I’ve been so busy this past week that I haven’t been able to keep up with my regular blog reading, so I’m only now seeing this great post about composite photos from a few days ago over at Danny Choo’s place. I especially like the Patlabor composites; the one with Alphonse and the Griffon facing off at Takeshiba Pier near the end of this page is probably my favorite. The imagery sort of reminds me of the weird live action Patlabor short, which is further explained here.

I’m not a serious figure collector, but I almost want to buy some so I can try doing this myself.

Looking back at my previous post, it’s clear that I raised more questions than I did provide answers. As troubling as the current situation is, it’s not necessarily something that keeps me up at night. Nor do I think the anime industry is one breath away from wholesale collapse. In fact, I suspect some studios and distributors remain financially sound and strategically positioned to weather the storm with minimal pain and suffering.

At the same time, however, solutions are a dime a dozen. Most everyone has an idea of how to save the anime industry. However, as the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” As brilliant or obvious as some of the ideas being bandied about within the fan community may be, none will come to fruition unless the anime industry itself pursues change. And therein lies my pessimism; a willingness to change is not in the personality of the Japanese anime industry.

An analogue for this sort of stubbornness can be found in the fan community. For all my efforts to neutralize the tired fansub vs. industry debate in my previous post, many of the responses both in comments and elsewhere still centered on that particular issue. Too many of us have too much invested in this debate to leave it alone. It’s only human nature to defend one’s actions, right or wrong, just as it’s human nature to avoid accepting responsibility for a problem when there’s a convenient target at which to point fingers and direct blame.

I’m not so arrogant to stake out the high ground here; I’m not even entirely sure where I stand in the fansub vs. industry debate. However, I do think that the debate itself is ancillary to finding a solution to the problems that face the anime industry. It’s akin to being stranded on a mountaintop in a raging blizzard, wasting your time and energy on figuring out which idiot in the party forgot the map and food as you freeze and starve to death.

Of course, the flip side of that analogy is the question of, “what can you do?” People freeze and starve to death on mountaintops all the time, and it’s not for lack of survival skills. The elements and the situation are often too overwhelming for survival to be possible in the first place. I don’t think the current situation within the anime industry is any different. Some studios and distributors are already dying on the summit. Others continue to climb, oblivious to the storm raging all around them. The smart ones, however, remain at base camp, waiting for the storm to pass and the skies to clear.

Waiting isn’t enough, however. If you expect to summit before the next storm arrives, you have to move quickly. Otherwise, there’s no point in being on the mountain in the first place. I believe the anime industry understands this urgency. Or, I want to believe, at least. But whether or not the industry has the will to act on that urgency, I don’t know. Nor do I know if a willingness to act is enough to ensure success and survival. The slopes of Mt. Everest are littered with the bodies of those who died trying, after all.

This all sounds terribly depressing, I know. The reality is, I’m more passionate about anime than ever before, and while I think rough times are ahead for both fans and the industry, I’m not so troubled by it all that I feel it’s time to take to a street corner, “The End is Near” sign in hand. There’s no reason to resort to hyperbole, and even though I have a more fatalistic outlook on the current situation than some, it’s borne more from common sense and a general feeling of impotence as an industry outsider than an honest belief that everything’s going to hell in a handbasket in a hurry.

Enough of the empty rhetoric, though. I’m happy fans are discussing this issue, and I suspect some folks within the industry are at least paying attention. Perhaps the industry will be more willing to change if we, as fans, continue to make it clear that we desire change. And perhaps the industry will be more willing to consider our concerns if we make it clear that we hope for their success. The current relationship between anime fans and the anime industry is nowhere near as antagonistic as that of, say, the music industry or the motion picture industry, and it’s for that reason I believe the anime community as a whole is better positioned to realize change that works to both our benefits.

In other words, we’re all in this together.

Every so often, the anime community goes through a period of collective gnashing of teeth over the state of the industry, often triggered by the comments of some insider or commentator describing how the industry has one foot in the grave and [insert target du jour] is entirely to blame. Eventually, the ruckus dies down and everyone goes back to doing things the way they’ve always done them, fans and industry alike, patiently waiting for the next crisis to come along and whip the community into a frenzy yet again.

Honestly, it’s getting old. I think we all generally accept the idea that things to need to change. There’s plenty of disagreement with regard to how and why, of course, but I think most serious fans and industry insiders recognize that there’s trouble on the horizon and wish to do something about it. Very little changes, though. The trouble draws nearer, the teeth gnashing repeats itself, and we’re left waiting for a “come to Jesus” moment that may never arrive.

In a lot of ways, the tempest currently building within in the anime community in response to these comments from GDH International President Arthur Smith is more of the same old story and routine. However, unlike before, industry insiders are opening up and speaking candidly about both the troubled state of the industry and what needs to be done to ensure its survival. In fact, ever since the collapse of Geneon Entertainment, the conversation between fans and the industry has become increasingly intimate. At first blush, this may seem like a positive development. However, I think it’s more an indication of how dire a situation the industry has found itself in that it’s laying itself bare in front of fans in a death bed appeal for mercy.

I’m not surprised, really. For some time now, I’ve worked to suppress the gut feeling that things were only going to get worse before they got better. Even more troubling is the knowledge that we’re all culpable in some way. Clueless distributors, selfish fans, deluded fansubbers: we’ve all been happily shooting ourselves in the foot for years now, and we’re finally on the verge of bleeding to death. But it’s because we’re all responsible that pointing fingers is a fool’s errand. It’s posturing, at best, for an industry representative to blame fansubbers for its pain and suffering without expressing a willingness to pursue legal and financial recourse in response. And for fansubbers to lay the responsibility for poor sales at the feet of the industry alone conveys ignorance in the fundamental role they themselves played in bringing about that situation. Nor can I and many other fans caught in the middle point fingers, for we’ve played both sides to our own benefit for years now.

So, what to do? I don’t know. I agree with the idea that change needs to first occur within Japan if the anime industry wishes to avoid wholesale collapse. It’s far too late to avoid a correction, I think; the damage has long been done, and only a correction can save the industry from collapsing entirely. Time is running out, however. And, unfortunately, that’s cause for great concern. Firsthand experience has taught me that reluctance to change is deeply ingrained in Japanese business culture, and statements emanating from the Japanese anime industry with regard to fansubbing and the American market clearly illustrate that they don’t yet realize how broken their international business model is. Or perhaps they do realize, and they’re not yet willing to admit to it. Either way, I have little reason to be optimistic.

Of course, a correction, even if ugly, doesn’t mean the end of anime as we know it. Studios will go under and people will lose their jobs, of course. That’s regrettable, no doubt, and the negative impact such an offloading of talent will have on the quality and diversity of anime we’ve come to enjoy in recent years will be keenly felt. However, the market for anime will continue to exist, as will the means of production. In the end, a correction may simply mean less anime. It’s up to every individual anime fan to decide if that’s a positive outcome or not.

It’s reasonable, I think, to see a correction as inevitable. In discussing the state of the industry with a friend far less sympathetic to its plight recently, I heard the argument that, “If they’re so bad off, why are they producing so much anime?” My response, of course, was that “they’re so bad off” precisely because they’ve been producing so much anime. The promise of funding from overseas led to an increase in the number of projects, and when that funding didn’t materialize as anticipated, the chickens came home to roost. A number of Japanese studios and distributors have mortgaged their futures on lofty expectations for the international market. In fact, I’d argue none moreso than the aforementioned GDH International. If I were Arthur Smith, I’d be sweating bullets right now, too.

When all is said and done, however, I’m just one of many anime fans who, despite seeing the trouble on the horizon, can’t do much to effect change. I can write a thousand words on the subject, as I have today, but the reality is: I don’t have the answer. Like most everyone reading, I’m just along for the ride, hairpin curves and all. However, I have an incredible passion for anime, so watching as a spectator as the industry races downhill toward the edge of a cliff is frustrating, to say the least.

Perhaps gnashing of teeth is all we can do, after all.

After finishing Kanon earlier this year, I made a pledge to rewatch it come Winter. Except, when ADV announced its licensing of the show and set the release date for the first DVD in January, I decided it might be better to just wait. I originally wanted to both marathon and watch it in the proper season, however, so… well, I pulled out my fansubs and started watching last night. I’ll be purchasing the DVDs, obviously, but I figure there’s no harm in rewatching the show now.

So, aside from paying a short visit to my parents tomorrow, that’s how I’ll be spending my holiday weekend. It sounds pathetic, I know, but with the cold and the snow, I’d rather just stay inside where it’s warm. Home is where the heat is.

Speaking of which, while discussing televisions last week, a certain ghost of anime blogging past asked if I was planning to follow up on this post, seeing as I moved to a new place over half a year ago. People always seem to find this sort of thing interesting, so I suppose I should. Hence, I present to you the new and improved Hop Step Jump nerve center, now with more display space.

Clearly, a shiny new TV would look nice in there, and I were feeling impatient, I’d take advantage of Black Friday and pick something up for a cheap, but… well, what’s the weather forecast look like for that morning?

“Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow. Lows around 10F.”

I think I’ll just stay in bed.

In an episode of something I watched recently (it might have been Genshiken), a character made a comment about having a “forehead fetish”, and ever since, I’ve been wondering: are prominent foreheads now a commonly accepted moe mode?

I mean, Iori is my favorite character from Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA. Please tell me it’s not because of her prominent forehead. It’s because I’m a Tamura Yukari fan, right? RIGHT?

The first DVD volume of Simoun showed up in my mailbox earlier this week. I only just got around to watching it last night, and I have to say: as striking a show as Simoun was the first time around, it looks ever more spectacular on DVD. Oh, how I love Kobayashi Shichiro’s backgrounds.

In the year or so since Simoun first aired, I’ve encountered more and more people who, like me, feel it was one of the better, if not best, shows of 2006. The show might not have gotten much attention at first, but its fans have done a good job selling it. And I really have to thank John Sirabella and MediaBlasters for licensing and releasing it in North America. He has a good eye for quality anime. The number of MediaBlasters releases in my DVD collection is proof of that.

Anyway, I won’t beat around the bush here. If you enjoyed the show back when it aired and haven’t yet bought the first DVD, get thee to a store or online retailer and pick it up pronto.

It took four episode, but I finally have something to say about Clannad. It won’t be overtaking its predecessor in the tag cloud any time soon, that’s for sure. Anyway…

I’m surprised with how utterly normal the heroines are. They have their personality quirks, of course, but I don’t get the feeling any of them are walking around with the weight of the world on their shoulders. In particular, Nagisa has turned out to be a sensible character. She’s shy, but not pathologically so. And, as far as Key characters go, she’s pretty transparent. What you see is what you get. Of course, I fully expect this to change.

I’m also surprised with how utterly pointless the show is. And I don’t mean that in a negative sense; I actually find it fairly engaging. However, I’ve yet to get a handle on what sort of story the show is trying to tell. A number of plot threads have been introduced and touched on thus far, but the only one that’s gotten much attention has been Nagisa’s continuing efforts to establish a theater club. And I can’t quite decide yet if that’s an ancillary plot thread or a central element of her scenario. I suppose it provides an avenue for which Nagisa and Tomoya can get to know each other better, at least.

Of course, the Kanon remake probably got off to a similar start. It’s just that, in that particular case, I already knew where all the individual storylines were going, so I understood how all the bits and pieces introduced early on contributed to the big picture. With Clannad, however, I’m completely clueless. I’m playing connect the dots.

Which is probably why I find the show engaging. I’m anxious to see what becomes of the story as all those bits and pieces continue piling up.