A Quote from Kentarou Miura

There certainly is enough of economic hardship to go around right now. I keep reading articles about things like 'why small business is not hiring' in the recovery vs. past recoveries, and no one seems to even be making the argument that maybe there isn't actually a recovery at all, and maybe small businesses aren't hiring simply because, on the aggregate, they are still shrinking.

For us, the Anime industry in particular seems to have an awful lot working against it over and above just normal bad economic factors like weak consumer spending. There certainly have been a lot of 'where do we go from here' type conversations going on in the biz lately, and the answers (so far) are not very forthcoming.

So I got to thinking about things this past week and remembered something Kentarou Miura, the manga-ka who writes Berserk, once said and wanted to share it with you:

"With no relation to class or social background, whether it suits them or not, people yearn for a dream. Sustained by a dream, hurt by a dream, revived by a dream, killed by a dream. And even after being abandoned by a dream, it continues to smolder from the bottom of one's heart... probably until the verge of death.

A man should envision such a lifetime once. A life spent as a martyr to his "dream."

Of this, I think many of us who try to make some sort of living in the 'Anime industry' are, ultimately, destined to be martyrs to our dream.

And you know what? That's OK.