Recently, I heard that some anime and manga industries are going bankrupt because everybody's watching pirated anime. Anybody have any comment on this issue? Also, this might also be the reason behind why the price of anime and manga are getting more and more expensive while the budget for later series get even more and more tight that it's not of masterpiece quality anymore. One last question, will anime culture die out if this continues? This is what worries me the most.

You wouldn't download a car....,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

#stopanimepiracy.org

This doesn't seem valid. I'd assume they have many other ways to gain revenue than from us buying their physical anime.

It's simply this
Less of an animes profits is coming from sales of DVDs/Blurays and more is coming from merchandising. This economically pushes them to make more animes that focus on peoples seasonal 'waifus' and cute characters rather than actual good content. There will be a place for well written stuff but unless it earns the success of Stein;Gate or something losses will just build up.

Well such a naive question begets a retarded answer, and I'd rather refrain myself from posting a picture of a penis here.

No, aminu is not dying, since I'm sure you're the shitty VN adaptation type with many waifus and "plot". Don't worry, animu is growing for you.

You can recycle things so many times

Just to put some perspective on things, here are some numbers.

Note: Even if you somehow got rid or piracy, do not expect a 100% in sales, maybe 10-20% at best.

For the past 6 years or so, the usual amount of shows that break 10k BD sales in their first volume is 3-4 (last season is currently 2, unless Charlotte breaks 10k this week). The first volume for any shows sells the most, and it is just downhill from there. However, an average series usually sells about 3k a volume.

Most series in japan, are split into 6 volumes, so 6 different DVD/BDs

The average anime DVD/BD sells anywhere from 6000-8000 yen at launch and usually doesn't go down much, unless it really doesn't sell and takes up shelf space.

From what I heard, a half decent 13ep anime cost a few million usd to produce, so for estimate's sake, let say 300million yen.

So let's assume that the production company and license owners take 90% of the sales (probably inaccurate, but again for estimate's sake). The amount the series maker will get is 6 vol * 3000 copies * 7000 yen/copy * 0.9 = 113.4mil yen. About 1/3rd of what I said it takes to produce the anime.

Now let's throw some more numbers here. If you have an anime opening by a semi famous artist, the single for the opening, will net about 5-10k sales.

The average music single is 2000 yen (yes, 2k yen for 2 songs + 2 karaoke versions).

So we have 2 singles (op and ed), and if we add up the money for that and use the 0.9 multiplier from earlier, we get 2 singles * 7500 copies * 2000 yen/copy * 0.9 = 27mil yen About 10% of the 300mil I mentioned earlier.

Animes also give the source material a boost in sales. For manga and light novels, they generally get anywhere from a 10k boost to a few hundred thousand (Chihayafuru). For argument sake, let's say the series gets a 75k boost.

A novel/manga cost about 500-800 yen in japan, so 650 yen/vol * 75000vol * 0.9 ~ 43.9mil yen about 15% of the 300mil I mentioned earlier.

=======================

So let's add up everything so far 113.4 + 27 + 43.9 = 184.3mil. about 60% of the 300mil. As a result, the rest of the money needed to make most of these shows much come from other merchandise, or the show just has to run on that smaller budget to even consider breaking even.

I am not sure what anyone on this thread means by a masterpiece since that is highly subjective, but unless your series is somehow in the top 4 of the season, anime sales don't count for that much (about 35% in the the calculations above). However, if you have noticed, there has been a rise in music based shows, not just because of how it seems to be all the rage, but how much you can merchandise the show. For example, Symphogear doesn't have the op and ed singles, but 10 singles with the character songs, insert songs, op, and ed. Netting them >100k albums sold or using the previous calculations >180mil yen, over 50% of the 300mil I mentioned earlier. While making those songs will definitely make production cost go up, the return on investment is usually greater.

Also as a small reminder, being popular with a Western Audience means pretty much nothing. Rokka no Yuusha, one of the higher regarded shows by western audience's last season, sold under 1k copies, had a very small LN boost, and got very little viewership from its home country. If you use the numbers above, you can easily tell that it did horribly.

Thank you everyone who answered to my concerns, I'm reassured now that thre are more evidence to conter it than support it (especially from blissfulyoshi) My mind is now at rest.

anime will never go bankrupt.

A Medic wrote:

anime will never go bankrupt.

As long as there are teenagers desperate for softcore porn.
Because anime will continue to strive to appeal to the lowest common denominator and be a laughing stock.

anime companies already knew the majority would pirate anime
that's why they invented overinflated pvc figures such as nendoroids and 1/8 scale figures, people can now buy their waifu's at triple the manufacturing cost

Thanks for the numbers blissfulyoshi. Interesting information indeed.

anime never get bankrupt ptar555

Actually,this almost happened to the new season of Hetalia (World Twinkle).
The only way to stop this is to not watch it on that very website,and report it to the owner (Funimation,studio deen,etc.)

FelicianoGasai wrote:

Actually,this almost happened to the new season of Hetalia (World Twinkle).
The only way to stop this is to not watch it on that very website,and report it to the owner (Funimation,studio deen,etc.)

I bet nobody (or 99.99%) will do that unless they are the one who contributed to the anime.

I dont think that all anime will dissapear but i wouldnt be surprised if it started to become even more hard to find outside of japan than it already is.
Anime and manga will continue to be a succesfull buissnes in Japan because there thay have the opportunity to sell it easily. But because of pirating and streaming in western contries, localisation companies like funimation will however have a much harder time to excist and dubbed anime will therfore dissapear with them. I couldnt really care less about the dubs but i always like to have a physical copy of something.

In my opinion, anime is a bit difficult to be set for bankruptcy, despite the pirated anime issue. Anime still has a lot of reputation among fans and that is something that anime companies won't forget, since they didn't want to drop their fans' respect towards their franchises. Added with the merchandising sales, I think the anime industry is still livin' the life.

In fact, several anime companies started to show their anime through streaming sites, like Crunchyroll and Hulu, in order to counter piracy.

This thread shouldn't be here since so many people in OC are the ones who appreciate the anime chaff.

I can't really move this to General Discussion, though...

Blazevoir wrote:

I can't really move this to General Discussion, though...

I really don't think this is a discussion for the osu forums at all. Is what I meant.

Green Platinum wrote:

Blazevoir wrote:

I can't really move this to General Discussion, though...

I really don't think this is a discussion for the osu forums at all. Is what I meant.

Wow. A non-Precure avatar ? Are you okay ?

Sort of why when I see producers/studios pitch a pretty good niche idea that wouldn't really cut it in the current saturated market or be backed up by corporations, I chip in to help.

As with the case with Under The Dog, and to cite a notable success would be Little Witch Academia.

Faust wrote:

Wow. A non-Precure avatar ? Are you okay ?

Sort of why when I see producers/studios pitch a pretty good niche idea that wouldn't really cut it in the current saturated market or be backed up by corporations, I chip in to help.

As with the case with Under The Dog, and to cite a notable success would be Little Witch Academia.

I've had plenty of non precure avatars in the past. Nobody here knows enough to identify them.

Is little witch academia really all that popular though? Especially with the Trigger name attached to it.

anime is bankrupt, artistically

Green Platinum wrote:

Faust wrote:

Wow. A non-Precure avatar ? Are you okay ?

Sort of why when I see producers/studios pitch a pretty good niche idea that wouldn't really cut it in the current saturated market or be backed up by corporations, I chip in to help.

As with the case with Under The Dog, and to cite a notable success would be Little Witch Academia.

I've had plenty of non precure avatars in the past. Nobody here knows enough to identify them.

Is little witch academia really all that popular though? Especially with the Trigger name attached to it.

It proved to be a worth-while venture for the investment.
Trigger didn't ask too much either, they just wanted to see if people were willing to pool together to make it possible. Free from creative restrictions and all that nonsense.

I thought it was a rather good example to cite given the current general atmosphere of the industry.