Anime Asia World

Only for the reason that anime is seen all over the world doesn’t means the anime industry is proliferating. The effect of recession on Japan’s economy has reached the much known stable industry of animation and it has now felt the problems of money crunch creeping in at an alarming rate. And worse than that, the anime fans themselves are somehow to be blamed.

The executive director, Association of Japanese Animators, Yasuo Yamaguchi, told to CNN in an interview, that the current scenario of industry has never been so bad since the eve the Second World War finished. The advertising receipts are dropping everyday after the industry reached its boom phase when the profits were approximately $2 billion a year, just 3 years ago.

If this continues, there might be a time when no more stories are produced and the heroes and villains might just take a break as the creators would be insecure about its success in terms of revenue. And all this can be credited to the fact that most of the fans have started using unofficial sources of downloads from the internet to watch their favorite anime series, instead of paying for it or buying from official sources, both animes and manga. This was proved when Yamaguchi added, “The large access to internet downloading is taking its toll.”

The proportion of young people in world population has increased overtime and ideally this should’ve been good news for the anime industry. But, instead of finding new buyers, animes has just got tons of new watchers. A lot of people have started sharing free download links and exploiting them, resulting in lower sales. Though there exists a privacy policy with the Japanese Animators and a few people even warn the downloaders about ill effects of using freeware, the users are carelessly using them for saving some money.

Another argument that can be put is the real cause of this situation is the economic recession, not the unofficial downloads. But the industry analysis’s show a different story. The major problem is extensive downloading from the internet which is dragging industry backwards. Actually, the fans are the problem. Listing the solution was simple thought. Just a few less downloads than last week, until its finishes eventually.

The fact that Japanses animators are still using the traditional method of creating animation hurts it even deeper. In most countries, animators use modern technology that makes it easier to move drawings. It feels miserable to think of those artists holding their pens and making every image for hours after hours and still not getting compensated for their hard work just because there are no buyers, but just admirers.

So next time you go online to download the latest anime episodes, ask yourself if you’re doing justice to your favorite cartoon series. It is far too simple to hit the “download” button and move on, but not to forget the guilt of breaking piracy. That said, some Anime creators are accepting the fact of piracy and even utilizing to take advantage of product placement opportunities (eg anime characters wearing a certain brand of clothes). Also, computer games featuring Anime characters have borne profit for a number of anime producers. While Anime piracy is combated, it can also be utilized.

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