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Naruto:  To be honest, I started to go that route with our site. Then as I looked through the layers and layers of your site, I figured with my schedule, it would take me a good decade. So you will be happy to know we've left the heavy lifting to you and your staff.

Christopher Macdonald (ANN): :-)

Naruto: A lot of sites look to you as a source for Anime news, Anime3000 included. Who do you look towards for your day to day news?

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  I look to mainstream sites, and other niche markets. (1Up.com, BBC, CNN, etc)

Naruto:  What's next for ANN? Outside of your site providing the most news and Anime information, what other projects do you see yourself working on in the not too distant future?

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  In the short term, we have a major re-design of the site coming very soon. There's also a full re-write of the Encyclopedia coming in a year or so... ANN Beta

Naruto:  Nice, did you guys do that layout too?

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  That's actually a taste of our new layout. It's a "beta"

Naruto:  I really like that new layout for the site.

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  You'll love the final version I hope

:-)

Naruto:  What Anime titles are you currently watching and would recommend?

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  I actually don't watch a whole lot of fansubs. I make a point of watching an episode or two, or at least knowing about all them. But then I usually wait for the DVDs. I watched a lot of Blood+ (till it was licensed) and I'm anxiously waiting for the DVD release. I just finished GITS:2nd Gig, love that show, can't wait for SSS. And I'm going to watch the last volume of Samurai Seven tonight. Satoshi Kon's movies, Cowboy Bebop, and Jin-Roh are my all time favorites. Oh, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! That was a great, great series. “F*&@ing Brilliant!”

Naruto: Where do you see Anime heading in the future, in regards to its continued popularity in America?

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  Tough question. I could go on for hours about that. The North American anime industry goes back and forth between following the mainstream industry, and leading it. In the coming years, anime is going to have to take a leading role when it comes to what to try.

While anime companies can sit back and wait to see what gets popular first, Blu Ray or HDDVD. When it comes to innovative distribution, they're not going to be able to do this. They're going to have to be the innovators, or at least the early adopters. This includes things like online streaming, iPod episodes, phone episodes, etc.... They're also going to have to closely look at the delay between American and Japanese releases. All this is because the Anime Industry has a unique challenge that the mainstream and many other niche markets don't have.

Fansubs… In mainstream, piracy is piracy, end of question. No one really questions the ethicality of torrented episodes of "24." They know it is piracy. But with anime fansubs, they do a lot of good, and a lot of harm at the same time. In order for anime companies to "compete" with fansubs, they're going to have to consider approaches other than just shutting down fansubs. Make it so that anime fans don't need/want to download fansubs. This involves quicker release times, and alternative distribution methods. Some companies are already talking about some very interesting concepts that could revolutionize the industry (sorry, I'm not at liberty to divulge).

Naruto:  I understand.

Christopher Macdonald (ANN):  On the downside, at least in the eyes of some fans, Anime companies will also look more and more to the mainstream. So "anime fans" will become less of a focus, while the millions of cable subscribers will become much more important. Most people that watch anime on cable don't even know that fansubs exist, and that they could have watched the "next" episode of their favorite show 2 years ago. This makes them significantly more valuable to an anime company compared to a fan that downloaded a fansub and won't buy a DVD two years later....

You're also going to see a lot more "master" licensing. If companies can't make their money on the shows, they'll make their money on the merchandise. This is already how it is with numerous anime titles, particularly in Japan, and many mainstream properties, especially Disney stuff.

Fans can't download a Naruto mug for example. So by getting their hands into the merchandising, Viz can profit off of Naruto, even if they never make a cent on the DVD sales. Things like this effect what titles get licensed.

Last but not least, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see more Japanese companies try to get directly involved in North America. TOEI messed up, Bandai Visual hasn't been a stellar success, but "if at first you don't succeed..." They stand to gain a lot if they can cut out the middlemen. They just need to learn that North American fans have to be catered to differently than Japanese fans. We already have 2 Bandais, Geneon, Viz and TOEI, but I wouldn't be surprised to see many other Japanese companies opening their own North American anime distributions in the near future. There, I'm done. [end]

Part One | Part Two