Forum - View topicOtakon 2009 - Bandai Entertainment
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
|
|||||
Before this gets out of hand, I just want to state my "expense" cost wasn't due to the actual price of anime, but more regarding the ability to pay the price. There's only so many titles $100 can buy. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||
In terms of supply and demand, I agree with you that the price anime is worth is still not in parity with its actual price. There's infinite supply, so in those terms most anime isn't worth the plastic it's printed on. That's why you have a ton of anime at Big Lots being blown out at $3 a piece and they're not really selling there either. What's more, psychologically, younger fans don't want to bother with physical media. It's a slow bottleneck to getting the content they want. DVD (and BD) will still be important for a handful of collectors for the foreseeable future, but the days of it driving significant revenues are over. The mainstream is starting to show similar patterns as well. But people still want to watch it, and the alternative is piracy, so streaming is the only model that has growth potential. The money will get better, though nobody knows whether it'll ever be able to replace the old model. We're getting badly off-topic here, but suffice it to say that nobody has the money to dub stuff that won't do big numbers right now, because that's just throwing money down a rathole. Until there's a way to make back the kind of money that allowed dubs to exist in the first place, they're simply a bad investment. And that's the end of the argument for any sensible businessman. |
||||||
|
||||||
CCSYueh
 Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
|
|||||
|
In a way, the fact there is so much anime available is one of the problems. Considering anime is a niche audience, then that group is sub-divided into moe, yaoi, loli, mech, etc. The niche is horribly fragmented. It works in Japan because their fans are used to paying an arm & a leg for dvds, cds & the like, but Americans are used to more than one can eat in a $5 meal & free refills on soda to boot. The idea they can buy an entire season of Robot Chicken for $20 means they should get anime for the same price, forget the fact if there's any alternate languages on the domestic dvds, it's because the title's likely been shown in a market that language was spoken in.
I can't remember how many times I see people whining this or that title hasn't been licensed so they aren't buying anything else they downloaded because only that one title is worth the money So yeah, there may be thousands of anime fans in the US, but not necessarily enough fans in any one genre to amount to decent sales. The dream is to get it onto tv where it can be seen by the largest number of fans, but those markets are smaller all the time. CN & Adult Swim have gone up & down on the amount they show, but currently they're on more of a down mode. So now we're in a recession, more of us are having to decide whether we want to buy Code Geass or Gundam 00 when in the past many of us would have bought both. I know every TRSI sale, I put way more in my cart than I can buy & then whittle it down to what I can afford which includes a mental debate on whether the title might be discontinued before the next sale comes around. I've moved from pre-buying single dvds to trying to guess whether there will be a cheaper box issued in 2 years. If I were in the financial situation I was in 2 yrs ago, I'd be buying so many titles because they are so much cheaper now. I was a Bandai Visual customer so I bought my share of expensive sub-only dvds.The only real negative I see to Bandai's current practice is while Funi is doing a lot of half-sets, Bandai is going for dividing the titles into 3 sets at a similar price to Funi's half-sets but Funi is still managing a dub on much of their stuff. Yeah, the big dif there is Funi has a dubbing studio in house while Bandai has to outsource dubs |
||||||
|
||||||
Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
CCSYueh
Posts: 2707 Location: San Diego, CA |
|
|||||
|
Funi's dubs are getting iffy again. Some of the sets are just not...they are ok in line with what's in the US market (Sponge Bob, Robot Chicken, etc), but not in keeping with the idea anime is often more like shows that aren't animated. Drama, suspense, angst not aimed at the afterschool crowd. I can hear the work put into something like Ouran, but not in other titles. No, it's not as bad as the ones Geneon was getting on stuff like Shonen Onmyoji, but I'm taking longer & longer to pop back over to English on the Ragnarok dub because Koyasu & Nozawa are just so much more fun as baddies than the English actors. I keep finding myself reminded of Rush's Barbosa when Nozawa's working it. I've liked Stoddard in other stuff I believe, but his Zephyrus is more phoned in. It's almost like "Let's knock this off quickly so we can dub the next one"
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
|
|||||
FUNi, historically, will not license anything that won't be profitable to produce a dub for (I can't remember them having released any sub-only DVDs recently so I believe this still stands, but I could be wrong) and, as has been mentioned, they also have some cash cows they can use to subsidise weaker series. |
||||||
|
||||||
The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
|
|||||
Honestly, I believe this is how it should be done. If it won't be profitable with a dub, don't license it; you also can't sell an LE set with each release and expect it to break even. There are a lot of shows that will be profitable with a dub so I don't believe you need to go for the shows that won't be and release them sub-only. That's not to say that those shows are bad, it's just saying they probably wouldn't be profitable in the American market. Last edited by The King of Harts on Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:08 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||||
|
||||||
Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23888 |
|
|||||
No offense, King of Harts, but do you have anything to back up your contention? Just as it is pointless to urge a distrib to dub a series that cannot earn its money back, it is equally pointless to say companies shouldn't bother with sub-only releases. It's all about crunching the numbers and seeing if a profit can be made. It is fine and natural for anime fans to discuss what kind of releases they like or dislike, but as soon as they start making pronouncements on business matters, it'd be nice if they had some actual facts and figures to back things up, otherwise its just a bunch of empty lip-flapping, frankly. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
The King of Harts
Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
|
|||||
|
I edited my comment so it doesn't make me seem like an industry accounted. But, as it has been stated in this thread, shows are released sub-only because they're "niche" and aren't exactly the most popular of shows amongst the entire community. That's where I based that comment from.
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23888 |
|
|||||
|
Yeah, a sub-only release is likely to be a niche title and therefore less popular (in terms of sales) than the bigger titles. But that doesn't necessarily mean a company can't make some shekels catering to that niche. The case of Nozomi will be instructive in this regard since that seems to be their business model (mostly).
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
|
|||||
As someone who likes, and frequently purchases these sub-only releases, THANK YOU. To have someone state that sub-only releases shouldn't even be bothered with, because they aren't catered to them personally, just smacks of selfishness. King of Harts - there are plenty of us out there that want these shows, dub or no dub. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean that others should be deprived. |
||||||
|
||||||
Sakagami Tomoyo
 Posts: 940 Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia |
|
|||||
Look at it this way: it makes little sense for everyone to compete entirely in one segment of the market and completely ignore another, where there are people dearly wanting to spend money on shows they like, and may not be interested in the more mainstream fare. Nozomi still being in business would suggest that selling these niche titles subtitle-only to the relatively small but dedicated fanbase is profitable enough. And really, it would be quite unfair on the fans who are willing to pay for a subtitle-only release of a show they want if all companies decided that if it won't be profitable dubbed, it won't get released at all. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
|
|||||
One perfect example for me is Aria. I was waiting forever to get my hands on that show. Did I want a dub? Hell yes. I was quite disappointed there wasn't. However, that sure didn't stop me from getting the show at all. I know many others in that boat. Sure I prefer dubs period as when watching something I like to be able to focus entirely on what's going on and not have to read. It's not that I hate reading it's just it takes away for me a bit of attention I can be spending focusing on the visuals and character interactions. The little nuances if you will. But if my choice is sub or nothing will that's a damn easy choice for me. Saying subs are basically pointless in our market is very egotistical and simply rude as well. That's akin to saying we want your product Japan but screw your language because you're supposed to cater to us even though it's your product. |
||||||
|
||||||
FaytLein
 Posts: 1260 Location: Williamsburg, VA |
|
|||||
|
While I can understand the stance that sub-only releases can be profitable, understand that companies look at the whole picture, and if a show is seen as not being profitable enough to get a dub, it probably is seen as a bad thing, as companies would want to make the maximum amount of money possible for the money they are putting into it. While dubs are expensive, they do allow for a greater market impact, while sub only releases tend to be only for the specifc fans of the show.
If a show can turn a profit with sub only, by all means, crank them out. If it will only make a handful of people happy, it would probably be a wiser choice in the long run just to skip it. |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group