Forum - View topicInterview: Henry Goto, President, Aniplex of America
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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Yes.... Just like the volume 3 DVD of Durarara!! that wouldn't open properly that I almost had to cut open the plastic slipcover just to get to. 
People, I've said it once before, I'll say it again: It's a BOX. It has only ever been a BOX. It will never be anything other than a BOX. It is a PIECE. OF. CARDBOARD. Sure, I like nice looking packaging just as much as anyone, but I don't think the main reason something costs so much should be the box it comes in. That's like putting a 99 cent cookie inside a $20 wrapper. 
I'm willing to spend an extra 5 bucks or so for one of FUNimation's limited edition chipboard boxes, but when I see some of you guys going ape-shit cray-cray and willing to spend 20, 30, sometimes even 50 dollars more than the show is worth JUST to get the "super-deluxe-ultra-limited-edition" packaging.... .......It honestly makes me wonder a little bit.
As for me? Hell, as long as they don't put it in a stack-pack or a ziploc bag, I'm happy. 
Last edited by SpacemanHardy on Thu Nov 08, 2012 3:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23858 |
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Interesting. When I hold the incredibly cheap and flimsy cardboard box that the OreImo LE came in, I did not notice the spirit and prestige of Japanese craftmanship. |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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I don't think ittoujuu is aware of the er... *lengthy* discussion on this issue, including the use of a car analogy, that we had not too long ago. I kinda felt bad for him when he used it, and it is part of the reason I snipped it. And then there's luffypirate85's contribution. I'm rarely completely flabbergasted at what someone says, but this time... just, wow. |
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Maidenoftheredhand
 Posts: 2633 |
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NIS America releases quality products: beautiful boxes and a hard cover art book.
Admittedly they are lacking in on disc extras (and no dub) but I think their releases are way nicer than anything Aniplex of America released for a fraction of the cost. |
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
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CALM DOWN |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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Funny thing about NIS' artbooks.... Most of them are around 25, 28 pages. Do you know just how THIN 28 pages is? That's a little bigger than your standard comic book. In fact, odds are the thickness of one side of the hard cover is probably just as thick or THICKER than the actual pages inside it. And while they do offer exclusive things in some of them like cast and crew interviews and concept art, the majority of the pictures inside are screen shots. Yes, screen shots.... which you can already see by WATCHING THE SHOW ITSELF. Sometimes they also include character descriptions and info..... which you can already learn by WATCHING THE SHOW ITSELF. So yeah, I'm not exactly sold on the so-called "value" of NIS' deluxe sets. A wafer-thin artbook and a big cumbersome box that won't even fit on my bookshelf does NOT seem like a good excuse to jack the price up higher than your typical FUNimation dual-audio release.
They don't even let you use coupons either. 
Anyways, sorry for going off topic. Just wanted to comment on that. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5437 Location: Iscandar |
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I would agree with you if those NISA boxes were easy to store in my bookshelf. I love AnoHana and Bunny Drop, but their gigantic boxes are an eye sore. I am not big on fancy packaging and because of that, I am happy with my 2 regular edition sets of Toradora! By the way, IMHO the bare bones BD releases from Sentai are the best packages. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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No, its not. DVD RE is $30. BD RE is $40. For 4 episodes. $90-120 for the whole series compared to $225 for the whole series in LE.
Thus far, their boxes have tended to be of the cheap and flimsy variety, more or less what Funi currently uses. However, note that OreImo was not much more than typical R1 releases. The box wasn't good, but it did come with postcards and a booklet which most releases lack. That was the release I was the least happy with, since it was DVD-only and did not include the commentary videos. .... I'll triple dip and buy a USA BD release if it includes those commentaries. I'm thrilled that Bakemonogatari will include the commentary track though (and its also been confirmed multiple times, including in this interview, that it will have a chipboard box rather than the flimsy cardboard that OreImo and other releases got).
This just really depends on what the booklets with the JP releases had. A lot of them are pretty flimsy and don't have much beyond character bios and some screenshots. Sometimes they have a bit more and some have a LOT more (like Hanasaku Iroha and Haganai). Don't expect much from the Bakemonogatari booklet. As for NISA's sets, I believe the Toradora booklets were decent. I only skimmed them, never did get around to reading them fully. I don't think I even looked at Katanagatari's. |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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SpacemanHardy, are you saying the DRRR!! set was damaged? One of mine was and they let me return it. The glue had come off the back. This was to the Bandai Store a while ago. Also, the digipak cases for DRRR!! are unique in the fact that the artwork has been exclusively produced for North American fans. Those images are not available on any of the JP volumes!
Blood-, they now are realizing that rigid boxes are important to us. Besides that, the extra content included in that set is amazing. I can only imagine how great the BD box will look when they get to it. EDIT: Tuor, like said in the interview "abstract explanations might not work" but this is honestly the feeling they are trying to convey with their products. Last edited by luffypirate on Thu Nov 08, 2012 4:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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ittoujuu
Posts: 164 Location: SoCal |
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RE: The Car Analogy - Tuor is correct; I haven't really checked in on this particular debate before, so I was unaware that the (imperfect) car analogy has already been paraded around, then subsequently burned to the ground. Is there a more apt comparison we've collectively come up with for selling a product worth far more than the costs of its parts + a reasonable profit margin?
@Blood - In the NISA/AoA comparison, I would venture that even if there's a justified difference in price between the two, it's not justified in being as large as it is. This is a difficult point to make, though, because unlike products that reflect value in materials and construction, anime (and stories in general) has a subjective value based on how much a person likes it. AoA's pricing strategy is disruptive for us because media prices sit within a certain range. Pricing is not generally a reflection of a book/game/album's perceived value relative to other offerings in the same medium. Can you imagine the reactions if the first season of Game of Thrones came out and the blu-ray set was $300? HBO could say, "This is a first-rate series with excellent production values and fantastic writing, and we believe this set represents a true value to the Game of Thrones fan." They could fully believe that, but people would be angry. The source of that anger is a company's hubris - the type of hubris exhibited by Sony when they launched the PS3 at $599 and said that the price would make people want to work more hours just to afford it. Or, y'know...they could buy an Xbox for several hundred dollars less and play games that way. Market forces may side with AoA and justify their way of doing business, but because we can compare their products with the prices of similar media, their prices are so much of an outlier that the natural reaction is to cry foul. And, unlike normal market conditions where a price will trend downward over time, picking up new buyers when it hits certain price thresholds, Aniplex's titles will never do that, because they control distribution so tightly that they'll sell out long before they would have offered a title at a discount (though they seem to be warming up more to the idea of a "plain" DVD release after the fact). Anime is entertainment that should be seen by many people, but Aniplex's intent seems to be to handle it more like something akin to numbered, signed prints in an art gallery - which I think goes against the grain of the medium. Anime is a luxury product - as is all entertainment media, really - but I don't think the fact that it's a luxury grants it immunity from legitimate criticisms of price structure and access. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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My main interest in anime is in the anime itself. Say I want to watch Fairy Tail in 5 years but its not available to stream, but because I bought them for 30 bucks from Funimation it doesnt matter because I just pop in the bluray. I dont have the money to be able to afford 50 dollars for 13 episodes for a DVD. Are you saying that I shouldnt be able to afford anime? |
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The Count
 Posts: 303 Location: Milwaukee,WI |
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 . Okay, if you're an AoA rep can you just come out and say so. If not as others have said, WOW.
With the various "Special Editions" I have from various companies my Nozomi sets are the ones I truly feel proud to own. I wish more companies would follow that style. There's not a damn thing that's feels special about my Bacanno or DRRR sets. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I think this was one of the more important answers in the interview, as it gives a perspective of someone who is very close to the NA anime market. And as someone who was also buying DVDs before 2005, I can say that it is completely correct. Anime is extremely cheap, especially when compared back to when the market was at its strongest. Yet, despite anime being extremely cheap, the market never grew. I think that's why we'll never see anything akin to an Anime Legends or SAVE or whatever coming from AoA. |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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Wasn't damaged. It just wasn't really put together right in the first place. The plastic slipcover was warped in some weird way that basically trapped the digipak inside it. I literally felt that I'd need to cut it open just to get the pak out. I finally just had to yank really hard before I could get it out. I'm not the only person this happened to, either. I specifically remember reading on JesuOtaku's twitter feed that she had the exact same problem. And about that cover art..... am I the only person who isn't really a big fan of it? When you look at it up close, the character models look a bit off compared to how they look in the show. And the outlines are very sketchy and flaky.
POSTCARDS. OOOOOOOOOOOOOH.
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I'm not the person you're asking, but yes, that's exactly what it means. You can't always get what you want |
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