After getting our press passes for BAAF, there was little else to do but attend the Anime 101 panel, BAAF's only panel. The basic premise was explaining the state of the US anime industry to the audience. Our wonderful host for the panel was John O'Donnell of Central Park Media. We arrived a slight half an hour late.
The panel was mainly showing figures, demographics number, and other information about the industry. I jotted down a few notes. Around 30 anime films are produced in Japan every year with about 50 shows being aired weekly. 65% of the visual media being exported from Japan is anime, with 60% of the world's animation coming from Japan. The Japanese animation market is roughly a $15 billion industry.
Estimates for the US Market in 2001 was $250 million based off of wholesale figures, which is 20% growth from the previous year. Quite amazing for a country some consider in a recession. 8.7% of the all the DVDs produced this year in the US are anime as of August 16.
Videoscan Top 10 titles for 2001
1. Dragonball/Dragonball Z
2. Akira
3. Robotech/Macross
4. Gundam
5. Sailor Moon
6. Blood - The Last Vampire
7. Neon Genesis Evangelion
8. Rurouni Kenshin
9. Street Fighter
10. Tenchi Muyo
The discussion went on how anime release windows work. For the US market, first you have a home video release (though this is changing slightly). Then you might aim for a TV release, and finally you can move on to merchandise. This is merchandise being brought over by the licensing company directly instead of US retailers getting it from Japan themselves.
The panel ended, and Mariela spent a while talk to Mike Toole of Anime Jump. After a while, Yoshiyuki Tomino, the father of Gundam, entered the room and I stood mesmerized for a bit. The panel repeated again, but this time in Japanese so I got to catch up on the slides I missed the first time. I never laughed so hard, as I witnessed Tomino taking notes at a panel where the genre of hentai was explained.
Lastly, I'll include a Top 8 list of what music Anime Fans listen to. The first one is something anime music video watchers should be familiar with. The poll is from CPM's Animail.
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