Forum - View topicNEWS: Retailer to Stop Imports of Funimation BD/DVDs into Japan
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Perhaps a better reason might be that Funi's contracts with the Japanese producer presumably prohibit their distribution back to Japan? Why do you suppose Crunchyroll isn't available in Japan (or many other parts of the world for that matter)? They're simply not permitted under contract to distribute outside of the region to which the license pertains. Really, this isn't that big of a story. Licensing by region is a commonplace with in the movie and television industry as has been for decades. |
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tuxedocat
 Posts: 2183 |
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ok. But it seems to me that Funimation is doing well releasing sets rather than singles. It seems to me that everyone has been saying that the singles route hasn't been working... Now I'm confused. If reverse importation wasn't an issue, why all the worries on the part of the Japanese? Why do I keep hearing about Japanese otaku buying the R1 boxsets? |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I should have emphasized anime BD. Movies are an entirely different ballgame.
Funny you mention this as I always wonder what we're not getting in comparison. Though I'm no huge fan of extras, I can see costs being a big factor if much is included compared to our offerings.
The experiment seemed to come at a very, very bad time, though. The market was collapsing and regardless what methods were tried, it simply couldn't rebound. I seriously doubt these experiments were done during the boom days of anime. Geneon's attempts seemed to fall in line, trying to get back customers who left for cheaper alternatives. It's incredibly difficult to get back consumers if they've left and since anime isn't advertised heavily, I could see why their lowering of prices failed. |
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bankai3232
Posts: 20 |
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It's a licensing law, just like it's not legal to sell JPN region videogames over here due to licensing, it's part of the contract so that the Anime rights owners aren't putting their distributors in competition, which is also illegal, and unheard of. So it's a very simple topic, their are rules and this just means that the DVD company is going to start following them. Why so much confusion? This is a known problem if you've been into anime, you've dealt with this many of times, if you buy JPN games and/or DVDs or even Figures. Maybe you just didn't realize.
Ex: "Said Anime" is owned by "Said JPN Anime Distributor in Japan" then it's North American Region rights are bought by Funimation. Well if Funi is also distributing their version in Japan then the "Said JPN Anime Dist." is gonna be like all WTF and stuff, so therefore Funi is only allowed to sell in NA, and the "Said JPN Dist." can only sell in JPN region (Asia, Korea, whatever their contract states.) But only dual owned companies like Bandai and Viz (in a way) can own the International rights. |
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ximpalullaorg
Posts: 396 |
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May also be Funimation's main licensor, d-rights. |
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TJR
Posts: 223 |
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With select mainstream products, they actually sold many more units. It's just that in terms of revenue, the end result was the same since the sales increase was proportional to the decrease in price (i.e. if one volume of a series was one third the price of another, they'd sell three times the number of copies) |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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We don't know how many units they are selling vs. the singles back in the day. Also, licensing costs have reportedly dropped drastically since the old days, allowing R1 companies to make a profit at significantly lower prices. Not to say that the cheap boxes haven't sold more than the singles, just that there may not be that many more sales, but more opportunity for profit. Also, selling 6 singles for $25 each gives you much more profit opportunity than a season for $40.
It is an issue, though I don't know how much of one.
You can check them out online. The difference of course is that even with lots of video extras, audio dramas maybe, figures, etc, you are still paying $60+ for a 2-3 episode release. I just think there is a core otaku market that will pay those prices regardless to get top quality.
That principle isn't specific to anime. Pricing is a scientific art  . The largest amount of profit is the goal, and there is a sweet spot where the most units are sold at the highest price. Many examples exist where lowering the price in fact lowered the sales, because the "value" was then perceived to be equal to another, crappier product (which may have cost the same to produce but can't be sold as high). There is no technical reason for Apple products to sell for more than Microsoft products, but Apple knows they wouldn't sell significantly more at a lower price point, so there's no sense in lowering the price. Most of Apple's appeal comes from innovation and design, and arrogance, much of that simply Steve Job's mental and public relations work, not computer functionality.
If you think of it like: There is a maximum number of people who will buy a product. More than that simply don't want it--wouldn't even take it home if were free. You want to get as close to that max number of sales as possible. However, if selling for $50 gets you 90% of them, and selling for $45 gets you 95%, you are making less profit at $45x95% overall than you would at $50x90%. Not worth it to lower the price, because you won't sell that many more. The Japanese DVD/BD market is still tiny in comparison to Western mass market music and movies. They have to be cautious about screwing up that market. tl;dr... just what TJR said in his cross-post. |
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hikaru004
 Posts: 2306 |
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Hmmm... it has a US branch office in NY so that's how FUNi was able to get to them. Japanese games can be bought here legally online. This is not "normal" by any means imo. |
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FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
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Well, the Japanese DVD market is slightly different than the US one, with DVDs being treated as more of collector's items over there, hence why much higher prices there than over here. If the number of people interested in buying DVDs in Japan isn't an increasing number, higher prices make some sense, as they would have to recoup costs with mugh higher mark up. Still doesn't make sense with our system, but it kinda makes sense over there.
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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Unfortunately, this nonsense has to come to an impasse and soon, otherwise we can see a lot of stupid nonsense, this being but the warning shot, being flung all over the place. Last edited by ConanSan on Sat Jan 16, 2010 6:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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Dear God, I know he already mentioned this himself, but on an anime forum, you would think it'd be common knowledge that stating an anime distributor releases more BDs than competing companies, that anime is being referred to, not general Blu-Ray releases of all types of visual media... 
No, no. You missed what he said. A retailer was importing the discs into Japan, then selling them. Online retailers who sell merchandise everywhere, but can claim to be located elsewhere, are exempt from this, and buying and importing from them are legal. Apparently what was happening, was a Japanese retailer was ordering Funi sets in bulk from Fantasium, then selling them at a retail store in Japan. That is illegal. Especially considering that most (if not all) of their releases specifically say on them, for sale only in the United States and Mexico (maybe also Canada, I forget, and am too lazy to check). Selling online can count as being inside the intended retail market, but buying online then selling in a non-licensed market does not. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15356 |
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I just wanna know who in Japan who buy FUNimation's crappy R1 releases in the first place? Do they really need anime without music cues tht badly?
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Kakugo
Posts: 163 |
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There are laws against reselling imports, even in the US, should the local distributor issue a request for said seller to stop.
For a relevant similar example, HK Flix stocks the extended versions of the John Woo movie Hard Boiled, but because The Weinstein Company owns exclusive distribution rights in North America, HK Flix can only sell those extended releases to other regions. There's nothing preventing me, as an American consumer, from ordering a copy of the same exact DVD direct from a Taiwan website - just HK Flix from reselling it to me as an American business. DVD Fantasium is in a similar situation as HK Flix.
Several FUNi titles - Dragon Ball Z, Shigurui, Witchblade, One Piece, Samurai 7 and others - don't have a Japanese Blu-ray release yet. That said, I don't see what they're "losing" if they don't offer the product locally to begin with. Maybe are a US release selling for a fraction of what the JP version will eventually cost is seen as somehow cheapening the brand? |
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hikaru004
Posts: 2306 |
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It still takes money out of FUNi's bank account to tell an online site to stop selling their product. Why should they care? |
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bankai3232
Posts: 20 |
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I know Funi is located in the US, i never said they weren't I was saying they ARE a North American Dist. So yes that's exactly how they got them. That's just furthering my point. But the Japanese games your talking about are legal to buy online from JPN dealers. It's not legal for NA retailers to sell A.C.E 2 in the U.S or any other game that has to do with anime that are not licensed by a NA distributor. It's NORMAL, if your into JPN games, thats why you prolly get them from E-bay or even Play-Asia, due to licensing. |
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