Forum - View topicINTEREST: ITmedia Journalist Explains Why Anime Discs Are Not Selling
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Kicksville
 Posts: 1175 |
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If he's going to talk about the North American market, it might be worth mentioning a major reason disc sales are continuing as well as they are compared to Japan may have something to do with them being considerably cheaper. Not quite a clean comparison.
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Kadmos1
 Posts: 13555 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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Discs have not lost their utility, Sudo argues. If you really treasure an anime, you should buy it on disc so that it can't disappear. Therefore, the real reason why sales are declining is because there is simply too much anime being released, and individual titles struggle to stand out. He cites statistics from the Digital Contents White Paper: Ten years ago, the market for late-night anime discs was worth approximately 83 billion yen (about US$730.5 million) across 155 titles. In 2016, it was worth 50 billion yen (US$440 million) across 266 titles.
OK, piracy aside, what can account for a $289.5 million decrease in an 8-year span? |
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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Changing circumstances. I think he's spot on when he says there's a much tighter competition now. 8 years ago there were more anime made than 8 years before, sure, but it still wasn't this much, so a show had more chances to stand out and capture fans' hearts. Also, this may be just me being cynical, but by today many shows perfected fan pandering to a degree that wasn't quite common back then. So when a show did something that was a surprising delight to fans it was easier to fall in love with it, than now when there's rarely any real surprises and so many "delights" (or attempts at delight) that their taste has dulled, so to speak. There's also the fact that a lot of new shows are adaptations. Why would I buy My Little Sister Is My Wife In Another World or Mysterious Hot Dudes Harem which are just badly animated 12 episode commercials, when I can just watch them when they're on and then go out and buy the LNs/play the games? If, for any reason, I want to watch the anime again I can just rent it. Plus, discs are expensive, even for Japan. Perhaps not for the most hardcore otaku, but most people who are not mightily into Franchise X will likely think twice before paying through the nose just to own the physical release. And sure, most of the time they're very nice releases, with extras and whatnot, but unless I'm a raving fan I may not think it's worth all that money. |
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Zof
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LOL
"Music expert explains why 8-Track Cassettes aren't selling anymore." "Bitcoin expert explains why paper money is for toothless hillbillies living in some hillbilly shack in west virginia." "IPad expert (lol) explains why the iPad has replaced paper sometimes." "Carl, Reknown email expert of Hackinsack, New Jersey, explains why email is suddenly used more often than smoke signals." "Car expert explains why horse demand has been low for 130 years." Maybe it's because nobody wants plastic discs anymore, and it's freaking ridiculous to perpetuate a business model with failed tech? Who knows though. It's a mystery. Apparently. |
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Thespacemaster
Posts: 1108 |
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Do the math.
With an ever increase in number of titles per year and the price for said disks are still expensive and sold in PARTS of course there is a decline. and the american market still is selling well cause they are exactly cheaper and full sets. the japanese try everything in there power to prevent making it easier to import them to there nation exactly for that reason. If they want to sell more, they need to change there home video market approach and make it easier for consumers to buy. granted this will not prevent a decline as times change and so do the mediums but if they can fix some of the issues they just might get to keep a niche but stable market. He is right tough about having still a purpose for archival reasons.. even tough i can stream any anime i like..it is always good to keep an archive of something you truly love as there is no garuntee it will last forever and i buy them and most of the time i dont use them but that is more of a reason to prevent disk were and keep repeating to watch them in stream to make them last longer. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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"Grownup IT expert who maybe bought disks back during the 00's Bubble, but isn't aware how it happened, wonders why fans aren't buying as many disks at Best Buy as they were in 2004." (Ie., that's what it would be if this was a US article.) Disks and overseas disk licensing haven't been "replaced" by Crunchyroll, CR's just redefined the market in a way they could have fifteen years ago if they'd been around to stop the Bubble from popping. Instead of an industry that demanded we pay for a peek, now we peek first and then buy what sells. ...Oh, and we did notice that this was a Japanese article, from a country where you don't publicly go around admitting you buy anime disk boxsets in the first place? |
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Iggdrasil
 Subscriber Posts: 6 |
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I'm still waiting for the day Japanese anime companies realize that internet is all they need. It will allow for reasonable pricing which is made possible because global distribution increases revenue. Digital distribution, where I can go to a webstore and buy a series, download it (because I own it) and watch it on whatever medium I want.
It works for the music industry, gaming and the movie industry, even digital manga. So why would it not work for the anime industry? |
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NOGI48
Posts: 70 |
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BULL$H!T
The reason why discs are not doing so well its because in japan they have a DVD/Blu ray discs that only has like 3-4 episodes and are expensive. For a show that has 12 episodes and release it in 3-4 boxsets with heavy price. No one is going to buy that. |
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gsilver
Posts: 617 |
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Streaming.
Most anime does not need to be watched more than once. Streaming gives people that first viewing easily and cheaply. Though honestly, I buy fewer disks now watching streams than when I was watching fansubs. Streaming has an air of legitimacy that fansubs lack, so I don't feel obligated to buy shows that I "sort of like" like I did with fansubs, and disks are reserved for my absolute favorites. Even then, when I rewatch things that I liked enough to buy, I'm guilty of often going back to streams than watching the disks that I bought. Funny how that works. At least the disks will always be there. |
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Sahmbahdeh
Posts: 712 |
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As others have alluded to, I think it's a combination of price and an overcrowded market. There are so many more shows being made today that the ability for any one of them to stand out and be remembered even a short time later is significantly less than it was in past years. As a result, people are not "falling in love" with shows as much or as easily as they used to. This is especially a problem because of the price point; the business model in Japan relies on marketing a niche product to superfans, to whom the makers can justify such high prices, but when those superfans are fewer and further between, there are simply fewer people willing to buy your product overall.
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Hoppy800
 Posts: 3331 |
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Sure those F2P devs try to get people hooked via anime, but I'm not falling for it. I don't think any of the mobile adaptations have made me want to play those games, at best I just watch, I get a CD or merchandise, and never touch the game. It's usually I'm going in anime only or it's like Idolmaster Cinderella Girls or Girlfriend (Kari), where I have already at least tried the game already
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4575 |
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Speak for yourself. I have no interest in spending money on a rental service that can yank titles at the drop of a hat for no good reason. If I spend money on anime, I want to be able to access to it forever. And gee, Japan, I'm sure the obscene pricing model that relies on a handful of crazy Otaku pouring their entire life's savings into a show has nothing to do with it, right? |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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Because 99% of the time, the stream will be censored, and without the disc being produced, you won't have the uncensored version, which even when available, aren't on most streaming sites (only for Funimation and HIDIVE subscribers, no where else) Plus those discs also come with corrections to animation problems that plague every show. And quite often, those discs come with extra bonus animated shorts, specials or OVAs, not streamed. Likewise changes or extensions in the original episodes, not streamed If you're referring to getting the original source manga or LN for adaptations, getting volumes of those are even much more expensive compared to US disc prices. Coming back to the article, it's interesting to note that while he discusses the decline in Japanese sales (understandable at those hefty prices), he contrasts it with his impression of US home video business from Funimation and Sentai who seem to do well enough, recovering from the crash Last edited by configspace on Fri Nov 16, 2018 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jirg1901
Posts: 150 |
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I'd really like to know why you're all so obsessed with the price of Japanese home video disks you were never in the market for in a context it's irrelevant because they haven't changed.
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SHD
Posts: 1752 |
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I wasn't talking about streaming though, nor the US. Video rentals are still a thing, surprisingly enough. But also, my point was that with all the competition and the general low quality/low effort nature of these anime, the uncensored content or shinied-up animation may but be worth paying so much for, when that money can be spent on other shows or formats one is more into. Buying what is often just a glorified low-budget commercial with some extras vs getting the source material plus some nice merchandise and save up some money for events/etc... a lot of people will choose the latter. |
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