Anime is Doomed?DOOOOOOOOOOMMEEDD
If anyone asks, the North American anime market is still looking just as fucked as ever. ICV2 reports:
According to the ICv2 Guide #51: Anime/Manga, sales of anime DVDs in North America tumbled by more than 20% during 2007. The number of anime releases in the North American market also continued to fall, dropping another 21% after a 19% decline in 2006. ICv2 estimates the size of the North American anime market at $275-300 million (in retail dollars).
So a 41% drop in two years! I’m no business major, but I’m pretty sure that’s bad. And given the lack of additional, new Naruto-level titles coming out in the U.S. in 2008, plus the proliferation of fansubbing, there’s absolutely zero reason to imagine this turning around. Whee!
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.