Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Does Darker Than Black's License Withdrawal Mean?
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4584 |
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There are also those of us who want to see the Japanese industry go through a major restructuring/reorganization so that they aren't relying on a handful of hardcore fans buying crazy-expensive home video releases to keep operating. It's just not sustainable in the long-term.
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6532 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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If AoA prices become the norm in Australia, which, thankfully, they haven't, I would stop buying DVDs/BDs. I have other interests and those dollars can't be justified by the comparative enjoyment I would get from them. I wouldn't pay those prices for even my most beloved series (Noir, PMMM). I would channel my hard earned money into other pursuits. I suspect I would shortly thereafter stop watching anime altogether.
Last year I purchased 18 anime DVDs/BDs and probably averaged around AU$60 per title ($1080) I subscribe to Crunchyroll @ $7 per month; purchased two figures (~AU$70.00 ea), 2 Satoshi Kon manga collections, 2 anime-related novels and saw 7 anime films at the cinema (~AU$15.00 a pop). I reckon I spent at least $1500 on anime. I'm sure there are other leisure industries that would love my $1500. I could start reading novels again, start going to concerts again, go back to building/collecting model battleships, go to football matches, all sorts of things. |
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SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
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Well AoA discs are made in Japan and have the same quality as JP discs, which far surpasses discs from Funimation, Sentai etc, so your eyes are definitely not decieving you! @Artesox Sadly many here doesn't seem to care about the industry, only their bank accounts.
By far the largest anime market and has been going strong for what, two decades in its current shape of disc sales and has been showing strong yearly growth for several years since the bubble burst? You make it sound as if you want the Japanese anime industry, which is currently doing pretty damn good, to burn just because you don't like the way they do things. |
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2025 |
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I'm pretty sure Kadokawa's strict with Blu-ray timing regardless. They used to not allow overseas Blu-rays at all for a while, but now it takes years for them to happen. I remember Deadman Wonderland being DVD-only in 2012, and the Blu-ray not coming out until two years later. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4584 |
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I want the anime industry to be around for a long time and provide a venue for really talented storytellers and animators to showcase their talents, and it's because of this that I want the current model to change. You know as well as I that in its current form, any particular series relies on a mere few thousand people buying a certain DVD set in order to make back its money. Do you really want that miniscule group of people determining what does or doesn't get made, and do you really think they're going to be able to keep the industry vibrant over the next few decades? The industry has become more insular than ever over the past several years; I want it to do the opposite. I want to see series that can make money on their own terms, instead of relying on hoary old cobbled-together production committees buying infomercial time on late-night television for the sake of selling a handful of overpriced disks. What Aniplex is doing, like so much of the Japanese corporate world, is clinging to the past and fighting against change. The sane response to reverse importation fears isn't to take your ball and go home, it's to take a good hard look at the dissatisfied portion of your domestic market and see how you can better serve them. But no, instead we all get screwed over because of their ill-founded paranoia. (Also I like your insinuation that people who want to save money are being selfish, when that's pretty much the primary prerogative of any consumer.) Like errinundra, if this represents the wave of the future, then I'll just stop buying anime. I already own enough unwatched series that it'll take me several years of my usual sporadic watching pace to get caught up. If the anime industry doesn't want my money, I'll happily spend it elsewhere. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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And as for taking years to happen, let's look at some recent titles. -Maoyu: Last JPBD: August 2013 Sentai BD: June 2014 -Another: Last JPBD: August 2012 Sentai BD: July 2013 -Tokyo ESP: Last JPBD: February 2015 FUNimation BD: February 2016 -Inari Kon Kon: Last JPBD: July 2014 FUNimation BD: July 2015 -Chaika: The Coffin Princess S1: Last JPBD: November 2014 Sentai BD: December 2015 -No Game, No Life: Last JPBD: November 2014 Sentai BD: July 2015 The only Kadokawa title recently to go DVD-only is Riddle Story of Devil from FUNimation. Why IDK considering FUNimation for a while was able to put out BD's again, and an upcoming title (Which I mentioned above) is going to be released on BD at a reasonable time after the final Japanese Blu-ray. Not to mention the Kadokawa titles they acquired at Otakon 2014 still haven't been released. IDK if it's Kadokawa not giving FUNi the materials yet (Like what's holding up the Otakon 2013 Sunrise rescues) or what. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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As Zalis116 said, that's a bit of an exaggeration. The majority of 12/13 episode sets are in the $50-$65 range. The $20 whole season sets, like Funimation's SAVE line, are basically for older shows and/or shows that sold poorly. It could be years before you can get the entire season of Attack on Titan or Psycho Pass for $20 and by that time, it's doubtful that the Japanese publishers will taking significant losses at that point.
Completely agree. I don't want owning anime, and the anime industry in general, to turn into some exclusive club for only hardcore collectors. |
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SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
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Disc sales is a big factor yes, but even shows that have performed poorly in that regard have gotten sequels because of either merch sales, original work boost or a combination of all of those. You don't need a 10K disc average to guarantee a sequel if the manga is selling like hotcakes or if CDs/figurines etc are pulling in a lot of ¥¥¥.
You mean people who put their money where their mouth is and vote with their wallets? Yes, yes I do. It's quite a neat thing that fans, on such a scale, can determine what's a hit and what's not. More power to the fans isn't something that i'd call bad. As for the second question I have no idea, I can't look into the future. If we flip the question to "do you think a more western price model will be better for the Japanese market?" then the answer is a firm no.
That's very interesting, what do you mean by this statement? Certainly you can't mean cheaper disc prices, because that'd be paradoxal. With the current model even very niche titles can rake in a decent amount of money, since the Japanese price model doesn't rely on masses, but rather on a smaller amount of dedicated fans. |
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AbZeroNow
Posts: 519 |
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Well in a way Top Gun is getting his wish, the Japanese anime industry is undergoing a very gradual shift as streaming revenue is beginning to show parity with disc revenue.
However, South Pacific and company would be correct about how inelastic the domestic Japanese home video market is. I am willing to pay slightly more for more dubs and better video quality. I am an Aniplex consumer, but I also buy from NIS America and Sentai Filmworks. I also think paying extra for the correct color balance is worth it [Sorry but FUNimation especially needs to fix that]. |
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One-Eye
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SouthPacific
Posts: 689 |
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I knew I forgot something in my reply, streaming. I've heard about some pretty impressive growth figures for anime streaming in Japan and it's really nice to see since it contributes to the growth of the entire market.
I've also seen that streaming in Japan is actually cheaper than the western anime streaming services, though I can't find the source. @One-Eye And that's exactly what I said and implied... Wait, no it's not  .
You will support a cheaper release with inferior disc quality from a company that doesn't produce anime, but you will not support a more expensive release with great video quality from a company that does produce anime. That's the point I tried to make. By the look of other posts I guess all that matters is runtime per dollar  .
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 9853 Location: Virginia |
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The idea that North American prices for anime are in any way hurting the Japanese anime industry is based on the incorrect assumption that the industry is in any way dependent on North American revenue. From all reports, anime is sustained by the profit the various members of the production committees obtain from Japanese sales. And that includes sales of various merchandise in addition to disk sales. Money from foreign sales including North America is helpful but not required to sustain the current business model. This is why Aniplex of Japan and other Japanese companies can refuse or limit licensing of shows to us. They do not require the funds that could be obtained that way.
The price of anime from Funimation and Sentai is dependent largely on their cost of production, including the cost of the license. It is independent of the cost of actually producing the anime. Unfortunately if the costs of licenses increases it will inevitably cause the cost of season and half season sets to increase. @Top Gun Be very careful what you wish for. While the current anime business model is likely not sustainable in the long run, a change to a different system is likely to cause major disruptions to the entire industry. I really doubt that anyone could predict what such a revised anime industry would look like, who would be the survivors and what the content would be like. I doubt that anyone who now likes anime would be happy with the result. |
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addiemon
Posts: 93 |
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I don't think that's fair-- most people can't afford to spend $300 per series, especially when a more affordable, legitimate product exists. That you can is wonderful and I'm glad you do it! But especially given how different that pricing is from the way such things are priced here-- the value western culture assigns to anime product --AND given the problem piracy still poses, no one should be given guff because they buy an R1 product instead of R2. |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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LOL. If that were true, then no one would buy Blu-rays, and Aniplex certainly wouldn't be selling anything. Many folks are vocal about not liking higher prices, that's true, and even the cheaper anime tends to be more expensive than US shows. So, being unhappy about higher prices is understandable, but clearly there are folks who care enough about quality that they're willing to pay for it, even if they'd prefer lower prices. Personally, I've bought a large portion of Aniplex's Blu-ray releases, and I definitely like getting higher quality, but it would also be nice to not have to pay so much. Certainly, I couldn't afford to pay Aniplex's prices for every show, and I have a fair bit of disposable income (as opposed to some of the folks around here who seem to be scraping by and barely able to afford what little anime they do buy). I confess that I am constantly surprised though by folks who think that Blu-ray is a waste of money and that DVDs look good enough. I get annoyed at how bad Blu-rays often look and am far more likely to pass on a show than to buy it on DVD. So, while there are obviously folks who care about visual and audio quality, there are also clearly a lot of folks who don't. |
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MaxSterling
 Posts: 35 |
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Is Darker than Black a good show? Been out of the anime buying market since the DVD heyday and only pick up an anime from time to time. One of the shows that had a similar fate was Gurren Lagann for me. I picked up the DVDs with the cool box and when it was rereleased as movies and blu-rays the pricing was insane.
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