Forum - View topicAnswerman - Impenetrable Markets
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Ryo Hazuki
Posts: 363 Location: Finland |
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I don't understand this kind reasoning. I hated basketball in school and still don't play it but I still think Slam Dunk is a great manga. I also have no will to go to war but still enjoy several war movies. I've read that Slam Dunk actually helped basketball to become more popular in Japan and it was such a big hit I can't believe every reader was a basketball player. |
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Polycell
Posts: 4623 |
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*Granted, the only one I'm aware of is Adventures in Odyssey, whose listenership might easily exist solely for want of catering to in other media. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Indeed, that has been a part of the audience for podcasts. When I had a longer cycle commute, I loaded the EscapePod SF podcast into my MP3 players to pass the time. That would only be a market for Drama CDs that are translated and redubbed in English. The problem is that in taking the niche that would be interested in a Drama CD, and then slicing it into the sub-niche that would be interested in audio-only content, you are giving yourself a very narrow market, all to fund the highest production cost approach to localizing the material. Also, the Drama CD fills a spot in the market in Japan that is not actually all that different from the "radio theater" LP's of the 60's and 70's, given that the price for video media for many series is typically at such a high mark-up in Japan, to cover a substantial share of the production costs. Given that owning manga and light novels are the mass market and owning anime is the premium end of the market, there is space in the market for owning a piece of the manga/LN that doesn't cost as much as video media. Bringing the voice actors into a studio for a session with a script is a lot cheaper than producing more animated video. Manga being a niche market as well in international markets makes the prospective Drama CD market a fraction of that, and video media often being available at substantially lower cost slices into that based Drama CD market even further. That's why I reckon if there's a niche market for it, it would have to be for the approach that has a much lower overhead cost, which would be cuts to still art illustrating the original Japanese audio, with subtitle translation. At two piece of art per minute, that would be 80 pieces of art for a 40 minute Drama CD. And of course, where the Drama CD is a voice actor interview / drama format, the art for the interview can be photos of the voice actors, especially if there are publicity stills from the session itself. |
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KowKow
Posts: 20 |
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Why don't you ask Crispin Freeman? This guy's been voice acting since 1997, so he knows what he's doing. He also has a podcast, Voice Acting Mastery, where he explains the various ins and outs of voice acting. If he doesn't answer your questions, he has a phone number where you can leave a voicemail--he might pick your question on his next podcast. |
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kakoishii
Posts: 741 |
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that wasn't really the question I was asking. I was making the point that they're probably more shows made now rather than then because more of the shows made now are only 1 cour and thus there's more space to fit in more anime in a year vs. then when those spots were taken up by one show that was multiple cours. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Yes, to get a clear idea about the volume of production, it would be better to list it by the number of broadcast seasons of anime produced, not the number of titles released. There still seems to be a recovery from 2010, but it could well be that 2006 actually had a larger lead on 2013 than the numbers as stated indicate, if there was a substantially larger share of two-broadcast-season titles in the 2006 number, and a larger share of one-broadcast-season titles in the 2013 number. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2552 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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That seems to be an extremely common excuse for people not wanting to watch sports anime. I'm in the same boat as you, Ryo, in that I'm very uncaring about real-life sports outside of pro-wrestling (though I'm more neutral about them in general, and pro-wrestling being considered a "sport" is something I know people would argue over), but I'm always up for a sports anime if it catches my interest. It's simply enforcing a stereotype (i.e. "nerds can't enjoy anything involving sports") & allowing hesitant fans to continually use an excuse so that they can toss aside something they aren't sure about. According to Banken's logic the fact that I have enjoyed titles like Slam Dunk (what I've read of it), Prince of Tennis (only read the manga), Ring ni Kakero, Kinnikuman Nisei/Ultimate Muscle, Captain Tsubasa (again, what I've read of it), Dan Doh!! (what I've seen of the anime) means that I must really be into watching actual basketball, tennis, boxing, wrestling, soccer, & golf matches or a fangirl... He'd technically be correct about the wrestling, but completely incorrect about everything else, especially since I'm a guy. Then again, though, I have always been a person who just happens to do stuff the "wrong way", so me enjoying sports anime while not caring about real sports could simply be another case of doing something the "wrong way"; honestly, though, I'd rather do that than be a simple stereotype. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I'm the laziest person on the planet and I hate watching, or participating in real life sports (I find most of them boring to watch, and PE lessons at school put me off most team sports) I freaking LOVE sports anime. Cross Game is possibly one of my favourite series of all time, and I am British and therefore don't understand baseball, along with Chihayafuru.
I'm currently watching: Kuroko no Basket Prince of Tennis Ace of Diamond And have completed: Free! Hikaru no Go (Another one of my top rated series) Yawara (another top rated series for me) Taisho Baseball Girls I plan to watch: Hajime no Ippo Touch Haikyuu I think the reason I like sports anime so much is that it's very raw, and you can see how passionate the characters are about becoming the best. Most of the time as well, unlike a lot of shonen battle anime, they don't become ridiculously overpowered to do so. (except for Prince of Tennis...) They just put in a hell of a lot of work and seeing them get closer to becoming the best [whatever] is immensely satisfying to watch. |
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Alexander55
Posts: 104 Location: Ontario, CA |
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The whole world is and has already been globalized and over-saturated with Corporate America's pop-culture for over a century already. Let Japan produce whatever it wants that caters to its people. This well applies to its live dramas, film, music, animation, comics etc.
Its okay and even encouraged for their productions to have the international audience in mind by forging Western/global influences with their own(as they have with many of their series), but they shouldn't discard their cultural roots in the process just to appeal to mass audiences. That's the beauty and one of the merits of their culture, that it is distinctively different from what we know from what we are used to seeing because they content caters to independent enthusiasts. This contrast strongly with the states, which the vast majority of entertainment(although not all) is mass-marketed and aimed for a broader audience. While this may have produced several classics in the past, it also limits the creativity and vast potential of American cienma, comics, animation, cartoon, could have had, because most of the media and entertainment is owned by 5 Media conglomerates(Walt Disney, Time Warner, CBS, News Corp, and Viacom) and they are mostly concerned with maximizing their profits with disregard and strong disdain for much more creative development out of fear of "controversy" and hurting their "brand name." Small Japanese development teams, studios, and authors don't have to worry about this because most of what they produce mostly caters to their specific demographics. |
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enurtsol
Posts: 14767 |
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Some helpful sites give specifics like: http://www.kylehebert.com/?page_id=241 http://www.voiceovercanada.ca/?p=85 http://forum.vancouveractorsguide.com/showthread.php?4367-How-Do-I-Even-Get-Started
And Big O didn't fail commercially because it was paid for by Cartoon Network, and CN profited from it. Still, Trigun got a movie years after.
Clearly VHD:B even that was only done in English. Also, I don't remember how it did, but obviously Armitage III too - they even hired celebrities Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkeley. Other Western-specific anime like those based on games or comics (like SiN: The Movie) fared pretty well since (a) there's a lot more of those games/comics fans than anime fans in the West and (b) they're consumers of their franchises like anime fans consume anime.
It was a decade ago during the anime boom when Western anime revenues were quite good. Remember back then, we used to pay a lot more for our anime (paid per volume, not just boxsets), meaning the anime producers were getting back much more from overseas than they do now and hefty license fees. Anime producers' business plans included overseas revenues when making their budgets, instead of just icing on the cake. Even Western anime distributors were co-funding to be included as part of the production committee itself. As for drama CDs and talking about the anime boom years, ya guys remember they released anime music CDs domestically and how did those go?
Clearly CN is making enough off advertisements that they'd pay for enough episodes of it. Remember CN also paid for Big O Season 2 since they calculated, after assessing Season 1, that for the cost of production, they'd still make money off its ads. So for whatever piece of the production cost pie that CN co-funded for Space Dandy, consider that CN is already or would be making profit off it even before the first Blu-ray is sold. Now for the remainder of that production cost pie that the Japanese sponsors account for, now that's where the Blu-ray sales will depend.
A quick check of variety is the target audience. I dunno if ya guys are familiar with this story in animation circles, but last summer, there was a bit controversy back and forth about: http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2013/09/24/animated-film-in-america-is-still-a-genre-not-yet-a-medium/ Basically, despite the increased diversity, if the target audience is still the same, that inherently limits the range of diversity. Our club members discuss this all the time: imagine if Cartoon Network becomes all Adult Swim - but they'd all target the same AS 18-34 males. Now that's good for the target audience, but they'd ask, so how does that limit diversity? Well, do ya see usual anime situational humor comedy there now? No, because it's not the type of humor that AS 18-34 males prefer. When put that way, anime fans start to understand how targeting the same audience over and over would be an inherent limitation to variety. There are some topics that late-night crowd just would not cover - whether they be AS crowd or anime crowd. So yeah, look at the target audience of the source, if it's a good mix or dominated by few demographics.
Yes, that's what a lot of people forget - otaku shows bomb in sales too. Just because something is made specifically for them doesn't mean it'd succeed. Could go either way. That's why Japan should keep trying anything, since there's mostly no sure thing and could go either way anyways.
Yeah, we remember the prophecies about the death of dubbing. But that's what happens when the economy is in dire straights. Same thing happened then in Japanese stagnant economy: generally anime became much more conservative in their business approach, less experimentations, safer to target the same 5000 people who'd most likely buy, than try to swing for the fences expanding the market for another 10k-20k, etc.
True, like saying all sitcoms are the same, all reality TV are the same, all US TV animation are the same, all [insert sport] are the same, etc.
Yet there's still dearth of MCs and storylines above the teenage years. There's just some topics that anime just would not cover. For a truly stark comparison what anime could be capable of - look at manga, look at what it's already capable. Looking from that perspective, anime is still but scratching the surface of what it can do.
Also remember, in older times, anime tend to last longer and have more than 13 episodes. In fact, there was an old saying among shoujo circles: "shoujo anime takes 8-12 episodes just to get going" (so y'see how nowadays that won't exactly work out. ). Anyways, that means if ya like a particular show, there's a good chance then that you would be able to enjoy it for longer and not be cut off after just 13 eps. So it's a balance: there's more shows nowadays to find to like but it'll likely be for just 1-cour, while there's less shows back then but if ya like it then ya get to enjoy it for a longer time.
And Video Killed The Radio Star.
I think kakoishii was making observations about the effect, while you're explaining the cause. But yeah, even with the guaranteed run, it's rare for anime to bomb since it's typically a low-enough cost operation especially back then when the stakes were lower, that even ratings around 1% no way they can't make back their money somehow either thru ad ratings, LDs, manga sales, paraphernalia, etc. That's what we liked about anime that ya won't get cut early, even if it's a long series you're virtually safe for the complete story.
Not only Japan but Slam Dunk made basketball more popular in East Asia, and this was before the I-Wanna-Be-Like-Mike (Jordan) global phenomenon!
That's not comparing the same things. Most Japanese media productions are also made to appeal to mass audience - the mass Japanese audience. (Just because it's less of a mass than Western mass does not disqualify it being a mass and make it boutique - that's still 120 million people!) If ya gonna use the big US media conglomerates, then ya gotta use the big Japanese media conglomerates too, not the small ones. (While obviously Sony owns Sony Pictures/Tristar and Sony BMG Music.) Just as there are small Japanese development teams, studios, and authors.... that mostly cater to their specific demos, there are small Western development teams, studios, and authors..... that mostly cater to their specific demos too. |
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GVman
Posts: 729 |
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Amen. I think most folks assume sports manga is gonna be like watching an actual game of baseball or basketball when it sure as hell isn't, and their own failure at the sports colors their own enjoyment. If there was a way to get that notion out of people's brains, sports anime and manga could be successful here. I did that with Yowamushi Pedal, and I've been loving it; let's just say I was better at basketball than cycling, and I could never actually get the ball in the net. |
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jr240483
Posts: 4379 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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i am afraid you sort of incorrect answerman. sure its not rabid in japan , but piracy does exist there .especially when it comes to movies whether anime or not is extremely popular and there are people who dont want to pay the theater price. and there was that news about two to three years ago about one piece being the most pirated anime series in the world, especially in japan. so yea, its not insanely rabid unlike the US , but its there alright.
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Though substantial numbers of anime productions are aimed at a niche market in Japan ... indeed, even for manga titles with substantial mass market appeal, many anime series are aimed at a core part of that mass audience willing to pay the high price for physical media ... especially given the dramatic jump in production cost between manga or light novel original source material and anime based on those original works. It would not be surprising if the focus of many anime fans on parts of the Japanese media market that are often the premium niche on top of a mass market base, rather than broad mainstream markets inside Japan, gives a biased impression of Japanese media culture.
Note that there is nothing in this that actually contradicts Justin:
Indeed, as soon as you said, "its not rabid in Japan", you basically confirmed Justin's statement, since its not the existence of piracy that constitutes a "piracy problem", but piracy being so rabid that it disrupts efforts to commercialize legitimate releases. |
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writerpatrick
Posts: 672 Location: Canada |
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American films are foreign films in Japan and may need to be subbed or dubbed first which can slow down release. But it could also be that the departments handling releasing in Japan just aren't that big. It could only be one or two guys in Japan handling all the companies titles. And it's not like we see a lot of Japanese films, if any at all, showing up in NA immediately after they come out in Japan.
It seems one of the best ways to get someone who wants to voice act to disappear is to offer them an unpaid opportunity to voice act. It's amazing how lazy these people are. It's getting more and more likely that if one does want to get into voice acting they need an acting background, and it seems from the bigger films like the Ghibli and Disney films that many retiring and has-been actors are getting into voice acting making it even harder. It's said that if you want to become a novelist you first have to write a million words, yet many think they can do it with just one undersized manuscript. There's a reason everyone isn't doing it. It's like asking someone how to become rich. There are somethings you can learn but for the most part you need to figure it out yourself. |
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Banken
Posts: 1280 |
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To comment about sports (and games) anime, most if not all of the titles being mentioned are the most prolific, best-of-the-genre tiles.
For every Slam Dunk there's a dozen more sports manga in circulation at the same time. Most of them don't even get anime adaptations. Also, anecdotal evidence ("I hate sports but love sports anime!") does not really change the fact that the majority of the audience isn't interested. Be honest, you both dislike the sport yet like the anime for the same reason... you're a nerd (no offense intended). If you asked 100 people to watch a sports anime alone, and then play that sport with their friends for 24 minutes, I'd say a majority would say they had more fun playing the sport. But of course, once in a while you'll get a series like Slam Dunk which, rather than relying on interest on the sport or fangirl appeal, actually makes the sport seem more interesting. |
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