Forum - View topicSo where's the next generation of anime fans?
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Zopelthe543
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Mmkay I'm bit curious on how the anime industry in general, will get more new fans. Back when I was little Toonami made a huge impact with DBZ. Of course there are other anime series Toonami showed but DBZ really sparked a lot of new fans toward anime. Also it seems to me Naruto has become this generation's DBZ, well with the fandom its getting right now, but now Toonami is gone and I wonder how the anime industry is getting new fans. There are a few channels that have anime but I'm not seeing anything as impacting as Toonami once did. There's adult swim that seems to target the older teens and Jetix that target kids, but thats all I know and they don't really have much anime to offer.
So do any of you know of how the anime industry is able attract new crowds? The only thing I can see them using now to attract new crowds is the internet and streaming shows (ex:hulu) |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I think because there is no more anime on at decent times, it's gonna have to be by word of mouth. Anime fans talking good things about good shows to the right people and so on. I've also seen a lot of people talk about going to their library and getting anime and that's great as long as it's not in the dark corner where teens get busy. Parents showing there kids anime is also always a good thing.
So yeah, word of mouth is pretty much the only way now. That always becomes a scary situation because if you show someone the wrong show, it could turn them away forever. I do find that hard to do,though, because I wholeheartedly believe there is one anime out there for every person. As long as you don't show your little sister Cool Devices, you should be OK. |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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There's a really straight answer to that.
Hollywood. Movies based on anime is definitely the best advertisement I could ever think of. Internet broadcasting. It's still weak, and most of the times limited to U.S. only. But just like everything else, it's bound to evolve and attract more and more fans to anime. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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When people find out I watch anime, I get the raised eyebrow look. They think that, as a grown man, I should be more into CSI or House. There's no changing the minds of these people until they take the initiative to understand anime. If one was to poll 1000 people (aged 12-60) and asked them to define it, there will be 1000 different answers. "Anime" has a stigma of only being a certain type of cartoon in many people's minds. Of course, only when one finally enters this world does one realize the full spectrum of available genres which can please just about anyone. For anime to pick up new fans, it must first find a way to denounce this stereotype. Ponyo was a good start, but a movie every 3 years isn't going to cut it. Once this is done (which will be hard enough), the industry then needs to give these people places to go to view it. Online streaming isn't going to be done by many people who still rather sit in front of a television. As the digital age progresses, this will eventually change as television becomes obsolete and turns, instead, into an instant-on-demand program selection system. Those in the anime industry should be taking advantage of this today, rather than playing catch-up tomorrow when it's going to be far too late. Ex-ADV and FUNimation both have channels on cable and satellite providers, but more is needed. To start, putting these shows online (at no charge) for game consoles is a start. Especially the damn Wii, which blew away everyone's expectations. Nintendo offers the Internet Channel for free now, so it's up to the industry to take advantage of this perfectly-waiting-for-a-good-use system that's collecting dust. Well, I can attest there's at least one more anime fan that's joined the masses. My grandson just loves watching it with me. I may just have to buy him Azumanga Daioh and a few others for the holidays. I'll start him young so that his insatiable appetite will demand more as he gets older. I'm a freakin' pusher. Yay, me. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Anime will NEVER be large without decent time slots on TV, like I dunno, maybe right after impressionable kids, tweens, and young teens get home from school. Now that anime is no long on TV, the market shrinks, DVD sales go down, and everyone complains. The next generation can only be smaller, and if nothing else, will probably be subsistent on fansubs and streaming, because they should be more technologically inclined, and torrents aren't the hardest things to use.
Anime stills works in Japan because it's still on TV at all times. You've got sunday morning kids stuff, primetime stuff that everyone can enjoy, and otaku anime on at late night. We have like two airing times for anime a week here, and they both only serve one crowd of people. |
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~nanashi~
 Posts: 106 Location: Palmdale, CA |
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walw6pK4Alo Also makes a very good point but I'm going to stick with egoist on this one. Movie based animes are slowly making there way into the mainstream media. 4 example= Cowboy Bebop, as we all know, is in the works as we speak. Like egoist, I believe the advertisement through Hollywood will spark the next generation of anime fans. |
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Mushi-Man
 Posts: 1537 Location: KCMO |
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I've been thinking about this for a while actually. I'd say that's a question everyone in the industry is asking right now. Sure right now they have a fan base but a industry can't survive without growth. I think it might be a safe conclusion that the next generation might just be online. The anime industry has been investing allot of time and effort into setting up a legal streaming system to get anime titles to a wider audience. The only problem with this is that the chances of someone just stumbling upon anime online and discovering it (like you might if it were on tv) seems unlikely. So it seems this idea wont really work for getting new fans until streaming media becomes a more popular media format (like tv). I'd say for now the anime industry is looking for a popular network to take them in and give them a good home (or at least a decent time slot). Right now it looks like their best bet might be Sci-fi (or should I say SYFY). Sure right now they only show anime on a late night block on Mondays but who knows, they might start up a Saturday morning block like they had back in the 90's. But I think it's still to soon to say for sure, Toonami has only been dead for less then a year. Maybe soon some brave network will step forward and become a refuge for anime fans and the industry. Only time will tell.
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LordRedhand
 Posts: 1472 Location: Middle of Nowhere, Indiana |
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As nice as legal streaming is, I'm pretty sure there are more homes with a TV than a home with a computer and internet access.
Granted the internet must play a role but it is one component to the overall problem of growth in the anime fandom as certainly word of mouth has it's limits (average is about 5 people, sure talking about something online helps but then who is reading it? Other anime fans.) So I'd say right now Disney with Naruto being picked up (I imagine with Viz's contract it was get it on TV, and anyone who thinks that the marketing efforts separate from the anime, toys, manga so on, need to have a TV presence of some kind, edited or not. And those who think otherwise, well that world isn't here now, sorry.) Potentially SyFy, IFC, CN and any other channel could step up but anime is actually seen as a risk right now, not by a content but the kind of fans it attracts, those who regardless of what you do will be unhappy (show everything? complaints, edit it? complaint, put it in x timeslot? Complaints Show dub? Complaints, all from self-professed anime fans) So it's still an uphill struggle. (Add that as a group we dedicated ourselves to not buying what we claim to like and so aggressively seek it out regardless of others or their wishes, means we're not a really good group of people to have "liking" your show.) |
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Zopelthe543
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It seems to me that hardcore fans are either buying anime online or just downloading/ watching streams. I don't even see how new fans are able to buy anime on store shelves except for Best Buy, and even that place has cut down on there market of anime (because it wasn't making a big profit off anime). And as for them doing online shopping, I doubt they'd work that hard searching stuff if they just started getting into anime, plus if they aren't the age to own a credit/debit card they can't do much online shopping in first place. A lot of you are making some good points but I'd have to agree with PetrifiedJello the most for mentioning Ponyo. If anime movies ever got big like Miyazaki's films that could be a great way to spark new crowds. I mean isn't Ponyo like the only anime that has been actually getting trailers and advertisements on T.V. ? I think there might have been some others like DBZ or other very popular titles but my point is that its only in rare occasions. |
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Zopelthe543
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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The word of mouth thing is how it will be for a while I'd say. If Cartoon Network dropped it's live action shows, then they would have more of a time slot to put anime in. Advertising an upcoming anime (like KidsWB and Fox Kids would do) also really helps.
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Jen526
 Posts: 124 |
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It seems a little weird in the "chicken-or-the-egg" sort of way, but I think another element that could turn out to be important for pulling in the next generation of fans could be *manga*.
Even if anime never gets a serious foothold on U.S. tv again, manga seems to have become culturally relevant on its own merits. If manga continues to be popular reading material for school-age kids, it could then feed back into an interest in the anime properties. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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A good number of them are watching fansubs. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7994 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Well, tell two people with internet access, and have them tell two other people and continue the exponential growth of the spread of the good word and you have anime fans thus. That's pretty much how most people find out about anime anyway since it's barely on TV and the licensing companies don't frelling advertise.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Not really. How do you even know that mainstream audiences will even realise that the movies are based off Anime? Especially given all the changes that many of the adaptations have planned to make, such as setting Akira in America. Let's face it, I don't think many Americans who liked The Departed knew it was only an adaptation (albeit a very good one) of the Hong Kong-made Infernal Affairs. I've read many reviews of The Departed online, and it depressed me as to how many reviews failed to mention that the movie was an adaptation, let alone the exact name of its source material/source of inspiration. Now, if done right, Hollywood movies based on Anime could serve as a great advertisement to their source material. But to successfully do that the studios would have to be proactive in reminding people at every opportunity that they did not come up with the idea on their lonesome. I contend that the studios are more interested in marketing and promoting their product than to do so for someone else's. Eh, maybe I'm wrong . . . probably not. |
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