Sunday, February 3rd, 2008...1:52 pm
Boom, Bust and the Golden Age of Anime
Taking note of the fact that our blogospherants had yet to handle the pressing issue of the day - that of the seeming crash of the modern anime market - I of course have to take it up myself.
Being quite a paranoiac topic, however, the majority of commentators are just stabbing at shadows; and often that of the wider global recession. Personally, I don’t think it helps the majority of anime fans to look at the current state of the anime markets in terms of global or local recession, since experience (or what little I have of it) has taught me that economics, at least in terms of how it is handled today, is more akin to philosophy than a science. Fill a room with ten veteran economists, and they’ll each give different projections of what will happen in the future, and different recommendations as to what should be done.
What does this mean for anime? Only that any comments about seasonal recessions or anime companies having to tighten their belts might be premature, or rational, but ultimately speculative guesses. The spectre of recession looms over even the most successful companies, and will have contributed to the recent fall in the newly revived Nintendo’s shares, but this only illustrates my point. A small drop in Nintendo’s shares will only be a patch on its recent success, and in the same way, any company or market can survive or even improve its condition through recession, while industry insiders on our main sites forum have already pointed out that the industry has survived recessions before.
They’re not favourable circumstances - as we all know - but that does bring me to the point that I had hoped to explore all along. I’m no economist, so my interest lies in the times themselves, and not their management. In the midst of boom and bust, there have always been golden ages, and my thoughts have recently been drifting toward that of the anime industry. So I’ve been wondering what you the readers consider to have been the golden age[s] of anime, and what made them such?
For me, the real golden age seems to have passed a little while ago, beginning roughly with the first Ghost in the Shell (1995) and followed by Neon Genesis Evangelion (1996), ending also roughly with Full Metal Alchemist (2003). In the space of these eight years, we see not only these three classics, but Cowboy Bebop (1998), the rise of Makoto Shinkai in Voices of a Distant Star (2000) and among the greatest entries into the Ghibli library, including Princess Mononoke (1997) and Spirited Away (2001), as well as hundreds of lesser, but still enjoyable series (Excel Saga, FLCL etc.). If we assume that booms and busts are seasonal, as most economists seem all too willing to believe at the moment, then so too, if it is any comfort, are such golden ages.
Looking toward the horizon, we can’t predict what will be good or successful with too much accuracy - or what will befall us in artistic and economic circles, so as far we know, the next golden age is right around the corner. I hope that will be the case, and wish all the companies in the industry the best of luck during these harsh times.
5 Comments
February 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
The current anime age is ok..I guess..
I just hope that the anime industry won’t go down..
And hope that more good animes will be made..
February 5th, 2008 at 6:36 am
This does sound worryng, lets hope for the best ey.
As for golden ages, I agree GITS was the beginning of one and a real eye opener, along with Akira of course, and of courSE Ghibli have had a huge part to play in the latest boom period with the acclaim of Spirited away.
I also was under the impression that the airing of Naruto has had a bigger impact in terms of garnering new fans than some may have thought, I personally know people who have beome anime fans just through Naruto.
Hmm, maybe its time for anime distributors to start grabbing more obscure and family friendly titles and promoting them as such, no-one can say it hasint worked for Ninty, though obviously the Wii itself had a huge effect on this.
Anyway, personally I have seen only continued growth of the market over here, and although VERY small, it does only seem to be increasing, with consistently up-to-date releases and new titles aswell as expanded floor space.
One thing I do know is that prices are very high for anime, much higher than your average DVD, which can be a problem.
Anyway lets hope for the bst and keep buying anime, I know I will.
February 12th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Nice kite.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I don’t think downturns in the general economy affect anime at all. Anime fans will always be anime fans. People who like collecting anime will like collecting anime for a very long time (and possibly get bored and sell it all). I don’t see this changing. The anime market differs very much to the general economy. There was the Dot-Com crash in 2000 which brought share indexes thousands of points lower, and that was when digitising anime was just getting off of the ground, and look where that’s got to now. Massive mainstream success.
Also, I disagree that there was a “Golden Age” of anime from 1995-2003. Right up until this point there have been hundreds and massively popular titles. Haruhi 2007, Soul Eater 2008. So it continues.
April 25th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
@Daniel: economic downturns don’t usually have too much an effect on ‘hardcore’ fans, but we both have to make concessions here - if you’re saying that anime is now a “massive mainstream success”, then that entails casual fans or viewers, and they are indeed likely to react to a downturn. If anime is a mainstream success, then you might have underestimated how much it could be effected by a recession. On the other hand, I don’t actually believe that anime is the mainstream success that most people think it is (at least in the UK), which means that it might also have been misleading from my perspective to suggest that it would effect the anime industry, if ‘hardcore’ fans are indeed less likely to be effected by a downturn, and make up a more sizeable cross-section of all anime fans.
You might disagree with the idea of ‘Golden Ages’, or believe that there has been a relatively consistent flow of good anime, leaving less room for choosing one period over another, but I don’t personally believe that any anime I can see on the horizon will be matching the heights of Ghost in the Shell or Neon Genesis, so for me at least, it seems like the ‘Golden Age’ has passed. I agree that there’s almost always a steady flow of worthwhile titles, but I think the ‘Golden Age’ of Mamoru Oshii, Hideaki Anno, Satoshi Kon, Hayao Miyazaki and Makoto Shinkai has definately gone by - I can’t predict the future, but their best films are behind them in my opinion, and are within the period I suggested.
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