As well, in a bid to gather even more fans into the fold, anime has been taking a rather disturbing turn as of late; it has been becoming more and more "Americanized." The horror show Fox Kids did on "Vision Of Escaflowne," as well as the hack job that transformed "Card Captor Sakura" from a lighthearted magical pretty girl anime into an action-packed adventure series, is well known to almost every anime fan. In both instances entire episodes were cut and the plot was reworked with a new dubbed script in an attempt to remove the "unmarketable" Japanese cultural references from both shows. But is this the shape of things to come? Will this be the face of anime in the future? Only time will tell.

When the industry crashes, I foresee anime going in either one of two directions: In the first scenario, the reduced market for anime will mean the possible death of some of the smaller, fan-based, less business-savvy North American anime distributors. At first there will be an inventory stockpile, as many series do not sell as well as predicted due to a decreased fan base. The resulting loss of revenues could put some of the smaller companies in dire straights, which would result in the licenses for many titles returning to the open market as companies rush to cut losses or go bankrupt. Eventually some of the more solid companies would pick up the "loose" titles, and the industry would settle back into a niche that would support it. In the second, in an attempt to hold on to the market share it has currently enjoyed, the industry will make anime more and more "mainstream," cutting, redubbing and reworking anime into a form more broadly appealing to the American public. Anime as fans know it today will be a memory, lost in the pursuit of the almighty dollar.

But not everything is dark on the horizon for anime. With the recent industry change to DVD format, problems that have long plagued the industry have been resolved, such as the decision on whether to do a dubbed or a subtitled version of any given title. Now the fans can have both. As well, the availability of anime is at an unprecedented level. I personally remember spending long hours hunting down the odd anime title back in the late 80s and early 90s. Now it is available in almost every major metropolitan city, and from a number of good online retailers for those living in an area without a local supply. If the anime industry is smart, they'll realize that they are catering to what will always be a specialized market. Instead of trying to draw more fans into the anime scene, they will instead concentrate on the quality of their releases, keeping the consumers they already have happy. Not all industries have endless room for expansion, and by realizing [that] they operate in a niche market, anime companies can avoid growing to a point where the core fans can no longer support them. Things are looking stormy on the horizon, but even storms carry new possibilities.