Comments on: Ask John: Why Doesn’t America Support Older Anime?

By: TsukuyomiMagi99

TsukuyomiMagi99 — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:55:10 +0000

To start off, I have to say that I like anime as a whole, both old and new they each have their own charms and elements going for them. Heck I even grew up watching what would be considered now “old” anime. The problem I have with old anime isn’t the anime itself, it’s the vintage anime fans that turn me off from vintage anime. I can’t count how many times I have to listen to old anime fans say that all contemporary anime is bad just because it doesn’t suit their tastes. Their arrogance about how everything in the 80’s and early 90’s was great and flawless is annoying.

Yes the 80’s were anime’s golden age and had countless masterpieces but that doesn’t mean that the 80’s and 90’s didn’t have their bad anime as well. But old school fans refuse to acknowledge this and their intolerance and condescending attitude towards new fans is insufferable.

By: kyouki

kyouki — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:35:35 +0000

Americans, besides being obese, seem to be bipolar: they said to like anime; but they complain that anime nowadays has become either fan service feast or gay school comedies; so it is logia to assume, that if they donâ€t like the anime produced today, but they still want to see anime, why they donâ€t embrace vintage anime?

By: GATS

GATS — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:49:57 +0000

The way that person’s phrasing the question’s a tad confusing. Anyway, sometimes it’s not the American fanbase which is the problem. For example, there’d definitely be a market for those defunct Rumik World OVAs split between Viz and CPM, but the Japanese end prefers that those stay OOP, and not even released on R2 DVD. As for the Animeigo stuff, I really hate how much the a-holes on Amazon are currently charging for used copies of Baoh, but sometimes it’s not just about the sales, but about how much more Animeigo might have to pay to re-license these shows on DVD, because the Japanese end might place more of a higher premium on it than we do, especially in light of the Japanese companies’ imaginary fears of reverse importation.

As for Ranma, there was actually a ton of merch from Viz back in the day, including CDs, calendars, etc. I’m not entirely surprised about Eva, though, because it’s never been the phenomenon it was in Japan, even if it’s still ADV/S23’s bread-and-butter. With Lum, it’s just a miracle it makes enough money for Animeigo to keep it a third generation, since, at one AX panel, they said they actually considered leasing it to Viz when their rights for it were up. And the only reason they kept it is because of the justified out-cry from the UY fans.

“I guess the basic question is why is there so little support for the great older animes?”

I dunno. For Lupin to still be going as long as it has, and for Cagliostro to be one of the better-sellers on DVD ain’t bad. And CR’s proven there is an audience for older titles on-line which, if the Discotek Fist acquisitions work out, can translate into profitable dvd sale.