Toei Animation thinks mobiles could save anime
Found on recombu on Thursday, 18 February 2010
According to Song, Japan's population of children is declining so Toei's audience is shrinking at home, and overseas anime bit-torrents are cutting into DVD sales.
"The way people consume anime is changing and our fans are ahead of the curve... we're learning the hard way and getting burned by piracy" stated Song.
It's expensive to make quality anime and if the industry doesn't start experimenting with new formats and new business models then many production companies will get hit hard.
That "piracy" is what made anime get world-wide attention by avoiding the old ways of distributing it; by avoiding what some CEO thinks will sell overseas. Shows that would have probably never left Japan, like "Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu", profited from the work and enthusiasm fansubbers put into it, delivering a release that was meeting the expectations and created a huge success. Nothing beats the "from fans for fans" releases. Compare that with "official" ones: often badly subtitled and dubbed. Nothing devalues anime more than a dub; it's not even worth a free download.