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NEWS: DVD/BD Sales Drop 10% in Japan in 2017


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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:28 am Reply with quote
The Collectors are taking over! keep on buying, fellow allies!
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SailorPluto1313



Joined: 26 Jan 2016
Posts: 118
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:29 am Reply with quote
I'm a big of owning physical copies of anime so this seems mildly distressing at first, but I mean, many people stream their music or buy digital songs, but we still have CDs so.....

Price could have something to do with this too, as mentioned in the article.
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Angel M Cazares



Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5424
Location: Iscandar
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:34 am Reply with quote
I should not be surprised, but Your Name disc sales really boosted the overall anime disc sales for 2016 because anime series saw a decrease on the number of total titles that averaged at least 3k per volume.

SailorPluto1313 wrote:
Price could have something to do with this too, as mentioned in the article.

Japanese discs have been expensive for years. I attribute drop in sales to fans losing interest in physical media. Interestingly the Japanese anime disc market is evolving with more distributors starting to release volumes with 4-6 episodes, as opposed to just 2 episodes.
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64BitRatchet



Joined: 12 Jan 2017
Posts: 317
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:16 pm Reply with quote
I don't get why anyone buys DVDs anymore. I still collect films on Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD, and I will occasionally get an anime on Blu-Ray. When most people have at least HD tvs, why are they still buying DVDs, why not buy Blu Ray when the price difference is so small?
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matt78



Joined: 25 Jul 2015
Posts: 249
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 12:30 pm Reply with quote
64BitRatchet wrote:
I don't get why anyone buys DVDs anymore. I still collect films on Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD, and I will occasionally get an anime on Blu-Ray. When most people have at least HD tvs, why are they still buying DVDs, why not buy Blu Ray when the price difference is so small?


Unfortunately not everything is available on Blu Ray so people don't have any other choice. An example for me would be One Piece. I like the series but if I bought it Blu Ray only, I would only get to own 3 movies and no actual episodes.
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VanGosroth



Joined: 24 Mar 2006
Posts: 299
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:24 pm Reply with quote
Why pay a gorillion dollars for the anime disks when you can just buy the significantly cheaper manga / ln instead since almost everything is an adaptation anyway.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 440
Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:32 pm Reply with quote
VanGosroth wrote:
Why pay a gorillion dollars for the anime disks when you can just buy the significantly cheaper manga / ln instead since almost everything is an adaptation anyway.

We'll start with two words: "shelf space". When it comes to manga, I don't have any. And I'm sure that's a familiar refrain for many out there.

And I'm a video enthusiast who enjoys watching with others, especially sharing older titles with younger audiences. I'm sure others with chime in with their own reasons. Wink
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
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PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:32 pm Reply with quote
I guess streaming must be getting pretty big over there
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katscradle



Joined: 05 Jan 2013
Posts: 469
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:35 pm Reply with quote
I think people are just a little weary with physical media. I know some who won’t purchase physical discs, books etc anymore. Or they’ve transferred their old library to digital either via legal or less legal means. (The legal means doesn’t work for everything since not all titles are available that way.) I’m even getting tired of all the trouble with keeping my collection. I keep thinking about sleeve systems which cost quite a bit but, I have several LE boxsets with extras and what not. So it’s not like a shelf is going to go away. Just last year I had to replace a couple discs because they were broken too or, fancy sets have been damaged moving. This makes me wonder why I bother spending the money in the first place if my collection get messed up anyway.


matt78 wrote:
64BitRatchet wrote:
I don't get why anyone buys DVDs anymore. I still collect films on Blu-Ray and 4K Ultra HD, and I will occasionally get an anime on Blu-Ray. When most people have at least HD tvs, why are they still buying DVDs, why not buy Blu Ray when the price difference is so small?


Unfortunately not everything is available on Blu Ray so people don't have any other choice. An example for me would be One Piece. I like the series but if I bought it Blu Ray only, I would only get to own 3 movies and no actual episodes.


Despite having a fancy home theatre I’ll still buy DVDs in a few cases too. In addition to something not being available usually when I know there is some issue with the BD release (Sailor Moon). I’ll take an SD disc, over a janky HD one. Sometimes I choose DVD if there isn’t a combo pack because of how I want to use the show. My car has a DVD player instead of Blu-ray so I like to have children shows on DVD too. My laptop also doesn’t have a blu-ray drive or software. Region codes occasionally make a difference for people too. More money is still more money whether its 1000yen, $US or, whatever. Some people have tight budgets, currency conversion and fees/duties gets to them. Or people don’t notice or care as much about some of the differences. I hardly know about all of it myself.
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lumclaw



Joined: 09 Jun 2010
Posts: 47
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:45 pm Reply with quote
While I prefer physical media, buying a show I don't want is counter productive. The industry today rarely produces anime I treasure in quite the same way of Pokemon or Urusei Yatsura.
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Usagi-kun



Joined: 03 Jul 2013
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Location: Nashville, TN
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 1:48 pm Reply with quote
SailorPluto1313 wrote:
I'm a big of owning physical copies of anime so this seems mildly distressing at first, but I mean, many people stream their music or buy digital songs, but we still have CDs so.....


I get nervous when I read news like this too. I like streaming, it is convenient, but I buy series I like even more and am super proud of my shelf layouts.
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Ouran High School Dropout



Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 440
Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 2:14 pm Reply with quote
Usagi-kun wrote:
SailorPluto1313 wrote:
I'm a big of owning physical copies of anime so this seems mildly distressing at first, but I mean, many people stream their music or buy digital songs, but we still have CDs so.....

I get nervous when I read news like this too. I like streaming, it is convenient, but I buy series I like even more and am super proud of my shelf layouts.

Hear that! Make no mistake, streaming serves a vital function--but wait five years, and the vast majority of series are gone, gone, gone. That's why I too collect.
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I_Drive_DSM



Joined: 11 Feb 2008
Posts: 217
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:26 pm Reply with quote
This likely just looked directly at brick and mortar DVD/BD sales, but keep in mind that a lot of DVDs and BDs are distributed through various tie ins for a particular series. Example; many OVAs to a particular series are initially released as say a manga or figure tie-in. The incentive here is while you may stream a particular series you would still have to buy a particular IP's good or character good to get an otherwise unobtainable episode. Obviously outside Japan this isn't a prevalent as eventually OVAs to a series either trickle into a streaming service or are obtained through non-official channels.

I guess the point I'm getting at is in Japan at least even if there is a decrease in physical media for anime there will still likely be a subsequent market for it. At absolute worst you may eventually see DVD and BD tie-ins go the way of redeemable codes (which arguably may not be as bad).
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Crext



Joined: 04 Nov 2012
Posts: 211
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:44 pm Reply with quote
I hope the contracts are adjusted for taking into account a shifting of the market towards more streaming series and sales of merchandise rather than DVD/BR...
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:04 pm Reply with quote
I watch and enjoy a lot of anime and would continue to buy a lot if it weren't for the freaking shelf space issue. There's still advantages over the streamed or broadcast versions: complete series where there may be additional episodes or OVAs in the release and changes--uncensoring, animation cleanup/reviisions or directorial scene changes--for the disc release, and finally of course, the ability to own it forever without expiration. Licenses for some streaming titles expire quickly.

I already view all the disc releases digitally via rips or fansubs but I still have to keep all the original discs. So I would absolutely switch over to digital home video releases if they offered that option. The problem is DRM, but the music industry has shown that moving to DRM-free wasn't detrimental to their industry. I would still reluctantly accept digital home releases (but absolutely not just repackaged TV broadcast releases) with DRM if they had guarantees of indefinitely ownership/license and transfers.
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