Sympathy for the Western Anime Industry

No matter how fast they manage to release DVDs after the release in Japan it will still be slower than getting the fansubs. Fact of life.

10 odd years ago when a 56k modem was pretty much state of the art it would be a different story. Now you can d/l a series almost overnight for free... no brainer. High speed, always on, fixed cost internet.

The only option is to release the DVDs at the same time worldwide BEFORE showing it on Japanese TV. Not gonna happen.

The thing that makes me chuckle is the way some people will happily pay for usenet access, megavideo etc.. so they can 'steal' stuff. Go figure.
 
Project-2501 said:
No matter how fast they manage to release DVDs after the release in Japan it will still be slower than getting the fansubs. Fact of life.

10 odd years ago when a 56k modem was pretty much state of the art it would be a different story. Now you can d/l a series almost overnight for free... no brainer. High speed, always on, fixed cost internet.

The only option is to release the DVDs at the same time worldwide BEFORE showing it on Japanese TV. Not gonna happen.

The thing that makes me chuckle is the way some people will happily pay for usenet access, megavideo etc.. so they can 'steal' stuff. Go figure.
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But the fact is if it they werent so lethargic when it came to releasing titles then it would booster sales. It wouldnt stop downloading, no ofcourse not, some people just don't want to pay for anime.

But it would help stop the the people who don't mind paying but can't wait the length of time it takes for a title to be release to not download.
 
It would reduce people importing DVDs but thats about it IMO. If it was a flip up between faster releases or more choice on the R2 market I'd go for more choice. Obviously both would be best :)
 
Project-2501 said:
The thing that makes me chuckle is the way some people will happily pay for usenet access, megavideo etc.. so they can 'steal' stuff. Go figure.
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More fool them. All you need is a BitTorrent client and the search engine of your choice.

I still wonder how many of these people (who simply download and don't buy the DVDs when they come out) actually bought DVDs before they could download, and how many would start doing so if they suddenly couldn't download any more. Not many on either count, I'd wager, which is one reason I think it's best treated as a seperate issue. Tempt more people to buy, sure - but you're not likely to do that either with lacklustre releases or high prices, and you can't have an awesome, must own DVD with a bargain price tag... especially not an anime DVD.
 
^ :lol:

I didn't really mean the quality of the show itself. Looks like more elaboration is again required... I meant one including extras and things which fans would be tempted by. For example - I think the only way you could get most downloaders to buy who currently don't would be to sell the Haruhi Special Editions for a fiver each. Which isn't very realistic.

So we've come full circle there. I find I do in fact have a little sympathy for them because it seems a bit like they can't win - but to me the only answer to this is to specifically target both groups of current anime consumers, the collectors and casual buyers (the ones who are actually buying anime at the moment) and not alienate either of them causing them to resort to downloads.
 
skikes said:
ayase said:
The thing about downloading is, it's been going on so long it's almost a separate issue to sales now. People who d/l fansubs and then buy when an English release comes around will continue to do so, and people who just steal will continue to do so. That's not going to change. You can't make people more honest / give them a conscience by releasing things sooner.
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I agree with you somewhat. You are correct ofcourse. But on a numer of occasions ive downloaded something with the intention of purchasing the dvds once they were finally released but by the time they are ive lost all interest and moved on to the next thing. So had it been released sooner i almost surely would have bought it. And i'm sure im not the only one with whom this is the case.
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Seconded. I'm often too impatient for UK releases because I know that if I wait that extra 3 months from the US release, there's a good chance I'll be on to the next big thing.
 
Most of the anime I want to get never comes out in the UK so I don't often wait any more and import instead. When it comes to fansubs I use them as a guide for what to buy. I've brought anime I don't like before so now I watch no more than 5 episodes of an anime online and if I like it, I buy it and wait.
 
I just hope that the fact that mvm are now stuck with old licenses and that they are still doing single volume relseaes dosen't put them next on the chopping block because it is getting depressing watching out market shirk.
 
I too have seen so many titles, that I wanted to buy, stall, and never return to completion, that I will never buy a single again, It's complete boxsets for me from now on. But looking ahead I will speculate that the future days of the DVD, and even BD as a viable product for anime are numbered. More and more companies that are still in business are tripping over themselves to get a working streaming service going, that will be as good as the fansubbers at their own game. The recent 12 months has seen a phenomena few in the industry in Japan, would have even contemplated before then. The collaboration of industry and pirates/fansubbers. This is all well and good if it means more profit can be made to make more quality titles, and tames the renegades. But having said that they also must make available a product I will only buy, and that is a dub, and in a shorter time scale than at present. If I can legally download to own a dub of a series, say in one, or two months from the sub simulcast release, they will get my money as well. I want to support them, but they must give me something to support.
 
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