One thing's for sure: Considering companies like Funimation, Sentai, and the other localization companies are, you know, still in business, that means their products are selling, which means there are still people buying it.
I guarantee you, the moment localizing anime is not "worth it", these companies will close down. They are businesses, after all.
Dub localization may be expensive (and not worth it (especially if the dubbing is of horrible quality)), but Sub localization is not expensive and imho opinion just worth the relatively small expense since it gives foreigners a chance to understand whatever is being said.
Mind you, the subtitles should be large and clear, easily readable. I give points to channels like KBS whose subtitles are easy to read. Minus points to channels like Star Movies Mandarin whose subtitles are not only small, but actually look faded. (Jeez!)
Btw, it's not me who is having considerable problems following (tiny faded) subtitles. I'm talking about people like my aunts and grandmum who love Korean dramas but consider it a challenge to follow subtitles, not cause they are not native English speakers (they are!) but cause eyesight gets worse as people get older.
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
No Brazil in Hetalia. In fact, the South American countries appear to be completely absent except for Cuba, who only had a few appearances in the anime and who looked the least handsome of the cast.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Cuba is not South America.
Can everyone please stop correcting me and just listen to the POINT I am trying to make, please!?
Sorry, but this is a common mistake I've seem around. I was trying to invalidate your point at all. I just figured one would be happy to be correct, so they don't make embarrassing mistakes in the future anymore. Guess I was wrong.
Insert title here.
But yeah, even Sealand and Molossia got their Nation-tans. That's quite unfair.
Now, let's stop arguing about this in the wrong place, alright?
</offtopic>
There's no Part 1, I just thought it was funny at the time.
Why wouldn't it be worth it? Maybe clarification on 'worth it' is needed. You don't need a mainstream American audience to turn a profit, even 5% of the country being interested is around 15 million people. Without really knowing anything about the business and the numbers involved, that seems as though it would be worth the export costs. At least for subtitles anyway, which most anime watchers seem to prefer.
I would think the internet could only help anime. It isn't like I remember from back in the early 90s, where anime was this weird foreign thing that only came in $50 boxes, with no way to preview. Now, if you want to know about anime you can just google and be presented with more info than you ever desired. The internet, in general, seems to help niche things like anime much more so than mainstream things.
As long as anime remains mainstream in Japan, there will be more anime. I confess I'm getting a bit tired of all the hubbub that the Americans have got to be interested in anime otherwise it will die, supposedly.
First off, Hayao fucking Miyasaki is STILL NOT mainstream in the USA (even with Disney and Pixar big-shots backing Studio Ghibli), so yeah - I've pretty much given up hope that anime will be mainstream in the USA. At this point, I can't even help but think there's (some) racism involved for why Miyasaki is still not popular in the USA.
Also, I seem to keep on running into worries about anime dying if more Americans don't like it. Don't remember coming across people talking about anime dying if Europeans don't like it.
Plants are aliens, and fungi are nanomachines.
But America is the center of creation you see. Anything not important in America must be virtually nonexistent. Fancy anyone not having that as the innate core of their worldview, huh.
Creed of the Happy Pessimist:Always expect the worst. Then, when it happens, it was only what you expected. All else is a happy surprise.
Sadly, Ghibli's sensibilities just don't seem to gel with American audiences' expectations of animated movies.
Plus, they aren't CGI! Ew! They're, like, in this old and outdated hand drawn style!
Hahaha, anime IS pretty much dead down here.
edited 26th Oct '12 7:22:55 PM by NapoleonDeCheese
Most of what I've heard about anime dieing due to lack of American interest is about it dieing in America specifically. I don't think I've met anyone who's seriously worried that it's gonna crash in japan because it's not doing well overseas. (Not that I'm sure there aren't people who think that somewhere out there...)
Anime in Japan for the most part seems to be in a creative slow death, but while it's still not at its best financial moment, I don't see it collapsing anytime soon.
I'm not Tempting Fate, or am I?
oops, silly non-researching me
There's no Part 1, I just thought it was funny at the time.