Mike Pascuzzi, an early anime industry insider currently with Infinity Entertainment, read Arthur Smith's open letter (see 'An Open Letter to the American Anime Community') and says today's trends shouldn't be a surprise to anime companies:

As an insider from the early days of anime in the U.S., (Director of Sales for Central Park Media), we worked on developing the market before ADV released their first title.  Early on we recognized the problems that Arthur Smith has so eloquently addressed, but no one was too concerned back then.  Everything was selling and life was good.  Now the problem has overtaken the sales, even in the face of a growing interest in anime, and suddenly we wake up and smell the coffee.        

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