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Spring Anime 2015 |OT| The Disappearance of YEAARRT!

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P

phaze

Member
manfestival said:
I am gonna start watching eureka 7. what should I expect?
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NaDannMaGoGo said:
Eureka Seven - 50

I hate this show.
I hate myself for watching it through. I blame ep16 and ep20 that gave me the impression that there may be something more to it.
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kruemelmonster9bq1o.gif


I wouldn't know as I haven't seen it but it seems to be well regarded most of the time.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
phoenix296 said:
They like it enough. After you convert it into USD!
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1 CAD = 1 million USD!

Based on the comments on the ANN page, it looks like they are blaming the prices on Aniplex Japan and that reverse imports were a big enough worry that they were willing to shut down the US division.

Anime is dead. lol

Edit: they are also making the Nintendo argument of wanting to create value in their products through their pricing. This sounds like an amazing interview. lol
 
P

phoenix296

Member
firehawk12 said:
1 CAD = 1 million USD!

Based on the comments on the ANN page, it looks like they are blaming the prices on Aniplex Japan and that reverse imports were a big enough worry that they were willing to shut down the US division.

Anime is dead. lol
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How much does it cost in yen? Is it really that much cheaper to reverse import when aniplex us charges $60USD for 3 episodes?
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
phoenix296 said:
How much does it cost in yen? Is it really that much cheaper to reverse import when aniplex us charges $60USD for 3 episodes?
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Well, JP releases are usually 2 episodes for 80-100 USD, so yes. lol

A few years ago I enthusiastically bought anime, but as the features on the discs became completely bare and the price of anime slowly went up (plus the end of free shipping/forced Fedex from Rightstuf), it just didn't make sense anymore.

I almost supported the Yamato US release gouging, but given that the company seemingly gave up on the American market, I'm sort of glad I didn't.

(The only exception for me will be the inevitable JP release of Aria on BD. I don't know if they're going to do the whole series, but given that Toradora was 26 episodes and 500 bucks... well, I'm expecting something similar).


Lee Chaolan said:
Any new stuff out that's like Kinmoza (other than the new season :p) or Yuyushiki?
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Not really, unfortunately. Re-kan, maybe? But that's about it.
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
phoenix296 said:
How much does it cost in yen? Is it really that much cheaper to reverse import when aniplex us charges $60USD for 3 episodes?
Click to expand...

AoA's most expensive domestic BD releases were the 4 episode -monogatari arcs for $50.

Aniplex of Japan generally maintains a 7,000 yen (plus tax) price point on 2-episode BDs with 2-episodes at 7,800 yen (and the 2-episode volumes in that series at 6,800 yen).
 
cj_iwakura

cj_iwakura

Member
ultimatemegax said:
AoA's most expensive domestic BD releases were the 4 episode -monogatari arcs for $50.

Aniplex of Japan generally maintains a 7,000 yen (plus tax) price point on 2-episode BDs with 2-episodes at 7,800 yen (and the 2-episode volumes in that series at 6,800 yen).
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Do shows ever get complete releases? Seems crazy that people over there are willing to pay that.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
cj_iwakura said:
Do shows ever get complete releases? Seems crazy that people over there are willing to pay that.
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After the fact, but the box sets are typically just as expensive as the individual releases. Or perhaps maybe a hundred dollars cheaper.

There was a small part of me that considered paying the 800 bucks to get the K-On! and K-On!! anniversary releases that came out, until I realized how ridiculous that sounded. lol

Here is the K-On!! release for example:
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/PCXE-60092
300 USD.
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
cj_iwakura said:
Do shows ever get complete releases? Seems crazy that people over there are willing to pay that.
Click to expand...

Some get BD-Boxes later on and some won't. It depends on the publisher and their strategies. Kadokawa will release a BD-Box eventually, so their titles tend not to sell much as people wait for a complete set. Aniplex only releases boxes when they're either expecting to move units internationally (Fate series), not expecting to move a lot of units at all (Silver Spoon S2/Ping Pong), or trying to promote something new (OreImo/-monogatari). TBS has been very active in putting properties in BD-Boxes lately as well. KyoAni's first BD-Box was Tamako last month.

firehawk12 said:
After the fact, but the box sets are typically just as expensive as the individual releases. Or perhaps maybe a hundred dollars cheaper.

There was a small part of me that considered paying the 800 bucks to get the K-On! and K-On!! anniversary releases that came out, until I realized how ridiculous that sounded. lol
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This is false. The MSRP of K-On! S1 was a total of 53,200 yen. S2 was 72,000 yen. The two BD-boxes were 26,000 and 37,000 yen respectively. Notice how that's half off, WAY LOWER than your statement.
 
Jex

Jex

Member
PK Gaming said:
Right. Have you considered making a new post? Or perhaps going back to an old post an editing that information in (along with possible new info?)

It's honestly not that big of a deal. Just something to consider I guess.
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Yes, I will be making a new post shortly with updated links. I'm just working on compiling all of NeoGAF's recommendation threads right now.
 
Jex

Jex

Member
Considering that I did a whole lot of talking about preserving valuable discussions about anime on this forum I thought that I better go out of my way to actually do something about it. To that end, I've updated my "List of Anime Recommendation Threads" from being kind of a sarcastic info dump into a useful tool for newcomers. Here is the revised list:

NeoGAF Top Anime Voting Threads
Threads which highlight anime from a particular time period or genre
Requests for anime from a particular time period
Recommendations for people new to anime / getting back into anime
Recommendations for anime films
Mecha Anime

Recommendations for Sports Anime
Recommendations for Streaming Anime
Dubbed Anime
Recommendations for Fighting/Action Anime
Very specific anime recommendation requests
Recommendations for ‘The Best’ Anime
Generic Recommendation Threads
 
M

Midonin

Member
Re-Kan! 04

A tale of beaches and messiahs. Everything under the Kirara label is so feel-good that I'm glad I have this to counterbalance Oregairu afterwards. (Yui is the kind of leader who cares about the student body. If she was in another universe, she'd be loved.)

High School DxD BorN 04

I never have very much to say for action-heavy episodes, but all the Nordic mythology being brought on stage just makes me think of the Marvel versions. Also, Issei can lose. That's what makes him a good hero. Also glad to see Koneko starting to unleash her full potential. We're living in the season of catgirls!
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
ultimatemegax said:
This is false. The MSRP of K-On! S1 was a total of 53,200 yen. S2 was 72,000 yen. The two BD-boxes were 26,000 and 37,000 yen respectively. Notice how that's half off, WAY LOWER than your statement.
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I forgot that S2 was 26 episodes. lol



Jexhius said:
Considering that I did a whole lot of talking about preserving valuable discussions about anime on this forum I thought that I better go out of my way to actually do something about it. To that end, I've updated my "List of Anime Recommendation Threads" from being kind of a sarcastic info dump into a useful tool for newcomers. Here is the revised list:
Click to expand...
Who are you, Nafe???
 
A

Arcadius

Banned
Ichigo Mashimaro (Strawberry Marshmallow)

Super cute slice of life with adorable girls. No story at all, very fun and pretty. 10/10
 
P

phoenix296

Member
I'm not sure it's fair to compare prices between regions anyways. The US is a different market and consumers have a very different idea of what is an acceptable price. When I can buy the newest season of Game of Thrones or a newly released video game for the price of 5 episodes of anime I don't particularly feel I'm getting the best value for my dollar. Yes anime is niche in NA but if it were cheaper I would probably buy more of it.
 
Jex

Jex

Member
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure it's fair to compare prices between regions anyways. The US is a different market and consumers have a very different idea of what is an acceptable price. When I can buy the newest season of Game of Thrones or a newly released video game for the price of 5 episodes of anime I don't particularly feel I'm getting the best value for my dollar. Yes anime is niche in NA but if it were cheaper I would probably buy more of it.
Click to expand...

Sure, that's clearly true. As a UK resident, I'm happy to purchase anime because we get it dirt cheap, especially compared to other regions. I understand that the UK has some of the most aggressive media pricing in the world.
 
S

ShinRPGamer

Member
Ninja Slayer 1

Two things stood out for me: The animation already looking cheap and inconsistent and "YEAAAART"!

It's a decent start overall. Let's see where NS goes from here.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure it's fair to compare prices between regions anyways. The US is a different market and consumers have a very different idea of what is an acceptable price. When I can buy the newest season of Game of Thrones or a newly released video game for the price of 5 episodes of anime I don't particularly feel I'm getting the best value for my dollar. Yes anime is niche in NA but if it were cheaper I would probably buy more of it.
Click to expand...
I think the ultimate end game is that companies here end up chasing after the same tiny nerd market that Japanese companies are chasing. I mean, I'm sure sales are better than the 5k-10k average that we see in Japan, but I assuming it's going to be a dwindling market - especially if the new thing to chase is streaming subscriptions.

Jexhius said:
Sure, that's clearly true. As a UK resident, I'm happy to purchase anime because we get it dirt cheap, especially compared to other regions. I understand that the UK has some of the most aggressive media pricing in the world.
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Being in Region B helps. lol
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure it's fair to compare prices between regions anyways. The US is a different market and consumers have a very different idea of what is an acceptable price. When I can buy the newest season of Game of Thrones or a newly released video game for the price of 5 episodes of anime I don't particularly feel I'm getting the best value for my dollar. Yes anime is niche in NA but if it were cheaper I would probably buy more of it.
Click to expand...

Those two things you mention are more mainstream than anime both here and in Japan. They'll move more units, so they can be priced cheaper and make enough profit for the publisher. Anime is not on those levels at all outside of Japan. (Even SE Asia's benefit is more merchandising/TV stations than units moved). Niche products cost more because they have a much smaller base to buy from. That's one reason why I personally have no issues with paying more since I know there's fewer people that would be willing to pay anyways.

firehawk12 said:
I think the ultimate end game is that companies here end up chasing after the same tiny nerd market that Japanese companies are chasing. I mean, I'm sure sales are better than the 5k-10k average that we see in Japan, but I assuming it's going to be a dwindling market - especially if the new thing to chase is streaming subscriptions.
Click to expand...
There's already evidence that people aren't buying anymore. The amount of money in the market (even including the huge Disney Ghibli releases) dropped by a 1/3rd once we started seeing cour sets from Funi/Sentai. The publishers don't brag about numbers moved anymore in press releases. Even Sentai's David Williams is on record saying anything over 3,000 units moved is a hit for them.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
ultimatemegax said:
Those two things you mention are more mainstream than anime both here and in Japan. They'll move more units, so they can be priced cheaper and make enough profit for the publisher. Anime is not on those levels at all outside of Japan. (Even SE Asia's benefit is more merchandising/TV stations than units moved). Niche products cost more because they have a much smaller base to buy from. That's one reason why I personally have no issues with paying more since I know there's fewer people that would be willing to pay anyways.
Click to expand...
Well, the UK/Australia market has lower prices because the whole reverse import thing isn't a concern.
Toradora is about half the price there as it is here via NISA: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KGV5NMI/

What I sort of dislike about the trend in US anime releases is that they are charging more but giving less. It seems that the days of including Japanese-licensed features (or even OVAs/omakes) are over, and all you are paying for is the show on a disc and perhaps a dub. Oh, and a fancy box and other junk that you don't want but create the impression of value.

ultimatemegax said:
There's already evidence that people aren't buying anymore. The amount of money in the market (even including the huge Disney Ghibli releases) dropped by a 1/3rd once we started seeing cour sets from Funi/Sentai. The publishers don't brag about numbers moved anymore in press releases. Even Sentai's David Williams is on record saying anything over 3,000 units moved is a hit for them.
Click to expand...
I do find it hilarious how Sentai refuses to talk to ANN and the Funimation guys guard their numbers as tightly as NPD does with game sales numbers.

This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sales are down, so you raise prices to try to maintain the same revenue, then you wonder why sales keep going down and you raise the prices once again.
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
firehawk12 said:
Well, the UK/Australia market has lower prices because the whole reverse import thing isn't a concern.
Toradora is about half the price there as it is here via NISA: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KGV5NMI/

What I sort of dislike about the trend in US anime releases is that they are charging more but giving less. It seems that the days of including Japanese-licensed features (or even OVAs/omakes) are over, and all you are paying for is the show on a disc and perhaps a dub. Oh, and a fancy box and other junk that you don't want but create the impression of value.
Click to expand...

Aniplex generally includes the bonus features (outside of commentaries as the rights for those get really difficult/expensive) for their sets. Pony included everything except the web previews/VNs/artbook for their YuYuYu set and added more to the Denki-gai set. As for the others, those extras cost more and when you are reducing every single cost you can (Funi's even going monochrome on disc art to reduce that cost), they tend to be an easy cut as most R1 fans go "I just want the show, why do I have to pay for (blank)?" That's what you get when you want your stuff cheap (and then people don't buy and prices rise to go for them but the company's in that "cut costs" mindset and the spiral continues until you get to AoA/Pony Canyon).
 
D

Dedication Through Light

Member
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too! Episode 4
CDcpOL-UUAIP1LX.jpg

Great episode for Hayato and Hikki alone.
Glad he helped out Hikki with those middle schoolers, they were so annoying.

For the election stuff fairly predictable, think I had mentioned last week how I thought they should handle the outcome.
 
P

phoenix296

Member
firehawk12 said:
I think the ultimate end game is that companies here end up chasing after the same tiny nerd market that Japanese companies are chasing. I mean, I'm sure sales are better than the 5k-10k average that we see in Japan, but I assuming it's going to be a dwindling market - especially if the new thing to chase is streaming subscriptions.


Being in Region B helps. lol
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how the blu-ray market is doing in NA but I can imagine that sales have started to dwindle with the popularity of netflix. When there are reliable streaming services like Crunchyroll and Funimation there is less of a reason to purchase anime blu-ray.

ultimatemegax said:
Those two things you mention are more mainstream than anime both here and in Japan. They'll move more units, so they can be priced cheaper and make enough profit for the publisher. Anime is not on those levels at all outside of Japan. (Even SE Asia's benefit is more merchandising/TV stations than units moved). Niche products cost more because they have a much smaller base to buy from. That's one reason why I personally have no issues with paying more since I know there's fewer people that would be willing to pay anyways.
Click to expand...

And here is where the game of appropriate pricing begins. If they lowered the price could they move enough units to make up for the cut they're taking from each unit moved? I think they could. As I said anime is niche in NA but I believe the exorbitant prices turn away potential customers (myself included). Take games as an example, the standard price is $60. If it was slightly lower could they move enough units to make up for the cut from each unit? Then there is the question of value, do people think lower priced games are cheaply made and not worth their time? Funimation's quality is constantly brought up because of their prices. There is also the issue of streaming, why buy expensive physical disks when I can stream the entire series? These are all questions better left to someone with a better understanding of how the market works than me.
 
H

hosannainexcelsis

Member
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure it's fair to compare prices between regions anyways. The US is a different market and consumers have a very different idea of what is an acceptable price. When I can buy the newest season of Game of Thrones or a newly released video game for the price of 5 episodes of anime I don't particularly feel I'm getting the best value for my dollar. Yes anime is niche in NA but if it were cheaper I would probably buy more of it.
Click to expand...

The good thing is with streaming now a major thing, for a lot of anime, especially more recent titles, there's no need to pay anything to watch them.
 
F

Fox318

Member
Dedication Through Light said:
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too! Episode 4
CDcpOL-UUAIP1LX.jpg

Great episode for Hayato and Hikki alone.
Glad he helped out Hikki with those middle schoolers, they were so annoying.

For the election stuff fairly predictable, think I had mentioned last week how I thought they should handle the outcome.
Click to expand...
are bolo ties really a thing in Japan?
 
Jex

Jex

Member
ShinRPGamer said:
Ninja Slayer 1

Two things stood out for me: The animation already looking cheap and inconsistent and "YEAAAART"!

It's a decent start overall. Let's see where NS goes from here.
Click to expand...

If you aren't aware, the overall cheapens of the production and ridiculousness of the script is 'the joke', as it were.
firehawk12 said:
Being in Region B helps. lol
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The 'B' stands for 'Best'.
PK Gaming said:
Nice list Jex, that ended up being a lot better than I expected

Should we make it a mainstay in AnimeGAF OPs?
Click to expand...

I would recommend that the list is included in future OP's, however not as a simple dump of links like that. I'm going to work about putting into a revised 'General Anime Info' post and in that thread I'll link through to the list.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
ultimatemegax said:
Aniplex generally includes the bonus features (outside of commentaries as the rights for those get really difficult/expensive) for their sets. Pony included everything except the web previews/VNs/artbook for their YuYuYu set and added more to the Denki-gai set. As for the others, those extras cost more and when you are reducing every single cost you can (Funi's even going monochrome on disc art to reduce that cost), they tend to be an easy cut as most R1 fans go "I just want the show, why do I have to pay for (blank)?" That's what you get when you want your stuff cheap (and then people don't buy and prices rise to go for them but the company's in that "cut costs" mindset and the spiral continues until you get to AoA/Pony Canyon).
Click to expand...
I will say, before AoA got into the game, Sentai releases had commentaries, bonus CDs, voice actor interviews, and whatnot. I bought pretty much every release they put out that had this stuff, because it's what I wanted to support. But even they seemed to have given up on doing releases on that scale.

I haven't really kept up with releases in the past 2 years, but I seem them selling junky editions of Attack on Titan and Psychopass, so I assume that's the new gimmick to try to milk extra money from people. It's like the video game model of including a 5 dollar figure in a box and charging an extra 50 dollars for a "collector's edition".

phoenix296 said:
You're still paying for those streams through a subscription or ads. But you're right it is much more cost effective than buying physical media.
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Well... at some point, it depends on how much you fetishize owning the object that represents the show.

I mean, would you rather have a Lucina amiibo or a Lucina playing card with a NFC chip in it? lol
 
C

Crocodile

Member
@Jexhius: Excellent summary/info post. I am a bit wary of linking to topics with a lot of "fluff" within them though. As an example, celebrating anime of the past is great but when it starts from a place of "modern anime is trash" and "Demon City Shinjuku is really good guys!" I feel wary of throwing the uninformed into a mess like that.

I'm still super skeptical of Sentai after they didn't include the directors cut of the Gatchaman Crowds finale. Now I have to wait with baited breath hoping they didn't botch their Shirobako release.
 
D

DiGiKerot

Member
firehawk12 said:
Well, the UK/Australia market has lower prices because the whole reverse import thing isn't a concern.
Toradora is about half the price there as it is here via NISA: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00KGV5NMI/
Click to expand...

This is only true of select titles like Madoka and ToraDora, mind you. Most titles in the UK will actually end up working out a smidgen more expensive, at least upon release, because of region-specific taxes and other overheads that need to be accounted for (BBFC licensing, etc) despite the lower sales potential of the region. Admittedly, not having to dub things locally mitigates some of that, but, ultimately, the UK is kind of tiny.

This pricing is also less likely to continue in the future, as particularly for key titles, Aniplex are aware that folks in the US have started to look to UK releases, and that folks in the UK have always looked towards US ones. They've started to get increasingly involved in local pricing in ways they wouldn't previously in order to protect global pricing on their releases - Sword Art Online, for example, has a "no bundle" clause in the licensing contract, which means that Manga has to release it across the same number of volumes as the US and cannot release is in a smaller number of volumes without renegotiation. All the Anime/AnimeLTD wanted to release Kill la Kill across fewer, but more expensive, collections (two half-season sets, from what I remember), but were forced to split it across three (and apparently negotiating down from four was a challenge in itself).

I think our Monogatari releases continue to be cheaper, but even there, I gather there is increased involvement from Aniplex (and our releases are hella bare bones).

Ultimately, though, this is probably why we don't have a Madoka movie release over here at all.

That being said, we do at least have AtA/AnimeLTD pushing a middle-ground which is completely disappearing in the US. Some of the American guys I know where pretty annoyed when they noticed my UK Kill la Kill sets came with the key-art books they didn't get over there.

phoenix296 said:
And here is where the game of appropriate pricing begins. If they lowered the price could they move enough units to make up for the cut they're taking from each unit moved? I think they could. As I said anime is niche in NA but I believe the exorbitant prices turn away potential customers (myself included). Take games as an example, the standard price is $60. If it was slightly lower could they move enough units to make up for the cut from each unit? Then there is the question of value, do people think lower priced games are cheaply made and not worth their time? Funimation's quality is constantly brought up because of their prices. There is also the issue of streaming, why buy expensive physical disks when I can stream the entire series? These are all questions better left to someone with a better understanding of how the market works than me.
Click to expand...

Even before they entered the market themselves, Aniplex had years of information related to sales numbers we are not privy to, because local licensing partners are obligated to report those numbers back. They would not have entered this market lightly.

Ultimately, though, the pricing isn't entirely about selling more or making it more available in the US - it's about price protectionism. It's about maintaining the perceived value of the IP. Whilst it's a fact that they probably could sell more units in the US by reducing the cost per unit, how many sales in Japan does that cost them, and how does that effect the perceived cost of all their anime output as a result?

(Also, bear in mind that the US push to half-season releases happened following the collapse of the value of the US dollar against the yen - whilst things where being released in singles, Japanese releases weren't actually that much more expensive than US ones. Fluctuating local currencies have a way of making things look comparatively more expensive in secondary markets than they necessarily seem in their home territories - Japanese video games, for example, look awfully expensive these days. At the start of the PS3/360 generation? Not so much. The pricetags on them haven't increased significantly, in the Yen sense, but looked at from abroad they looked insane for quite a while because our currencies plummeted (hence the whole P4A region-locking thing). Should they reduce the cost in the primary market just because the secondary markets have collapsed in worth?)
 
R

Razmos

Member
DxD Born episode 4: Pretty good for an action focused episode. Glad to see characters other than Issei being awesome. Lots of characters have had power-ups to make them more relevant, and I really like that.

Irena the angel is pretty cool (Though it was totally spoiled by the opening, as was Koneko's cat form) and Akeno finally embracing her duality was awesome, as was the emotional response from Rias. Don't have much of an opinion on Rossweisse yet, other than that I absolutely love her design.

It seems that every character and their dog is more powerful than Rias at this point, so i'm hoping next episode she has a major power-up as well.

I feel like this episode would have had more impact with more buildup, we've literally only just met Loki and the Chaos Brigade and already it's at the final, world ending climax fight and it all feels a tad rushed.

Also the next episode preview... spoils. I mean it was quite obvious
Issei isn't going to die
, but still.
 
M

Midonin

Member
F/SN UBW 16

There's the rough idea of a thought rolling around in my head about wanting to examine the different approaches and reactions to Shiro's and Hachiman's self-sacrificing, but I'm not to the point where I'd write an essay about either of those shows. This is your time to shine, Lancer.

Plastic Memories 04

The first really case-heavy once since the first episode, and like it, one that really tugs at the hearstrings. The idea of Giftias being substitute children was brought up as early as the first episode, but them being substitute parents... that would be even harder for someone to give up. Then there's the shadowy organization who's acting on the side. I like near-future sci-fi worlds like this, and the world got bigger this time.
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure how the blu-ray market is doing in NA but I can imagine that sales have started to dwindle with the popularity of netflix. When there are reliable streaming services like Crunchyroll and Funimation there is less of a reason to purchase anime blu-ray.



And here is where the game of appropriate pricing begins. If they lowered the price could they move enough units to make up for the cut they're taking from each unit moved? I think they could. As I said anime is niche in NA but I believe the exorbitant prices turn away potential customers (myself included). Take games as an example, the standard price is $60. If it was slightly lower could they move enough units to make up for the cut from each unit? Then there is the question of value, do people think lower priced games are cheaply made and not worth their time? Funimation's quality is constantly brought up because of their prices. There is also the issue of streaming, why buy expensive physical disks when I can stream the entire series? These are all questions better left to someone with a better understanding of how the market works than me.
Click to expand...
They really can't move enough copies. Geneon tried lowering the price of their singles back during the boom, a time where you'd imagine a lower price would hook more people, and they only boosted sales another 1,000 units when dropping it $10. Geneon lost money on that decision. The buying market for most titles is niche and it's going to stay that way.

That's why I mentioned games are mainstream alongside Game of Thrones. You can't apply the business logic for those to anime when you have such a smaller buying base.

firehawk12 said:
I will say, before AoA got into the game, Sentai releases had commentaries, bonus CDs, voice actor interviews, and whatnot. I bought pretty much every release they put out that had this stuff, because it's what I wanted to support. But even they seemed to have given up on doing releases on that scale.

I haven't really kept up with releases in the past 2 years, but I seem them selling junky editions of Attack on Titan and Psychopass, so I assume that's the new gimmick to try to milk extra money from people. It's like the video game model of including a 5 dollar figure in a box and charging an extra 50 dollars for a "collector's edition".
Click to expand...

Sentai included extras from Media Factory because they were cheap. Other non-Media Factory titles had: "Textless Opening/Textless Ending/Sentai previews." That's it. The current "collector's editions" are only for titles that'll move a lot so they'll cover any costs from the titles that won't sell enough to pay back costs. (Hmm.... that sounds like Japanese business practices!)

The best and worst thing to happen to the R1 industry was streaming. Getting titles on Hulu and Netflix to a much broader audience than anything on cable TV has increased the amount of viewers who have seen anime. However, those people don't need to buy the set since they've seen it already. Thus you only get the collectors buying the video discs and suddenly we've replicated the Japanese model.
 
D

Dedication Through Light

Member
UtaPri Revolutions Episode 4 Innocent Wind
CDdOtCLWAAAe-M2.jpg

Ittoki screentime while little was pleasing.

Im surprised I managed to have never found that ought about Ai Mikaze. Ive even been to his wiki page tons of times since s2 and just somehow ignored or never even remember seeing that part.
to think he would be an android, wow.

Innocent Wind is a great song, once again best Quartet Night.
 
C

Clov

Member
phoenix296 said:
I'm not sure how the blu-ray market is doing in NA but I can imagine that sales have started to dwindle with the popularity of netflix. When there are reliable streaming services like Crunchyroll and Funimation there is less of a reason to purchase anime blu-ray.



And here is where the game of appropriate pricing begins. If they lowered the price could they move enough units to make up for the cut they're taking from each unit moved? I think they could. As I said anime is niche in NA but I believe the exorbitant prices turn away potential customers (myself included). Take games as an example, the standard price is $60. If it was slightly lower could they move enough units to make up for the cut from each unit? Then there is the question of value, do people think lower priced games are cheaply made and not worth their time? Funimation's quality is constantly brought up because of their prices. There is also the issue of streaming, why buy expensive physical disks when I can stream the entire series? These are all questions better left to someone with a better understanding of how the market works than me.
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The way I see it, most BD releases for anime in North America are aimed at collectors, and people who want the best video quality they can get. The general anime fan can stream most of what they want through Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Netflix.

With the question of value, I don't really think it's Funimation's low prices that make people question their quality, but rather the mistakes they've made in that regard; weird brightness issues and banding on several sets, for example. Of course, this isn't just Funimation's problem alone; Sentai is just as guilty, though they've improved to the point of being acceptable within the last two years or so. Ultimately, both companies release cheaper sets, but the video quality will suffer.

If you want great video quality, you need to get a bit more expensive. Titles from NISA and Discotek on BD share the same authorer, Sevakis, and his work is very good. Within the domestic industry, he's probably the best. Outside of that, titles that have their authoring done in Japan will get you the best quality you can buy. Of course, these are titles from Aniplex and Pony Canyon, and they're pretty expensive. It's a bit unfortunate, but that's how the industry is; the titles that look the best often are the most expensive. As the market has shown, there's been plenty of people willing to pay Aniplex's prices (myself included, quite often!), as physical discs become more niche the more streaming rises.
 
U

ultimatemegax

Member
DiGiKerot said:
That being said, we do at least have AtA/AnimeLTD pushing a middle-ground which is completely disappearing in the US. Some of the American guys I know where pretty annoyed when they noticed my UK Kill la Kill sets came with the key-art books they didn't get over there.
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That's because AoA have started going away from booklets (outside of certain series) because not a lot of US fans (outside of the whiners) wanted them. Instead of the artbooks (which you only got something of 4/9 iirc), AoA got the CDs/DVDs. Instead of the CDs/DVDs, AtA got those books. It was a trade-off since AoJ wasn't going to allow both to one company due to reverse importation fears.
 
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