Anime & Manga News for week of 9 May 2009

Yasuo Yamaguchi of the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) warns that the anime industry is in a bubble that burst. He has some numbers and charts showing the decline in anime and manga profits over the past few years.

Meanwhile, ADV's picked up four licenses from dead Central Park Media: Grave of the Fireflies, Now and Then Here and There, MD Geist, and the World of Narue, all to be released in July.

ADV was also kind enough to post Evangelion TV, the first CGI Appleseed movie, and Kiba to the XBox Live Marketplace. They even did something nice for the Sony fanboys by posting the above, plus Angelic Layer, Burn Up!, UFO Princess Valkyrie, Aquarian Age, Madlax, and a few others on the PlayStation Network.

Funimation posted Gankutsuou, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, and Strain on iTunes.

The new trailer for Evangelion 2.0: You Can(Not) Advance reveals a new girl pilot in a green plugsuit.

K-ON!'s still on the Oricon charts, along with a bunch of other anime themes.

Kyoto Animation fixed a visual error in K-ON! episode 2 in time for the episode's re-broadcast on BS Satellite TV.

Public voting is now open for the 2009 SPJA Awards; winners to be announced at Anime Expo. Go to http://www.spja.org/spja-industry-awards/spja-industry-awards-polls/ to vote.

Sakura Wars V will soon be released in North America.

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[Aixrotciv]

Fall in anime demand is simply a factor accompanying the decrease of the Japanese youth. It's a shrinking demographic and they're the targeted consumers.

The industry can save itself by attempting to branch out into wider mass appeal, but it could be risky. However, most anime have very little mass appeal. Shows like Suzumiya Haruhi, Ouran High School, and Lucky Star are all primarily parodies of anime, manga, and Japanese life and culture. Many animes are just not easy to get into for newcomer

[ONVPodcast]

This discussion could evolve in multiple ways but I'd say it's a bit more complicated than that. Not all anime are aimed at Japanese youth. Most are but there is certainly an increasing number of series that are adult oriented unfortunately because of how cartoons are seen outside of Japan by and large none of the adults will actually watch said series. Also, niche titles as you mentioned which are nods to otaku need to stop being made if anyone wants money in the future.

--Nick

[rolfyboy8]

Did you go to the amv contest? Did you watch my "Look at it, It's Ugly" video? Did it win any award?

[ONVPodcast]

Sorry; what AMV contest?

-- Brent

[rolfyboy8]

Anime Central 2009 amv contest

[ONVPodcast]

No, I'm afraid I didn't go to Anime Central.

-- Brent

[ONVPodcast]

Whoops! Should have said "Sakura Taisen V". Sorry about that! Adding an annotation now.

[GrapplerJMo]

sakura taisen is finally coming to the us? i actually already own it on saturn, dreamcast, and ps2 for YEARS now.

[frogeviltribe]

very imformation thank!

from malaysian