Anime Crash-ed

I've always wondered whatever happened to the East Coast retail and home video software outfit known as "Anime Crash". I only visited the shop a couple of times in Cambridge, and always wondered why it never took off as a retailer.

Doubtless, the times changed and brick and mortar retail along with the home video market are basically gutted from where they were in the mid-1990s, so this continuing series of blogs should be worth the wait.

It describes an insider's perspective on the so-called American 'Anime Industry'.

Navarre: finis FUNI

Navarre Corporation
Monday April 4, 2011, 5:54 pm EDT

Navarre Corporation today announced that it has sold FUNimation Entertainment for $24 million in an all cash transaction. Purchasers in the transaction are a group of entities that were newly formed by an investment group that includes Gen Fukunaga, FUNimation Entertainment's chief executive officer, as a minority stakeholder. In connection with the sale, the Company has entered into an agreement to act as FUNimation Entertainment's exclusive distributor in the United States on a continuing basis, and will also act as FUNimation Entertainment's logistics and fulfillment services provider.

MOAR

1. Gen Fukunaga sells FUNI to Navarre for $142 million in 2005
2. ???
3. Gen Fukunaga buys FUNI back from Navarre for $24 million in 2011
= ($118 million) PROFIT!

THAT'S SHOWBIZ, FOLKS!

Worth repeating but not worth paying a living wage

L.A. Times picks up the story about the Anime Industry implosion.

We've heard it before, here it is again. To recap, Anime Industry in a nose dive, nobody seems to be doing anything to stop it, and they'll do it for less in China.

4kids loses US$42.1-million in 2009

Holy freakin' crap!

This just in, CEO Al Khan still has head up ass.

via Michael Pinto

New Player in the US Market

NIS America, a subsidiary of Nippon Ichi Software,Inc., has decided to enter the U.S. anime market. Mostly known for their games such as Disgea, Ar tonelico and Cross Edge, NIS America has licensed and plans a mid-year release for Toradora!, Persona - trinity soul -, Pandora Hearts, and Our Home’s Fox Deity (Japanese title Wagaya no Oinarisama).

1st OP


Pandora Hearts PV
Persona - trinity soul - OP
Wagaya no Oinarisama OP

Now the big question: Why? NIS, Inc, just reported a 97.5% drop in operating profits for the first nine months of the fiscal year. Ouch. Is this a good idea considering the market? I guess time will tell.
(via Anime News Network and Kotaku)

The Decade of the Torrent

Looking back over the decade there can be only one thing that be said to have completely changed everything about Anime Fandom. It effected everything, even beyond anime and Anime Fandom. It was the internet. Specifically, BitTorrent.

In 2002 some guy created BitTorrent. Although there had been a "peer to peer" exchange of files previously it had only been small files, mostly mp3. BitTorrenting was different. It broke large files into smaller pieces and distributed them through a group of peers instead of one computer to another. Suddenly, you could distribute large files easily. Large files like videos.

Taking advantage of this, anime fans began distributing new anime recorded right off the air. With the easy access to these new shows a new phenomena of fan subtitling groups emerged along with easy digital subtitling.

Of course the advent of YouTube and improved digital streaming video has taken this to another level. Never before has it been so easy to watch so much anime.

What have we done?

Kamishibai Komeback?

Over at his Facebook site, good buddy and fellow U.S. fan-oyaji Neil Nadelman can't help but wonder if the anime business is gone for good.

I think it probably is. Digital technology has destroyed the anime (and entertainment industry) business model. The writing was on the wall the day Mosaic was released. But railing against the downloaders is pointless; only a fool would pay for something that can be had for free. The only way to return the anime business to profitability would be to destroy the Internet and return to using analog VHS media... which isn't going to happen, barring the collapse of technological society.

Unfortunately, that puts all of us here in the U.S. anime biz out of work (I'm writing SEO website content for ambulance-chasing lawyers these days; I've had about three hours of voice acting work in the past six months) and leaves the anime studios in Japan with no way to make money. Just as downloading destroyed the music business as we knew it, it will bring down the anime business, too. Unlike musicians, however, we voice actors can't fall back on live performances as a means of earning our daily bread.

Or can we? Perhaps kamishibai is about to make a comeback...