Highlights from the Results of
Ru's 10th Annual Anime Fan Survey
---------------------------------

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/fan0709/highlights.html

Sorry it took so long to release the results. The actual number
crunching was very quick. It was the sifting through comments
and trying to write the highlights that took the time. That was
exacerbated by a less than optimal health. Anyway,...

This survey ran much more smoothly than last year's. No glitches
were reported. Yay! I added some JavaScript code and cookies
this year, and they seem to have done their jobs, or at least
not stopped the works cold. Most folks seemed to support their
use, so those features will remain in subsequent surveys, and
I'll be expanding their use (e.g. more question skipping).

Anyway, this year the survey got 776 returns, down from last year's
798. Darn. I was hoping to exceed last years count. The fraction
of folks who have not participated in this survey is down from
80%% to 74%%, so I'm thinking this is about the limit, even if this
year I had two major web sites announcing the survey. I also
suspect anime fandom has been in a downturn. How long people
have been an anime fan has seen a noticeable drop in the "5 years
and under" demographic to 27%%, which is nearly 10%% less than
last year, and nearly 20%% from 2004. There is a commensurate
increase in the older demographic.

On the otherhand, the Usenet contingent doubled from the previous
two surveys. Yow, I wasn't expecting that. And folks say that
Usenet is dead. Pfft. Down, yes, dead, not.

This year, the survey got fewer responses from Africa,
Central America, and South America than last year. Nuts.

Regardless, many thanks to the responders. Some of you found it
fun despite the length, so I hope you do it again next year and
still find it fun.

Here are the main links associated with this survey.

The index to all results is at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/results.html

The total tallies can be found at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/fan0709/results.html

The Usenet-based tallies can be found at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/fan0709/results_raa.html

The Usenet vs Web comparison results can be found at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/fan0709/results_raa_vs_w.html

Some trend analyses can be found at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/trends.html

And finally, the main survey page, with links to past survey results
can be found at

http://members.shaw.ca/ru.igarashi/Surveys/fans/

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On the DVD format uncertainty, despite more folks wishing they
could collect anime in HD (up from 40%% to 55%%), acquisitions of
standard DVD still went up by 10%% (from 65%%). However, HD
DVD players are on the increase (from 5%% to 15%%). For those
wondering if this scenario parallels the LD vs DVD, I don't
think so. HD DVD is already higher on the wish list than LDs
were and we are in the early days of software releases, which
are very low still. I think we'll have a better view in a year.
If in three years, HD doesn't surpass LD in collections,
then we may have a parallel.

On the subject of purchases, purchases of video by order
(e.g. online orders) has gone up significantly.

There's an interesting shift in the acceptability of fansubs.
Fansubs of LICENSED titles saw a large upswing in the number
of people who consider this piracy, 23%% to 35%%, and significant
downturns in the acceptability. That's a welcome change,
and hopefully a continuing trend.

On a related issue, it's not surprising that a lot of what
fans watch is fansubs, and again it looks like half the
fans attribute at least half of their licensed acqusitions
to having watched non-licensed versions. Also, it looks
like last years results on the amount fansubs comprise
of total anime viewed was a fluctuation, as this year's
results are quite in line with results further back.

On the issue of trading music, in contrast to the level
of disapproval of fansubs of licensed video, and of purchases
of bootlegged anime-related products (60%%, and 75%% in favor of
conventions disallowing bootlegs), most folks think trading
music is OK. Obviously, folks think about music and other
anime products differently. I have to wonder why.

An unhappy trend for me is a significant drop in the purchases
of anime-related products. The only products to see a growth
are books (but not manga!), figures and toys. I suppose Its
possible that some of the manga are being confused for the
books category. This year I added a bunch of apparel items,
so we'll see how those track. I got a fair number of
suggestions of "cel phone straps", so I'll probably add that
next year. I'm also going to try to remember to break the
products lists into 4 categories: printed/published,
office/home/desk, apparel, and artwork. You'll see what I
mean next year... if I remember.

It looks to me that face-to-face togetherness in fandom is
still a necessity in this age of cyber-interaction. The
maximum category has slid continuously in the past few years.
The others have held steady, suggesting a shrinkage in size
in general, but for the most part the sizes seem to remain
healthy.

Oh, on the subject of "togetherness", I'm going to try to remember
to add a a "Do you singalong with your friends?" question and
similar "Do you dance to dance scenes/segments?" questions next
year.

This year I added a sub-genres question. OK, don't ask me why
"magical girls" wasn't on the subgenres list. I know I was
going to put it on the list. I think when I put "mahou shoujo"
on the Japanese genres list, I overlooked the Western list.
I may have even thought it was redundant... well, I don't think
it is now. We'll see what happens next year. Conversely, don't
ask me why I used "mecha" in the sub-genres when I should have
used "giant robots". I was happily surprised to see that one of
my favourite sub-genres, "slice-of-life" got a high response.
Actually, I think it got the highest response in this question!?
Apart from that, there were not surprises. I'm going to have
to add the qualifier "Western" to this question, as many
suggestions belonged in the Japanese categorization question.

I added the episode format question, and gee, "fully involved
story arc" got the highest response.

I'm not a manga reader so the issue of how fans accept anime
revisions of the manga basis didn't strike me until the question
came up during setting up for this survey. Not surprisingly
over half of the manga readers don't really care or are
quite please when the producers add a few extra stories, but
I was half-expecting this percentage to be higher because
you often hear folks wishing for stories that fill in details,
or to see what happened to someone after some event. A quarter
are generally not pleased. The displeasure rises to over half
when the producers go in a different direction than the manga,
again not surprising.

I have no idea what is going on with the video game questions.
The responses from last year and this year are totally different.

I got quite a few more responses from folk purportedly in the
anime industry. Don't ask me who they are, I don't know, and
even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. And folks (you fans),
be nice to these people. They try to take opportunities to
interact with fans, and for a lot of they time those interactions
encourage them, and that means we get better product, which etc.

OK, lastly, it's time for me to stand on the soapbox for what we
(internet savvy) fans would like the industry to do (or not do).
So to the INDUSTRY FOLKS, here's what we say.

By a wide margin:
- don't cut ending credits, "Next Episode" previews,
eyecatches
- don't mess with signs and similar text graphics
- go ahead and include just about any extra you can think of
- when including a picture or sketch gallery, use still
frames (with a next image button)
- on DVDs don't force us to watch company logo sequences

Here are the options we prefer (i.e. not as strong results):
- give the viewer the option to watch trailers when they
want (e.g. don't force them to watch at the beginning)
- on DVDs, please master them so they use the viewers default
language settings.
- please continue using clear DVD keepcases
- please issue artboxes with vol 2 or later volumes (thanks ADV)
- if you don't want to engineer a unique artbox, please make
the cardboard-open-front style you default design.
- whatever design you come up with for an artbox, make sure
the artwork is good (uniqueness isn't as important)
- if you put a sleeve around an artbox, make it transparent
with artwork on it
- if you charge for a good quality downloadable version of a
title, a price somewhere between 20-60%% of the hardcopy
would be nice, leaning towards 40-60%%
- if you charge for a low res downloadable version, charge
below 20%% of hardcopy, preferably below 10%% (i.e. similar
to rental charges)
- don't use copy protection technology on downloadable anime
- using low res for downloadable anime would deter folks
who use downloads to add to their collection while
not affecting the number of folks who would use them
for previewing what to buy and for casual viewing.
- for your websites, you generally aren't providing what
fans would like to see particularly well, nor particularly
poorly, except wallpapers and images, and possibly trailers
which are in the 40-50%% "satisfied" range.
- also on your websites, tone down your use of Flash or
similar active content. Many fans get annoyed with
those at least sometimes.

Haruhi must be pretty popular because on the bonuses question,
Haruhi was mentioned by name way, way, WAY more than any other
show or character. As for most popular suggestion, jewelry;
don't ask me why that wasn't on the list... stupidity can
be the only answer.

On the subject of items that I really should have known to
list, cell phone straps. I've seen a lot of these, so again
don't ask me why I didn't list this.

Someone must have put out a bunch of poorly made artboxes
recently because on the top requirement for artboxes question,
there was a steady stream of "sturdy" or "sturdiness". I
personally can only count on one hand the number of weak
boxes I've gotten, but something has to have tweaked these
fans.

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