The Japanese portal Yahoo! News Japan published an interview between two personalities and critics of the anime industry, where an analysis was commented on the industry’s performance in 2020 and the projection for this year.
In this article, a comment will be pointed out where it was expressed about a possible decline in the slice-of-life and moe genre series.
“It should be noted that the number of television animation productions has been declining, probably because it has been losing to the Chinese market. Although some claim that “the anime market is in danger” and that “growth has stopped,” in reality, it has been shown that it is in its best growth. ”
“Even in this conversation, the” distribution method “is a key concept. After all, internationally, the distribution is done through streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Do you now understand the great influence that only these two have? »
“The distribution market, consequently, is growing by leaps and bounds. However, the proportion is not as large as it appears, although official figures must be awaited. At the moment, the contribution of the foreign market to the anime industry is unknown.
The only thing we can ensure is that the market is expanding not only in a linear fashion but also in other entertainment media, such as merchandise and Virtual YouTubers.
“High competition also causes a disparity between animation companies themselves, being“ those that can aim to produce feature films and mass distribution ”and“ those that do not receive opportunities.”
Many companies were in the red from the COVID-19 pandemic and are slowly being taken over by the more extended companies. Live events have been completely wiped out of the market, and with these being the foundation of music franchises, idol-based projects are likely to be put on hold for a while .
Furthermore, foreign companies tend to license science fiction and isekai content first, so the number of slice-of-life series is also declining.