the oceans are turning to salt.

Welcome to Hey, Answerman! DOOMSDAY EDITION.


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Answerman you probably expected this question this week but WHAT HAPPENED TO GENEON?! Does this mean the anime industry is going to collapse?! why did the adv deal fall through? should I buy all the geneon stuff I want right now, will it all go out of print?

While what happened to Geneon is significant and quite sad, I'm a little shocked at how people seem to really be overreacting to it.

Geneon as we know it is going away. It is reasonable to assume that, according to their vague press releases, they're going to survive only as a Kadokawa-esque licensing house, subcontracting all production, sales, marketing, and what-have-you. They could also just fold completely and disappear. Based on what they've said, I think the former is more likely, but that's just my estimation.

To be frank, yes, you should probably buy the Geneon titles you want now. They will effectively go out of print once Geneon stops production. If there's a particular title you can't live without but just haven't bought yet, find a place that has it in stock and snatch it up. If it's something you really, really want (and for some reason haven't bought it yet), don't wait for a fire sale, just get it now. I realize the instinct of anyone in this situation is to sit back and say "eh well Right Stuf will clear it all out eventually", but you're taking a chance, especially since the titles will be OOP and once they're sold out, your only other option is eBay.

Geneon's exit from the American anime market is not a good thing, but it wasn't exactly the biggest shock ever. The company has been struggling for years. I've been hearing rumors from very reliable sources of Geneon's demise as early as last year, when it was becoming clear that they had a serious lack of A+, top shelf titles that were guaranteed sellers, and yet continued to license extremely niche, otaku-oriented shows that historically have proven to sell poorly, all the while failing to get the few shows they had with mainstream appeal into the public eye via Cartoon Network (Samurai Champloo aside). Many in the industry speculated that Geneon would collapse long before the writing was clearly on the wall, and it did, but trying to pin down one particular reason for it is impossible and foolish. It takes a lot more than some poor-selling titles to bring down a company. There were obviously many factors at play. The rampant, endless armchair business analysis that we see in anime forums all over seems desperate to find a single-sentence answer to something that would likely take pages to fully explain, which is a waste of time. I don't know the whole story - nobody does outside of Dentsu and Geneon executives, and they're not talking - so I would argue that continuing to go on and on and pick apart exactly what happened is silly.

People also seem to be taking this event as a sign that the R1 anime industry is in its final days, and that Geneon's implosion will cause some kind of domino effect and topple even juggernauts like ADV Films and Funimation. Based on what I've heard, while these companies do have plenty of underperforming titles - and the looming spectre of rampant piracy and never-ending fansubs continues to be a problem that requires more attention than they're apparently willing to give - they are nevertheless healthy. Funimation in particular commands a remarkable share of the market and continues to release proven sellers like Dragonball Z and other high-energy action titles that are proven to bring in American audiences. ADV is experimenting with shows like Air, but they still have a robust catalog and continue to do strong business with their thinpaks. Devil May Cry in particular is one ADV license to watch out for - shows like that have a massive mainstream appeal and can bring in new fans. It's just the kind of license that performs very well here in the States, and just the kind of thing we need to see more of here to maintain the industry's strength. The Geneon deal falling through deprives ADV of additional market share, to be certain, but all it means is that ADV will continue business as usual rather than taking on a mountain of new titles (not to mention a mountain of Geneon's doubtlessly massive retailer debt; the company's sudden and hurried insistance that retailers have an extremely limited amount of time to return unsold inventory is a clear indication that ADV would have been inheriting not only a tremendous catalog of titles but also a tremendous number of returns).

Of course, you can't have this conversation without talking about Viz. Viz is incredibly successful and has had a massive amount of success bringing over titles like Naruto, Bleach and Death Note. It would take an incredible shift in the market to bring down a company like Viz. They're not going away any time soon, and the failure of an already-struggling company like Geneon has little to no effect on that fact.

In short, yes, Geneon's exit is a bad thing, a sign that not every company can survive in this market; yes, the R1 industry is facing new challenges, and there are problems they're not addressing competently, but the world is not ending, the major players will continue to be major players, and fans will continue to buy anime.

So calm down.




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Hey answerman, I keep reading on ANN about the japanese crackin down on copyrights and suing downloaders and uploaders. then we have the situation in singapore where odex sued people for downloading fansubs. do you think the japanese crackdown will end fansubs in america? i think fansubs are what keep anime alive, if there are no fansubs then there are no fans!!!

Unless the renewed Japanese crackdown on copyright law somehow manages to seriously deter the Japanese from uploading raws to the massive peer-to-peer networks out there, I don't really see it having a major effect on the American fansub scene. It's just too widespread and rampant. If we start seeing Japanese uploaders dragged into court and being handed massive fines and potential jail time, it might make obtaining raws more difficult, but somehow that seems like a temporary stopgap that pirates will work around rather quickly. Basically, no, I don't think the crackdown will seriously effect your fansubs.

I'm compelled to argue with your "without fansubs, there are no fans!" thing. I've been hearing this more and more and frankly, it's a huge load of horseshit.

Over the years, artists routinely thank their fans; "I wouldn't be here without you," etcetera. They acknowledge and occasionally obey their fans. Why is that? Because the fans support the artist by purchasing their work, buying their movies and merchandise, attending concerts, introduce new fans to the work, all of that. That's why the moniker "fan" is supposed to demand a certain level of respect from the artist, because it's a mutually beneficial relationship. That's why fans are often catered to, that's why artists routinely show their appreciation for their fans.

Believe it or not, you are not valuable to the artist if you do not contribute to his success. Simply liking cartoons is not a noble pursuit; you don't deserve to be catered to by the artist simply for enjoying his work. Your well wishes and love for the property mean jack squat if you're not contributing to the cycle that allows the artist's work to be created in the first place.

If you get an artist's work for free and then show it to a friend while also showing him how to get it for free (not to mention introducing him to a massive community of people dedicated to getting that artist's work for free, sharing files and offering his new work the second it's available at no charge without his blessing), you are not creating a fan or helping the artist, you're adding another leech into the system. Only when you or your friend actually contribute to the artist's work are you "fans" in the real sense of the word. Only then are you part of that artist's community, and only then do you deserve his or her respect as a fan, someone who supports their work.

The perversion of the word "fan" from "someone who loves and supports an artist" to "anyone who even kinda enjoys something, with or without ever becoming part of the system that helped create it" is irritating.

Plenty of anime fans buy DVDs - that isn't really my point - but the attitude that unless everyone can get all the anime they want for free, there won't be any more anime fans is ridiculous. If it were true, then there simply wouldn't be any anime to enjoy in the first place because nobody would be paying for it. Fansubs have served to popularize anime in the past, but to suggest that the only reason there are anime fans is because nobody has to pay to watch it is broken.


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Answerman, of all the problems the R1 anime industry is dealing with right now, what do you think is the biggest and scariest?

I'm gonna say piracy, both online and off, and no, I don't think they're doing enough about it.

I'd really like to see ADV and Funimation and Viz gather a giant team of scary lawyers and just tear the living snot out of all the bootleggers out there, especially websites that charge for fansubs. But they don't seem willing to do that; there are a whole lot of sites out there like that, where you pay a monthly (or per-episode) fee to watch fansubs (or worse, DVD rips) of licensed series. Those people should be taken down with swift and painful efficiency, but it's just not happening. I can't believe so many of those sites exist.

Not to mention the endless foreign bootleg box sets that are widely available in malls and anime stores across the country. Is there nothing that can be done about this? Why aren't they taking aggressive action? I know lawyers are expensive, but for crap's sake, protect your product. Once they tackle that, then they can move on to things like cost, availability, speedy releases, television exposure, etcetera. But anime piracy is so ubiquitous, I believe that's the biggest challenge they're facing right now.

source: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2007-09-28

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Syetactic

Umm yah.. I didn't read any of that.. Could you sum it up?

I felt massive amounts of boredom looking at the thread name.. Please sum it up. =p

JubJub

Just read the last part of the thread's name and you'll know what this is about :P

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