Forum - View topicRetailer: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers' Standard Blu-rays/DVDs Cancelled
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Pokenatic
 Posts: 563 Location: Neo Venezia |
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I couldn't agree more. There's so much irony in the fact that that was the first banner ad ANN changed to after the article went up. |
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Zatheyll
 Posts: 39 |
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10k is very good. Bad is considered 3k. Okay is considered 4-6k. Anyting above 6k is well sold, and above 10k is successful by all regards. Also, Charlotte wasn't the biggest seller. Senki Zesshou was at 20.6k, and Overlord was second at 12.6k for volume averages. Charlotte also sold far more than that, they sold 9.5k volume average. Also, Aniplex only gets "high profile" shows because they literally own them. Aniplex is the largest producer of anime in Japan, and even has their very own anime production studio, A-1 Pictures (which is massive). They don't license them, they sell their own shows overseas with their overseas divisions. |
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Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
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Kodansha comtrols international rights for AoT and not PonyCan so as long aa that remains the case it'll stay in Funimations hands |
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Tuor_of_Gondolin
 Posts: 3524 Location: Bellevue, WA |
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Ah. I was unaware of that. While I doubt a single title can prop up a losing strategy, AoT might be enough to allow them to pull it off. I guess we'll see, but I still think they're being foolish. Edit: Just saw DivineKing's comments, which lead me to believe that AoT isn't going to magically save Ponycan, either. Last edited by Tuor_of_Gondolin on Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:26 am; edited 1 time in total |
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SpacemanHardy
Posts: 2509 |
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Not likely. Kodansha owns the international distribution rights to Attack on Titan, not Pony Canyon. As long as that doesn't change (and I see no reason why Kodansha would want it to), then FUNimation can pretty much grab everything AoT related out from under PC by way of a grandfather clause. It's just like how FUNi was able to get Black Butler: Books of Circus and Murder away from the evil clutches of Aniplex. Rest assured, AoT is a series that FUNimation would fight tooth & nail to keep hold of. After all, if Pony Canyon could, don't you think *they* would be the ones who licensed Attack on Titan: Jr. High this season? EDIT: Dangit, Jet ninja'd me. 
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Usagi-kun
 Posts: 877 Location: Nashville, TN |
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From the beginning, I haved believed this company has not understood, or even attempted a solid effort to understand, the North American/R1 market. Both their series choices and pricing models are ridiculous; but I have been led to believe all this time that Japanese otaku will literally buy anything even remotely associated with their fandom of choice.
And I am not saying that folks on this side of the ocean won't be squeezed for a few more dollars; Aniplex has since proven they will, on specific series. At this point though, PonyCan releases aren't even on my radar, Rokka is the only one I would have picked up as a standard release, but nevermind, I guess? That feeling itself is not a good relationship between retailer and consumer and simply surmised: Not good for business, period. |
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Alabaster Spectrum
Posts: 528 |
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The problem is the whole fanatics will buy anything associated with a franchise no matter how shitty the product is thing doesn't necessarily translate to the R1 market which anime companies don't seem to understand and then of course they blame the market rather than their own practices. Typical Japanese business attitudes really, it's a wonder it hasn't made me tired of anime already though I've been getting their more and more of late with just how exploitative it feels and how few producers seem introduced in making anything genuinely new, fun or exciting so much as just bilking fanatics of established commercial franchises or ideas. Even as profits continue to go up for the anime industry I'm just not convinced it's bringing in any new fans so much as getting better and better with exploiting certain long established fan groups. Basically the TL;DR of it is that unless you're willing to empty empty your bank accounts for a franchise like Love Live, Fate, SAO, Madoka whatever fans are it's like you don't matter at all to anime companies. |
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yuna49
 Posts: 3804 |
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Rokka no Yuusha's first two volumes averaged a bit over 500 units each in Japan. How "bad" is that? |
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
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@Yuna49
I wonder if they will do that well here. Unfortunately we will probably never know unless some disaffected employee spills the beans after being let go. |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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Trying to copy Aniplex's business model with a show that sells average 500 units in Japan is laughable. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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All I can imagine is that Rokka had to have done reasonably well on Crunchyroll to encourage Pony Canyon to think it might sell on disc in North America. Certainly the abysmal sales figures in Japan are a stimulus to find other sources of revenue to cover costs.
As most experienced viewers know, anime is usually made to advertise the source material. Sadly even by this criterion Rokka failed to impress. Here are light novel sales figures from MAL: 6/22-28 - not listed; (27th ranked work sold 5,375) 7/20-26 - Volume 6: 7,240 (20th) 7/27-8/2 - Volume 6: 5,048 (24th) 8/17-23 - not listed; (33rd ranked work sold 3,809) The first anime episode aired 7/5. Novel sales got some boost from the anime, but it was short-lived. I just did a quick check to see if there were any later sales figures, but I didn't find any. All of these data suggest to me that PC has chosen entirely the wrong pricing strategy in North America. Usually I've taken the view that the high prices Aniplex charges make sense in a marketplace where most people are watching either legal or illegal streams or torrenting streamrips. In that market you have to sell to the small but committed niche of collectors, just as Japanese distributors do domestically. But as Spotlesseden observes that strategy really only works for hits like Kill la Kill or Madoka where that niche market is reasonably large. For a marginal show like Rokka no Yuusha I would think low-balling on price makes the most sense. Of course, Pony Canyon doesn't want to establish such a precedent. There's also the concern about reverse-importation, but that only makes sense if there is demand in Japan to begin with. That doesn't seem to be the case for Rokka no Yuusha. My guess is North American sales will also be pretty dismal. All of this has to be bad news for Studio Passione. Most of their previous work has been in support roles; before Rokka they had produced only two shows, Rail Wars which sold about 1,750 units per volume, and Haitai Nanafa, a series of 13, two-minute episodes. If Rokka no Yuusha was intended as a prestige adaptation that would bring kudos (and yen) to Passione it doesn't seem to have served its purpose. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
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Rokka as a beginning of an ongoing series or as an advertisement for the novels works fairly well. Unfortunately it does not look as though there will be an additional anime season and the novels are not currently legally available here.
As a stand alone series, this show suffers from being a sort of one trick pony. What got a lot of involvement and discussion here was the tension and the mystery. They did a good job of sustaining that until the end. Unfortunately once you know the end that is not a draw. The only reason I would watch it now is to look for missed clues and to pick holes in the plot. (and there are a lot of holes in the plot) Basically this would warrant purchase at normal Sentai prices but not at five or six times that. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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For that you might as well use Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/rokka-braves-of-the-six-flowers- |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9841 Location: Virginia |
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@yuna49
Of course, that is where I saw it. It is a bit early to re-watch though. TRSI and RACS are currently charging a bit less than $40 for a 12 episode Bluray show from Sentai. I could see paying that for this show in order to watch it again in a year or so when it came out. However, at the rate of $210 for the same show the cost/benefit analysis simply doesn't work. If someone likes the show a lot more than I did or really wants the extras, it may be worth that to them. I can understand your suggestion that we are moving toward a market where only hardcore collectors buy hard copy, however, I don't think we are there yet. There are still a lot of people who want the disk version for a lot of reasons and are not interested in the extras. |
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yuna49
Posts: 3804 |
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My guess is that it will still be on Crunchy a year from now if for no other reason than that CR streams are likely to be the only source of R1 revenues for Rokka.
That's essentially the point I was making. High prices only work for shows that are in great demand like Madoka. They don't make any sense for Rokka no Yuusha.
I doubt you'll find them on many other anime sites besides ANN. You'd be hard-pressed to find people on MAL who think paying $7/month for Crunchyroll is worth it compared to watching illegal streams or torrents. Maybe when they get older they'll feel differently, but I think we're looking at a major generational change. |
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