>>149835699
>Japan stopped animating overseas ever since they began focusing on their own domestic animation market
They became unaffordable after their great economic crash. They also raised their living standards enough to raise the prices as well. Loans to start projects became scarce and they were paying employees a little more.
This was already happening before "japan changed their focus to domestic animation." You could see signs of it between 82 and 87 when more and more episodes of shows were going to Korea despite the poorer quality animation of Korea at the time.
A lot of this was offset in the 80s by toy sales. However, after the Simpsons, bearish and Buthead and the nicktoons block popularized creator driven cartoons And a few flopped toy driven cartoons, the US market drifted away from financing cartoons with toys. Pokรฉmon would be the final nail in the coffin when they show was given to the US for close to free, hoping it would lock in game and vhs sales