(10-29-2015, 01:43 PM)Caspar Wrote: I think the slump is kinda hard to determine, there have been a lot of good shows recently, but they don't appeal to nostalgics.
It's not too hard to determine, really. A lot of people are feeling it, and there have been some changes in the industry, too. Manglobe went Bankrupt at the start of October, for instance. Hayo Miyazaki infamously stated that current studios are lacking in imagination (though to be fair, this isn't exactly a new viewpoint for him, even if he isn't wrong), the creator of Evangelion isn't too thrilled either, neither is one of the writers of Cowboy Bebop, "Anime Is Dying" arguments and articles are popping up with a lot of frequency (you can just google that bit if you haven't seen these), animation in both the US and Japan is being outsourced extremely quickly to South Korea and India, and streaming services may start becoming / replacing publishers, similar to Netflix and Hulu.
Lots of changes, none of it particularly beneficial as far as bringing in revenue goes. Add to that the fact that it seems like more and more shows are adopting the American model and pushing Merch as hard as they can, and it seems like things are getting more than a little wobbly.
Interestingly, it's also worth noting in the article regarding animation outsourcing that the population of Japan (a.k.a. Anime's Target Audience) is shrinking, which means less viewers in the first place. I'm not sure how much of a factor that is, but it's nonetheless extremely interesting to note.
