“How OVAs Worked”, 2023-03-09 (; backlinks):
Brief description of how the direct-to-video-rental model helped create the anime boom by allowing wide diversity in bankrolled anime projects, outside the production committee system.
Anime in the 1980s–1990s was famous for its diversity and edgy content like sex & violence, enabling the early careers of famous directors. I summarize what made this possible: a change in anime business models from being captive to established censorious media interests, to ‘direct-to-home’ video sales of ‘original video animation’ or OVAs—a misnomer, as it involved rental stores as much or more than individual consumers.
The rise of home videotape players but high prices of videotapes meant that video rental stores were the preferred method to acquire videotapes, and decentralized rental stores could collectively pay, on an episode by episode basis, for all sorts of strange sketchy OVA productions that would be ignored or censored. Successful OVAs would serve as proof-of-concept and bankroll followups.
But the economics & technological circumstances that enabled this breakout from the standard media model would not last, and standard media interests would both loosen their censorship and flood the market with cheap videotapes, rendering rental stores & the OVA model obsolete, and relegating ‘original video animations’ to just ‘video animations’ as a way to further monetize existing franchises by selling minor productions directly to fans.