Forum - View topicThe Anime Economy - Part 2: Shiny Discs
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Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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This is really great stuff. One question: could links at the bottom be added to navigate between articles? It's fine right now since they're both on the front page, but it'd be nice to be able to just bookmark one and still have easy access to all three.
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omoikane
Posts: 494 |
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I like this piece a lot more than the first one, which read more like a wink and a nudge. This one had a more cohesive narrative and had some actual numbers.
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Guardsman Bass
 Posts: 158 |
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Great essay. I know the major content-makers here in the US are trying to prop up the sale of DVDs and Blu-Ray here in the US, with the Ultraviolet Consortium. I doubt it will work, since it's an up-hill battle to convince people to buy stuff they won't re-watch more than once.*
I wonder why there's no equivalent to the "Collector-Driven" set-up that exists in the Anime Business here in the US. You could point to the whole paradigm of selling cheap DVDs in retail stores, but that still wouldn't stop some niche publisher from trying to sell collector's versions at high prices over the Internet (or even in catalogs and magazines before the rapid expansion of Internet Retail in the 2000s). * Put me in the category of people who don't like to buy stuff I don't re-watch. I've got about 73 movies that I've accumulated over the years, most of them being used DVDs/BDs that I got for cheap at one of the last DVD retailers in my area. There's maybe 10 of them that I've actually used more than once. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Its great to see one article collect all the bits and pieces of information mentioned in various ANNcasts. This article goes into my permanent bookmarks.
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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As a collector only interested in spending money on anime on physical media, and one who far prefers to buy it from a bricks-and-mortar store, I am eternally grateful that I have an anime specialty retailer, the Comic Book Shoppe's Anime Stop sub-store, within walking distance from my house. I'm also glad most HMV stores in the Ottawa area still sell anime DVD's.
Reading the parts about retail distribution (or the lack of it) in the United States in the article makes me feel oh so very spoiled. |
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bhl88
Posts: 255 |
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Question to the one who knows to calculate this and the one who wrote the article:
1) What about the rare chance where the Japanese production company adds subtitles (or may add dubs)? Ex: Haruhi complete BOX set |
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Moonsaber
 Posts: 343 Location: USA |
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I remember buying Bubblegum Crisis for $30 an episode on VHS, for the sub, and $25 for the dub. That was standard OVA pricing back in the day. TV shows generally gave two episodes for $25 dub and $30 sub. I remember being thrilled when a show was value priced and gave you four episodes a tape for $30.
I do love being spoiled, like $25 for a 26 episode series in a collection thinpack, but I don't much mind the $50ish for a 12 episode series on Blu Ray. It's still a fair bargain for me. Does this make me some kind of hardcore fan? I'm just glad to have good looking US releases. |
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TitanXL
 Posts: 4036 |
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I wonder if the loss of Japanese reverse importing is greater than any licensing fee being paid today. I wonder if it would actually be beneficial for the R1 market to die off in the long run?
[/devilsadvocate] |
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
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Sadly, you are not the first person to ponder this. On the flip side, it pretty much ensures that anime will never be anything but mega-niche in the U.S., since the Japanese companies are already notoriously bad at marketing to Americans.
Those are done mostly for local audiences, though the Gundam Unicorn experiment has changed a lot of people's thinking lately. A couple hundred extra units sold to foreigners at Japanese prices are sounding mighty good these days. I don't think anybody would argue that hurts a potential US release much, and depending on what Viz does with Tiger and Bunny, we'll soon have proof. |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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For the Japanese? Sure it could possibly be more beneficial for the R1 industry to die. For us? No. To play a bit of devil's advocate myself, it's already been a long proven fact that the Japanese frankly don't care too much about marketing towards us (understandable of course, but still) so should it matter to us if their making slightly less money with the way things are now? It's not like the Japanese anime industry is in danger of dying anytime soon. All killing off the R1 market would accomplish is making it harder for fans in that region to support the shows they like. |
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RyanSaotome
 Posts: 4210 Location: Towson, Maryland |
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Obviously it would be worse for us, I don't think anyone would deny that. But for Japan, why should they care about the foreign fans if it makes them less total money if they release it here? Personally, I think within 5 years we'll see more same day releases with Japanese prices than licensed stuff. To me, that seems to make more sense financially since you can appeal to the hardcore fans in America while also eliminating money lost through reverse importation. Just look at the possible difference in money made: The article states that a series may be license for up to about 10,000 dollars an episode. Lets say that a popular 12 episodes series is licensed for that amount, so the original production committee gets 120k. At the same time, a release for 400 bucks would only need to sell 300 copies here (which Fate/Zero for example should easily pass) to make that same amount of money... and that also eliminates the reverse importation. Maybe they can release a cheaper set like 3-4 years down the line when reverse importation is no longer a worry, though. |
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_V_
 Posts: 619 |
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In a future installment, can you go over the numbers for how much North American anime releases cost per episode, and need to sell to make a profit? For subbed anime, and how much a dubbed release adds to the cost? Btw, why did the mainstream DVD market drop like a rock? Due to Blu Ray gradually eclipsing it, or due to the rise of internet streaming? (that is, is the "Blu Ray market" doing well as the "DVD market" is doing poorly?) |
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Fifth B
 Posts: 213 |
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Once again, another wonderful article. It's quite interesting to finally get an accurate idea of how business in North America affects the Japanese side. Over the years, as I began to develop a collector mentality, I've gained more respect for the Japanese otaku who support these shows. As much as I'd like to pat myself on the back for supporting the industry and such, it's always shocking to see how much of the burden they carry. It's also quite frustrating to have the soul of a collector without all the money necessary to back it up!
On another note, I was wondering if you see the increase in products aimed largely (indeed one could say purely) at hard-core collectors eventually matching Japanese prices across the board, or do you see things staying about where they are now, with Funimation and other companies putting out slightly more expensive collectors editions alongside regular releases, while Aniplex and possibly others at some point put out what are essentially translated version of the Japanese product? Finally, did anybody else notice the copy of La Blue Girl sitting on the shelf a few spaces away from Pom Poko and Princess Mononoke, and subsequently laugh their asses off? Ah, for the days when distributors would put anything on the shelf! |
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CKSqua
Posts: 38 |
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Few people actually care about collecting home video, so they naturally gravitate toward cheaper but equally accessible ways of enjoying content. The Blu-Ray market remains niche and shows no sign of becoming dominant. |
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Saffire
Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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http://blog.cdrom2go.com/2011/06/blu-ray-sales-to-surpass-dvd-sales-by-2012/ |
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