Re: Is It Me Or Is Buying Anime Just Way Too Expensive Nowad
Sorry about repetition, I started writing earlier and then had to go out ^^;
DesuDayo said:
If a show is released with the bog standard I just don't buy it. I can get the same thing minus the disc by streaming so there's no point for me at least.
On the other hand, an Ultimate or Collector's Edition from Anime Limited actually makes me even more excited to watch the shows.
There is so much truth in these words that it deserves repetition. Anime Limited releases are all I'm buying in the UK nowadays.
The thing is, the hobby is changing. Some people really don't stream any entertainment or pirate anime - and that's great - but they're a tiny, tiny minority, especially the group who genuinely don't pirate since you can pirate anime even with a horrible connection. The physical-first route to becoming a fan simply doesn't exist any more; it's a dead end. Back in the day, you would typically get into the hobby via the old Manga UK and its massive marketing drives aimed at the underground 'edgy' crowd (that's what hooked me, indirectly) or by watching stuff on television. Manga UK's credibility as a source of cool is long gone now; I'm certainly not saying their DVDs don't sell, but the era where you'd see a Bubblegum Crash VHS tape or someone with a GitS bag at the (mostly extinct) local comic shops and feel a sense of forbidden appeal is gone. It's not underground or cool in the same way now; everyone who has geeky hobbies already knows what Attack On Titan is and watched it (mostly illegally) a year ago. People find out about this stuff online.
The era of stumbling upon anime on television is passing by rapidly too, even though the occasional Ghibli airings and kid show reruns will probably become fond childhood memories to a handful of future fans we haven't yet met.
Most people nowadays know what anime is, even if they're not into it. Almost every Internet forum has people with anime avatars, anime fans are all over social media, and torrent site stats show that the number of people actively into and illegally downloading anime in the west is colossal. Recently, options such as Netflix have opened up a new route for casual viewers to find out more legally and in a way which works around their existing hobbies. But people aren't coming into it trained that the way they watch a new series is to buy a £20 VHS tape with two badly-dubbed episodes; they're not expecting to pay £40 for a chipboard bilingual DVD box set; they're not even coming in thinking they need to pay £10 for a barebones disaster of a release with distorted PAL-converted sound and no extras. They are watching this stuff for free online already, whether legally or illegally, and the idea of buying an inferior version simply
makes no sense. It doesn't matter if it costs £10 for a set or £1; people of this generation don't want an inferior version of something they can already get.
Bad Internet connections or personal convictions are completely valid reasons to prefer physical releases - I prefer them too because I'm a traditional collector - but it's important to accept that the growth of the physical market we thought was going to happen in the 90s will now never happen. Streamers don't want to watch an inferior version on disc, for the most part. Non-streamers are a niche of a niche. The industry has to adapt to make its money from what's left of the traditional fans
and try to attract as many of the streamers as they can , just to break even and continue staying in business. Nobody is going to keep green-lighting the acquisition (or production, ultimately) for shows which sell the equivalent of 500 copies at £10 a set with a production cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds. That's also why many titles never have their sequels picked up at all - and I'd rather pay a bit more now and not end up with a collection full of abandoned releases like in the 'glory days' of big discounts. Seeing unfinished 'cheap' gems like xxxHolic and Big Windup on my shelves still annoys me. I'd have gladly paid 10x more for xxxHolic if it meant I'd be able to collect its sequels one day (and ironically, I bought it twice already because the UK release looked worse than the US version - cheap releases aren't necessarily a saving).
HdE said:
We don't have anything in the UK like Funimation's S.A.V.E. line.
MVM's deal of the week is effectively doing this already, and Manga UK slash their RRPs over time until they have done the same thing without the cost of printing a different DVD cover. The fact that it only applies to a small number of releases is simply a reflection of the colossal difference in market size between the regions, and MVM don't want to completely destroy the value of their products with a permanent discount until they know that item is nearing the end of its useful life in their catalogue. It's also an undeniable fact that we can just buy Funimation's S.A.V.E. releases ourselves here if we want. Most are so cheap they'll never be hit by customs and some are even region-free. Ordering from Amazon USA is no more complicated than ordering from Amazon UK. It's not like being in a non-English speaking country without speaking fluent English, where you're entirely out of options if you can't get a local release!
At the end of the day it's not about what individuals want or personally consider affordable based on arbitrary personal factors, it's about what anime actually costs to make and distribute versus the size of the market. Nobody who is paying £40 for a CE of Kill la Kill would complain if the market exploded and we could get the same thing for £20 without Anime Limited losing money - I have no idea why the budget advocates think the premium crowd
like spending more (we don't, and we have bills to pay outside anime too). If that day comes, we'll gladly embrace it. But it's not the current reality and I don't think it ever will unless we change to global releases rather than having a UK market, so we pay whatever the market will support so long as we consider it fair recompense for the anime. And if we don't like a particular show enough to pay a lot for it, we wait like we did in the old days until the prices come down. I own plenty of S.A.V.E. releases myself for shows I don't consider essential day one buys.
Nobody's taken anything away from budget buyers by adding premium releases. They'd have to wait a few years after the last Japanese disc was released regardless so there's no sense in being angry that premium fast-tracked releases are now appearing to fill the gaps for those willing to pay more. If anything the premium buyers are making niche titles more sustainable since production and BBFC approval is being taken care of for them, which benefits
both sets of buyers down the line when the shows can be made available to a wider audience for less.
So in summary I don't think buying anime is way too expensive nowadays. It's still cheaper than it used to be, and hopefully it's finding a level where it can sustain niche releases again and we don't have to see companies going bust and shows being dropped on a regular basis. Budget versions tend to come out a few years later and Andrew has been very open about this right from the outset even though it potentially harms his business to say "Buy this premium edition, or wait and the show will be cheaper later!". As fans not tied to a company we can afford to be more open about discussing the realities so people can choose the best version of a show for their budget. If anyone is struggling to find affordable anime please go ahead and list titles; everyone can use their collective expertise to help find a good deal!
R
) because I frigging love that series. If I had lets say £50 spare income a month in the future then I would probably considering saving it for 4/5 months to import the Japanese blu rays for the quality. People who value quality will always buy physical formats even if streaming is more convenient. I find that anime limited's pricing for collectors editions is reasonable and if a show that I really loved/must own (bebop or eva) came out in ultimate ed and it wasn't more than £100 I would buy it no probs. I understand that some people want value releases and that is fine but anime DVDs and blu rays can't be sold dirt cheap. Thing is that if you get releases that aren't brand new, you can get full series on amazon for as little as £20 maybe even £10. If that isn't good value, I don't know what is.
