On Anime, pt 1

In thinking about the recent posts discussing the situation of anime in the U.S. I wanted to say something. but what would I say? the economics has been analyzed, and the argument had reach the stalemate familiar to movie studios in Hollywood and pirates. The argument had been boiled and distilled down to the simple statement of "When the anime producers and consumers find a happy medium, everyone will be happy (generally), get what they want, and thrive." But I've thought more about the response from the anime company, Bandai. Bandai's response reflects what I mentioned above. That eventually, U.S. anime producers and consumers will agree on something and find a happy medium. But now, as I've thought about it, I realize that is simply not so.
The producers of anime in the U.S. are no longer doing so for the market segment that spawned their business. In the beginning, these companies sprung up to serve a need in the marketplace. Great programs were coming out of Japan in the 80's and the fans of the 60's and 70's had done a great job of inspiring new fans of the medium. The tweens and teens of the time were getting Voltron and Robotech on television, and in rare cases a few VHS tapes and laser discs at the local rental shop or niche import store. The market and the consumers began to mature. As the 80's broke into the 90's stores like Suncoast and FYE began to offer a place where anime could be found regularly. As interest grew so did the selection, and in many towns across the U.S. the local mall, or comic book shop, became the only place to find Japanese cartoons. The amine market would continue to grow in the 90's, translating great shows, toys, comic books (manga), and preparing itself to inject anime into the American mainstream. The injection they were preparing should have included a vaccine against the Internet.
Everyone knew it was coming, because they knew it was already happening. For as long as there had been video recording devices there were video tapes of Japanese programs in the U.S. The fans in the 80's were adept at finding and translating Japanese cartoons in to English. Sometimes was simply a group of notes passed around with the tapes, but with increasing commonality the tapes themselves were being subtitled into English buy groups who would come to be known as fansubbers. Seen as no big threat in the 80's and early 90's they passed under the radar of legitimate production houses. After all, the fansubbers could neither hope to produce a show of such quality, nor reach as many people as the national corporations. So the fansubbers were left alone like weeds in a garden. A threat for sure, "but," the big studios seemed to say, "If we flood the garden with enough great flowers, the weeds will be killed off by them." perhaps they were really thinking about flowers and gardens, because they seemed to miss the economics of a situation that was fast approaching.
The economics have been discussed elsewhere. It's long and boring, and makes for dry research. So I think a very quick summary will do. Anime studios produce content that is mostly made for Japanese TV. That equals about 26 episodes for a regular show, and 2 or 3 times as many for a popular show. For an anime studio to stay in business they have to consider how many episodes to release on a single DVD (or VHS a few years back). They have to consider how far apart each DVD should come out. They have to consider how much to charge for each DVD. Then they have to worry about how much shelf space a store will give them. Add to that the fact that a company can't simply survive by releasing only the popular shows. Just like regular TV there are shows that are good, and ones that stink. The money that comes in from the ones that stink help pay the bills, but you still have to find space for that show and sell it. Finally, one of the biggest problems facing the U.S. anime industry was the difference in time between the TV broadcast and DVD release of the shows in Japan, and the DVD release in the U.S. Generally, that time was closer to years than it was to months, and never was it weeks or days. That time lag was only being suffered by the studios that had to deal with Japan. Fansubbers, through their network of 'friends in Japan', K-band satellite and other means, were recording and distributing the Japanese shows faster and with better quality than they ever had before. They were pushing the limits of the technology available simply to get what they wanted, and they were about to be granted a golden ticket with the advent of a technology that would forever change the landscape of what it meant to be a fansubber.
--part two coming asap: the internet, the anime, the otaku, and why fans aren't too worried about U.S. companies going belly up. should they be?

Web video advertisements

like most people in the world today, I am an avid user and huge fan of the Internet. Rarely does a day go by with out some sort of interaction with the web, e-mail or a quick IM or two. On a regular day YouTube and videos from news outlets take up lots of time as well. An that, friends, is why I'm here today. The average news clip on CNN, AP videos, FOX etc. is about one minute long. The average advertisement attached to the beginning of that video is 30 seconds.
Now, as a (sometimes) blogger, I know how important it is to get revenue from digital content. If everyone turned their TVs off forever half of the web would go dark because the major content providers still get their money from TV advertising. I understand that there has to be a bit of a trade-off if I want to watch content online, not pay for it and do it legally. The problem that I have with web adverts enters when I'm spending half as much time viewing them as I a spend looking at the content.
This is simply another example of what the greater majority of content producers know about the Internet. They constantly try to assign properties to the Internet that should be reserved for TV. Thirty-second ads? As Brian Fellows would say: "That's Crazy!" Thirty seconds is half of an eternity on the web. It works fine for TV, because the medium is rife with opportunities to catch sandwich makers, and bathroom breakers before or after their journey. Ever wonder why there are two of the same ads during the same break? People get up, move around and eventually come back to the sofa. The internet isn't much like that. Unless someone is downloading an entire episode or waiting for a slow connection the content is instantly available. it appears, is consumed, and the watcher moves on. An entire, TV quality, 30 second embedded video file simultaneously reduces the chances that an individual will view the content behind the AD, and devalues that same content.
TV advertisers have slowly began to realize this with the traditional medium. Fifteen second and less spots are showing up more frequently. Some spots are broken up into several shorter mystery commercials that are aired throughout the program. When all the parts have aired, they equal one long interesting bit of advertising. That, ladies and Gentlemen, is where video web ads need to go. Five or six 10 second spots spread around the web like pieces of a geocache puzzle. Advertisers will want to throw in a hint or puzzle piece in each segment that directs you to their website, (and they will) but the novelty is that there will be something to look for. If, for example, Honda's website says that there is a series of 10 second ads out on the web with a transforming civic battling space Nazis--I'd try to find it. The deal is sweetened for content producer and advertiser alike as I wander from site to site doing and watching the things I normally do, but hoping to catch a glance of Civic-bot shooting lasers at a giant swastika-shaped space station. I'd watch it. . . wouldn't you?

Thinking about technology

this is a test post, but I wanted to add that I gained a bit of
insight just a minute ago.
It concerns how Tim Lee of Techdirt.com has a really great insight
into the tech world. He analyzes the current state of cat and mouse
with the AACS standard and the people who make software that
circumvents its "protections".
I've had to deal with this myself: I have three Sony components in my
house, and they simply won't work together through HDMI cables. It's a set that any dork would buy at Fry's, and yet, it doesn't work correctly hooked up in any manner that a consumer would try to do so.
Anyway, his post looks at the DRM that these Satans have thrust upon
us -- and the industry that has sprung up to protect us and free us from
their evil. Like CCS was destroyed, so has AACS been. Apple's DRM on
iTunes is easily circumvented, as well as Microsoft's. Also, I don't
think there is a person with even a passing interest in the news who
doesn't know about the iPhone tug-of-war.
What his statements boil down to is this: the "Industry" through its incompetence, ignorance, and disdain for the consumer, has created an entire new industry that closely parallels the
technological advances made by the "Industry" itself. Simply, if the
RIAA, MPAA, and their lackeys had not created DRM, there would be
fewer people looking for, and finding, easy ways to pirate their DVDs.
The proof is in the pudding. I know Baby Boomers who would have been
happy to Netflix their movies while picking up their favorites at Wal-
Mart. But once a media scandal erupted, clarifying the ease of
bypassing the FBI warning, the previews, the splash of the 14
different production companies involved and the more and more
ubiquitous warnings that exercising our stinking rights is "theft",
they decided that spending 30 minutes to rip a movie borrowed from a
friend or taking it off the internet is easier, cheaper, and a better
value than being forced to watch and listen to shit they didn't pay for.
The "Industry" did this to themselves by being stodgy old farts with
no vision an no willingness to change. As I've always said. . .
"Tradition breeds ignorance".