Highlights for
Ru's 7th Semi-Annual Rec.arts.anime.*
"What are we like?" Fan Survey
August 2000

The 7th semi-annual "What are we like?" survey (I think I should change that name) closed late Wednesday night, and it concluded with the lowest response to date at 84 returns. Previous returns (in reverse chronological order) were 91, 97, 117, 151, 146, and 127. I know that traffic is down in rec.arts.anime.misc from the time of the highest returns, so it looks to me like usenet anime readership is down. The questions on reading frequency certainly don't indicate a shift; it seems to be an outright removal. Ya, ya, I really ought to get around to setting up a web form.

Anyways, here are some highlights (which will be followed by the full set of compiled results):

• I see a lot of folks have Kanji dictionaries, about 40%. Is that because folks don't know what Kanji means, or is that for real? If it's for real (eg. the language students), that says something about the seriousness of this crowd :).
• on the dub tolerance issue, there is a hint that folks who prefer subs are more tolerant of dubs these days. It's not a definite measure, but there seems to have been increased concentration on that response, mostly at the expense of stronger dub preference. That's in both renting/borrowing and owning.
• sub seem to be up at rental places, but since I hadn't accomodated DVD in that category, it's not clear if that is because of greater DVD availability. Need to add that to the next survey.
• DVD is still clawing it's way up in market share. Format ownership is up 10% to 60%. It's made little absolute movement in real choice situations, though the relative DVD-Tape has changed 10% in DVD's favour. Hardware owndership is up a little at 60%, but certainly consistent with an increasing trend (which I suspect will plateau near 80% in another year).
• recordability is becoming an issue for decisions to buy DVD. It's up to 25% from 10%.
• a reminder to the companies, the fans here prefer footage like eyecatches and opening and closing sequences left uncut.
• an interesting issue is the media format preference, where tape has lost 10%, half of which went to VCD. This is accompanied by increases in VCD and "other" equipment. I surmise some of this is computer related, with the advent of easier downloads and cheaper recording gear.
• it's kind of amusing that half the folks want trailers before the main feature and half want them after.
• it's been pointed out to me that the question about overlays on signs and such is too rigid, that some flexibility on the issue is a good thing. Nonetheless, in the given context, 3/4 of the folks here would rather see the translation near the sign rather than an overlay. There will be times where that isn't practical, of course.
• this year, for some odd reason, the questions about getting info about anime suffered from a lot of multiple responses, when only one should have been given. I had to cancel their responses, so there is an elevated "blank" count. Anyone doing their own historical comparisons should keep this in mind.
• over 90% of folks still would like to see spoiler warnings, so try your best to mark your spoilers (usually on the subject line and with a page of blank lines), folks.
• about 65% of the readers don't like HTML encoded news group messages, 15% don't care, 10% want them. Folks that aren't aware of their program's settings should take this into consideration before posting.
• "for sale/auction/trade" postings are unwelcomed by 65% of the readers, 20% don't care, 5% want them. Folks that have actually used the adverts, find that r.a.anime.marketplace to be of most use, 3:1. Folks, please use a lot of restraint when chosing which groups you want to post your adverts.

Ok, here come the compiled results... For each question, I've tabulated the raw count and the percentage of total returns for each of the possible responses. I've added a "blank" entry to round out the totals. Some questions had multiple responses, so don't expect all tallies to come to 100%.

Enjoy. (Go to The Results.)

ru