Welcome to Gaia! ::

Piracy is actually one of the smallest reasons, but it's the best party line they have to try and guilt people into not downloading. The fact is that decades of price gouging, inefficient production coupled with poor packaging and the persistent lack of merchandising and visability is what's killing the market (along with oversaturation).
Japanese animation companies are NOT going to go out of business because they're still getting paid in Japan through advertisements and marketing in the shows themselves when aired. Those shows are wildly popular there, where they know how the market, produce and package for cheap. They license out for bags, plushies, toys, clothing, video games. Animation has never, I repeat, NEVER made anyone millions. Batman The Animated Series made it's killing in clothing and toys, NOT the show itself, but these production companies are STUPID.
One of the reasons that the United States (and many countries) import Japanese animation is because the work is all done, all they have to do is add voices. And they're still trying to charge the rediculous prices they were able to get away with 30 years ago. But the fans aren't stupid, they can get the same product, faster, for free.
You can get peope to buy anything. How did the movie industry combat piracy? DVD extras, commentaries, easter eggs, ingenuitive layouts, artistic packaging. Entire seasons of tv shows for $50 in packaging an inch thick. Who here last saw a single DVD containing only 3 episodes of House MD?
How does the music industry fight it? It cries and whines that it's loosing money, attacks their target audience, and in the end the money never goes to the artists but to the bloated companies that produce the CDs (which almost never have inserts, booklettes or stickers anymore). Which one is still claiming foul?
Which one does the American import anime industry most resemble?

Ask the question: why do people pirate?

Is the answer because they want it all for free? Maybe. Or is it that they can't afford the product you're selling, which isn't worth the price they're paying? Isn't the target anime market mostly UNDER 25?

The era of "The'll pay it because they HAVE to" has been over for about five years, but certain industries refuse to admitt it. Music and Japanese import animation are the two big ones.
Movies, television, even comic books have realized that you have to make the fan WANT your product, especially if the option of getting it for free exists. Packing items with extras, selling them in complete sets, elegant packaging...it helps. A LOT. Movies load with extras (a few come with soundtracks!), tv series pack an entire thing in one volume, comic book trade scheduals are fast and the trades are well made (often with the option of getting it in hardcover).
I would pay $50 for a well packaged, complete Cowboy Bebop set. MAYBE $60 if it's really fan-dabby-dabulous. Over $100? Never.
For the same reason I will probably never own Full Metal Alchemist legally. I will not pay $30 a DVD to get 4 episodes just because they come in a tin. There's not enough space for all those tins, the DVDs are bland, there's no extras. ******** it.
But I do have various Satoshi Kon movies on DVD. They're too gorgeous not to, especially Perfect Blue.
The American companies have to pay no one, NO ONE, but the voice actors, the translators/subtitlers, and some design people. Not artists, designers to assemble an American version of the packaging (should they wish to deviate from the existing). Add to that a few production assistants, maybe a dozen random employees, a marketing department (which doesn't need to be big as long as they're good) you don't need that many people.
I want to see a list of expendatures on this stuff.

I'm trying to think of all the extra costs dragging them down. Licensing is the first and absolutely necessary cost. I'm trying to think of the stuff on top of that. Shipping master copies of film too would probably be expensive.
But once they have it in their hands and they're allowed to work with it, where does the money go?

I know some companies are s**t with licensing too though. Some will require them to purchuse X and Y (that don't sell well) if they want Z (which sells like tasers at a Paris Hilton convention). Tokyopop has this problem, which is why in their glut of titles there's only about 25% worth reading.

Super Mario Galaxy is amazing. It's so very trippy.

Why does every zombie have to have one schmuck who gets bit and never tells anyone?

Well, I'm watching it atm and it does.

Shoot'em Up is possibly one of the most unrealistic and silliest movies I have ever seen. I loved it.