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REVIEW: Kara no Kyoukai - the Garden of sinners

vashfanatic wrote:

How big was their stock, though? I mean, how many copies did they have? A hundred? Maybe? They may have gotten all the profits they felt they wanted from it, but they would probably get more if they lowered the price. Why not make it comparable to your blind-buy of the past and give it a $0.30/minute for a nice round $154?

There's a lot more to the economics of this series than just the price.

At $154 they would have needed to have sold 2.6x as many copies to make the same gross sales, but obviously their profit per unit would have been much lower that 38% (Don't forget there are manufacturing costs, shipping costs from Japan and the retailers' cut). Suddenly 2.6x as many becomes something like 4x as many to make the same gross markup.

The retailers' cut is usually 50% of the SRP. But in situations where there's a high ticket price and an exclusive retailer, that % drops pretty significantly.

Thing is, to sell 4x as many, they're going to need more sales channels, so the retailer's exclusive is gone, and the per unit profit for the retailer is diminished, so the retailers won't be willing to accept diminished markup. Suddenly, despite dropping the SRP by 62%, the publisher has to drop the wholesale price by 75%, which is a very drastic cut into their per unit markup. They now need to sell 7x as many units to make the same profit.

Unfortunately, despite being only 38% of the cost, and despite being very good value for 8 movies, $154 is still way more than casual buyers are willing to spend on a single anime release.

I know how many units they sold (sorry, can't share) and no way in hell would a $154 set have sold even 5x as many units.

In other words, the $400 price tag and limited run was more profitable.

Hopefully there soon will be a cheaper (DVD only?) run that will sell more units to casual consumers without making the people who spent $400 for the limited edition feel cheated. They'll have to break it down into multiple releases in order to get the necessary sub $50 price tags.

This is really silly thinking to me. It's like complaining that because someone released an $800,000 limited edition Jaguar, cars in the future will be unaffordable to the common man.

Aside from Legend of the Galactic Heroes - which has hardcore fans begging to pay upwards of $1000 or more each to buy a legal subtitled release of the series - there really aren't a lot of other series out there like this one. A series of 7 theatrical films that tell a serial story is an extremely rare thing; the company is selling it as premium content to a fanbase that pays premium prices.

Interpreting every single release or every relatively new idea being introduced into the fractured R1 market for anime as some kind of game-changer, something that has an impact on the big picture of retail is foolish. This is a snow leopard, not a housecat.

Zac wrote:

This is really silly thinking to me. It's like complaining that because someone released an $800,000 limited edition Jaguar, cars in the future will be unaffordable to the common man. Aside from Legend of the Galactic Heroes - which has hardcore fans begging to pay upwards of $1000 or more each to buy a legal subtitled release of the series - there really aren't a lot of other series out there like this one. A series of 7 theatrical films that tell a serial story is an extremely rare thing; the company is selling it as premium content to a fanbase that pays premium prices. Interpreting every single release or every relatively new idea being introduced into the fractured R1 market for anime as some kind of game-changer, something that has an impact on the big picture of retail is foolish. This is a snow leopard, not a housecat.

Hm... But it wasn't the "premium fanbase" that brought attention to this series. It was just regular curious people. Another case of elitists causing misconception: Just because the die-hardtoids "like it more than everyone else" doesn't mean everyone else doesn't like it at all.

Just because the method of the show is a rarity to the industry doesn't mean it should be a rarity to watch to everyday viewers. I never said this release will harm the R1 market altogether. I merely implied it will hurt Aniplex altogether.

Those guys have been pretty damn stupid with their prices, and you don't need a market analyst to tell you this...this "business strategy" of theirs regarding this release is none too helping their case.

The simple fact of the matter is, most people won't get a chance to see this series. Most people who have seen but want to own it won't be able to. And most people who are exposed to bits of interest towards this series, will automatically lose their interest when they see what the cost for their interest will be.

If that isn't enough to cause a legitimate upset, I don't know what is. And all of this boils down to one thing: Aniplex is practically holding up a sign shouting "PLEASE TORRENT THIS SERIES INSTEAD!" I don't know about you, Zac, but when it comes to Aniplex's release here, I'm having a really hard time finding something. It's a small, really stupid little thing that apparently only morons are perceived to make use of these days. I think it's called LOGIC!

I could be wrong though - after all, I'm one of those morons.

The sky is falling, is falling the sky.

I'm superior because I can afford porterhouse steak.

I can't really see myself ever paying $400 on a blind buy.

tuxedocat wrote:

I can't really see myself ever paying $400 on a blind buy.

Actually, come to think of it, this would probably be a great show to buy blind. After all, you could probably re-sell it if necessary, even used, for as much as you paid.

After all, you could probably re-sell it if necessary, even used, for as much as you paid.

Nayu wrote:

I'm superior because I can afford porterhouse steak.

Yes, maybe, but, unlike porterhouse steak, you can download fansubs of the Garden of Sinners.

Choosing not to do evil when you can get away with it is what seperates a man from the beasts.