I was tempted to ask why Savi is even here?

It's pretty obvious that everybody here is a fan of anime.
As well as avid supporters of purchasing anime/manga.

Quite frankly there are very very few anime with 9 year old girls being chased by octopi.

Yes the media loves to blow anything dealing with popular media way out of proportion. Though to be fair there have been some disturbed kids who brought Death Notes to class. In one sad case a young man suffocated due to trying a Naruto jutsu.

Unless it's a main stream mega blockbuster, hardly ANY DVD or book releases get any sort of advertising.

Or, maybe all he ever saw of anime was one episode of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/tantei-opera-milky-holmes/episode-7-tricks-of-the-sun-560826?p360=1
Start at about 17:00 or 17:20

Or the pool episode of My Otome
Or the OVA beach episode of Shin Koihime Musou
Or the series Squid Girl (wait, in that one, the 9 year old girl is the squid...)

Granted, most of these girls aren't 9, but some of them are pretty young.

Oh, and then there was the episode of Angelic Layer where Mr. Icchan stuffed a live octopus into his subordinate's pants...

Cute, I see your point

Ok. I'm not quite sure where anyone would get the idea that I was dissing either anime or it's fans. I do however know that I myself would often get treated like some backwards child for being a fan myself. However, I can't assume that it's like that everywhere. I simply meant that it is difficult to convince non-fans to buy a series when most of them think all there is to anime is Pokemon and porn. That and I really hate when companies cancel better series just because they don't sell as well as mainstream ones like Naruto.

Also, I consider consumers in general to be fickle. It's the fault of the companies who
oversaturate the market and for some reason can't understand that if they for example sell 5 or more similar series in a month that not all will make a best seller list. The American market should look to what they're doing in Europe because they seem alot more attuned to the buyers needs. Look at how many series we've lost that they haven't.

Ah. Actually, I meant to ask whether you were referring to specific articles and news items where anime or its fans were misrepresented, or whether you were referring to the seemingly general perception of what anime was all about.

As far as convincing non-fans to buy an anime movie or series, I have trouble getting a non-fan to watch an anime. Any anime. But I think that the problem there is that adults in this country are actually ashamed to watch anything animated. And that is largely because animation has been relegated to either children's entertainment, or vulgar comedies in this country.

If you want to get an adult to watch an anime in this country, you need to be very selective of what you offer to show them, making sure that it appeals to their interests. I got my mom to watch Bunny Drop with me, even though it was subtitled, because it was about a bachelor raising a little girl.

Once you've introduced someone to what anime actually is and what it has to offer, they'll be more likely to buy an anime series or movie.

Precisely my point. And I for one blame Disney and all their watered down, "every girl wants to be a princess" baloney. Sure, they've improved, but the general population still thinks animation and thus anime is for little kids and paedophiles who live in their parents' basement.

OK then I am sorry for being rude.

Yes there is such a stigma against anime (or cartoons in general).

Though working at a place like Fry's there are quite a few people who at least know about anime. Plus a few regular customers who buy quite a bit.

I attempted to get my parents into anime with Spirited Away. I think my mom liked it, but my dad left about 10 minutes into it & whispered "why dont you grow up". Never did it again.
BTW he also walked out on Love Actually as well.

As for the real reason for this topic, it's basically to point out that many anime companies went kaput. Due to various reasons, so lots of their stuff is out of print.

Yes anime fans are kinda fickle, however some other types of fans (such as Star Wars) are much much worse.

The US & Canada can't really do anything to influence what Japan does.
It's their fault for being inflexible with the way they sell stuff, thus only the hardcore buyers determine what shows get made. Unfortunately a lot of them like the fanservice & moe stuff. Thus that's what gets made.

Sure Europe gets a few things we don't (and apparently keeps stuff we lost).
However IIRC it's basically a monopoly on who distributes their stuff.
Even with the collapse of several companies, there is still a bit of variety as far as who distributes stuff.