Forum - View topicAnswerman - Does A Stronger US Dollar Help Anime Companies?
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13549 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Well, the Vancouver studios are having success with My Little Pony. |
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_Emi_
 Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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And of course, as the dollar gets stronger, I get laid off. Their were some figures I would have loved to buy.
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Dfens
Posts: 459 |
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Lili-Hime you do realize that Kinokuniya still has to import all their books and merchandise from Japan and that isn't cheap. Also they don't charge based on the exchange rates as they go up and down it's a certain mark up over cover price in Japan.
I'm lucky I live right next to one and it's still cheaper than importing and paying shipping and handling. They are also nice enough to pre-order stuff for you without a deposit. Of course I would only recommend buying printed material from them figures and other items are cheaper online. |
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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YEP! A lot of people don't realize how easy it can be to get some of this stuff just by importing it directly, and get suckered into paying Ebay or Kinokuniya retail prices. Amazon Japan's shipping isn't even that much, to be honest. Way less than anywhere else. It is 1200yen for the first item, 300 for each additional item. My orders usually end up being about $10-$15 in shipping. Nothing compared to what I would have expected. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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...yeah... well, you can also just go to Tokyo Otaku Mode and buy any of those artbooks for about half the price of what Kinokuniya charges. $18 for an artbook on TOM is going to run you $35 plus at Kinokuniya guaranteed. If it's manga, rightstuf and Amazon will have it cheaper every time as well. Kinokuniya is nice to browse, but I definitely wouldn't buy from them. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2024 |
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Yes. As far as I understand, that's basically why so many dubs got sent to Canada in the 90s. Lots of US cartoons were also recorded there. Work at Ocean did begin to dry up around the time the exchange rate fell out of their favor, though there were other reasons too. It's the same reason lots of TV shows were shot in Canada in the 90s/early 2000s. I believe it's becoming the case again. Not sure about anime dubs, but we're getting more TV shows shot in Vancouver (like the Walking Dead spinoff). |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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Yep, it really sucks on the domestic side. Explains the rather lackluster seiyuu lineup Otakon had this year too. Nonetheless, I hope the exchange stays around the same. I've a bunch of orders coming in, but nasty delays can be a make it or break it deal more often than not. |
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John Thacker
Posts: 1006 |
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That is part of it. Another factor regarding Canada and US TV shows is film subsidies. BC has a fairly large film subsidy, and a lot of states in the early 2000s started their own expensive film tax credit programs designed to lure filming from Canada (and California). They worked, but according to most studies they proved very expensive for the number of jobs, especially as states felt the need to continually up the amount of subsidy to compete. (Filming is a very mobile industry, so economic theory predicts that very little of the profit will go to the state or province and its taxpayers, and most will go to the production committee and capital investors of the TV and film industry.) In the past few years a lot of states have cut, capped, or eliminated their film tax credits, which has helped in sending more business to BC. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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I owned a used and rare bookstore in the 90's, and I'd regularly hit up the Vancouver circuit. Between the weak Canadian dollar and the courtesy trade discount, I'd make out like a bandit. Often, I didn't even have to reprice the books. *sigh* Then the internet hit big and hard, and pretty much wiped out the small local used and rare bookstores. (Paperback exchanges made it a little longer, but they're a different market segment.) |
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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I yearn for the days when the GBPound was worth 2USDollars or more. Everything was like !/2 price to me when I was in the Colonies back then. 
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Haterater
 Posts: 1727 |
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I'm kind of hoping for more Canadian VA talent as well. Miss alot of VAs from them on newer anime.
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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As someone who imports a lot of stuff from Japan this exchange rate is great for me. Sometimes I think it's better to pay for items now then wait for the exchange rate to go up but even still I can't pay for everything right away.
Still now the the dollar is stronger I noticed figure companies have raised their prices so I am not seeing significant savings there. Now I pay more because of the cost before I paid more because of the exchange rate. Also now would be a great time to travel to Japan alas I can't afford the airfare. When I went in 2012 & 2013 the exchange rate was way less favorable. Just my luck I guess. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
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I imported something not too long ago and was shocked to see that I could buy and 2 day ship something from Japan for a number smaller than the item was advertised at in yen.
Not long ago I remember the price in dollars was pretty much yen+20%... and shipping. We're in miracle land now. |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13549 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Well, going by the Japanese definition of "anime" meaning "animation" and that definition meaning it in general, then you could say that they have been newer titles. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4374 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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NOPE!! it was cause of the stupidy of harmony gold trying to milk a series anime fans didn't wanted. while they were ok with the first robotech, they sure as hell didn't wanted a second one. especially once US newbies saw macross which was much better.
not quite answerman. while it will help via imports, licensing series might pose some problems. for one thing if i was a japan company i would jack up the licensing fees in US dollars beyond the usual rates for a new series knowing it would bring back more money when its converted in yen. and would probably do that every time to dollar goes up while the yen goes down. wouldnt having a strong yen against the us dollar help the anime industry too? sure it wont do well for us otakus that want to import , but it wouldn't it at least help out on at times the ridiculous licensing fees some companies dish out to get their series to the US and other things like sending directors and VAs to US comic cons and anime conventions? |
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