Forum - View topicInterview: Kazuyoshi Fukuba, Executive Director of Pony Canyon
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
|
|||
|
Yeah, I think Fukuba-san and PONYCAN are just being delusional. Unless they can manage to grab *the* next big hit anime series, they're simply not going to find much of an audience with their prices this high. I have a feeling this is gonna crash and burn and I'm gonna be watching front row center with my box of popcorn as the flames rise higher.
|
||||
|
||||
|
Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18186 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
|||
|
^
Indeed. Saw nothing in this interview that's going to dissuade fan complaints about the prices one iota. If anything, Fukuba only affirmed that they are marketing the release only to collectors who value premium Extras and don't give a damn about making it accessible to common fans. As I've said before, I adore Yuki Yuna enough that I would probably pay half again the normal price to own a dubbed Blu-Ray version, but more than 3x is just ridiculous. Offer up a version that isn't jacked up for the inclusion of those supposedly high-demand frames and I'll happily pay for it. |
||||
|
||||
Artesox
 Posts: 90 |
|
|||
|
I really have my doubts about Pony Canyon, and I'm not even talking about the American side of it, just look at the average sales from last year, three shows were not flops.
Anyway, eh, I will be getting the Yuuki Yuuna release because I was going to import it anyway, which would be even more costly The cost is also a big problem, its only logical that Japanese will only show true interest in the US market if they can recreate the expensive market they have in Japan. I mean, they are selling two episodes for 70$ in Japan, obviously selling 12 episodes for 40$ in US is going to be unsatisfactory and meaningless in terms of profit. However... That doesn't really change the truth, and it makes me wonder to "who" they are planning to sell it... Yes there is people like me who was already used to buy directly from the Japanese market, yet, how many of those there are? I really hope PonyCan is aware of how low the demand is and has been expecting sales with struggling three digits. And on YuYuYu, hopefully they will release the dub on crunchy, because I don't see the point of doing it if its only available on the BD, since the ones who will be in the mood to expend 200$ on the series surely don't care much about the dub. Last edited by Artesox on Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:21 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
|
|||
|
While it is nice to have another company enter the American market with anime and related goods, the consensus here seems pretty clear that this risky move will fail. I agree that the cost is too high and these two series are not bankable on that point. At this point, we can really only look ahead and hope they will learn and try again. If not, sayonara.
|
||||
|
||||
Asrialys
 Posts: 1160 |
|
|||
|
Should have asked why they chose packaging that won't fit upright on most shelves...
|
||||
|
||||
Student no.0
 Posts: 170 |
|
|||
I was expecting PCUSA's pricing model to be higher than the norm, but not by this much honestly. I thought they were going to go for $80-100(a little higher than Sentai's average CE sets, which I would've been perfectly fine with) for 1-cour shows with the extras they're offering and possibly $130-150 for 2-cours (even if they've yet to release any so far). But around $241 in total? Yikes. |
||||
|
||||
Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
|
|||
|
Those prices are a little too rich for me at the moment, although I haven't seen either of those shows and they don't seem like ones I'd buy blind.
I really just wanted to say, if I ever pay PonyCan's premium prices, I'm in the small segment of the North America anime fandom market who does still import CD soundtracks (when I can afford it), so getting a CD with each release does take some of the sting out of the price for me even though I am aware that it is probably just a CD single as came with Bandai's old Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star limited editions (which I did buy) and not a full soundtrack. |
||||
|
||||
|
Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6867 Location: Kazune City |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
Student no.0
Posts: 170 |
|
|||
|
I'm a bit skeptical as to why PCUSA is just putting 4 eps on a single BD discs when according to a well-known video-encoder like Justin Sevakis, you can put even up to 9 average length eps without any sort of noticeable quality issues.
|
||||
|
||||
tangytangerine
 Posts: 439 |
|
|||
Honestly it feels like Bandai Visual USA all over again, except PONYCAN is releasing recent shows instead of older stuff. They're focusing on the hardcore fans that will pay the high prices, skipping the casual buyers. Only problem is that they're releasing titles that are average shows. Which fans watched, moved onto the next show and proceeded to forget it in a few weeks. I think even if someone like Sentai released these shows, they'd have trouble selling them at regular prices. Unless they have a some big hit title, I just don't expect them to last. Last edited by tangytangerine on Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
|
AbZeroNow
Posts: 519 |
|
|||
Beyond the Boundary is TBS/Pony Canyon much like Chuunibyou was. I am assuming that TBS is holding them back on the BD(but honestly the gorgeous animation that the series has is only really watchable on Bluray. That is also the only redeeming feature of Beyond the Boundary since the characters and dialogue are both subpar.) I do imagine that we'll be hearing about Beyond the Boundary's release soon enough though. The KyoAni fans will buy it and Sentai will sell quite a bit. |
||||
|
||||
|
AbZeroNow
Posts: 519 |
|
|||
Well, we'll see if PonyCan or Funimation will be the ones to release the magical boys anime on home video. Certainly due to Pony Canyon being on the Production Committee for Free! gives that an oppertunity to handle the Bluray for the first season(and give it the dub the fangirls have been screaming for). There is certainly demand for it. We'll see if people will put their money where their mouth is on that series. |
||||
|
||||
Greed1914
 Posts: 4426 |
|
|||
That does help a bit, since soundtracks are something I know I'll get quite a bit of use from, and I've always appreciated their inclusion, but I don't know that it would be enough to convince me. I mean, Sentai included partial soundtracks for Dusk Maiden of Amnesia and Queen's Blade: Rebellion and only charged the usual price for those shows, so I don't know that this would be enough for me. I'd certainly pay more for the inclusion of a CD, but I don't think it would ever be worth doubling or tripling the price of a show for me. I feel like perhaps PonyCanyon only took the advice from AoA that they wanted to hear which is that premium releases can work, but they ignored the part about needing the right shows to back it up. Or the part about having a standard, albeit still rather pricey, release that hedges your bets and caters to those that are willing to pay extra, but not necessarily five or six times extra. [/i] |
||||
|
||||
|
Key
Moderator
Posts: 18186 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
|
|||
If Yuki Yuna was pulling in more than 10k than it's more than just an "average" show. Admittedly, though, those are hardly big enough numbers to label it as a mega-hit, either, so your point still largely stands. |
||||
|
||||
|
SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
|
|||
|
Seems like a lot of the naysayers around here are forgetting something and that's the speed that they're bringing out these quality sets at. Both Yuki Yuna and Denki will be less than 3 months behind the Japanese BD release schedule which is amazing. Add the fact that they're including the same artwork and even adding the character songs and TLing all booklets and i'd say that this is a fair price. Speed is, at least to me, worth a lot. Not having to wait +1 year feels great
 .
On another note it'd probably be more economically viable to not dub many shows, as many dub fans aren't too keen on these price tags as they've been fed cheap stuff from Funimation and the likes who does not have a high price /disc. A business model like this will probably not work too well if you try to cast a wide net to catch a lot of small fish, unless you've got some of the larger titles that AoA has, so it's better to cast a smaller net and fill it up to the brim with fat fish (AKA fans who are willing to spend a bigger buck). I've got my PO in already, though one thing that I really want to see with these volume releases is chipboard art boxes! I'm not a big fan of having many seperate keepcases lined up on my shelves, and at this price they could certainly afford to include art boxes of considerable quality. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group