Forum - View topicHey, Answerman! [2006-03-17]
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PantsGoblin
 SubscriberEncyclopedia Editor  Posts: 2969 Location: L.A. |
|
|||||
|
Didn't see this answered so...
Yes. They were involved in the distribution of some of the movies. |
||||||
|
||||||
Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
|
|||||
Bandai Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Namco Bandai America, itself a Wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco, which owns Bandai Co. Which own Sunrise. Bandai Visual USA is a subsidiary of Bandai Visual, which is a publicly traded company and not a subsidiary of Bandai or Bandai Namco in any way. Viz Media is a subsidiary of Shueisha (40%), Shogakukan (40%) and Shogakukan Productions (20%). Shogakukan Productions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shogakukan, effectively, Viz Media is 40% Shueisha and 60% Shogakukan. Geneon (USA) is a wholly owned Subsidiary of Geneon (Jp), itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu. In the case of Bandai and Bandai Ent. If an anime is 100% owned by Bandai, it can give it to Bandai Ent for free. However, its rare that a Japanese company owns an anime 100%, usually the anime is owned by a committee (like Stand Alone Complex), or some other co-operation. And again, there's always the music, which may be owned by (an)other company(ies). Yes, being a subsidiary of one of the Japanese owners helps, a bit, but fact is, the other owners of the anime will expect the same money from Bandai that they would expect from ADV. Geneon is pretty much the same story as Bandai Ent. In the case of Viz, you have the same considerations and one more. Even if Shueisha 100% owns a property, it has no interest in giving that property to Viz for free, because it's only going to see 40% of the profit. And again, that's rarely the case in terms of anime, because other companies in Japan own bits and pieces of the anime. When it comes to manga, Shueisha and Shogakukan may have some sort of special agreement where Viz isn't charged for manga, but I don't know. It may also depend on how much control the creator has over the property, if his contract says he gets 10%, there's no way he's going to allow Shogakukan to give the property to a subsidiary for anything less than market price, unless they promise him 10% on the subsidiary's profits from the manga. Anyways, in the example of say Bleach or Naruto, some fans think Viz got the anime for free and doesn't have to pay royalties. Not in a million years would that happen. The rumours I've heard, say that Viz is paying a fortune for the Naruto anime. It's quite feasible that Viz will never see any profit directly from the anime, but rather only from the fact that the anime will drive merch and manga sales. Finally subsidiaries often get the short hand of the stick. The parent company may want a particular anime released in R1, and regardless of what the subsidiary says, the parent thinks the anime will do great. So the subsidiary is forced to release a title that American fans wont buy. The subsidiary is then blamed for the failure in the quarterly reports. All of this leads me back to the point, that no, companies don't get anime for free and yes, they do have a lot of expenses involved in licensing, localisation, marketing, production, manufacturing and distribution that they need to recoup in the wholesale price. In terms of online distribution, the licensor will expect a certain amount for every online sale, so the distributor has to calculate what's left over after all the online costs (production (fairly minimal), license, and Itunes (or whoever's) cut). They then weigh whatever is left (their "markup") against "lost sales" and see how much they need to charge per online episode to "maximize profits" as you put it. If that number is in a range that will be attractive to fans, then we'll hopefully see anime online soon. If it's in a range that is too expensive for fans, then we won't see it ever. I really don't know where the balance is, if its profitable or not. And for any one who isn't intimately familiar with the costs & licensing process to say that "companies are stupid and could be making lots of money"... well, that person isn't half as smart as he thinks he is. -t |
||||||
|
||||||
|
GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
|
|||||
|
Abarenbo+ Michi: If you check Amazon sales ranks, the uncut Yu Gi Oh and Shaman King are doing as well as recent FUNimation titles like Kodocha, Gunslinger Girl, and Case Closed. While that doesn't make them big hits, it does make them successful enough to release more episodes on dvd.
|
||||||
|
||||||
Abarenbo Shogun
 Posts: 1573 |
|
|||||
Okay, GATSU provided his end of the bargain. Zac, your evidence? |
||||||
|
||||||
RyoShin
 Posts: 83 Location: Michigan |
|
|||||
|
I would like to see anime on iTunes, but not because I want to collect the entire series from it (I don't have an iPod video.)
Instead, I want to be able to preview series. Even with online shopping, you're usually paying $18+shipping, and in stores it can be much worse, depending on where you go. There are a lot of anime titles out there that I might be interested in buying (from the box,) but a $20-30 investment for four (of what could be more than 26) episodes on a series that I may wind up not liking isn't something I want to do. Unfortunatly, despite moving a lot, I don't have any anime rental places near me, except what your general Blockbuster might carry. I would gladly shell out $3-6 to watch one or two episodes through iTunes to give a series a test drive. Spending $10 to get two episodes is worth my money to see if I'll actually like a series. Even better if they throw in a coupon for 10% off the purchase of a DVD for the series. Plus, the overall cost of putting a show on iTunes decreases at a much faster rate than producing DVDs. Your only cost is in the purchase and localization of the series, and then formatting it to whatever iTunes uses for their files. You don't have an artbox to put together, you don't have to worry about creating extras, and you don't have to worry about creating the media to distribute them on. Initial prices for anime on iTunes woudl be around $5, and after x months they would drop to $3 or so dollars. While this will turn out a lower gross per episode compared to DVDs, the profits will be as high (if not higher) because you have a make-once-distribute-many system, instead of make-once-distribute-once for DVD media. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
|
|||||
From sales but not from "licensing" (AFAIK, but granted I don't WORK for Bandai, so ... yeah), Bandai is distributing Gundam because for the longest time they were asking a RIDICULOUS sum for the licensing fees. Conventional wisdom is this is because they didn't WANT anyone else distributing them. But point being, years before any of the Gundams saw an American release numerous companies would have LOVED to have that license, but they couldn't buy it off Bandai, I seriously doubt "Bandai USA" paid more than anyone else was willing to pay.
Do people seriously think that? I mean, even if Viz was directly 100% connected to the right parent I'd assume FUNimation would throw major dollars at em to steal it, if ONLY to have a DBZ followup. I figure they may have "free" license for manga, but like I said I don't think the same for anime, but I dunno Viz's business model.
I don't think they could be making lots of money in this area, really I think it'd be approximately a net "wash" maybe small profit over the status quo. What I think you GAIN is a better opportunity to strike at fansubs and increase the likelihood of people buying "legit" releases instead of just downloading the material illegally. I don't think that'll stop entirely, I think it'll reduce some. I don't think the anime companies will see a MAJOR loss in DVDs because as I said, the "fans" will BUY the DVDs. Heck, I have 2 or 3 different versions of the same material in some cases (ex. special deluxe edition DVD of AMG! movie + American release of same movie). I think the few sales of DVDs you might "lose" will be offset by an increase in overall sales of people buying, altho granted I have no data to back myself up on that. Honestly I'm annoyed with the "money" argument because I think fees are too high because companies are overpaying for CRAP. Why are companies like ADV even BUYING things like 'Oh Mikey'? All I'm saying is that IF money IS the reason for this sort of thing not happening (again, unless its in the sense that Japan wants to charge stupid numbers of cash for the right to do it as a deterrent) then companies should re-evaluate their purchases. But I HIGHLY disbelieve that its a "cost of online distro" rights issue in ALL cases (altho I can believe it in certain cases) when you consider some companies ARE distributing (or used to) anime online in some cases. They've also done streaming video online and I know a ways back companies DID sell material on CD-ROM (like Software Sculptors and USMC) altho granted it was a different world and format at that time. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
|
|||||
|
The only reason I didn't buy the YGO and SK uncut DVDs, even though I am a fan of both, is because there were only three episodes per DVD, and because it quickly became apparent that the releases would not continue.
|
||||||
|
||||||
sabriyahm
 Posts: 291 Location: Georgia |
|
|||||
|
Um I hate to jump in the fray here but this info might help you all understand some things. A parent company can't give it's licenses away to a subsidiary, if it could SELL it to someone else. The why's are very complicated and full of legelese but to make a long story short even when you fully own a company that's publicly traded you can not give it preferences over your own bottom line. I hope that makes sense.
So the fact that these anime companies have ties to US licensing companies may mean they are getting first crack at the license but they are most DEFINATELY still paying for them. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Treeloot
Posts: 140 |
|
|||||
|
Answerman, I'm calling your sources into question.
Where did you read that ABC makes $1.99 for making an episode of Lost available on iTunes? Do you mean to tell me that iTunes doesn't make any money in the process? |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Zac
ANN Executive Editor
 Posts: 7912 Location: Anime News Network Technodrome |
|
|||||
Actual sales figures that would be bad for me to publish here. It isn't public information, and the exact unit numbers are guarded and priviledged information. All I can say is that they didn't sell very well. But, take Gatsu's word for it if you like. Assuming that somehow some mass conspiracy was at play instead of the basic business of "bad sales = we don't produce them anymore" which is the guiding principle behind virtually every production decision any company interested in profit follows seems somewhat ridiculous to me.
Perhaps it was poorly worded; of course iTunes is paid a fee for hosting the material and they do take a fraction of every item sold. How much of that comes from the $1.99 and how much of it comes from a flat fee ABC pays upfront I don't know, however. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Tempest
I Run this place. ANN Publisher Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
|
|||||
Actually, if any one is so inclined, they can pay for access to Nielson Vidscan and check the numbers themselves. We absolutely can not repeat the actual vidscan figures (only rankings), nor can we repeat figures told to us by industry insiders. Abarenbo Shogun, I don't know Zac's source for the item, but I've seen the Vidscan numbers and they're not anywhere near the numbers for the edited DVDs. Subscribe yourself if you can afford it (you can't) or get somone you know who works at a company with access to verify the info for you. -t |
||||||
|
||||||
The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
|
|||||
|
They're ruining Bleach!!
Heh. When I told the news to friends, that was the first reply, said half jokingly. Now we keep saying it as a running joke. Mainly we were making fun of the insane fans who think any US company will ruin their series. I got into a mock argument with them, aruing logial stuff like how the will released subbed DVDs leaving teh dub intact. Every reply was "THEY'RE RUINING BLEACH!" -Xenos |
||||||
|
||||||
|
GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
|
|||||
|
Zac:
It has to have done at least better than Ultraman Tiga; and they finished that show.
If low sales are a reason to stop investing, then why did 4Kids still buy PreCure after screwing up One Piece and Mew Mew? Tempest:
FUNi reps said the same thing about the edited DBZ tapes, but still chose to release the series uncut, because they were losing sales to fansubs. I mean I'd love it to be like the Nelvana situation in which the original outsells the hacked-up version, but I acknowledge that's not always the case. (Especially, it seems, with Robotech vs Macross....) Nonetheless, I find it hard to believe it's not at least doing enough to be profitable, or Viz would have discontinued the manga. |
||||||
|
||||||
|
Abarenbo Shogun
Posts: 1573 |
|
|||||
This is 10 times as worse as the Freedom of Information Act and the various "Sunshine Laws" many states have. I'll take your word for it, but I hate to say this, such restrictions on info actually gives more ammunition to those that hate 4Kids that 4Kids have something to hide. And it makes a News Source look even more bad when they can't even cite their sources or when their called on it and can't provide it readily. While GATSU's info is a ready source of info, your source is not readily avaliable to most anime fans, and actually gives an allusion that theirs something to hide. Not exactly something you should be exposing openly. |
||||||
|
||||||
Dorian
 Posts: 111 Location: Houston |
|
|||||
|
Regarding Sound Advice and other would be writers.
I saw that movie. Whisper of the Heart. Our heroin, a Junior High student who would rather read than practice for her High School placement exams, gets inspired to write a story. When she finishes she realizes that it has potential but that she needs to go onto High school and learn how to write and get more life experience. Maybe that is what some of our young story writers need to do, get a life away from anime. Maybe read some books without pictures. How many actually read Howl’s Moving Castel by Diana Wynne Jones? The animation and drawings of the anime were spectacular but Miyaxaki …buchered the story to piecs took charcters out changed goo peopl to bad etc.…(hey that was kind of fun)  . The book had to be edited to two hours. The story Miyaxaki ended up with was still interesting and compelling. The original story was much better.
BTW does any one know if the original series of novels (9) that R.O.D is based on been translated to English? |
||||||
|
||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group