Forum - View topicWho buys anime anymore?
|
Goto page 1, 2, 3 Next |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
honeyandclover5
 Posts: 2 |
|
|||||
|
I know this is talked about all the time, but I was talking to my friends and recommended them some anime. When I told them they could borrow it, they said, "Nah I will watch it online." Which makes me wonder. Who buys anime anymore? I didn't get internet until my sophomore year of high school (5 years ago), so the only way I could watch anime was going to my aunt's house and buying the dvd's whenever my birthday or Christmas came around. Thanks to that my collection is huge, but I don't buy much anymore. I only buy series that I love dearly or when Rightstuf has their major 12 days of savings during Christmas. I kinda miss buying anime. It was exciting opening up my box from Rightstuf and basking in it's glory.
Someone mentioned to me that buying anime is kinda like a hipster thing now. Would you agree? Do you buy anime and what is your outlook on the topic as a whole? Please and Thank you |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Bugnin
Posts: 575 |
|
|||||
|
This should be two separate questions.
People do pay for anime. They just don't pay as much regularly for physical discs. Money is in streaming services now (HULU, Crunchyroll). Personally I would only pay for a Blu Ray if it was something really significant to me, or a re-release of a classic series that's long been out of circulation. |
||||||
|
||||||
murph76
 Posts: 3291 Location: Akron, OH |
|
|||||
|
My attitude about this has significantly shifted in the past year or so. I was a hardcore collector. I wanted beautiful shelves with beautiful boxes. But after a few years, I realized I was spending money on things that I would watch just once, and maybe not even enjoy.
Now, I'm heading in the opposite direction: Selling titles that have sat on my shelves for years. They're either garbage from my blind-buying days or titles I watched and enjoyed, but have no desire to see again. Legal streaming is my best friend. I can watch scores of series without spending much money. If they're awful, I've lost nothing. If they're good, I can enjoy the show and still support the industry. If I find myself rewatching a stream, then maybe I'll consider buying a physical release.
This sums up my purchasing philosophy as well. If it's not a title I can watch over and over again, it's not worth having on my shelves. I'm still a bit of a collector, but only for those types of titles. For example, I'm picking up the LE for Cowboy Bebop and bought the BD version of Cardcaptor Sakura, because I adore both shows. Otherwise, I'm just filling up my house with junk and wasting money. |
||||||
|
||||||
Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
|
|||||
|
I've slowed my anime purchases way down recently, to the point of practically canning them entirely, mostly because I realized I was buying way too much on credit. Having thought it over, I've more-or-less decided not to buy any show I can watch online legally unless there's something interesting about the physical release, such as including an OVA.
|
||||||
|
||||||
publicenemy333
 Posts: 563 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||
|
I've admittedly slowed down buying physical releases since finishing college last year and real life coming at me more and more with every passing month taking away time and money (both which I thought I'd have more of finishing college. Damn you reality!), plus with money just getting tighter within the last year with my family in general. Also, I wanna spend my money on other hobbies and interests, not just my anime.
I still love to buy anime though when I can. I've gotten a handful of things within the summer. A lot of what I buy though tends to be movies/ovas (got GitS: Arise on preorder, and got From Up Poppy Hill and the Dr. Slump Movies), re-releases (Sailor Moon). I only buy the more recent series I really loved and wanna own (Watamote, AoT). I have also gotten more into buying more manga and less anime than I usually do, that count? |
||||||
|
||||||
Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
|
|||||
|
I do. I still buy anything that looks interesting. The main thing streaming has done is make it possible to preview stuff before I buy. This has cut down on the number of blind buys I make. I work on the assumption that individual shows will not be streaming forever.
Same thing for manga, if it looks interesting I order it. I will admit I had to become more careful about how many figures I order, that happened when they started to get above $100 each. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
|
|||||
|
There's a couple of anime directors whose stuff I buy automatically. Other than that I more or less use the following rules: if I rated the anime as masterpiece I definitely want it in my collection; if excellent I will try to own, however a high price (looking at you Aniplex) will deter me; very good perhaps, depending on who the director is, what particular appeal it may have and, of course, price; while good ranked anime would have to be at a highly tempting price.
My financial situation has improved significantly this year, however right now there isn't a whole lotta stuff I want to get. Princess Kaguya for sure, Fate / Zero and Psycho Pass if the prices come down. That's about it. Oh, and Hyouge Mono at just about any price if it ever became available with an English sub. In my dreams! |
||||||
|
||||||
Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
|||||
|
I buy anime.
Everything that I watch is on disc. I am not a collector in the sense of wanting to have things that I can display and talk about. I collect anime so that I can have it to watch whenever I want to. I have been able to borrow some things from the library, but I had to buy most of it. I will admit that my Internet service is not suitable for streaming, but even if it was I doubt that I would be satisfied with just that. It doesn't seem like streaming would let me watch everything that I have on disc, whenever I get a sudden impulse to watch it. If I had better Internet service I would probably try watching some of the new shows, but I would still want my discs. |
||||||
|
||||||
CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
|
|||||
|
Like everyone else has said, I tend to buy the dvd/bd if 1) it's a show I really like or 2) it's cheap, like under $20 or less.
This is primarily what streaming is for me as well. If I like what I see I'll usually buy the home release to support the show and obviously, so I can watch it over again. Plus, you get the dub too.
Definitely, I would also add series that you're a big fan of. I'm a big GitS fan, so even though I haven't seen GitS Arise yet, I'm still going to buy it on release day.
This is how I feel as well. I don't think of myself as someone who's simply trying to amass a giant collection of anime. I just like the convenience and portability of being able to pop in a disc whenever I want. Also, my internet connection isn't the fastest, so having to stream at sub-HD resolution because of my speed isn't fun. |
||||||
|
||||||
t-Roy
 Posts: 17 Location: Lancaster, PA |
|
|||||
^This.^ I'm a physical copy guy, and Blu-ray unless it doesn't exist. I'm still fairly new to anime, and have only been buying it since about May of last year. Since I just recently started my collection, I've been buying a lot, especially titles a few years old I wanted to get before the went OOP. I will only stream or fansub to preview some of an anime, then if I like what I see, I'll just buy the physical copy. Other than that, I have no desire to stream anything. I've also decided to concentrate my collecting on a lot of Japanese Blu-ray Box imports and LE collector's editions, so yeah, I've spent Aniplex prices (and up) on quite a few titles already. Since I have a very narrow preference in anime, mainly serious or intelligent seinen/shojo series on Blu-ray, I've already picked up a majority of what existing anime I am really interested in, so I'll soon only need to buy newly remastered "catalog" titles, and any current-year titles I might like, as they come out. So that will most likely be few and far between anymore, what with all the mindless anime being bulk-produced nowadays. Last edited by t-Roy on Tue Oct 21, 2014 6:59 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
|
|||||
|
My buying habits are pretty much the same as they always have been. If I rate a series a 9 or above it's a definite buy.
If I rate a series an 8 or 8.5 it's a probable buy but I might skip it due to certain circumstances (such as Aniplex prices). Anything I rate lower I don't buy. I can't say legal streaming has changed my habits at all because I never made a habit of blind buying. I think I blind bought twice in my life. I would still watch a series in its entirety before deciding if I am going to buy it. I just used fansubs in the past whereas now I can make that decision through legal streams. To me that is what legal streams have taken the place of not buying anime. I also still have the same shelf I started with, that being said I am definitely running out of space now and I have to get creative in how I place my anime on the shelf. I would get another shelf but at the moment I don't really have the room for that either. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
getchman
Space Cowboy Posts: 9120 Location: Bedford, NH |
|
|||||
|
I buy shows that I enjoyed and will definitely watch again. so that's a lot of shows
|
||||||
|
||||||
rheiders
 Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
|
|||||
|
Legal streaming is a miracle. I always stream a show before buying now, which is a change from how it used to be. I still buy shows I really like and know I'll re-watch, but I think it's really great that I can limit buying to shows I've seen in full and know I'll want to see again.
For manga, I'll just say that libraries are a beautiful thing. |
||||||
|
||||||
Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
|
|||||
|
I do. I haven't counted them in a while...but my collection's not too shabby. I could probably start my own renting business if I wanted. lol
Hipster thing!? Lol no....more like "collector thing". |
||||||
|
||||||
yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
|
|||||
|
Most of the commentators so far are among the older ANN members. I don't think their attitudes are at all representative of viewers in their teens and twenties. Read any thread on anime purchasing at MAL, and you'll see that even paying for Crunchyroll is considered a stupid waste of money, never mind buying discs. The audience that relies entirely on piracy, in particular those that watch shows on illegal streaming sites, just grows and grows.
It's this dynamic that I think has led Aniplex to price its shows so high. As disc purchases become ever more limited to a shrinking number of collectors, the market overall becomes more price inelastic. The rights holders can raise prices considerably without reducing demand all that much. The otaku market in Japan seems to work similarly. I've never bought a lot of anime DVDs, but then I've not bought a lot of movies or TV shows either. There are few works I have much interest in rewatching so streaming best fits my needs. I buy the occasional less popular show just to vote for more of them to be produced. Shin Sekai Yori is my most recent purchase. I also buy the occasional OST or OP/ED CD for shows like Kill la Kill that are simply too expensive to purchase on disc. One other possible consequence of the rise in streaming is a wider acceptance of watching with subtitles. When television provided an important entry point into anime, people became used to hearing English dubs. Now that streaming has taken over that role, the audience that prefers dubbing has probably also shrunk. In the long run that cannot bode well for companies like Funimation. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group