Forum - View topicREVIEW: Kara no Kyoukai - the Garden of sinners
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DarkFusion
Posts: 74 |
|
|||||||||||
|
Can't help but think of this when wondering how that price was decided upon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
enurtsol
 Posts: 14758 |
|
|||||||||||
Why should Americans get a break! What's so special about them! 
It's a metaphor. 
$40 for each Pioneer LD of Tenchi Muyo.
They won't care - they made tons of money already! Besides, why try to squeeze a dollar or two from fickle fans when they can get $200 markup from 25,000 fans with money?!
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
|
|||||||||||
|
That was quite the review--I really came away feeling I understood your opinion of the saga, Zac.
This is the one thing that stook out to me too; not so much the complaint itself, which I understand even if I didn't have the same issue (typically, these "sturm und drang" affairs, as you aptly--and hilariously--put it fail to truly capture me, but not in KnK's case), but the fact that you came to enjoy the story so much in hindsight. Nevertheless, I get where you're coming from.
Oh, and this was the other thing, if only because it recalled nostalgic memories of the perennial Kano/Kajiura debate that always came up when you were writing Answerman.
But I digress, the music's amazing throughout. Oh and yeah, the whole art and animation bit isn't half bad either.  Seriously though: who knew such gloomy stoicism could be rendered with so much love?
On a related note...
I'm just going to come out and say that Haagen-Dazs Time™ was pretty awesome; not for any potential fanservice it had, but just because as a vignette for Shiki's day-to-day life it was fascinating to watch, and beautifully rendered at that--though depending on how you use the term, that also constitutes pretty heavy fanservice. And now of all things I'm reminded of episode 11 of Panty and Stocking... @errinundra & John Casey: Jesus guys, sorry for having a bit of money to spend. Yes, objectively analysed this release foolishly and unfairly shafts most US/Western consumers, but does that really make those of who have the disposable income and the desire to purchase of inferior intellectual capacity? It's not as if when I punched in my credit card number on TRSI to complete the order my eyes turned a vivid shade of crimson, smoke began to pour from my nose and mouth, and I began a slow-building, uncontrolled maniacal cackle while I cried: "THOSE SLIM-WALLETED PEASANTS SHALL NEVER GET THEIR HANDS ON A LEGAL COPY OF MY KARA NO KYOUKAI!" |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
John Casey
 Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
|
|||||||||||
You won't find a fanbase more elitist than the Type-Moon one. I've literally found it impossible to even attempt befriending, or even have a normal conversation with one of them. They'll feed their own families to the sharks to get the next Ryougi figure. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Teriyaki Terrier
 Posts: 5689 |
|
|||||||||||
$400? Wow, too overpriced. Even if it's in the highest quality that currently exists, that is still way too much. You could easily buy the entire Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z set (remastered even) with that type of cash. For that price, I strongly and I mean strongly doubt it will ever be available on Netflix, streaming or dvd format. For that price though, I hope the boxset is made out of nearly indestructible material or made out of solid titanium that has been reinforced as well. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Nayu
Posts: 676 |
|
|||||||||||
Anime is serious biznez. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
|
|||||||||||
I refuse to believe that their worse than the Gundam franchise. Theirs a reason why MAHQ is the only major Gundam site that can survive 5 years. If you ever like something they don't like or they don't like something you do like than you're a troll, and don't actually mean what you're saying. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Rukiia
 Posts: 1897 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
|
|||||||||||
And this is why alot of the hardcore fans scare me. 
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Nayu
Posts: 676 |
|
|||||||||||
I'm out of family members and am now seeking a wife so I can feed my in-laws to the sharks. But not Ryougi, I'm more of a Rin-tan fan. One word: thighhighs |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
John Casey
Posts: 1853 Location: In My Angry Center |
|
|||||||||||
|
:<
There's absolutely nothing wrong with having your mother in-law get devoured by a creature. I'd do it for a dime. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
|
|||||||||||
|
Great review. I really think I get what you're trying to say about the series.
You know, 'sense of entitlement' is to people like you, what 'socialism' is to Republicans.  You don't actually seem to know what it means but you sure as hell love to bitch about it.
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
|
|||||||||||
There's a lot more to the economics of this series than just the price. At $154 they would have needed to have sold 2.6x as many copies to make the same gross sales, but obviously their profit per unit would have been much lower that 38% (Don't forget there are manufacturing costs, shipping costs from Japan and the retailers' cut). Suddenly 2.6x as many becomes something like 4x as many to make the same gross markup. The retailers' cut is usually 50% of the SRP*. But in situations where there's a high ticket price and an exclusive retailer, that % drops pretty significantly. Thing is, to sell 4x as many, they're going to need more sales channels, so the retailer's exclusive is gone, and the per unit profit for the retailer is diminished, so the retailers won't be willing to accept diminished markup. Suddenly, despite dropping the SRP by 62%, the publisher has to drop the wholesale price by 75%, which is a very drastic cut into their per unit markup. They now need to sell 7x as many units to make the same profit. It's also worth noting that to sell more copies, you need to spend more on marketing. Damn, the margin keeps shrinking. "But what about replication and manufacturing costs?" you may ask. Those won't drop significantly with additional US units since the US units are themselves only a small part of a single product run out of Japan. Unfortunately, despite being only 38% of the cost, and despite being very good value for 8 movies, $154 is still way more than casual buyers are willing to spend on a single anime release. I know how many units they sold (sorry, can't share) and no way in hell would a $154 set have sold even 5x as many units. In other words, the $400 price tag and limited run was more profitable. Hopefully there soon will be a cheaper (DVD only?) run that will sell more units to casual consumers without making the people who spent $400 for the limited edition feel cheated. They'll have to break it down into multiple releases in order to get the necessary sub $50 price tags. ----------End of Original Post----------- Updates: *To be exact, retailers usually pay about 50% of the SRP. Their cut is the difference between that and the price they set, which is usually discounted. So if the retailer is selling something at 25% off, they're earning 33% of what you pay (or 25% of srp). Please note, the numbers above are all guesstimates. I could do a proper calculation of the exact numbers, but it would take way too long for the purpose of this post. Maybe the final ratio would have had to be 10x, or maybe it would have had to be 6x... either way, it wouldn't have happened. Additional note. In no way am I claiming that a single successful release experiment like this makes AoA a "profitable" division. It takes many successful releases to make a publisher profitable. But looking at AoA as a publisher would be missing the big picture. AoA is a very complicated hybrid of a direct to consumer publisher and a licensor. The success / failure of AoA will be based on a lot more than just their direct to market releases. Whatsmore, as a subsidiary of Sony, they could easily stay in operation whilst losing money, or get shut down while profitable... Last edited by Tempest on Thu Feb 10, 2011 12:47 pm; edited 7 times in total |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
|
|||||||||||
Well, it did. They made English-language materials for this release, and it had its own print run. You can't buy it anymore, apparently, but it did get distributed in the US, however brief and strange the release was. Right now my answer to your second question is "no", probably because I just got through it and it really is a trial. The experience did leave a mark, though, so I could see myself eventually revisiting the series years from now.
This is really silly thinking to me. It's like complaining that because someone released an $800,000 limited edition Jaguar, cars in the future will be unaffordable to the common man. Aside from Legend of the Galactic Heroes - which has hardcore fans begging to pay upwards of $1000 or more each to buy a legal subtitled release of the series - there really aren't a lot of other series out there like this one. A series of 7 theatrical films that tell a serial story is an extremely rare thing; the company is selling it as premium content to a fanbase that pays premium prices. Interpreting every single release or every relatively new idea being introduced into the fractured R1 market for anime as some kind of game-changer, something that has an impact on the big picture of retail is foolish. This is a snow leopard, not a housecat. |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
enurtsol
Posts: 14758 |
|
|||||||||||
|
It's like Porsche cars. Porsche can easily sell their cars for half the current price and still profit, but there's enough rich folk who buy the Porsche at twice the manufacturing price with tremendous profit. Simply put, rich folk trump regular Joe's. That's capitalism for ya.
(Edit: Oops, Zac beat me to it.) |
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group