Quote - Also here's an interesting look at the whole thing... When you compare the largest online message boards:

Largest Online Boards

The largest one, a 7.5 million strong forum, is an anime themed board. There is nothing even close for all hollywood animated movies combined. Makes you wonder why some hollywood type isn't going after this market.

Online message board membership isn't really as massive a significator as one might expect. Heck, I have an account on Gaia... somewhere, since a friend of mine wanted to show me a thread there. I logged in all of that once and probably wouldn't ever be able to remember what user name it was under. Happens a lot on a lot of boards. It's also international so far as I know -- and 7.5 million accounts, while a big number for an internet message board, is a drop in the bucket for the US population not to mention world population. Disney has actually taken an interest in anime. They're the ones distributing Studio Ghibli's work in the US last I checked. It tends to be easier for US media companies to pick up successful Japanese titles and dub them (often badly), subtitle them, or just re-release them here than it is for them to develop something themselves that has a similar feel or mood and have it produced. I have a feeling that may change when the current crop of artists, writers, and animators that's likely in college now hits the job market; it's a substantially stronger influence now than it was even ten years ago, not to mention twenty. Twenty years ago, I used to know which stores on my coast carried anything related to anime. Now, there are more than that carrying anime and related merchandise in a 10 mile radius. Food for thought, you know?

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It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye texture.