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ANN and the industry's stance on fansubs (ANN official on P5

[ Trailers and word of mouth is not enough information to make an informed purchase on, at least not more than a few bucks.

I watch fansubs because watching the english dubbed version kind of takes away my hope for international fame. To me it just seems that they don't put enough effect into it on the english dubs and are only trying to sap some money only because the original was a hit in Japan. The only dubbed non-overratted (pokemon, yugioh,dbz, etc) anime that I appreciate so far is Gundam Wing I also use fansubs to teach myself Japanese and its really paying off .

I mean after all, how often do you hear people speak like Batman from the cartoons?

That's why we have the review staff at ANN Wink .

Guys, please keep this thread on the topic of ANN's stance on the industry and on fansubs, not comparing and contrasting AoD and ANN's forums, readership, etc.

How do people know that Kodocha failed?

For that matter, how do people ever know that any particular anime "failed" in the US market? To me, the only way to know about this is to look at DVD and manga sales figures, which companies do not usually report as far as I know.

How often Kodocha is discussed is not necessarily any indication of how well the show has done.

For example, so far Haruhi has probably failed in the USA. But that's not what I see people saying. People think it is doing great because the fansub community loves it.

But I do not see that reflected in store sales at all.

It will be easier to judge how well Haruhi is doing in the USA when volume 3 comes out. One need only count how many copies of Haruhi Vol 3 any given Best Buy or Suncoast orders and compare with how many copies of Fate Stay Night Vol 5 or Karin Vol 3 are ordered, for example. That gives an idea of how well Haruhi does in the USA, not whether online people say they like it or not.

In the case of Kodocha, it's also shown for free on TV on Funimation channel every day. So it's impossible to say how well it is doing, really. The fact that it is shown so often on TV makes me think it is doing relatively well.[/quote

Why? Funi can show all sorts of things on their channel, but I don't believe people pay for each show. So they get money for people subscribing to the channel (which is probably insignificant) but that has little to do with the success of any particular show.

[quote="Ohoni"]

HitokiriShadow wrote:

The anime companies are probably getting the same amount for each copy regardless (some exceptions maybe, like if you are only buying at Bargain Bin/clearance sales). Regardless of where you get it, the anime companies are getting, at best, 50% of the MSRP. It's probably more like 30-40%. The rest goes to the stores and any middlemen that may be involved. There might be some variance or discounts of bigger bulk shipments for major anime retailers like RightStuf, but its probably very small difference (per disc). It's not like the companies are getting $17 per volume from Best Buy and $10 per volume from RightStuf.

This is true. Kinda. The problem is, if you only buy anime at a discount, then the stores don't feel that THEY are getting their money's worth out of selling anime. They take a big hit on any DVD sold at or near cost, because they get almost no profit, and had to hold that DVD on the shelves for a while, which annoys the hell out of them. And if they don't feel they are getting their money's worth, they won't stock as much of it. And if they don't stock as much of it, then the anime company doesn't get as much money. So basically, if you only buy anime at the minimum price possible, you ARE hurting the industry relative to those who pay full price, you ARe cutting directly into the anime companies' profit margins.

Well that's what freebies are for. If I'm paying for a channel of 20 shows, and only like 5 of them, then I'd consider that a bit of a waste, and don't have time to watch shows that I don't enjoy, so the other shows wouldn't mean much to me. Rather than that, I'd prefer to pay for the shows I DO want, and have some method of getting at least a couple episodes of new shows for free to, as you say, try them out, and then if I do enjoy them, buy them. I really don't buy any entertainment without watching some of it first if I can in any way help it.

It depends. Somehow, I don't think RightStuf minds people buying from their sales, since they have them constantly. For stores like that, they probably rely less on profit from individual items and more on raking in profits from people buying a lot of stuff.

Do you have cable? Or any premium channels from any method?

Hitokiri, ultrapostman, I didn't realize that the later episodes of Kodocha weren't licensed...no wonder I never see them on Funimation channel. I agree that is good evidence that Kodocha did not sell well in the USA. Although, in this case, I am not certain it is hard evidence though. If I'm not mistaken (I'm no expert on the Kodocha series) aren't the later episodes supposedly not based on the manga, and supposedly a lot of fans had issues with the stories and thought that some (or all?) of the later episodes of Kodocha pretty much ruined the series? At least that's what I had heard from our anime club back when I saw Kodocha as VHS fansubs about 11 years ago. Or did a Funimation rep actually say that Kodocha did not sell well?

I might download the first episode of a series based on an ANN review, but I certainly wouldn't buy a $20 DVD based on one.

The important question is what you will do if you like the first episode.

I watch fansubs because watching the english dubbed version kind of takes away my hope for international fame. To me it just seems that they don't put enough effect into it on the english dubs and are only trying to sap some money only because the original was a hit in Japan. The only dubbed non-overratted (pokemon, yugioh,dbz, etc) anime that I appreciate so far is Gundam Wing I also use fansubs to teach myself Japanese and its really paying off .