After all the overblown doom and gloom this week about the status of anime in America, re the ICV2 article and the concern over some English dub-production being shipped to Odex, I’m happy to see some good news. Yeah, I don’t do news, so I’m not posting to inform you about Air being licensed (you already know it by now), just saying I’m happy is all. Sure I know nothing about it, other than it’s got pretty art. What’s got me in a good mood is it’s often been said it would never get picked up due to the cost and the market. Maybe this means R1 companies, or at least ADV, aren’t on as much life-support as some seem to think or maybe it doesn’t mean anything. Maybe ADV is nuts!
Seeing an impossibility turn possible is a great way to log-off my work computer and start off the weekend. Will have another figure photo thing on Monday or Tuesday. Whatever you do, have fun.
I wouldn’t call it impossible. Considering the Japanese commercial success of Kanon/Haruhi, a company would be daft not to try to ride the KyoAni/Key fame wave. That is assuming the people in charge of licensing are even that put together. Sometimes they just license off the wall stuff, like Pani Poni Dash. Of course, I am yearning for the American industry’s death knell, so don’t mind me. I just wish people would stop calling the industry popular. It’s about as popular as Dungeons and Dragons. Maybe less so.
I would support the industry if it would stop dubbing though.
YEP!
Oh I can see why they licensed it, just for years I keep hearing it will never happen and it finally did.
Why would you want the R1 industry to collapse? Did ADV steal your pony when you were a kid or something?
I do agree anime isn’t popular. There are a few shows that happen to be anime which are popular. The eyeballs on Naruto and Bleach really don’t translate into eyeballs for whatever isn’t on CN. A lot of the woes that the R1 companies face is due to over optimism about the conversion rate of fans of the shows on CN into their other properties. I hope they actually get that it will never be mainstream. I myself don’t understand why the average person can’t find the joy in a hottie with a pistol blowing stuff away, but that’s just the way it is.
From personal experience, I’ve pretty much been exposed to Japanese entertainment (mostly animation or manga) for a large part of my life or rather it IS a big part of my life. If I can quantize such a thing, I’d say it ecompasses about 70% of all the entertainment for me altogether, be it manga, anime, etc. (anything Japanese-related and yes, I’m proud of my nerd-ish status and won’t hide it from anyone). The last percentage points belong to games. lol.
Now, to simply hear the blatant fact that it is not mainstream is shocking, but not really. It’s just odd to keep hearing that something I am so well-acquainted with is not know to a large part of the U.S. population, even though I know for a fact that it is not mainstream by simple observation. It is the “mainstream” for me, if you know what I mean. It’s just confounding to me that a larger part of the U.S. does not know about anime as well as say, you or me.
I don’t get it!!
@super rats: Yes, I don’t understand why an average person does not find joy in anime. To me, anime is something deep. To the average person, it is superficial. Very superficial. If I like a particular title, I’m pretty much fanatical. I kinda’ want to do research on why certain people like anime a lot in the U.S. whereas some people don’t catch on, but ’tis impossible to isolate so many variables. It would be interesting to know why someone like you or me likes anime whereas others thinks it’s like taboo or something.
/endrant
If I were in the social sciences, I could see that as an interesting pet project.
A couple of my friends have seen Eva, Akira, and watch what’s on Cartoon Network and are big fans of stuff like FMA, but they don’t seek out more shows. Actually, most people I know are watching some anime on Cartoon Network, but I’m the only one who is an anime fan and seeks out other shows or has any interest in it. I tell them they can borrow any dvd in my library, but nobody does. In a sense a lot of people are into anime, but at the same time they aren’t.