Living in the Hollywood area, it seems like a lot of the problem with the film industry in the U.S. right now is that the cost of entry is way too high. There’s lots of great scriptwriters with awesome stories to tell, but when it takes a cool $50mil to turn that story into a reality, most studios and investors don’t want to take a big risk on an unusual story or untried format.

Although the low wages of Japanese animators is oftened decried in the industry, even without that consideration, to produce a manga or anime is still a tiny fraction of the cost of a U.S. style feature film.

That, as well as the ability to create a manga first and then animate the successful ones, means that far most create and fringe stories are being made in the anime industry. As a result, we’re able to see creative works that authors have crafted that would never have been financially feasible here in the U.S.

I that’s why I find that I enjoy anime and manga far more often than I enjoy American TV or film.

Put this in contrast with western shows that are usually kept running until they lose their sense of direction and become stagnant, unpopular, and cancelled.