Crunchyroll has a new investor but why do anime fans react..

[kndy]

http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-8 ... e-of-anime

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/02/ ... pany/?_r=0

Isn't it always interesting that each time an anime company receives investors and wants to make a profit, there are anime fans who are negative about it.

What was meant to be a positive message from Crunchyroll, ends up being received as a negative by certain anime fans...

[usamimi]

I think people are just worried that new people thrown into the mix who might not be "hardcore anime fans" might totally mess up the place, or make it to where the free streaming isn't free anymore, etc.

People are always hesitant to change, so it's not a big surprise. I don't think they'll do any real DRASTIC changes, though--with sites like Hulu, Viki, Daisuki, and even Crackle all streaming anime for free now, I doubt they'd opt to make it a pay-only site. Someone pointed out that it sounded like they might start adding more live-action or non-anime things to CR, but they're already doing that, so...I don't see how that would really hurt CR.

I'm curious to see if it'll actually change anything, but it probably won't. A lot of people whined about Yahoo! buying Tumblr, but after everyone calmed the hell down, they realized nothing really changed and people stopped caring.

[davemerrill]

I'm willing to bet most of the anime fans who are complaining about CR's investors are in their teens, and believe that Japanese cartoons are produced and distributed by fairies and elves who are paid in smiles and dewdrops, and that in no way is this a business that exists to turn a profit.

I can say this with some authority; I was once a teenager myself. My teenage anime fan pals and myself were prone to make the. most. idiotic. statements about How The Anime Industry Should Be Run and What They Oughtta Do Is. In fact, thank goodness we didn't have the internet when I was a teenager.

[usamimi]

I'm willing to bet most of the anime fans who are complaining about CR's investors are in their teens, and believe that Japanese cartoons are produced and distributed by fairies and elves who are paid in smiles and dewdrops, and that in no way is this a business that exists to turn a profit.

I can say this with some authority; I was once a teenager myself. My teenage anime fan pals and myself were prone to make the. most. idiotic. statements about How The Anime Industry Should Be Run and What They Oughtta Do Is. In fact, thank goodness we didn't have the internet when I was a teenager.

oh man, sooooo true. Everyone has their "Well, if they just did THIS everything would be perfect!!!" opinion about the anime industry in general, especially teenagers...and most of them have no real idea. It's the same with almost any other opinion on the internet...everyone always thinks they have a fix for everything from TV to politics, but if it was REALLY that simple, we'd be doing them by now!

[greg]

So let me get this straight... I can only read the NY Times article since the first link is blocked here at work... Crunchyroll is doing pretty well for itself, making money and its paid userbase is growing exponentially. Along comes a big company that wants to take over and start putting sports and other boring shit on Crunchyroll? I would say that fans have a right to complain. I've never even used Crunchyroll, but I understand how they must feel.

Look what happened to the Sci Fi channel (or SyFy as it is now called). It used to have awesome stuff like MST3K, anime, Lexx, Farscape, then later Battlestar Galactica... you know---<GASP> actual SF content. Then along comes "reality TV" bullcrap, retarded wrestling... the channel is a joke now. Everyone goes to AMC, HBO, and other cable stations to get stuff like Walking Dead, True Blood, Falling skies, Game of Thrones... you know, stuff that should be airing on SyFy instead of the dumb crap they put on there instead. Cartoon Network used to be fantastic back in the day with Dexter's Laboratory, Power Puff Girls, Space Ghost, etc. Now they show live action stuff like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

This is scope creep that has the possibility to vastly dilute the purpose and mission for Crunchyroll. Maybe I am ignorant about what is really going on, but I can only speculate as to the implications of this. It is very sad to see things that were once great lose sight of what made them great to begin with.

I implore Dave and others to show me my fallacy. I really hope I am wrong.

[usamimi]

You mean this part of the article?

“We looked at this as an exciting standalone business, but also as a platform that’s capable of delivering a range of content experiences,” he said, adding that the company planned to expand into content areas beyond anime in the months to come.

Though Mr. Chernin did not elaborate, he said that “they may range from sports, to foreign language content, to specific entertainment genres.”

I don't see that as being that threatening to CR, like I said before. CR already has live-action dramas and some non-anime programing, so I always assumed they'd add more non-anime stuff eventually. (I dunno what he meant by "foreign entertainment", though, since really you could already consider almost everything on CR "foreign entertainment" ) as long as they don't take down everything that's already up, I don't see how adding that stuff would hurt CR. If they want to add some crappy sports stuff on there, let em--when no one watches it, maybe they'll figure out that it's a dumb idea and no one subscribes to CR for stuff like that.

[greg]

Actually, I can see how "foreign entertainment" can fit in, if it's stuff like J- or K-dramas and such. Going beyond that though, I am not so sure.