So if it's so hard, why go through the trouble to get new viewers to appreciate classic titles? From the licensor's side (as I covered in another column), classic properties are known values, and they hope to tap into market awareness of the titles to be successful. For the creators of the project, it's much more personal. Say I am Matsumoto Leiji or Monkey Punch. While I'm old enough to retire, I may have more stories I want to tell, I certainly don't mind getting more paychecks, and both my publisher and myself certainly have a very real investment in my properties in both time and money. I want more return on this investment, and oh, yeah, there's that pride thing again: no one wants to be thought of as over-the-hill or expendably irrelevant. From a consumer or an artist's point of view, classic titles provide a road map that we can use to show achievements and to provide a perspective for what we have accomplished. Additionally, classic titles also act as a time capsule for what issues used to be important, and to show what has contributed to the mental and artistic development of our peers and predecessors.

Orpheus assured the three headed demon that Fujiko had all of the talents to dazzle the competition once he extracted her from Hades and gave her a bit of a make over. Yet, he was forced to reflect on the extreme hassles and labors that would be required to restore her to her prominence and to deal with her stubborn nature. The third head of the demon saw his hesitation and pounced on the remote to the TV filling Orpheus' head with visions—

Yet, despite all of these reasons to look back to the past, there are strong reasons to abandon classic properties to the historians when the classics use up too many of the resources necessary for new projects. There are always thousands of creators trying to get there ideas made into Manga, Anime, or even novels, but there are several barriers to entries in the USA Market. In Japan, things are a bit more flexible because of their constant quest for new talent in their magazine market, and artists are constantly being discovered. However, with the grim economic conditions currently facing Japan, many more "classic properties" are being developed at the expense of new ones: BUBBLE GUM CRISIS TOKYO 2040, AD POLICE, THE ESCAFLOWNE MOVIE, SHIN TENCHI MUYO, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
To see an extreme example of the negative effects this type of trend can bring, we merely need to look at the USA comic book market. The primary survival for DC and Marvel comics depends upon classic characters, and they cannot allow these characters (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, the Hulk, etc.) to progress, to develop, or to achieve any significant goals for fear of jeopardizing the publishing future of those characters. Even when they do attempt changes (the new Green Lantern, or Spider Man Clones), they are either temporary marketing gimmicks that get slammed by the fans, or they are changes too drastic for the loyal readers, and then they get slammed by the fans. This creative stagnation has led to a constantly shrinking audience that is less and less enthusiastic about thematic repeats. By the time that the independent comics arrived in the 70's, most of mainstream America had associated comics with superheroes and geeks, despite the very strong departures from the stereotypes (CRUMB, FAUST, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, etc).
Fortunately, the extreme variety of manga and anime deter a similar situation for our markets, and a significant portion of this variety has been making it to international markets. However, without a constant flow of new ideas and techniques, Japan will risk the repeating the same mistakes. Fortunately, as shown by the recent production of COWBOY BEBOP, BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6, and SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN, there is still a strong, progressive wave of ideas and concepts being produced for our enjoyment. While it irks me to be without any control over my fate, I will have to let the licensing companies worry about how to determine which classic shows merit a future release, and how to get those classics to compete with the new shows. Then I will pray that Japan and their licensors locate a happy balance between looking back and looking forwards so that everyone can reap both the artistic and financial dividends. Meanwhile, I'll do my part and attempt to seduce my friends and neighbors over to the classic side with a few choice episodes of my favorite series—

Orpheus was dazzled by her eyes, her bounce, and her attitude! He thanked the demon Cerebus for the assistance in answering the third question and he turned to leave. Orpheus felt bad for Fujiko, but he knew she would occupy her time taking pot-shots at Minmay's concerts and the like, and he pondered where to begin the search for his new, improved love—Faye Valentine.