It's Official! The American Anime Market Is In Danger!

    I decided to write this blog entry upon hearing the terrible news that Bandai Entertainment will no longer be releasing their anime titles in a physical format and give my honest thoughts on the subject. Granted, I would of loved to see this happen to 4Kids Entertainment in which eventually came to pass. Hallelujah! However, Bandai Entertainment was the last anime distributor in the U.S. I wanted to see quit and I never expected they would go. We now have four anime distributors that have gone belly up or quit in the U.S. anime market: Central Park Media, Geneon Entertainment, Bandai Entertainment and the only company to make it through restructuring: ADV Films aka Sentai Filmworks.This of course leaves us with only Sentai Filmworks, Funimation, Media Blasters and Viz Entertainment, the latter two more focus on manga then with anime.
    So where does this lead for us anime fans? Well first off, expect much less choices for anime fans in the U.S. For example, if you were hoping for a Blu-Ray re-release of Cowboy Bebop or Gurren Laggan or perhaps a complete series box set of K-On, well, now you can write that off! This also leads to many new anime releases in Japan that may never see the light of day in the U.S. anime market. Poor Nichijo, I was looking forward to that anime! I was also praying for the day the Idolm@ster anime was going to be announced, but alas, it looks increasingly obvious it may never be brought over! 
    Also, less competition in the U.S. anime market naturally means that anime in the U.S. is going to become more expensive. Expect complete series box sets to go from the forty to fifty dollar range to sixty to seventy dollars or even more! In one extreme example, the Blu-Ray box set for Fate/ Zero has been announced to cost a whopping $500! Like hell I'm going to pay that much money for a thirteen episode box set! Pardon my language but, f*** that! I could buy a brand new TV for that much money!
   And sadly, what this all comes down to is that it opens the door for more internet piracy of anime. Which of course means less money for the show's creators, less work for anime voice actors and much less for aspiring anime voice actors like me. It also means more lay offs and downsizing, and of course, may also lead to more anime distributors going bankrupt or quitting the U.S. anime business entirely and ultimately, less choices for anime fans in the U.S.; a continuing downward spiral.
 What it all comes down to is that the U.S. anime industry has become a mere shadow of what it once was in the late 90's to the early 2000's and from what I have seen in these past few years, it may never fully recover. Bottom line, what a terrible, terrible way to start the year off!