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NEWS: BusinessWeek Article on Anime


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anelasama



Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:34 am Reply with quote
Hmmm... I wonder how they're going to pull this off, considering how strict they are with regulations.

Anime just ain't for kids in here nowadays.
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Jedi General



Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:42 am Reply with quote
I was surprised to see that Elfen Lied was featured in the article given it's content (violence, gore, nudity, etc.), since the article stated that anime is primarily aimed at kids and young adults. A bit of a contradiction, if you ask me.

Still, it's a nice article, although it doesn't go into that much detail.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:46 am Reply with quote
Are those anime named in the slideshow even ADV's hottest titles, much less anime in general? I would hope for a few other titles-DNAngel, maybe? Gantz still seems to pull up a lot of commentary, even if many recognize it as pretty much all flash. I know I'm patiently waiting for the frogs...
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Jedi General



Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 2485
Location: Tucson, AZ
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:50 am Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:
Are those anime named in the slideshow even ADV's hottest titles, much less anime in general? I would hope for a few other titles-DNAngel, maybe? Gantz still seems to pull up a lot of commentary, even if many recognize it as pretty much all flash. I know I'm patiently waiting for the frogs...


The only one I'd truly consider "hot" right now would be Le Chevalier D'Eon, since it's relatively new. The rest, not so much. I do very much enjoy a few of the series featured in that slideshow though (Elfen Lied, Full Metal Panic? FUMOFFU, Le Chevalier D'Eon, and This Ugly Yet Beautiful World).
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LordRobin



Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 354
Location: Akron, OH
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Wow. Talk about a quickly thrown together piece of fluff. Let's see, we got the veiled reference to Sailor Moon. We got the obligatory mention of Miyazaki. And oh yes, James Cameron wants to do Battle Angel Alita. He's wanted to do that for how many years now? Seriously, I lost count a long time ago.

Put simply, there's nothing in this article you haven't read countless times before.

------RM
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chicogrande



Joined: 11 Jun 2004
Posts: 190
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 12:13 pm Reply with quote
I think it was, overall, a nice article pointing out the financial growth of the US market and the inroads its making into Hollywood. Slowly but surely. It's a boon for ADV because of its high profile in the article and its mention of the Anime Network. Free advertising is the best, or at least I assume it was free. That said, why didn't the article mention other US distributors?

Edit: Wait a minute! I hit upon an issue here! Even the James Cameron mention is about an ADV property. I wonder when will the time come when a distributor like ADV will get bought out by a major media entity? Hmmmm....

Although I think I understand why Elfen Leid was also highly profiled on the piece, I can't help thinking why does the article seem to focus on "blood splatter" so much? I mean, five of the seven ADV-centric images from the article range from comedy to drama. I thought Elfen Leid was more of a un-intentional comedy than truly disturbing.
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dentedonion



Joined: 19 May 2006
Posts: 33
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 1:19 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Although I think I understand why Elfen Leid was also highly profiled on the piece, I can't help thinking why does the article seem to focus on "blood splatter" so much? I mean, five of the seven ADV-centric images from the article range from comedy to drama. I thought Elfen Leid was more of a un-intentional comedy than truly disturbing.


I guess the writer assumed that most of the people reading the article would be more familiar with American animation which generally (minus a few exceptions like spawn) don't include a lot of graphic violence. Even though most of the titles listed don't really fall under that catagory, I guess he was trying to highlight some of the major differences between anime and the saturday-morning type cartoons americans are used to.

And maybe he's just not that familiar with anime and just picked a few of the more popular titles that ADV had.
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Dune



Joined: 11 Sep 2005
Posts: 223
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:53 pm Reply with quote
I wonder why they didn't mention Evangelion? I mean, it is ADV's biggest property, and WETA's been trying to get the LA movie going.
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DCRavenX





PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:27 pm Reply with quote
You kinda have to hand it to Ledford, they wanted an industry standpoint and his interview turned the article into an ad for ADV. Way to play the press.
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herbkir



Joined: 17 Jun 2003
Posts: 251
Location: Michigan
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:35 pm Reply with quote
The article had all the earmarks of someone cranking out a quick piece of copy to meet a deadline, so he can go on to more interesting things. It did a poor job of describing anime as a business proposition, other than to say it's a fast-growing market. And it concentrated too much on the ultra-violent Elfen Lied, which isn't your typical adult-level anime fare.

It concentrated on one vendor, ADV, and ignored all the rest like Funimation. But that may be because nobody else wanted to take the time for an interview. Still, when Business Week comes calling, the wise businessman answers the door, so I don't really think ADV was the only one willing to talk.

I guess the article's real value is not so much in what was said but the fact that it appeared in a well-known national business publication, read by people who up to now thought anime was an Asian condiment you get in a restaurant. (^_*)
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PhatPhil



Joined: 03 Mar 2007
Posts: 37
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 4:46 pm Reply with quote
Man, who cares? So some business magazine made some comment on anime, it's nothing we haven't heard from the mainstream talking about something NON-mainstream before. =/

As long as it isn't available in the states, they're not gonna care apparently... I mean there's no mention of ANY upcoming titles, nothing on Higurashi, Shuffle!, Haruhi Suzumiya, Rozen Maiden, etc, these "reporters" and "journalists" don't really bother to do any research on anything other than what they get from OTHER news sources and their mindless underlings if you ask me.

When they start talking about what is coming to our shores/what fans hope to come to shores, THEN maybe I'll start caring...

But regardless, at least some animes are getting the attention they deserve. =/
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Dardre



Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 166
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:04 pm Reply with quote
Eh, the article was rather poorly written, in my opinion. It was choppy, jumping from subject to subject with little or no warning. It read like half the article was edited out. It just seems like something thrown together in a hurry.

The way it focused on Elfen Lied just seems to be typical 'sex and violence sells' approach and seemed rather pathetic and weak. The article really didn't say anything important and seems to be typical coverage of anime in major news media.
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@



Joined: 14 Feb 2006
Posts: 3498
Location: IN your nightmares
PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 7:18 pm Reply with quote
Yeah the article needed more interesting statistics and actual numbers that would be more interesting to investors, brokers and businesspeople. It really didn't need to concentrate on the definition or identification of anime (like it did). I think anime is popular enough, as the article states, that an average person is going to know what anime is and not have to reiterate it for people who aren't fans but still interested in the business potential and marketing trends of the entertainment form.
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Iritscen
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 797
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:57 am Reply with quote
The article, in addition to all the failings previously listed, neglects to include even one sentence from one fan as to what they like about anime. The effect is that you feel like you're looking in on a mystery world which apparently has some "mechanical combat", "girls in short skirts", and 'exploding brains', but you can't understand why it is interesting to people beyond the visceral level.

A friend (who doesn't know anything about anime) told me last night that he saw a story on anime where they interviewed at least one young fan and one older fan and they shared why they liked it. He seemed to have had his curiosity piqued, as one fan apparently mentioned the continuity and fixed-length story arcs in anime that we all know makes it superior to most American TV. In other words, whoever did that story did a good job. This one, not so much.

But did anyone see that story, somewhere on TV?
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CaptainAvatar



Joined: 28 Aug 2006
Posts: 381
Location: Saint Louis, MO
PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 11:44 am Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:
Are those anime named in the slideshow even ADV's hottest titles, much less anime in general? I would hope for a few other titles-DNAngel, maybe?


I just had to put in my 2 cents in on DNAngel. Its one of my faves, and its one of the cleaner anime series out there (not that I'm a prude or anything, I just think it is refreshing to have a series that doesn't need to be all blood and gore or a fanservice fest). What I like best is unlike many anime based on a manga that is incomplete, it has a very satisfying conclusion. Now if Yukiru would just finish the manga!
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