Trends Found in
Ru's Annual Anime Fan Questionnaire

This page will present some of the data in terms of trends over the years this survey has been run. Some of the questions were intended for such trend plotting. In other cases, the trends became interesting after the data was taken.

This is very much a work in progress. The first pass at analysis was begun in November 2006. The graphs are crude and not enough thought has gone into the comments. Finally, there is much more data to be brought to this page. Please bear with me. Regardless, as each survey passes, every graph will have to be updated. That's not such a big deal, as I've automated a great deal of it now. But it guarantees that nothing here will be unchanged.

Ru Igarashi

Technicalities

For all graphs, unless otherwise indicated:

Lines connecting points are to guide the eye only, thus have no quantitative value.
Graphs are plotted with a common time range to facilitate comparisons.
Error bars are strictly statistical.
Data tracking for some variables began later than others, so those tracks will be shorter.
The vertical yellow line at 2003 in the trend plots represents the point at which the survey started asking for responses from web-based responders. (see note below)

Also, keep in mind that the survey ran exclusively on Usenet until 2003. At that point, web forum readers dominated the survey, and any apparent shifts at that time may actually be due to a demographics shift.

[Home] [Fan Survey] [Past Results]

Number of Responders
Equipment owned
Amount of Anime Available on Television
Translation Preferences - Sub vs Dub
Attitude towards fansubs of commercially available anime
Products associated with anime
Clubs
Time as a fan
Degree of Fandom
Purchases from Retailers
Education and Technical Interests
Manga
Conventions
Fan Art
Cosplay
Music

[Home] [Fan Survey] [Past Results]

Number of Responders

For the first few years, the survey was only run in the rec.arts.anime Usenet newsgroup hierarchy. In 2003, the survey was open to web-based readers, thus the total and the Usenet-only counts diverged. Trends of the web-based totals are not accurate: the 2006 survey suffered from multiple, back-to-back technical difficulties, and it is believed the 2004 survey suffered from one of these difficulties, too. Up to 2006, the bulk of responders originated from Anime News Network, as that news site had formally announced the survey.

Number of responders at each survey

The data correspond to the following: total - total number of responders; usenet - only usenet-based responders

Equipment owned

This question started out trying to measure the rate of adoption of a brand new and questionable technology, DVD. Back in the mid-nineties, DVD used the latest video compression technology. One of the big questions was whether it could handle animation well enough. It's counter-intuitive to those who don't know much about data compression, but "lossy" compression schemes such as the MPEG used in DVD and VCD don't just look for areas of common color and stillness. They effectively APPROXIMATE areas with functions and toss out functions with some degree of extremeness (similar to optical Fourier filtering). Hence, they don't perform as well on solid lines and sharp edges without compressing less. I'm sure you've seen the blurry, fringed edges in highly compressed JPEG image files (which is why you should never use JPEG compression for line drawings and graphic arts with basic geometries). Worse, because it also uses a zone system, it is possible that wide areas of similar color will be overly approximated as exactly the same as a neighboring zone instead of a transition and you get blocky images. Animation is more susceptible to these compression problems. However, a couple years before the survey started, there were folks like Animeigo's Robert Woodhead that had seen some results and reported there shouldn't be a problem (provided the mastering process was done properly). Then the titles started coming out.

Question:
Which video formats does the equipment you own, or share, play?

[Trend plot: Types of video equipment owned]

The data correspond to the following: Tape - video tape; VCD - "Video CD"; LD - LaserDisc; Files - computer files; HD-DVD - "High Definition DVD"

Question:
In what video format do you choose the most often to collect anime?

Labelling is the same as above.

Question:
In what video format do you prefer (not wish) the most to collect anime?

Labelling is the same as above.

Question:
In what video format do you WISH you could collect anime?

Labelling is the same as above.

One question was whether this new format would do any better than laserdisc (LD) had. As you can see LD never got further than 35% with fans. This is actually quite an impressive figure, as the general market penetration was nowhere near that. This demonstrates that anime fans tend to be technology adopters, though I wouldn't say they were leading adopters. Within 3 years of the survey, it was clear that DVD was going to make it big. The small size and the greater longevity of the form factor and the better image resolution were big selling points, even though there were many examples of compression problems (that is, "as bad as VHS").

As you can see, right around the time DVD peaked, Tape started its slow decline. That was around the time that many, if not all, commercial anime distributors had stopped releasing tape versions of new releases, and was stopping production of tape versions of existing titles.

The Files data is no surprise, but for rather mundane reasons. The question asked about equipment owned, not what was used to watch anime. At the time the question was begun, most responders likely owned or had access to a home computer. After all, how else were they going to respond to the survey (yes, yes, they could have been using a school computer, instead).

The question of the hour is whether HD-DVD will take over DVD, or if it will be relegated to the same status LD had. The "wish" result may be telling. At LD's peak, DVD had the same wish level. We currently see HD-DVD and DVD at roughly the same wish level, as well as adoption level, but HD-DVD wish is on the rise while DVD is down. What's preventing adoption seems to be a lack of titles, as the "prefer" trends imply: DVD is unwavering, while as of late 2007 HD-DVD continues to languish in the basement.

Amount of Anime Available on Television

Question:
How much anime is available to you by TV broadcast?

Times in legend are in "hours per week".

At the time the question began, anime had established some stable blocks on various networks, such as Cartoon Network. But not having access to many of those networks, and not being privvy to what the rest of the world got, I got curious. It's hard to say if there is a trend in the data, but we can say that there's more than a couple hours per week of anime shown in most cases. Maybe, maybe, there's a small decline in availability.

Translation Preferences - Sub vs Dub

Question:
If you OWN translated anime, what is your translation preference?

Ah yes, the ages old question of how many viewers prefer subtitled versus dubbed anime. One MUST keep in mind that this survey samples a subset of the full population of viewers of anime. A majority of the responders have university level education and many of them consider themselves technophiles. The very fact that they have network access and have taken the trouble to complete the survey distinguishes them from the average person. Thus it is not surprising that those that prefer subtitled anime outnumber those that prefer dubbed anime 2:1. These results should NOT be used to argue that people in general prefer subtitles. They CAN be used to argue that vocal online fans tend to prefer subtitled anime.

Attitude towards fansubs of available licensed anime

Question:
Which of the following most closely describes your position on distribution of fansub, fandubs and similar of video titles that ARE licensed or commercially available in your region?

[Trend plot: Attitude towards fansubs of licensed titles]

The data correspond to the following: piracy - "it's piracy"; wrong-but - "it's wrong but as long as I don't see them..."; indifferent - "it doesn't matter to me"; OK - "think it's OK"; nothing-wrong - "think there's nothing wrong with it"

Question:
Which of the following most closely describes your position on distribution of fansub, fandubs and similar, of video titles that are NOT licensed or commercially available in your political region?

[Trend plot: Attitude towards fansubs of unlicensed titles]

Products associated with anime

Question:
What kind of products associated with anime do you typically buy?: Printed or Published

[Trend plot: Products: printed or published]

Question:
What kind of products associated with anime do you typically buy?: Artwork

Question:
What kind of products associated with anime do you typically buy?: Office, home and desk

[Trend plot: Products - office, home and desk]

Question:
What kind of products associated with anime do you typically buy?: Toys and games

Question:
What kind of products associated with anime do you typically buy?: Apparel

Clubs

Question:
How many anime clubs are you aware of that are what you consider reasonably accessible?

Question:
How many anime clubs do you belong to?

[Trend plot: Number of anime clubs involved in]

Question:
How many people are in the largest anime club you belong to?

Time as a fan

Question:
How long have you been a fan of anime?

Times in legend are "years".

Question:
How old are you?

Numbers in legend are "years of age".

Question:
How old were you when you became a fan?

Numbers in legend are "years of age".

Question:
How were you introduced to anime when you became a fan?

The data correspond to the following: Friend - friend or family showed; TV - TV broadcast; Loan - rental or loan;

The most worrying trend is in the "time as a fan" graph. All of the demographics 5 years and lower are dropping, while the remaining "old" demographics are rising. That suggests that we aren't pulling in new fans. That means the anime distribution companies can't expect the current fan base to support much of an expansion in titles (or that they have over-expanded already). It also means they've got to work at regaining ground in visibility they've lost over the past 3 or so years.

Degree of Fandom

Question:
What degree of anime fandom would you say you are at?

Question:
How many anime TITLES (a series counts as one title) do you estimate you have watched at least part of?

The steady decline of the "0-40" demographic can be attributed to the gains in the other categories. This is another indication that anime fandom is aging, or is not pulling in as many newer fans as it used to.

By 2004, it was starting to look like the maximum category of ">240" was going to take off, so I added one more grade and raised the maximum in 2006.

Purchases from Retailers

Question:
What are the most common sources of your Anime video purchases? (Anime Retailers)

[Trend plot: Sources of Anime Video - Anime Retailers]

The data correspond to the following: l-shelf - off-the-shelf at local anime retailer; l-order - order from local anime retailer; nl-order - order from non-local anime retailer or distributor; nl-shelf - off-the-shelf at non-local anime retailer; con - vendors at convention

Question:
What are the most common sources of your Anime video purchases? (Non-Anime Retailers)

[Trend plot: Sources of Anime Video - Non-Anime Retailers]

The most striking trend in either of the above two graphs is the sharp rise of the non-local non-anime retailer. That parallels the peaking of e-commerce. We do see a rise in the non-local anime retailer, but it is no where near as sharp because that segment was already quite busy. One could also argue that the local non-anime retailers have been getting more business. That might be attributed to the growth of anime in the mainstream, or at least the availability in specialty channels or anime-specific programming blocks.

In 2005, a sharp-eyed responder noted a lack of "off-the-shelf,non-local", something no one caught for few years prior, and that was corrected in the 2006 survey.

Question:
What are your most common sources of Anime products? (Anime Retailers)

[Trend plot: Sources of Anime Products - Anime Retailers]

The data correspond to the following: l-shelf - off-the-shelf at local anime retailer; l-order - order from local anime retailer; nl-order - order from non-local anime retailer; nl-shelf - off-the-shelf at non-local anime retailer; con - vendors at convention

Question:
What are your most common sources of Anime products? (Non-Anime Retailers)

[Trend plot: Sources of Anime Products - Non-Anime Retailers]

The data correspond to the following: l-shelf - off-the-shelf at local non-anime retailer; l-order - order from local non-anime retailer; non-local-o - order from non-local non-anime retailer; non-local-s - off-the-shelf at non-local non-anime retailer; jp-friends - friends or family visiting or living in Japan; auction - local or non-local auction

Education and Technical Interests

Question:
What is the level of education have you completed or are attempting to complete?

The data correspond to the following: Grade - grade school, e.g. Grade 1-12; Trade - trade school, for technical trade; UnderGrad - university undergraduate degree, e.g. Bachelor; GradStudies - university graduate studies, e.g. Ph.D;

Question:
Would you consider yourself a technophile?