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Hey, Answerman! [2009-02-13]

Jacob Gehman wrote:

With video games based on existing movies or shows I hate playing through a storyline that I already know. And adding another "chapter" to a movie (ala Enter the Matrix) usually has filler-like quality. So a video game based on an anime generally holds very little appeal for me. However, the one sort of exception I could see would be RPGs based on the worlds of certain anime shows. Imagine the same level of texture and questing as in a blockbuster RPG title like Fable II or Fallout 3, only set in the world of Fullmetal Alchemist or Haibane Renmei... or (more realistically) Naruto. Both Fullmetal Alchemist and Naruto have huge worlds already with a wide span of characters.

Uh, they did this already with Naruto on the Xbox360, Rise of a Ninja and Broken Bonds, and they are both amazingly fun games.[/list]

Brian wrote:

Again, chintzy background design isn't something exclusive to just anime – the backgrounds in Avatar: The Last Airbender are just as perfunctory and simple, at least to me.

I think this should fall under one of her pet peeves.

I'm kind of surprised the person buying the FMA disks didn't just go to Amazon marketplace (am I allowed to say that here?) and buy the singles that way. It's a lot cheaper and you can get the R1 releases that way. It's one of the reasons why I'm a little upset that the industry is switching to boxsets. They don't devalue as fast.

Iniksbane wrote:

I'm kind of surprised the person buying the FMA disks didn't just go to Amazon marketplace (am I allowed to say that here?) and buy the singles that way. It's a lot cheaper and you can get the R1 releases that way. It's one of the reasons why I'm a little upset that the industry is switching to boxsets. They don't devalue as fast.

I don't know about that. I mean, yes... singles devalue quicker. However, the cost feels a little tricky on Amazon. For each marketplace single you purchase, you're also paying $3 in shipping. So lets say you wanted to get the full Fullmetal Alchemist series in singles (which I believe is 13 discs) you've already committed $39 just in shipping. calculate in anywhere between $1 and $5 for the actual prices of the DVDs and you're probably looking at close to $80. Loose, fuzzy math...? yes. But you get the picture. Singles-buying becomes quite worthwhile from RightStuf's bargain bin... or anywhere else with cheap singles where you aren't paying shipping for each individual dvd. But otherwise it behooves you to price-check and see really what you're paying to collect the used singles vs a thinpack or boxset or whatever.

Just picking a series at random, let's look at Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. Six DVDs to the series. The cheapest prices on amazon marketplace are: v. 1- $1.85, v. 2- $6,75, v. 3- $5.98, v. 4- $5.99, v. 5- $8.99, v. 6- $6.94. Subtotal = $36.50, which isn't too bad. But once you add it an extra $3 per disc for shipping... you're looking at a Grand Total of $54.50. Which considering the whole Geneon boxset is available from RightStuf right now NEW for $50 (with free shipping!), that is a really bad way of doing things.

No one seems to have stated the obvious:

The opportunity to purchase anime DVDs is disappearing fast! At blinding speed shelves are vanishing from Best Buys and Wall Mart won't sell anything over a "G" rating. Where is the casual impulse buy gonna happen now? I don't know about you people, but I can't walk into a bookstore without spending half a paycheck. Same thing used to happen when I hit the anime DVD aisles. No more. All gone!

On sparse rooms in anime: I'm thinking it might be a cultural thing as much as it is a budget thing, too. I was thinking about Princess Tutu while reading the question--a show which is set in Germany, or at the very least uses a lot of German text and is inspired by a real German town. And the backgrounds are filled with clutter and decorations--Pique's room has posters and all sorts of girly things, Fakir's room at his childhood home isn't very decorated but is filled with books, a replica of Drosselmeyer's office is filled with so many books and odd instruments it's hard to figure out how Autor and Fakir manage to move in it. Backgrounds that are shown a little more often, like Ahiru/Duck's room, are a little more bare, but they still have little trinkets that hint at the character's personalities.

Then again, maybe it just shows Princess Tutu had a higher budget than typical? Or they spent more money on the backgrounds and cut back on somewhere else?

So I encourage you to rent or purchase the very cheap singles from rightstuf or the now economical boxsets of series like Case Closed so that maybe Funimation/other distributors will continue releasing it.