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NEWS: Aniplex USA Adds Madoka Magica, Blue Exorcist on Home Video

I'm a little disappointed, given that I am not really a fan of "magical girl" shows (I think Princess Tutu and Utena are the only ones in my collection. That is, if those two shows can truly be called "magical girl" shows).

I was like "Yay Madoka!"

Then I saw "Aniplex"

Now I'm sad.

I'm a little disappointed, given that I am not really a fan of "magical girl" shows (I think Princess Tutu and Utena are the only ones in my collection. That is, if those two shows can truly be called "magical girl" shows)

Looks like I'll be importing the English version of Madoka on principle, then! Even with all the hype, I admit there was a part of me that was skeptical about it getting a US release.

tuxedocat wrote:

I'm a little disappointed, given that I am not really a fan of "magical girl" shows (I think Princess Tutu and Utena are the only ones in my collection. That is, if those two shows can truly be called "magical girl" shows)

This makes me curious if you've tried the show or not (your post didn't really imply either way). Tutu, Utena, and Madoka pretty much round out the trifecta of "magical girl" shows that have captivated the non-magical girl fans. Though with Madoka, like so many shows, you really do need to see at least 3 or 4 episodes to give it a fair shot, the beginning is a tad deceptive.

The King of Harts wrote:

Anime Remix wrote: ikillchicken wrote: Uh oh guys, this Blue Exorcist show seems like it might have some mainstream appeal. We better nip that in the bud by releasing it across four individual DVDs! I wonder how many episodes will be on the DVDs... I'd guess 7/6/6/6. That seems like a tight fit and a little odd for a Japanese company to cram so many episodes on a DVD and risk poor video quality. I liked Blue Excorcist, but I'll just keep with the Premium video being offered here on ANN. A dub could change that, though.

Unfortunately, a dub won't happen for Blue Exorcist. Aniplex said that they're releasing the series subtitle-only.

Aniplex is the publisher in Japan, and more and more often nowadays they are releasing their especially popular titles via their Aniplex USA brand rather licensing to other distributors.


I really don't understand why everyone thinks that Aniplex's prices are such a ripoff. Everyone was willing to pay those prices 7 years ago. Just because the market has changed doesn't mean those prices are suddenly some sort of vendetta against consumers... If you can't pay, don't buy them. If you won't pay, well, complaining is not going to make Aniplex change their pricing scheme... Their pricing is at just the right point where they can make the most money, low enough that just the enthusiastic fans who will pay those prices will all buy it, high enough for them to make money. It's a bell curve of profit, and they're at the center.

Anime makes the money off disc sales. The television airings are essentially commercials for the disc sales. American television makes its money from advertisers and the home disc sales are just gravy. I'm not sure about non-anime Japanese movies, but niche movies like Garden of Sinners and Theatrical Feature Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works are released in an extremely limited number of theatres just so they can be labelled as theatrical features/movies, they again make the majority of their money from disc sales. American movies, money at the theatres, home discs gravy. There are exceptions to this, sleeper movies like "Waiting..." that were so popular in disc sales (in that particular case in Australia) even with their bad theatre ticket sales that there's a direct-to-disc sequel.

The American distribution pricing isn't suddenly going to conform to the American television level because it's a U.S. release- there's no advertisement money for the home discs to be "subsidized" as it were.

Buy what you want, but I do not expect Aniplex USA to change their pricing scheme any time soon. They are based off a Japanese company, after all, and they're notorious for sticking to their ways even if the industry is changing. CD albums still cost like $30 US there!