News

Dateline covers Japanese Animation Industry

The Dateline report covers the Tokyo Anime Fair, held this past March in Tokyo, and describes anime as depicting "big-eyed male and female heroes who look like children or teenagers but often engage in adult levels of violence and sexuality, usually in some apocalyptic or futuristic setting." It goes on to state that the two major factors impacting on the anime industry are Internet piracy and shifting demographics due to Japan's shrinking children's market.

Toyoo Ashida (Director of Fist of the North Star TV and Vampire Hunter D) had the following to say on the industry adapting to the market:

With the declining birth rate, the target of animation production has moved towards young people and adults who grew up watching animation. We now produce anime specifically for those people. So we were able to expand our target audience and our market, but to meet the shift in the market we developed late-night anime.

The report also interviews Kazumori Hashimoto (the owner of A-Line Studio) and an animator named Yūichi Namiki who is dealing with the industry's low pay.

You can find the video report, as well as a transcript here.