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The Nagabuchi wrote:

Ah, the way Japanese prices freak people out always amuses me. This sort of price is fairly normal, espcially for something as niche as Strike Witches. Pre-order discounts are the only way local Japan otaku like myself survive really.
But theres definately a pride that fans have hen it comes to owning something like this. Theres a huge stigma about having bootlegs or torrents among the hardcore fans here. Me, I have every single Macross Frontier bluray (series, concerts and movies) which wasnt cheap. But fans support the series and as a result the series sometimes give back to the fans (ie, some of us were recorded for background noise in the Mac F movie). Its an expensive hobby and Id like prices to drop a bit, sure. But hearing fans in the US whine about anime prices never fails to make me chuckle. Sometimes you guys have no idea how good you have it.

I can sort of understand what you mean and really appreciate your zeal and dedication in supporting the things you love. Kudos to you!

Megiddo wrote:

So Hissatsu, why is the Working BD box 33,600 yen? Is that Kadokawa? I know Aniplex is releasing it in the US, but Japan usually has more than one company financing anime.

You're shifting goalposts. I stated something completely uncontroversial: that Kadokawa's pricing is usually on the high end of Japanese pricing, and that this is the most expensive single cour BD box I've ever seen; quite a bit higher than average price. Working has nothing to do with Kadokawa, and so far Aniplex has no plans to release (the BD Box) in the US. And as I already wrote:

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"Working is being recomposited in HD from the original animation."

They could have simply done an upscale, and it probably still would have sold very well at next to no added expense on their part.

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It's not the company in my opinion, it's the number of sales. Working averaged around 20k copies sold per volume. Strike witches averaged around 18k per volume I believe.

A bit less than 14k per volume. So Working should cost more, right, not 10% less.

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They know that there is demand for the product, so they set the price higher. All the anime you listed (except for Noitamina's Mononoke/Library War I believe) sold less than 10k copies per vol, and they're not really shows aimed at otaku with exception to Maria Holic.

Then show that Kadokawa lowers prices when sales aren't expected to be high. GOSICK is set to sell quite poorly, and it's the most expensive singles release in quite a while. (9340 yen x 13)
Just about every other company has used 8 or 9 volume releases for 2 cour shows for years now. Nichijou is looking to be somewhat of a sales disappointment for a Kyoani show, but it will still sell several times more than GOSICK. It's going to be 7980 yen x 13. Still a lot higher than average for a 2 cour show, but shouldn't the pricing be reversed for the two if Kadokawa was pricing based on demand? There isn't much rhyme or reason to Kadokawa's pricing, other than you can expect it to be higher than average.

Good point with Gosick. Perhaps now the Japanese fans are getting irritated with Kadokawa's pricing.

It is interesting to note that the top 5 BD boxes in terms of sales are all Kadokawa shows (Haruhi, Strike Witches, Darker Than Black, Clannad After Story, and Clannad).

Megiddo wrote:

It is interesting to note that the top 5 BD boxes in terms of sales are all Kadokawa shows (Haruhi, Strike Witches, Darker Than Black, Clannad After Story, and Clannad).

Clannad is Pony Canyon, actually.

Ah, now that I did not know. Top 3 then.

PetrifiedJello wrote:

$451.

For Strike Witches on Bluray.

That's an upscale.

*tosses out quote regarding fools and their money.

Megiddo wrote:

No, that price tag is pretty normal. It may even be considered pretty cheap. The singles were 8,000 yen each, and I believe there were six of them. So the BD box for 36k yen (which Amazon has on sale for 26k) is quite a bargain over there.

I dug out my invoices for the LE DVDs (which also came with pretty thick booklets and CDs mind) and I paid $500.48 in total, including shipping (via YesAsia - Amazon discounts aren't worth it for me due to the shipping costs and inevitable import duty, handling charges and VAT).