Is the £85 pirce for Akeme Ga Kill Collectors Edition BD A Sad Example Of How Bad The UK Anime Marke

I wouldn't buy this show if it was £10 anyway so the price doesn't concern me. Dandy season 1 is definitely worth the asking price because it's a masterpiece. Animatsu have their target audience of general otaku, edgy, action shows. The reason this release is getting more backlash because it is a much bigger target audience compared to the less mainstream otakuy stuff MVM puts out or the arty shows AL generally put out (huge generalisations I know but I think it is good how each company has found it's niche and the only terrible element in the UK market is now kaze). I don't really have the right to talk about this though because I have a really small collection of anime...
 
Manga UK have an interview where they state a standard edition will be released:
http://www.mangauk.com/post.php?p=andre ... -interview

I haven't read the entire thread, but I think this is going to be one of those topics that can be discussed forever. I've also posted many times my opinions in various other threads, but it comes down to anime being severely undervalued for the five years (and longer). Also, the higher prices also seem to mean we get shows much sooner, I remember the days of 3+ years wait for a series in the West, and then two or more months between each of the volumes to make that gap even longer.

The market is so niche, that no matter how cheap a title is, it doesn't mean other people will pick it up. We've had 5 or so years for that to take hold and it didn't. A lot of casual fans will not pick up titles, they will stream. The introduction of streaming has more than likely put a dent on home video sales, so all the artbooks, collector's packaging, and various other goods are there to appeal to people to buy.

If two shows are released I have a similar interest in, and one is available at a more expensive collector's edition, I will buy that one. I like owning a premium product, and I find a £40 release with a lovely artbook, box, and nice artwork far more value than a £25 amaray.

I know there's a large audience that only wants the discs and are not interested in the other bells and whistles, and that's absolutely fine. People have a right to voice their opinions and vote with their wallet if they are not happy with the pricing / release of a title. That will show there isn't an interest in what a particular title's release strategy entailed.

I'm going to find it hard to explain this part, but I imagine a lot of titles get a collector's release to help negate some risk. If you are selling a title to a core group of fans, you can hope they will pick up the deluxe edition and perhaps attract a decent enough amount of other people to pick up a nice looking release. So you sort of guarantee yourself a specific amount of sales.

I myself think a good strategy would be the following: (Of course this isn't realistic for everything, but would probably make most people happy.)
1. Streaming available
2. Deluxe Edition Blu-Ray and Deluxe DVD release a specific amount of time later.
3. Standard Release approximately 6-12 months after.

If people aren't willing to pay the premium to get a title quick (along with some extras to hopefully drawn in buyers), then most shows have a streaming option. So there will 8/10 times be an option to still enjoy a show. Fact of the matter comes down to money, and some people don't believe a title is worthy of the cost associated with it. That is entirely fine, but sadly not the way things always work.

NB: I do agree that the Akame Ga Kill release is slightly overpriced at RRP. I think with the contents, an RRP of £60-£65 would be about right.
 
black1blade said:
I wouldn't buy this show if it was £10 anyway so the price doesn't concern me. Dandy season 1 is definitely worth the asking price because it's a masterpiece. Animatsu have their target audience of general otaku, edgy, action shows. The reason this release is getting more backlash because it is a much bigger target audience compared to the less mainstream otakuy stuff MVM puts out or the arty shows AL generally put out (huge generalisations I know but I think it is good how each company has found it's niche and the only terrible element in the UK market is now kaze). I don't really have the right to talk about this though because I have a really small collection of anime...

I wouldn't give you 10p for Dandy so horses for courses & all that.
 
black1blade said:
I think it's an objective fact that a lot of talent and creativity went in dandy.

I just found it extremely patchy as a show with a bunch of rather irritating main characters. I watched the whole of the first part of the season & the only episode I really liked was the one that was the tribute to laika.
 
Rui said:
Manga are obviously trying to manipulate people into buying the version they want to sell and historically when that fails, they cancel releases to cut their losses (and have been known to have public tantrums about it). I don't respect that attitude […]

It might be time to reconsider that since Manga isn't owned anymore by some big company that had no clue about the anime niche.
 
SpaceDandy said:
It might be time to reconsider that since Manga isn't owned anymore by some big company that had no clue about the anime niche.
Maybe it's not entirely fair but I'd say the burden is on Manga/Animatsu to change people's opinions.

As I understand it, at least some of the people (including some of those responsible for previous Manga statements) are working at the new Manga/Animatsu so I suppose it's reasonable that people might hesitate even to give them a blank slate.
 
robot monkey said:
black1blade said:
I think it's an objective fact that a lot of talent and creativity went in dandy.

I just found it extremely patchy as a show with a bunch of rather irritating main characters. I watched the whole of the first part of the season & the only episode I really liked was the one that was the tribute to laika.
Did you watch in dub or sub? Obviously it is subjective to a large extent. I am really into episodic shows myself.
 
Good read, and explains why anime is priced higher than general, but not knowing much about the production of AgK and when it ran it Japan, how succesful it was etc, so I can't really comment on if it fully explains the pricing of AkG.

With the US fans, I think when you look at the release, it is released by Sentai at the same RRP as Love, Chunibyo....., and I feel people have looked at the quality of that collectors edition and compared it to Akame Ga Kill and seen a disparity in content between the releases. Excluding the content that is comparable (artbook and stickers) AkG comes with just a poster, whereas LC&OSD comes with post cards, artboards, keychain, lenticular card, holographic card, wallet chain, eyepatch and stickers. SO to ask them to pay the same price for much less additional content is likely what has caused the uproar over there.

I've pre-ordered AGK and will be ok with paying £60, so just got to wait for it to fall under that threshold. I'm ideally hoping it drops to £50 but think that's a no-go.
 
black1blade said:
robot monkey said:
black1blade said:
I think it's an objective fact that a lot of talent and creativity went in dandy.

I just found it extremely patchy as a show with a bunch of rather irritating main characters. I watched the whole of the first part of the season & the only episode I really liked was the one that was the tribute to laika.
Did you watch in dub or sub? Obviously it is subjective to a large extent. I am really into episodic shows myself.

Dubbed. Though I am not convinced whether my view would have changed whatever version I watched as the main issue I had with it is that I just didn't really care about the main cast, and without that hook there wasn't anything else about it to keep me watching.
 
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