Forum - View topicAnswerman - What Does Darker Than Black's License Withdrawal Mean?
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
#824867
Posts: 11 |
|
|||||||
I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree. For sure, we're better off than we used to be, but by no means is anime an inexpensive hobby, at least from my experience as someone living in the UK. Whenever I show my friends the prices of anime I'm looking to buy, they react with JoJo levels of "OH NO!", and with good reason. £30+ for less than 13 20-minute Blu-Ray episodes is beyond expensive. And £25 for half a season on DVD is a joke. Compare any of these prices to live-action DVDs and the difference is insane. From a glancing look it's about 3x more expensive to buy anime. And might I add that we're repeatedly screwed over with DVD releases speeding things up to squish more episodes onto fewer discs. "The Devil is a Part Timer" becomes almost impossible to watch with how high pitch Chiho's voice becomes when sped up. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
|
|||||||
There are still a lot of Geneon and ADV titles that you can pick up for ridiculously cheap prices. I just bought the LE volume sets for Koi Kaze and Kino's Journey for like $15 each a few months ago. And of course those Appleseed DVDs are still pretty much everywhere. I'm guessing you're more referring to titles prior to the bubble though. In general, this isn't a bad practice, although I'd feel a little guilty if I bought multiple copies of limited sets just so I could make money off of them, especially if it goes OOP really quickly. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
residentgrigo
 Posts: 2426 Location: Germany |
|
|||||||
|
Paying to re-license a niche show a near decade after the fact is just pissing money away in most cases and such news can only grow exponentially due to the glut of content being produced these days. Keep trading the tapes kidZ but feel free to burn the ones for Gemini of the Meteor...
It admittedly lead to the excellent Gaiden OVA of which i could have used more. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
DmonHiro
|
|
|||||||
|
I have to say that TopGun is making some very weird statements.
He said that he wants the Japanese industry to change so that it won't be just the relatively small number of big spenders deciding what gets made, but that's how a business SHOULD function. Those are the people who are giving money to the producers, why on Earth shouldn't they be the deciding factor? In any given season there are several genres of shows. Why would it be weird that the genre that sells a lot gets made a lot? It's economy 101: supply and demand. |
||||||||
Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
|
|||||||
Of course, that'd only apply if you don't have any other anime that you want to buy... On Aniplex, it will be interesting to see if older titles will all end up reverting back to them, even if companies want to renew their licenses, or if it will only be "bigger" titles. Well, the only Aniplex title I've wanted for awhile is Zakuro. Unsure if that one will fall out of NISA's hands and back into Aniplex's. But, I bought it during Rightstuf's sale, and it arrived a week ago. So, happy to have that one on disk. I'd like to check out DtB, but can't find anywhere that streams it. While I don't know if Madman are going to run out of copies any time soon, I also don't know if it is a show worth a blind buy for me. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
MagusGuardian
 Posts: 590 |
|
|||||||
|
first off I know I posted earlier about pricing issues with the BD set of gurren lagann but I just wanted to say that I'm really glad I got my sets for darker than black seasons 1 and 2 when I did but holy hell this blew up into a hell of a piss and vinegar fight really freaking fast. Yes one side wants affordable value so that the fandom isn't only the stuck up elites all while managing a sustainable budget to live on and yes the other side believes that they're right in paying the premium to support the industry but as it was stated before disk sales Alone are not the deciding factor in what survives and what doesn't, Does that mean that anime sales in the US alone should be affordable for all especially those who aren't so well off yeah it sort of does because yes some titles don't do so well and they have to rely on other means of profit income through merchandising sales but that alone shouldn't lead to lower quality releases, while at the same time other titles do so well that they get multiple re-releases but still that doesn't warrent a premium price of the $300+ range, because you can have just as nice a release for a premium as well as for a bargain because there is more to just the disk sales to stabilize the in flow of profits.
Stepping away from the subject of who is right and who is wrong in the battle for pricing misrepresentation, seeing these ridiculously outlandish, stuck up, arrogant, and long dragging arguments Reminds me Once again that in the public view anime fans are looked upon poorly and indiscriminately, because of all the in fighting and arguments between fans most of the general public still perceives anime as a cause of dis-fucntional and social problems in fans and point the blame for the actual culprits at anime and other forms of "violent" media just because they see how much fans argue amongst themselves, can't we just come to a consensus and agree on some points and work out alternate solutions for others instead of the constant arguing and bickering? I don't know how it is for anyone else but even in my own home town where anime fans have become more open about their fandom of the media there are still people who give me and other anime fans weird looks of confusion or disgust over the fact that we're fans of anime and everytime I ask them why they give me that look they always ask if I'm some kind of trouble maker or have social or mental problems. I may just be blowing my own horn about this but as a whole can't we as anime fans just come to some kind of agreement on certain things and just get along to put out a better public image than a flock of squabbling argumentative gathering of chickens? Yes some people on both sides have made good points but what does arguing with each other get? flared tempers, angry threats, and more frustration and self induced stress that no one really needs , as for the whole thing with darker than black and now baccano lets just leave it at the fact that the licenses are expiring or in DTB's case expired and be happy that some got it when they can and some can still get them now, what comes in the future comes as for what that is Only Time Will TELL not one side of the argument versus the other |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Divineking
 Posts: 1293 |
|
|||||||
Because that same group of people won't live forever can't be eternally relied upon to drive the industry? The system as it is now works for sure, but in the long run relying solely on that small group of people can eventually cause the industry to implode on itself, especially considering the number of Japanese buyers is more likely to shrink over the years rather than expand thanks to some of Japan's current problems. The industry's thriving for the moment thanks to some colossal hits, but on the other end of things we've seen production committees taking less risks, and episode counts for new stuff gradually getting shorter as a result of the Japan side of things becoming more insular. That said while there will eventually come a point where that system alone won't cut it, it likely won't be anytime soon and all that's really needed to avert a potential crisis is expansion, which between streaming becoming a bigger market and companies like Netflix looking to invest in anime seems like it's already starting to happen. I just feel like the notion that this system is somehow perfect and incredible is kind of nuts. It's functional for sure, but it has it's problems and could certainly use a leg up to keep the industry running. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
DmonHiro
|
|
|||||||
|
I understand what you mean, Divineking, but you have to realize that while the old fans will die, new fans will be born. Heck, anime BD/DVD sales in Japan have been on the increase. I don't know where you got the data that the number of Japanese buyers is more likely to shrink over the years, but I doubt it's accurate. The sales at least point to the opposite.
The reason most shows are 13 episode long is because Japan finally realized that commissioning more is stupid, since you can't tell if it will sell or not. Heck, it was weird when they kept making 26+ series all at once. Canceling a show in Japan while its airing is far more difficult then in America, so even if you know you're losing money after 13 episode, you still kind of have to finish it. And from a business sense, that's really stupid. So is taking risks, actually. Nobody in their right mind would take a risk they don't need to take. On the note of Netflix, that will have next to no impact on the Japanese industry, and here's why: Japanese buyers don't but stuff aimed at westerners. They just don't. Having Netflix on the production team might mean more R1 sales, but a loss of R2 sales. R2 sales are far more important because they cost a lot more. And don't say that the price of R2 needs to go down, because that doesn't work. Lowering the price of anime in Japan does not lead to a significant increase in sales. Yes, when the 1st volume is discounted, only has one episode and an event ticket it will sell a lot more, but sometimes not even that works. You need to stop trying to apply western sales principles on an eastern market. They don't match. I also keep hearing that people don't want only a small hand of otaku deciding what gets made, because it's "bad for the industry". First off, it's good for the industry to have people spend real hard cash. Second, more often the not, those people simply don't like the type of anime otaku buy, and thus claim that the continued creation of said anime (mostly moe) is bad for the industry, when the truth is they just don't like it. |
||||||||
doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
|
|||||||
I don't own Charlie Brown Christmas on BR, but I do own Great Pumpkin on BR and it looks solid. The colors look quite good. Besides, you kind of answered your own question by mentioning "tiny TV screens". People are generally going to stick to their good-sized HD TV, why waste money on another TV that's smaller for such types of shows when a well-done BR can fix the issue? |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Divineking
Posts: 1293 |
|
|||||||
I hate to bring up the declining birth rate thing because it generally sounds like a conspiracy theory when someone says that but it is very much a thing in Japan meaning that yes, the number of buying otaku will eventually decline at some point. Sales have gone up because we've had a considerable number of mega hits over the last few years and that's keeping things strong for the time being but that core market shrinking in Japan is an inevitability. I'm just hoping by the time that's an actual threat the industry will have moved on from relying primarily on that to survive.
I'm aware that episode counts being cut is more production committies being careful than anything else, and I don't have much issue with that, but given how long that kind of thing was standard it's an indication of a core market that's become more insular than expansive. And of course companies are going to have to take risks every now and then. No one business model is eternally sustainable and there'll eventually come a point where they have to take a gamble on stuff to grow. Heck the system as it currently exists is pretty much one big gamble since there's still no established formula for what'll be a hit outside of big adaptions (and even those can backfire occasionally).
When I mentioned Netflix I didn't mean that in regards to the west having a big impact on the JP side of market(especially since Netflix actually has begun to penetrate the JP market specifically). That's certainly almost never going to happen. I just meant that it puts less of a burden on the otaku dollar for whatever shows end up under than banner which is a good thing for consumers who want more of this stuff. Even putting Netflix aside, streaming in general will more than likely end up affecting the system as it currently exists, and that could be helpful in reducing the amount of gigantic flops we end up getting
I don't think that's particularly good for the industry either but not because I'm worried about the kinds of shows we'll get (some of my all-time favorites are things from the last 3 years) but more because there's still no way of knowing what'll make a splash or not, and with the way the system currently is, it makes the failures particularly explosive. I'm not in anyway trying to argue the system now doesn't work, if it didn't I wouldn't be watching anime right now, but in the long run change will eventually be needed to survive. That's just how business works. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
DmonHiro
|
|
|||||||
|
Divineking, you hit the nail on the head with your last paragraph. I've been noticing this for a while, but it's really become increasingly hard to predict what will and what won't sell. In the 2000s, I think this was much easier. You could see 3-5 episodes and know "This is going to sell a lot", "This will bomb" or "this will do decently". You can't do that anymore, and sometimes I can't figure out why.
|
||||||||
|
Parsifal24
|
|
|||||||
|
With physical media, I understand the whole idea of haveing it "forever" and haveing a collection. I, however, tend to look at a lot of the stuff I watch on streaming and honestly if I really like something I will re-watch it twice tops.
SO I have kind of resigned myself to the fact that certain shows are not going to be around indefinitely on streaming services. I watch it when it's available then move on because I don;t have unlimited time or income. In short I'm very "tide goes in tide goes out" about it. I'm never going to watch everything so I might as well watch what I enjoy while it's available then move on when it's not. |
||||||||
|
Lycosyncer
Posts: 526 |
|
|||||||
|
The only thing I could say after reading this is that I am glad that I got the first season of Darker Than Black already on DVD and I am also doubly glad that I got both incarnations of Fullmetal Alchemist because if Aniplex dare steals FMA away from Funimation, there's going to be hell to pay and I am sure that Funimation won't let Aniplex take FMA back without putting up a fight first!
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Snakebit1995
 Posts: 842 |
|
|||||||
That's if Aniplex even lets them put up a fight, people are already speculating that Aniplex won't even come to the table to discuss, it's not a matter of taking your Ball and going home, it's more like Aniplex won't even come to the park that day. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
|
|||||||
As Zalis161 said nobody in the US sells anime that cheaply for the initial release. Also, by the time the anime is sold here it has already made money from the video sales in Japan. And, probably more important, it has made money from the manga and merchandise sales in Japan. The Japanese, like all good businessmen, want to get as much money from us as possible, but that does not necessarily mean having high prices. Sometimes lower prices, which can result in more sales here, make more profit. Selling relatively cheap anime to us is not going to hurt the anime industry in Japan. |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group