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NEWS: Aniplex USA to Release Durarara!! Anime on Blu-ray Disc

I didn't really mean to get into the specifics of each company, because it frankly doesn't matter. NISA, Viz, Discotek, Media Blasters, foreign ones like Madman and Kaze, all can do it cheaper. Either Aniplex USA can't (which is unlikely, as the right hand is licensing to the left), in which case we're better off with them going away, or they make more money at a higher price point with less units sold and it's a strategic business move that just so happens to draw a lot of criticism. Or some other reason, but as long as they insist on bucking the pricing trend that everyone else is following for no appreciative reason, people will continue to complain.

Vata Raven wrote:

I didn't hear those 8,000+ complain when they per-ordered the limited edition sets for that magical girl show

Clearly you were not paying attention. There was tons of bitching over the cost of the Madoka LEs.

Great. Now we just get to see how badly Aniplex is gonna rape us with the cost of the DRRR!! blurays.

Blood- wrote:

GokuMew2 wrote: $150 is quite a fair price imo. (And of course that's RightStuf's price, not the retail price.) Any lower and I think you guys really want to put Aniplex out of business. Oh, please. You clearly know nothing about price mark-ups if you think Aniplex would be losing money by charging less than $190 MSRP for the Durarara!! BD set. All the materials already exist (i.e. dub) and no new license had to be purchased. I'd be shocked if it is costing Aniplex more than $30 per unit to get these things to the street: and that's all in - physical production costs, marketing, advertising, everything. They're going to make a very healthy per unit profit off these puppies.

They do have to pay for the license for the BD rights. The initial license only covered a DVD release. Of course I don't know the details of the contract, but I can't imagine the BD rights being cheap due to the possibility of reverse importation and the fact that the series is still very much popular in Japan. Notice how the series can't be shipped outside the U.S. and Canada.

You guys just want your anime and you want it cheap. I wouldn't mind it cheap either but I'm not going to make a big fuss about it. The DVDs were maybe $120 for the three sets at $40 apiece. $30 more for it on BD (so basically $10 more per set, if it were released in parts) is nothing to really sneeze at.

...

I'm not really trying to defend Aniplex's pricing or anything, but I do think everyone should stop complaining.

Any lower and I think you guys really want to put Aniplex out of business.

Even if AoA, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Aniplex, had to pay a license fee to its parent, it's just a dumb little shell game. Is Aniplex really going to extort top dollar from its subsidiary? So I don't think any license fee is going to add significantly to the price per unit cost. Again, you are simply expressing your ignorance if you think AoA's profit margin on a MRSP of $190 is razor thin. The thing is, that even if AoA is making a fat profit per unit, their OVERALL profit from this title probably is not going to be terribly significant because I don't think the item is going to sell like hot cakes. Let's say they sell 10,000 units (which I think they'd see as a tremendous performance) and let's say they are making $50 profit per unit (a number I'm plucking out of my butt) ... that's still only $500,000 profit which is not exactly a princely sum.

Anyway, where do you get off telling people not to complain? If you think the price is fabby, then good for you, but indicating that others should too simply makes you a tool.

GokuMew2 wrote:

Any lower and I think you guys really want to put Aniplex out of business.

Aniplex isn't going out of business anytime soon. It's owned by Sony, which should help you understand how influential the company is in the entertainment industry.

In addition, you also seem to have a belief R1 is significant to anime. Sadly, it is not. While it's helpful, the R1 market has been nothing more than "pocket change" to the anime industry (and it's why reverse importation is considered a threat).

It's high but still approachable.

Okay, let's back up a bit. You seem to be taking my comments a bit too literal. Did I literally mean Aniplex USA is going to go out of business if they choose a lower price point? Of course not. But the titles they choose to license ARE the more high profile series so costs are going to be higher and because they do not license as much as some other companies, the performance of one series would have a larger impact than maybe one series would to FUNimation or Sentai.

It was mentioned that the Durarara!! DVDs did not do as well as expected. It's possible they got into the red with the initial license or did not make enough of a profit. (One could argue that making any profit at all would be "enough profit" but of course there also operations costs outside production of the series itself that must be taken into consideration.) The BD release could be an effort to cover costs for the DVD release, or to increase profits so that they can have more to work with when licensing new shows.

Say Aniplex prices their releases at that cheap price that many people here are looking for. They price is so low that they just break even. For every show they license. It's not enough to break even because every time you license something, you're taking money out of your own pocket instead of of using the profits gained from a previous title. That's no way to run a business. Of course I know no company would bleed themselves like this but my point is that a larger profit margin is going to be necessary if Aniplex is going to continue licensing the high-profile series they have been picking up lately. The pricing for Durarara!! may not have an impact on this one series, but also other series as well.

I'm not saying everyone should rejoice at the price but I don't think they should complain either because anime is a luxury. It always has been. Similar to how some people feel entitled to their free fansubs, some are feeling entitled to cheap anime releases which is just a result of being spoiled by other releases by other companies.

I agree with you on how R1 licensing works, but I feel the need to point something out. You seem to be saying that Aniplex USA licenses anime they same way companies like Sentai and FUNi do: they pay money for their licenses to Japanese animation committees. But in the case of AoA, I believe it does not need to worry about licensing fees because it uses the licenses that Aniplex Japan already has.

While reverse importation may not be a huge threat, it is still something that license holders are going to consider when licensing their titles. It is probably the reason why we're not getting BD releases of AoEx or Natsume Yuujinchou.

I've been following this thread, and while the fuss about the Durarara! sets have been eclipsed by the Persona 4 dub-only option, I thought I'd mention something just slightly related --

This is why I am a choosy anime viewer. Due to the exchange rate, even 'cheap' anime sets are very expensive to me. While some people may be satisfied by watching a large quantity without caring much for the money that goes back to the creators, I only consider the 'exchange' valid if some of my money goes to the creators in some way. (edit: so, if someone says that they watch and love everything, but the everything involves a 90% fansub collection, I don't really care to be like that). That is why I am demanding; I want the creators to create something I feel is worth the price I will be paying.

If I were in the US, personally, I'd be more comfortable with the Aniplex pricing system than others. You pay an expensive price, but it is for a very good edition of one or two shows that you really, really like. I've calculated the pricing (roughly) and assuming that region blocking can be gotten around (not a problem in my pirate-y region) and mailing isn't an issue, the Madoka Magica American LE box sets would still be something I am willing to save up for. It's the idea of having one good thing that you really treasure versus a whole library of things.