Request for questions for UK/OZ Anime industry reps

I think the UK anime market has for quite a while now been used to the idea of going straight to budget. Even the Walmart of anime, Funimation still release titles to premium first, before releasing to boxset and then finally to clearance.

I think there needs to be a correction in the UK market so that it's not simply killed by inflation, that prices get so low, while costs get so high, that margins get wiped out completely. I also think that the idea of a set price, regardless of content needs to be dropped. £50 for a 26- episode series sounds fine in principle, but I wouldn't pay £50 for something like 26 episodes of Naruto. I have just spent closer to £80 on Durarara!! however. Premium content ought to attract higher pricing, and nice packaging too.

I'm beginning to think that Kaze's pricing for Samurai Girls is reasonable in principle, although excessive for what they are selling. Samurai Girls isn't that good. But if last year Manga Entertainment had come up with those prices for the Eden of the East series, I wouldn't have had a single word of complaint.
 
I have no problem buying a primium product at primium prices, but sadly I have been burned three times doing that by distributors who have failed to finish the series release for whatever reason, so because of that event, unless distributors can give a guarentee of completion, " or your money back" then it will always be boxsets first and foremost forever for me.
 
@maestro - Without wanting to get into a game of one-upmanship (and I could be totally wrong, I'm not in possession of all the facts etc.) anime strikes me as the kind of product which, when the price is dropped below a certain point, the number of sales doesn't increase by enough to take up the slack. People who would have paid more for it will buy it at the lower price, but not enough new buyers will pick it up to make the lower price profitable (see: Manga cancellations). That's just it's nature as a niche product. However, when the price is raised above a certain amount I would expect (certainly in the West) the number of sales to begin to decrease so much as to also make the higher priced product unprofitable as well (see: Bandai Visual USA).

I want to see anime priced fairly, at a price the industry can sustain itself on but also a price that enables a decent amount of the fan-base to afford it, that's all. That price obviously isn't £15 a series. But if that price is over £100 a series, I would expect anime in the UK to go the way of the village cobbler. Besides, I'm in favour of a global economy which means Japan has to suffer massive deflation to enable the harmonisation of world prices. I won't argue for things to be that expensive as a matter of principle.
 
I would prefer if our currency just stopped stinking up the joint, but even then people in this country wouldn't buy at Japanese prices in line with 200yen/£ imo.

That said, I would still support the move to a global economy at those prices, because I don't much care whether other people are prepared to pay them or not. :p
 
vashdaman said:
This Jerome chap. Is he the type of person who jumps off of a speeding train just to ask some girl he's spotted out of the window, for her phone number? Or regularly approaches random females on the street and starts with the line "Yo babes", but often ends up accidently scaring them?
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(He's married)

Zin5ki said:
I have found his manner of speech to be of a somewhat antipodean nature, if that at all elaborates.
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He is from Australia.
 
ayase said:
I'm in favour of a global economy which means Japan has to suffer massive deflation to enable the harmonisation of world prices. I won't argue for things to be that expensive as a matter of principle.
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You mean inflation of Japanese prices, their deflation is the problem.
The yen needs to crash, and it's doing the opposite which is hurting Japan big time currently.
 
Interesting, I thought the yen had strengthened a lot more against the dollar and sterling than it had other currencies in the last four or five years. Must be just me feeling it more in reality than on paper. ^^;
 
Just a quick update for all of you:

Tony currently has the list of questions as of Tuesday last. Since he's a fairly busy guy I'll leave well enough alone.

The rep from Madman has still to get back to me with a day and time for the interview.

Sorry I can't give any better info at this time.
 
Re:

reborn said:
While late, did the interviews with Madman and MVM happen in the end?
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Woah, didn't know you had asked this of me. In regards to your question, no. Neither party got back to me. Since MVM barely replied to emails and social media back then, I was going to be surprised if they did.
 
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