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On March 26, 2022, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) released the Anime Industry Report 2021 (English version), which observed that the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts have caused the growth of Japan’s anime industry market to fall for the first time in ten years.
The demand for anime had gone up
The market for anime reached 2.426 trillion yen (about $19.6 billion) in 2020, down around 88.4 billion yen (or 3.5 percent) from the year before, according to the report, which combines data from that year.
The Anime Industry Report 2021 indicated that despite the market’s decrease in 2020, demand for anime has increased. According to the report, both the number of titles and the studios creating them have increased, with the booming streaming market contributing to this increase in demand.
The cost of production is rising along with demand. The research showed that profits were actually declining, contrary to what the studios had anticipated would happen as demand rose.
The survey also stated that, despite high demand for the content, delays had a significant negative impact on the anime industry’s profits and sales. The absence of fresh releases generally resulted in lower income from the local market as well as from streaming and other markets.
The majority of the titles’ release dates were pushed back. These schedules were also delayed since we were unable to plan for the titles for next year, according to a response to the AJA poll.
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The anime industry was not overly affected by the COVID-19
The loss of 3.5 percent indicates that the pandemic did not have a significant impact on the anime industry. The popularity of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train and the expansion of the streaming and global anime markets, however, only served to lessen the harm.
The franchise’s accessibility is one of the key factors contributing to Mugen Train’s success. The story is about the unconditional love between siblings, thus the premise is quite simple. While the fantasy elements of demons and magic are still present, they are not overly explained.
Anyone can pick up the show rather easily because of this.
The deceptively simple premise, however, explodes into a delightfully rich and layered universe with thoroughly interesting people, each fleshed out with their own backstories and surprising plot developments, which keeps the simple premise entertaining for so many episodes, for those who stick around.
Overall, Kimetsu no Yaiba’s premise appears straightforward at first, but those who pay closer attention will notice a compelling story that has obviously been given careful consideration.
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The international segment
A profit of 1.239 trillion yen was made, up 3.2% from the prior year, by the international segment, which accounts for 50% of the anime business. International market profits in 2020 exceeded domestic market profits, which fell to 1.186 trillion yen, a 9.7 percent decrease from the prior year.
Revenues increased, but so did the number of titles that were licensed abroad, which increased from 3,822 in 2019 to 16,361 in 2020. The United States took the lead with 474 signed contracts, followed by Canada and South Korea with 450 and 334, respectively.
According to the AJA poll, 28 Japanese enterprises currently have contracts in place for licensing their works on an international level, up from 16 the year before.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s effects confirmed forecasts that the global market will eventually surpass the domestic markets, contrary to earlier trends.
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- Is anime series no longer a Japanese product? (Part 1)
- Is anime series no longer a Japanese product? (Part 2)
TV anime
Revenues from TV anime, a pillar of the domestic Japanese anime industry sector, also decreased in 2020. On the other side, there was a sharp increase in the money made from domestic anime streaming, which increased by 35.8 percent to 93.5 billion yen.
The rise in people staying at home as a result of the epidemic has been blamed for the change. The survey does note that as the pandemic effect wears off, there may be a rise in the TV anime section.
Streaming segment
Anime production businesses themselves saw a decline in revenue from the streaming segment, despite the fact that the domestic anime streaming market reported a considerable revenue rise. In 2020, it earned 19.1 billion yen, a decline of 11.6%.
In 2018, the anime industry’s home video segment had already been overtaken by the streaming sector.
The merchandise segment, which made up 25% of the industry’s market share, also had a loss of just 0.8%, containing the industry’s overall decrease.
Conclusion
Due to the pandemic closing theaters and restrictions placed on big crowds of people, the anime film business was anticipated to suffer the greatest blow of all the Anime Industry market segments. However, the record-breaking success of the movie Demon Slayer: Mugen Train made 2020 the third-highest grossing year in history with 61.7 billion yen in sales.
The year 2019 saw the biggest gross revenue in the history of the anime film business, with 69.1 billion yen in sales.
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