Forum - View topicIs it better to support old or new anime?
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MrFox123
Posts: 22 |
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I read through the Anime Economic 101 article series recently. It got me wondering now after being a bit more informed about the anime industry:
Is it better to spend money support existing current anime franchises or the old classics ones that have stood the test of time? To add some context, like many I have huge anime fan that torrented anime while being a poor college student. Fastforward to present, I got a fulltime good-paying job and got money to spend and support the industry in some way. Right now I have the minimal in supporting anime with a Crunchyroll subscription. I am wondering, would my money better be spent support existing running Anime (huge fan of Sword Art Online & Attack on Titan, etc) or use some funds to support pretty old anime that have stood the test of time for me. One example is Claymore being one very special to me. Of course supporting both would be best but funds are always limited. Reading through some of the past articles about how the industry works, they point to supporting the new, ongoing series since that's what's being paid attention to. Money going to a smaller, older series like Claymore almost seems like a waste. Thoughts or advice? 
Note: By "Support Anime" I'm including manga, mechanics or other related official products 
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6523 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I've changed the thread title to make clear your intent.
I think you should reward the anime you like the best. Why clutter your collection with titles you might enjoy less than others? In a tiny way, you would also be sending a signal to the producers and retailers of your preference. Also, in what way is Claymore a "smaller" series? |
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MrFox123
Posts: 22 |
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Small compared compared to the two I mentioned. It's also already long over. I've rarely seen it brought up too 
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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Not much to add. Support your FAVORITE anime. Don't spend all your rent money on every anime you've ever liked. Just support the ones you love most.
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MrFox123
Posts: 22 |
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I think that's pretty much my mind set right now. I got maybe 10-15 that I really loved from the last decade+ The thing is alot of these are done, over. While a handful of the ones from these are still ongoing. So I guess that's really what I was getting at. Is there any reason to support older series that ended a while ago (or give priority?) compared to newer ones where it seems spending money would be more effective? (Basically speaking with your $$) Anyone else got any input? |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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As an individual, your purchase of a single show is going to have minimal impact on anyone. Assuming the North American licensor has sold enough to meet the minimal performance guarantee it will be a very small increase on the amount paid to the Japanese company.
Where your purchase has the most impact is with the North American company in their decisions as to what to license next. If you buy what you like most, you are more likely to see similar shows licensed. The only other effect buying licensed shows and goods has it to put more money into the system thus helping the longevity of anime as a whole. Essentially anything you buy that is legally here does help. However, no individual can buy enough to effect what Japan puts out. Bottom line, as others have said, buy what you like. |
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MrFox123
Posts: 22 |
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Let me ask then since you mentioned one individual doesn't make much difference on their own. At what point do the numbers matter? 10, 100, 1k, 10k? Of course this would largely depend on what's actually being bought. I'm thinking 50-100 USD per these individuals |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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MrFox123 wrote:
Absolutely no way to tell. Neither the North American licensors or the Japanese production committees publish any firm numbers about either their sales figures or their profit margins. In any case, I would have to ask matter to whom, the North American licensor, the Japanese production committee or the anime studio. Seriously, if a show sells as little as 100 or less copies, one additional sale won't help. If it sells a 1000 or 10,000 copies an additional sale is insignificant. Keep in mind that of that $50 or $100 part goes to the retailer as profit. A large portion goes to the North American company to pay expenses and profit. Only a small amount goes back to Japan and helps the industry as a whole not a specific show that has already been paid for. What is important is that you put your money into legal sources and that you encourage your friends to do likewise. It is all of us as fans contributing to the industry that helps, not the efforts of one person. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Want to maximize the impact of your support on the industry?
Step 1: Learn Japanese. Step 2: Import all your anime from Japan, use your Japanese knowledge to navigate through Japanese sites and to watch stuff in the original, "raw". Step 3: Import merchandising from Japan as well. That way your money will be going directly to the industry. Today only a small fraction of the money spent on stuff like disks from English language distributors goes to the creators. If you spend your money directly in Japan the fraction that goes to creators would multiply several times. For example, spending 300 dollars on your Madoka Blu Ray collection from Japan adds directly like 150 dollars to Shaft. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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The plus side on buying older things is that you can get a re-release for a lot cheaper (Claymore is a good example, actually).
It really comes down to what your favorites are though. I am a huge fan of old-school anime (as in, Claymore is "new" by my definition), so I tend to give Discotek and Nozomi a fair amount of money. They were probably able to get a lot of those licenses for cheaper (because no one wanted Mad Bull 34 I'd guess), but since they're both smaller publishers, sales would affect them more than the giant that is Funimation for example. But sales may determine if they decide to renew a license or not (Funi and other companies usually tell you if something is going out these days, though in the case of FMA, I highly doubt it was due to lackluster sales, probably legal complications). It's actually why Discotek is now releasing some anime on youtube to see how it does before deciding if they want to roll out a DVD later (they've mostly only done this with Miss Machiko so far). Except in the case of Chargeman Ken, which is infamous enough that they think it'll sell enough on DVD to make it worth it (for the record, I am absolutely going to buy that ungodly mess, in fact I will have it pre-ordered!) With manga though, supporting what you like is a lot more important. Anime these days usually comes out in one or two sets, but the next volume of a manga is determined based on sales of the previous volume(s). For a shorter 5 vol series, it's not as big a deal, but with a longer 20+ vol series, you could end up missing a volume if you're not careful (it's why when you look at older series, random vols in the middle are almost impossible to find while you might be able to find the final vol pretty easily). Japan demands that US publishers conform to the Japanese standard of paying royalties based on volumes published, not volumes sold. While big things like One Piece and DBZ aren't going to be in jeopardy any time soon, perhaps your more obscure shojo or josei title might be. US companies will usually license a certain number of volumes at a time and see how well the series sell before ordering more. This is why sometimes, a manga title will be left unfinished, even if the company that publishes it is still in business. It's usually pretty rare for a contract to demand the entire series be published no matter what (often, it would've been something that piggybacked on something else, on the plus side without that, Viz would never have published all of the fantastic Firefighter Daigo series, rumored to be their worst selling title ever at under 200 copies per book for the whole 20 volume series, although you can buy it digitally now), so I always assume there's a risk of any series not being finished. I usually try to get things pretty promptly, just to be safe. Sometimes, a company might say something is at risk for not getting more (Kodansha has been saying this about Vinland Saga for a while, but they did get two more vols, but now they've caught up to Japan, so it'll be a while before we get more. And Viz was straightforward about saying they'd license more Legend of the Galactic Heroes novels based on sales), but they usually don't like to tell you who the losers are. If a rumor gets out, they might fess up, but you usually find out later as a series goes out of print at alarming rates and the prices on Amazon hike up. Fortunately, a lot of really OOP stuff is available digitally these days (they have their own crazy royalty rules, but at least you're not physically printing a book), like Basara, Firefighter Daigo, Twin Spica, etc. And sometimes if a company isn't sure how things will go, they may publish things in 2 or 3 in ones right off the bat (because putting two vols in one still counts as paying for the number of books being published by the US company once, it's not based on the number of Japanese vols in there). Why pay for # printed 10 times when you can pay for it 5 times? |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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classicalzawa wrote:
Because the profit margin on individual volumes is greater. An omnibus version is almost always less than the total of the individual volumes priced separately. Basically if you think you will sell a lot of copies you want to go to single volumes. The increased profit is small but builds up if you have a hit. Omnibus volumes on the other hand cut costs in other ways as well, cost of binding etc. This is one of those games that all publishers, regardless of media involved, have to play. Balancing risk against potential profit. How well you play the game determines success over failure. |
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gsilver
Posts: 615 |
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I've got both Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Brother, Dear Brother on my shelf.
Bro anime forever, regardless of origin. Really... just buy what you really like. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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So, to put it simply, older anime are more likely to have lost licenses to them and be on sale for hundreds of dollars. We're talking old OVAs that Discotek hadn't rescued, ADV titles like NGE that no one picked up, and half of the stuff that Bennett the Sage ever reviewed. These are pointless to support if we're talking about how it will effect the anime industry as a whole, and it's your couple thousand dollars down the toilet if you're just buying Paranoia Agent for 300 dollars because you think it'll help.
However, re-releases of things like Sailor Moon, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, and Dragonball are no better or worse than supporting new anime. The age that the anime is or how long ago it was made doesn't matter. The release of the particular DVD or Blu-Ray does. If you're buying a 300 dollar copy of Planetes that Geneon has laying around, it won't do much. Bottom line, buy what you want when you want it from existing companies. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1317 |
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When it comes to older shows that I love such as Kannazuki no Miko, Karas, Casshern Sins, etc. I must do all I can to support them.
Does not mean I will stop supporting new shows that I may love. |
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