You bring up a really good point with the Dragon Ball series and one that's been on my mind. Do we really need a new series?
I watched "Battle of Gods" and it came off to me like the most money milking type of production. Sure the animation was nice, but there wasn't much else there in my view. What else is there to do in the Dragon Ball universe that hasn't already been done? We've already seen levels beyond Super Saiyan 3 in the Super Saiyan God form and Super Saiyan 4 from GT. Heck some fans even thought the Buu saga as a whole was pushing it.
I truly have a worry about the new series too.
All that being said, I can understand Toriyama wanting (or perhaps needing) to return to his most popular work to earn a living.
More on topic (excuse me as I write this later in the evening this may not all be as coherent as I believe it to be):
The point of the article and his statements are confusing. In my opinion Anime is not just a cartoon that comes from Japan. It also has a cultural style to it. That's why it gets it's own sub-genre within animation. That being said, he knows his country's economy better than I so his points about studios and the amount of artists decreasing may be valid. Where I see a fuzzy line are with his statement that other countries are starting to see an improvement in the quality of their animated features. Even if this is true, because of the cultural stylings of Anime I don't think they'll ever be able to replace anime. And if the industry as a whole dies off, which is highly unlikely, it will not be because the quality of other countries animated stories are superior.
I also don't understand what he means by Anime "peaking." Popularity? I don't think Anime will ever become less popular. It's appeal is very wide. Sales? This may be attributed to something else I'll speak about below.
Now on the subject of the Anime industry going out of business/ dying. I don't think he is correct. (Setting aside the oxymoronic nature of the Anime industry dying but animation not disappearing) as others have noted, he may not be the most objective person on the subject. We may see studios that are churning out 40 titles a year scale back to 12-15 titles due to economic reasons but I don't think there will be a decline on the scale of death/ video game collapse of 1983.
While I love that the video game collapse of 1983 was brought up, I don't think over-saturation // overall quality is the issue. I think what will ultimately decide how the industry ends up is the double-edge sword that every entertainment industry is still trying to figure out right now: the internet.
what internet features will keep anime alive
Anime can be accessed online
Unlike video games of the 1980s there is not a finite amount of space for product. Access is not limited to which titles get put out first and how much space the stores have on their shelves.
This allows for access to different kinds of anime. You have a lot more titles to choose from but you're also more likely to find a certain number of gems among the rough than you would have in a video game store in the 1980s.
supply and demand: there will always be a demand for it. They will never lose fans altogether and because those fans have access to an almost unlimited library they can always find a quality anime.
While over saturation is still a problem we can have with anime, because of the internet fans are able to more easily connect so good word of mouth on an anime can spread far faster. And again, studios can just scale back the number of projects.
what internet features may cause it's downfall
Piracy (there is an active debate as to whether or not this is truly destructive to any industry [most specifically film and music])
But as a result of the internet, how the industry can change access to it's product to make money (I'm not quite sure if anime pay sites like crunchy roll are as successful as hulu)
Again, if the anime industry dies it will be more because the type of access is changing/ economy no longer allows it vs quality/ over saturation reasons.
Sorry. I'm rambling now. I am a bit tired. Those are my thoughts.
Edited by chouzu_tao, 06 July 2015 - 04:29 AM.