Some considered 2017 a "good harvest" for anime, but Tanaka was left largely unimpressed

Eiga.com's Anime Hack website posted an interview with Kadokawa anime producer Shō Tanaka on Monday. In the interview, Tanaka commented on the state of the anime industry and the role of physical video sales in the current business scheme.

Tanaka said that he has been hearing people say "the packaged business is collapsing" for more than ten years. However, he thinks home video sales of anime still have chief importance, although the anime industry is changing little by little.

Tanaka commented further in response to a question about his views on experimental initiatives such as foreign distribution and event screenings. He said that even titles that fail to create a buzz in Japan have sometimes become very successful overseas, and many titles have turned out well from the viewpoint of production committees. Tanaka said that domestic sales for his company can be poor, but the company is able to recover from the loss.

While packaged sales are currently not prospering, Tanaka said they still serve as a kind of backbone in the industry.Tanaka still personally relies on packaged video sales rather than experimenting with new business initiatives for anime. He believes that the flow of money in the industry still revolves around packaged sales.

In addition, Tanaka said in the interview that he was largely unimpressed with the selection of anime in 2017. He thinks that there were few original works, and some anime were sequels relying on the previous success of their franchises. However, he praised Made in Abyss.

Kadokawa is collaborating on the A Place Further Than the Universe anime (seen above right), which premiered on Tuesday. Tanaka has worked as a producer for anime such as Girls' Last Tour, Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World-, No Game, No Life, Cobra The Animation, and Lord Marksman and Vanadis.

[Via Yaraon!]