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luffypirate



Joined: 06 Oct 2006
Posts: 3186
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:33 pm Reply with quote
Funny thing is that I like those less than grade A titles that Bandai Visual released over most of Aniplexs. Bought 'em ALL (everything except Freedom and Honneamise on HD DVD) and have watched every single bit of content on the discs. My favorite extra was the live event on the first Galaxy Angel Rune disc! Fantastic extra.

As for pricing I've never been deterred because of it. If I want it I'll buy it no complaints.
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publicenemy333



Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Posts: 563
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:10 pm Reply with quote
Akaname wrote:
Quote:
Sheesh. Aniplex is obviously doing this because it works. Madoka Magica was released the same way at the same price, and it sold like hotcakes. Now, Kill la Kill is getting the same treatment. It would be nice if Aniplex released them at a cheaper price, but they did the math, and determined it makes more sense for them to do it this way, by making more money selling fewer discs to customers that can afford it.


I could afford it, but am choosing not to bother. I bought the Madoka LE releases, and have since regretted spending an absurd amount on 13 episodes. Their "math" is short term, I doubt many people are buying those Madoka singles these days. So to think an incredibly popular series released only 2 years ago is making zero profit for them seems stupid.


Why would they wanna focus on a title that already made em money two years ago when they got so many new hot titles for this year that they can make profits from now. Sucks as it may, they arent idiots. If this strategy wasnt working they wouldnt do it. They are focusing on the now, and they know enough people will buy them to make them the maximum profit. If it doesnt make them money in two years, so? They'll have the next biggest thing that will sell just as much.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:14 pm Reply with quote
merr wrote:
I thought Aniplex prices were all about fending off reverse importation rather than maximizing profit. They probably do enough business to keep the lights on, but are they really making more money than they would with normal prices?


It's an interesting question and I'm not sure anyone really knows the answer. I personally feel they are leaving money on the table by appealing primarily to dedicated collectors who don't blanch at their prices. Eh, but what do I know? AoA is definitely increasing the number of titles they offer from year to year so it seems safe to make the assumption that they are happy with their model.
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2377
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:14 pm Reply with quote
merr wrote:
I thought Aniplex prices were all about fending off reverse importation rather than maximizing profit. They probably do enough business to keep the lights on, but are they really making more money than they would with normal prices?


That's a definite side-reason they're most definitely aware of, but the priority is selling to a niche group of truly dedicated fans. There would be no incentive to prevent reverse importation if the prices turned customers in the region they're trying to sell to off to the product.
As for their profits, I don't think we have actual numbers, but from their business model, it seems they're focusing on selling a goal amount and not trying to over-indulge (which costs more to produce and could extend beyond the cut-off point where they'd get profit back to make up those costs) or under-indulge (producing so little that they make very little, leaving a significant number of fans with the money and desire to purchase the products empty-handed). If they make their goal, it's a success and was worth the investment.

Besides, even in the latter's case, if they sold everything and were still receiving a lot of demand, I can bet that they'd push to make a few more volumes of the product to satisfy the excess demand. Not a whole lot, but enough to perceive when sales start to fall.

Not everything they've pushed out has been a huge success in general, but they're smart with their business and tend to not place so many hopes on those. The ones they sell are typically just really popular with the particular fans they're targeting.
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gravediggernalk
Space Cowboy



Joined: 13 Oct 2013
Posts: 246
Location: Alabama
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:25 pm Reply with quote
If you're going to have garbage, you might as well have funny garbage, and that's the ADV dub of Ghost Stories.

As far as Aniplex USA's pricing model goes . . . don't buy from them if you don't like it, it's that simple. Oh no, they probably won't stop, but they don't have to, see: Instead of "selling X-large amount of discs at Y-small price" and hoping and praying that they sell all of them to get enough out to replace what they put in, they "sell X-small amount of discs at Y-large price" and know that they're going to at least sell the minimum they need to keep the lights on and the water runnin'. With things like Gurren Lagann, Madoka, and Kill la Kill, sure, they could probably lower the prices a little bit and sell more discs, but from their point of view, it's not worth the risk when they don't need to do it, and that's business. They wouldn't be doing it if they weren't doing well with it.
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Northlander



Joined: 10 Feb 2009
Posts: 900
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:57 pm Reply with quote
I got a mail some years ago from one of our readers who asked me whether I thought Elfen Lied was appropriate viewing for her 15 year old son, to which I replied something along the lines of: "With the abundance of violence and gore on display from time to time; no, probably not."

The reply I got went something like "Oh, I'm not too concerned about the violence -- he watches that sort of thing on TV normally anyway -- but I heard there was nudity in the show".

So... yeah. I guess it's easier to misuse nudity and/or fanservice, but it was still an amazing thing to hear.
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Zalis116
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Joined: 31 Mar 2005
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Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:05 pm Reply with quote
re: DVD Easter Eggs -- It saddens me that we'll likely never see anything on par with the Noir and Madlax Sock Puppet Theatre extras again.

re: Dub rewrites -- they don't work for everything, but the more Japanese you know, the more you see that Japanese anime scriptwriting (and to an extent, the Japanese language itself) is often boring and repetitive, depending on the creativity of subtitle writers (best case: the a.f.k. Haruhi fansubs vs. the official subs) to seem more interesting. Dub rewrites can and do improve a show or salvage it from being bland and uninteresting. Like Steven Foster's Orphen dub: turn on the subtitles with the English audio, and you can see that the original (as represented by the subtitles) is a snoozefest compared to the dub.

Quote:
Subtitle translations are often pretty "raw" and literal -- most of the time, reading them out loud would sound awkward.
Of course, the awkwardness doesn't stop certain companies from trying it, see below. It's too bad many disc subs go for the "worst of both worlds" route of being both localized and literal. The purist sector of the audience would go for unlocalized literal subs, most people are fine with the balance of unlocalized but liberal (retaining Japanese "flavorings" like honorifcs and such while prioritizing natural, flowing English phrasing), and localized/liberal may annoy the purists while providing entertainment value comprabale to a dub. But I have to wonder if anybody likes awkward, stilted subs that read like raw translations but cut out honorifics, reverse name orders, etc.

Quote:
There are a few dubs out there that come from the "print out the subtitle script and get in the booth" school of anime dubbing, but they're mostly old and pretty terrible dubs,
Numerous recent Sentai Filmworks dubs would disagree with the "old" part.

Parsifal24 wrote:
sexual content doesn't really bother me unless it's mean spirited or "rapey"
How much of it really is "rapey" though, outside of obvious realms like hentai and the occasional show like Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero? There's certainly the perception of fanservice anime that they all are:
Zac wrote:
So why do I give [Free!] a 4 when I'd probably give something with really similar fanservice for dudes something like a 1.5 or some stupid joke grade? Easy: the fanservice in here makes me laugh because it's goofy, campy and on-the-nose. It is a riotous pile of gay innuendo that doesn't even try to hide what it is or take itself seriously. The camera ogles these boys in the exact same way the camera hovers over some tied up waifu-chan with huge tits begging the hero not to rape her, but this is camp, the same as a legion of gay camp that has come before, and there's nothing in it that even comes close to suggesting subordinance, assault, or victimization, which is an unfortunate component of a lot of male-targeted fanservice shows.

And yet, another prevalent criticism of those shows is that the male leads are overly shy, indecisive, or downright terrified (if not literally allergic) to the female touch, and thus not deserving to have a bevy of babes competing for his attention via degrading acts such as making boxed lunches. So somehow, harem/fanservice male leads are wimpy cowardly milquetoast losers who blush and turn away at the sight of female skin, but are also hardcore sexual predators and rapists.

paiprince wrote:
Yeah, ecchi series as a whole have better production values than straight hentai. They also don't take forever to finish (a 13 or maybe 24 scheduled episodes over 2 or 4 episodes over a span of 4 years give or take.)
Exactly -- after a certain point, a definite quantity advantage overtakes a dubious quality advantage. To Love-Ru: 60 episodes across 3 series and a few OVAs, with easy potential for more. Most hentai OVAs: 2-3 episodes at most. And I've never understood the "everything must be completely chaste or hardcore porn" mentality of the ecchi critics. Oftentimes, the borderline, teasing material is more compelling than the straight-up, explicit sex. Though if people want the latter out of ecchi anime or manga, that's where doujinshi fill in the gap. And there's also a romantic and emotional escapism component of ecchi shows that hentai isn't going to deliver.
Quote:
(And also, once you've dated for a while, you know just how completely fake the poorer-written anime "romances" really are.)
True, but so are plenty of romance novels and Western romance movies/TV shows, and "normal people experience mundane relationships" isn't much of a hook for anything.

FreezeFrame100 wrote:
Fans still want to feel like they have influence and an important opinion so there are many silent supporters who speak with their wallets and credit cards whenever a new ecchi anime is sold. There will always be porn & hentai, but ecchi only endures as long as it sells well just like anything else.
Indeed; I think the question-asker is seeing some kind of phantom rejection of fanservice material in the North American market. I'm recalling the Geneon postmortem ANNCast, where Chad Kime said that "boob shows" like IkkiTousen and DearS at least came close to breaking even or made money, whereas darker/serious titles like Paranoia Agent, Heat Guy J, Fighting Spirit, and Demon Lord Dante were money losers to a small or large degree. Funimation has said that Shuffle! sold surprisingly well, despite being on 4-episode singles in Q1-Q2 2008 while the market was in a marked decline, and hasn't shied away from similar titles in recent years, either.

invalidname wrote:
First rule of capitalism: stuff is worth what people will pay for it.
Except for labor, which is apparently worth as little as businesses can get away with paying for it while taxpayers (whether they patronize the business or not) make up the difference between that amount and what it takes to keep those workers housed, bathed, clothed, and fed well enough to perform their jobs.

Utsuro no Hako wrote:
Watamote and Aku no Hana had plenty of sexual content, but you don't hear a lot of objections because the female characters had agency and desires of their own instead of existing as male wank fantasies.
So did the girls in Kiss x Sis and Kodomo no Jikan, but those have widespread objections (including the manga release getting canceled here) and suffered from deletion at the formerly-useful tropes site. Just goes to show that sexual material is apparently only acceptable in sufficiently "edgy" or GrimDark settings.


Last edited by Zalis116 on Sun Nov 30, 2014 7:19 pm; edited 1 time in total
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SouthPacific



Joined: 24 Oct 2013
Posts: 689
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:09 pm Reply with quote
merr wrote:
I thought Aniplex prices were all about fending off reverse importation rather than maximizing profit. They probably do enough business to keep the lights on, but are they really making more money than they would with normal prices?


One could speculate that they do, with the influx of titles they've been getting in recent times. Or else they'd be in the business of losing money, which I don't think they are.

To be honest, i much prefer Aniplex of America over companies like Funimation & Sentai Filmworks because with AoA i'm guaranteed a great release in both video & audio quality, as well as packaging/extras. With Funimation & Sentai Filmworks I never pre-order something, because it's nearly always hit or miss with what they're going to screw up. Sometimes it's something small that won't affect ones viewing pleasure all too much, and sometimes it's things beyond that... I was really psyched about the premium editions that Funimation put out, but yeah... Cheap extras, art box malfunctions etc... With Aniplex this never happens. Never.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:13 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
How much of it really is "rapey" though, outside of obvious realms like hentai and the occasional show like Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero? There's certainly the perception of fanservice anime that they all are


The quote says "a lot", not "all". If you're going to quote me to try and make your point you could at least not mischaracterize what I actually said in the thing you're quoting.
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PCDOS



Joined: 19 Nov 2013
Posts: 25
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:19 pm Reply with quote
My issue with Aniplex is that I could buy one show from them, or three shows from someone else for the same price. I've got a region free player already, so it just makes financial sense for me to import UK editions of shows they release, and end up with more anime in my collection overall.
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Just-another-face



Joined: 08 Feb 2014
Posts: 324
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:28 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
There is no absolutely pure way of translating something, much as some of us might like to think otherwise.


And yet those same ignorant folks think that because something is subtitled, it's still the "original script" to them anyway and also think they're learning Japanese by watching it subbed. Poor delusional fools... Rolling Eyes
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Utsuro no Hako



Joined: 18 May 2012
Posts: 1032
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Zalis116 wrote:
How much of it really is "rapey" though, outside of obvious realms like hentai and the occasional show like Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero?


Any series that uses the trip-fall-grope gag. Well, maybe "sexual-assaulty" would be more accurate, but "rapey" is easier to say.
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SouthPacific



Joined: 24 Oct 2013
Posts: 689
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Just-another-face wrote:
Quote:
There is no absolutely pure way of translating something, much as some of us might like to think otherwise.


And yet those same ignorant folks think that because something is subtitled, it's still the "original script" to them anyway and also think they're learning Japanese by watching it subbed. Poor delusional fools... Rolling Eyes


While I myself haven't heard anyone ever call subtitles "the original script" i've many times seen people say that it's as close as you'll get to the original. And I don't think this is an opinion, but rather a fact.

And i've never seen anyone proclaim that they're learning Japanese by reading subtitles in English either, that's just plain silly haha Laughing
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EighteenSky





PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Justin just summed up Aniplex's pricing strategy perfectly. I have no problem with their pricing, every show they've had has seemed reasonable to me if I like the show. Even when I don't like a show they have the prices are never too high. I imported their SAO sets because they were gorgeous and worth the money instead of the bare bones UK release.

Quote:
Personally, I don't get annoyed when there are boobs in anime. There have always been boobs in anime. I get annoyed because there is NOTHING ELSE in the show.

This kinda sums up my thoughts. Though I am a big ecchi fan I haven't really seen any shows that are just boobs and nothing else. Sure I've seen appalling fan service laden shows like Zettai Shougeki: Platonic Heart and Kill La Kill but to me they are the exception. Well maybe I just haven't seen enough of these shows despite my love for them. Actually I'm pretty sure of that.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 2:39 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Something full of blood-n-gore murder-death-kill trends towards the most popular, well received and reviewed shows.Meanwhile, the fan service, T & A heavy shows get lambasted for their content?


In this case, that kind of grindhouse action is what made anime awesome, while dudes who whine about their normal lives while hanging out with stacked bitches is what makes anime shitty. Rolling Eyes
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