Because I read this thread and I get excited. WHY am I so messed up?
For those of you who didn’t click on the link Let me just say that I enjoy armchair industry speak and it’s fun to follow the business processes that leads to the localized release and distribution of anime that I watch. I don’t know if it is interesting because it’s a business nerd kind of thing, because I am not exactly a business nerd. I don’t know if it is interesting because it involves anime I watch, because I care about anime I don’t watch, too, and occasionally non-anime stuff. I don’t know if it’s a weeaboo thing, but I’m not really a weeaboo, and I have plenty of negative things to say about Japan and their way of doing business (well, I have plenty of negative things to say about almost anything, so it’s not a big deal). I don’t even care about a lot of things that is unique to Japan. I just happen to know a couple things about Japan as a part of the context in order to understand this hobby-thing of mine, or maybe as a distant part of my heritage as an Asian guy who used to live not too far from Japan.
I’m leaning towards the business geek angle, much like the appeal that baseball manager story has, that leads to its adaptation to anime in early 2011 (by Production IG no less). But another dark horse answer may play also a key: there is this transcendental barrier between fandom and turning it into a career. Anime in America is largely brought on by fans who turned pro and started businesses localizing it. It’s not to say I’m quite there, at that place. I don’t think I want to be (and my Jtor gig might be the closest I want to be) there, maybe ever. But who knows, it’s a draw that some fans find interesting, in their difficult-to-satisfy quest for information relevant to their interests.
I find myself feeling this urge the strongest when it comes to con drama. Most people running cons are fans on some level, too. I wonder what drives them?
Homework: how big is the US anime con industry? Take attendance * reg price as a baseline? Has someone came up with it? For every big Summer con there’s a dozen small cons that cost $20 and draws like 2000 people. We can ballpark the vendor costs by taking a spread but vendor attendance is much harder to figure out. Who knows?
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