Four hours later when Scott finally lets Kero-chan out of the pickle jar and they find Jim's other arm, the vision changes to become a giant TV sitting on a mountain of unopened videotape boxes. Most of the boxes have titles like PASTEL ROLLERDERBY GODDESSES 1-12, CRAYON SHINCHAN ZZ, EVANGELION: DEATH AND REBIRTH AND SPAM AND UNBIRTH AND SPAM AND UGLY WINTER FLOWERS, BUCHIGIRI 12 and MD GEIST 3 on them.
		TV drops a bit, movies grow and OVAs continue to decline. Currently there are 60 shows on the air every week. This will drop to below 50 but the industry will not be particularly affected by that. There will be an increase in the number of movies being planned and made and some of them will be made with getting into USA theaters in mind. Almost all of them will be difficult if not impossible to get into USA theaters. The OVA market will continue to shrink and all but 3 or 4 of the companies now making OVAs as a primary source of income will change to TV or movies. As strange as it may seem really good OVAs will actually sell more than before, as the competition will be from mostly really niche products which the general buyers ignore anyway.
		The vision shimmers and I can see the earth from high orbit. Dark storm clouds are slowly moving over Japan.
		The economic slump will hit the anime industry but will hit the games industry a lot more. Games sales in Japan will be very low for the first half of the year. The Dreamcast's groovy marketing and cool technology will not be able to outrun the stormfront of negative economic darkness and there will be dead parrots all over the place.
		Parrots? Why parrots?
		It's a metaphor.
		Dead parrots are a metaphor for what?!
		Weird scenes inside the gold mine.
		Arcs of intense light burst forth from the darkness and flash across to North America, Europe and Australia. Points of light start to appear in all the globe.
		Anime will continue to seep into the mainstream market in the USA, Europe and Australia. The recent broadcasting of EVANGELION on Australian TV and the positive response is a very groovy sign. Likewise more manga will make its way overseas to interested readers. More manga influenced comics will be made and with a couple notable exceptions they will still be pretty rough.
		So what about all the anime films that will be released in the USA in 99?
		That Mommynokee -
		MO-NO-NO-KE! Geez, at least learn to pronounce it!
		Mononukey, Momomoke, Marmalado - whatever, man! That M film will do the best that an anime film has ever done and will release excellent vibes to the world. Perfect Blue will get some OK reviews but will confuse a lot of people because nobody will groove on the whole idol otaku thing. X will get a week's worth of viewers then everybody will find out that it has no substance whatsoever and it will undo some of what the other two built up.
		What about VAMPIRE HUNTER D?
		I don't know, man. I haven't seen it yet.
		Anime influence will show up in Western animation shows more and more. That fabled co-production between a Hollywood studio and a Japanese anime studio won't happen in '99 though.
		You must be the son of the sun.
		What?
		Your head is round and yellow and loud.
		I'll have you know that yellow is the best color for a head!
		Sure. Why couldn't I get a cool yellow partner like Pikachu? He always saves the day, man. And he's cute.
		Pikachu? What a loser! He has red cheeks! What's up with that zig-zag tail? As for saving the day, I'm like a line from one of your songs, 'Full of grace - savior of the human race' buddy!
		Insult my music will ya?! Put up your dukes, golden flower!
		OK, hippie, you've had this coming for a long time!
		After I watch them push their heads together until they flatten and lots of wavy anger lines fill the air they jump back and start rolling up their sleeves. Since Kero-chan has no sleeves and Jim was barechested this was an interesting sight.
		Would you quit it! Finish the visions! Hurry up and get this globe out of my studio!
		Some of the points of light on the globe swell and glow very brightly.
		Attendance at anime conventions will hit an all time high, surpassing even the expectations of the con staff in some cases. Everyone is surprised to see Anime Expo hit 7000 attendees.
		Not as surprised as everyone is when Bruce Campbell chainsaws Steve Bennett in half at Project A-Kon. Groovy!
		Ah, geez, not Steve!
		That will be his brithday present. Some people even pay to watch. They hold little plastic Gamera toys and do something called the Humpty Dance while the mayhem is going on. Fandom is strange.
		Mainstream science fiction fans will become more interested in the anime cons and will start showing up as well. Existing science fiction cons will find a larger demand for anime and sometimes the anime rooms will be more popular than the normal film rooms. More mainstream pop-culture magazines will carry not only articles but regular columns about anime and manga.
		The first simultaneous release of an OVA in the USA and Japan will happen later this year as well. The show will be done with the worldwide market in mind and English and Japanese language versions will be released at the same time. Initially this will happen only in the USA and Japan but as distributors in other regions streamline their delivery process it will happen elsewhere as well.
		So anime will become a much more worldwide media?
		The essence of anime will permeate all the dwelling areas of mankind, man. Although the USA will be the largest purchaser the largest growing market by percentage will be South America.
		We stare at the globe a little while longer.
		OK, I have to know—what will the most popular anime show in 1999 be?
		An OVA series called BOO-BOO RUBBER PANIC.
		Sorry I asked.
		Should we tell him?
		He didn't dig on our news last time.
		Well...
		OK, I promise not to jar you again as long as you don't tell me some hideous lie again...
		OK. They do another series of 52 more PRETTY SAMMY episodes...
		No more! I don't want to know!
		Hey, man, that globe is wrong. The earth has 4 simultaneous day and nights in what is traditionally considered to be a 'day'—a single rotation around the axis. If you can't understand that you're living a lie.
		Huh?
		What have you been smoking?
		It's true. I saw it on the Web. Greenwich time is Satanism and an adult crime against children. Look at TimeCube It's all there.
		...
		...
		Everything on the Internet is real, right?
		Next you'll say that it's time for an audit from the Scien...
		Don't go there! They sue...
		Oops, sorry. Forgot. They're almost as scary as fans of Mac...
		Don't go there either. They get mad even easier.
		Sorry...