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Open Letter from GDH International's Arthur Smith

the high cost of anime and trying to find it in stores and the waiting for each dvd to be release. most people wait for the box set comes out to buy it. If they wood release more then 4 or 5ep per dvd and over 6mouth to a few years to watch the hole thing form start to finish. so most wait or watch it on the internet but people are still watching anime so that some thing sub or dub as long as there anime to watch somw where Confused

The problem with other pricing structures is that they have a fair amount of people willing to buy dvds at the current prices. Those people may or may not buy more dvds if they had more episodes on dvd. There are probably only so many shows people want to get. Their theory is that the market isn't big enough for it to matter too much if they price anime a lot lower.

The thing is, they may be right. But this all goes back to the previous arguments I've made. If those who aren't buying are downloading then they are doing it because of money they don't have. The only thing I expect from downloaders is to do the best they can. That means, if one cannot buy the whole series, one should at least buy something. I understand as much as anyone what not having money is like. I'm not the type to tell people to "do without" when they don't have money. But people should buy to support what they value. To not do so is foolish. If the industry dies or stops producing shows that people like because those same people were not willing to pay they should blame themselves for it. It's wrong to expect others to pay instead.

I promise that I don't feel any pain from watching mostly dubs. I prefer it because I like it. I think people are generally harder on what they watched second, but I'll also grant that there are some really lame dubs out there. This being said, there are also some truly great dubs. I'll never believe that the FMA dub was terrible, or that the FMP dub was terrible, or Naruto or Bleach. All of those shows (and many more) have great dubs and good casts.

All this being said I admire the Japanese language and find it to be a beautiful, elegant one. I think it's "cool." But I like my own language as well, and i prefer to watch story over reading subtitles.

Here's a thought. Imagine that a popluar series like The Office is released on DVD. However instead of releasing the episodes as an enitre season, only 3-5 episodes are released on DVD as an individual volume at a retail price of $25-29. Now let's say that there are 26 episodes of the office in one season. So a year after the final volume has been released NBC decides to release a DVD box set. However the box set is $150.

Now imagine that someone has told you that The Office was a really cool show and you're curious to check it out. But the series is now on episode 12. (We'll pretend that The Office relies on continuity.) You could go to an in-demand channel assuming you have digital cable but they generally only have a few episodes availible at a time. Do you really think it's worth it to drop $25-30 just to check the show out? Most likely not.

What if someone on the internet was offering episodes of The Office for free. Legally you should buy one of the DVD's but let's say you download the first episode and you liked it. In fact you liked it so much that you decided to buy the box set despite the $150 price tag because it's the only legal way to own the entire series.

But now let's say you downloaded the first episode and didn't like it. No harm done, you erase it from your hard drive and that's the end of it. But what if you bought the first DVD and didn't like it. That's $25-30 you just wasted. Gant it, you could just go to the store and return it.

But what if there was a website where you could legally rent the episode for let's say, $1 and buy the episode for $2 in HD quality almost as soon as the episode airs on television. If you don't like the show you would have only wasted $1.

Now for the sake of more argument, what if you realized you liked the original British version of the serise a lot better and chose not to watch the American version. However the American version is the only one that can be seen on TV and the only way to see the British version is on DVD. However once again to get the DVD you have to pay $25-30 for volume one or $150 for the entire series because the website didn't offer the original British version. (Let's pretend the British and American version have the same number of episodes)

Wouldn't most of these problems have been solved if you had an option to view either the British version or the American version from the start online for a small fee?

So I once again ask, why should I have to invest so much money just to check out a series in it's original language? Couldn't the anime industry come up with a way to release anime on an episode by episode basis online in the best quality possible and as fast as possible with language options just like fansubs do? Obviously it would take a little more time because of licensing but now that you can dowbload fansubs in HD quality, there's going to be little to redeem your purchase when HD becomes the standard.

1/3 is an unrealistic goal however. Completely unrealistic. You'd never get those kinds of numbers from broadcast TV purchases. Yes I'm aware that advertising fronts the costs of production. Everyone here is aware of that. The issue is the difference to end-users. To end users anime is a very expensive proposition. To not recognize that is to fail. To not make alternatives that are reasonable is to self-fulfill prophecies of failure. The industry needs something that is based on a subscription model in the near future with a reasonable amount of content that people actually want to watch. The reason they need that is that they can never get 1/3 of people who are willing to download for free to pay. When people even think that way they are already on the wrong track. They are completely out of the loop of understanding how the common person watches TV. Most people 1) only want to watch a show once and 2) have no interest in paying for it.

You might be able to get those people to pay a fee for a service if it had what they wanted to see and was easy to use, but you can never get most of them to even try these pay per episode schemes. You say you aren't talking to those of us who download and buy. I understand that, but the people you are talking about are not ever going to listen to you. The industry has to meet them where they are, not try and force them to be where the industry is. Even if fansubs were eliminated tomorrow what you'd see is a huge pool of people who'd move on to something else.

A question that needs looking into is this:-

What kind of money would a company realistically see with a subscription fee? Would the increase in users of the service be so much higher as to cover the loss of income per ep? (say what you will about what you think and want, few companies seem willing to try this without the numbers to back it up).

Obviously the next point is to probably raise adverts as a further source of revenue. Who advertises on anime sites? Are those companies part of the anime industry by any chance? Is the revenue one company makes from those adverts actually improving the health of the industry? It shouldn't take a student of management to see the problem here.

Until the companies willing to use online distribution can get some wealth, support and thus some real buying/pressure power you can't expect them to come up with a subscription method just yet. If too many people hold out until the companies come out with what they want there likely wont be many companies out there. Thus you have to support those who are trying, maybe not with your money (though I will be) but with your presence and support. Make comments on BOSTS forums, they have a small forum community and Aaron (the company president) reads and replies to posts on the forums feedback pages with a fair bit of regularity, this way your views are visibly reaching the industry...even if it is just a small, fledgling company inside the industry.

Well, as I was saying before I personally am willing to try this out and use it. But I just have my doubts about other people. I hope I'm wrong about it but I can't see how. While I buy a lot of anime dvds now it wasn't that long ago that I was one of the people who didn't buy anything. It seemed ridiculous because of my income, etc. It took awhile and me making more money for it to seem less so. So while I'm willing to do it now, I think about the past and I'm really not so sure I'd try it. So we'll have to see.

I was just wondering after reading that article about how NBC is having to refunbd money to it's customers for lack of guaranteed ratings that we may be seeing a shift in tv from what we know to an on demand situation.
And as I sat watching some History Channel show on Star Trek technology where it mentioned some guy had embedded a chil in his arm which allowed him to use the internet ot move a robot arm, I was rememnded all these little idiots out there that envision the wide free internet really don't know what they're talking about.

The world that existed when I was 8 (1968) is so different from what my child knew when she was 8 (1998) & so different from now. Hardly anyone was on the net, now so many are, though so many still aren't.

But that Star Trek chip thing reminded me of some statement I read that the PS 5 would be a chip implanted in one's head to allow one to virtually live thru the game one was playing. I've been joking with my teen the next step for cell phones is implanted in the heads of these idiots that can't move without being on one. It has to be next.

So you sit here & envision you P2P networks as unstoppable. Yeah, right. Mowhawk is right. 20 yrs from now there is no way to even begin to imagine where the internet will be-maybe it will be chips in out heads. It's mindboggling to figure it out. And as the internet advances even entertainment as we know it might change. Maybe movie theaters & tv will be obsolite.

As for all you people drooling over the immenent demise of the American anime industry, what do you do when the anime industry in Japan collapses because there's no money in it? They lose the money from licensing their titles around the world to your totally free P2P networks. All that's left is what sells to select fans in Japan if that.

And whoever was bitching about the western market hiring a name VA to be in a title--WHAT DO THEY DO IN JAPAN?
1)-go cheap-all newbs
2)-common-hire one or 2 vets with the idea the nebs will watch & learn from the vets.
3)-go with vets who know what they're doing. On the Area 88 interviews the director was amazed hiring vets=fewer re-takes. The vets were able to plow thru the script. The re-takes were usually thanks to newbs flubbing lines.

Dear CCSYueh,

and japan is still not giving up anime for free eh?

we just have to do like illegal mexicans, jumping the border for free anime, Yeah you can be legal and thats just too much waste of money and time...or...

you can jump the border for free....

Screw Japan, as soon as Anime die out, I'll do with french Animation or the russian Animation series that is gaining popularity these days, Im sure there's a cool russian name for idiotic fans of such trend Razz

o_o; taking all the natural resources and then moving on to find the next best thing?

Heh.

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Forum - View topicOpen Letter from GDH International's Arthur Smith

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Open Letter from GDH International's Arthur Smith