The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

More-so related to games, merch or anything importing related, but I received an email from Buyee to a statement they made earlier in the month which is basically announcing they have amended their fees for orders.

Notice of Revision of International Shipping Rates and Waiving of Payment and Consolidation Fees​

Thank you for your continued support.

Effective December 21, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. (Japan Standard Time), with a revision of Buyee's international shipping rates, in response to many customers' requests, some of our service fees will be revised to more user-friendly prices.

The price revisions are as follows:

◆International shipping rates will be reviewed.

◆No payment fees on Yahoo! and Mercari, and Rakuma.
  • Before revision: 200 yen payment fee per successful bid/order
  • After revision: Free of charge

◆Waive of the consolidation service fee
  • Before revision: 500 yen/1,000 yen consolidation fee per package
  • After revision: Free of charge

We will continue to strive to provide services that satisfy our customers.
We look forward to your continued patronage.
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For context, each time you order using Yahoo! or Mercari you'll need to pay a 200 Yen fee, and when you want to merge your items into one big order (i.e. consolidation) that's another fee. These are now free of charge going forward which is a small saving but makes acquiring multiple items together in an order cheaper.
 
CommanderZx2 said:
Award shows are just self congratulatory industry awards. Like the only difference between this and something you come up within a small community is that it has a big platform to advertise it on. The awards themselves do not denote anything of importance.
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100% agree; not that this fact has stopped some filmmakers literally building their whole production to be a big pick me rather than something thats actually worth watching lol.
 
Ian Wolf said:
No surprises - anime fail to make the BAFTA film longlist again.
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BAFTA have been more insular, conservative, and commercial-leaning than even the Oscars. It's disappointing yet again, but it's not surprising that they overlooked Inu-Oh when they have never even nominated a Ghibli film (to contrast, the Oscars have nominated 6, as well as Hosoda's Mirai). I assume that's because it appears that the entire BAFTA voting body contribute to their animated film nominations whereas I think that the Oscars restrict it to their animators section until the final voting round?

It's more surprising that they've ignored My Father's Dragon and Apollo 10 1/2.
 
Yami said:
BAFTA have been more insular, conservative, and commercial-leaning than even the Oscars. It's disappointing yet again, but it's not surprising that they overlooked Inu-Oh when they have never even nominated a Ghibli film (to contrast, the Oscars have nominated 6, as well as Hosoda's Mirai). I assume that's because it appears that the entire BAFTA voting body contribute to their animated film nominations whereas I think that the Oscars restrict it to their animators section until the final voting round?

It's more surprising that they've ignored My Father's Dragon and Apollo 10 1/2.
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Max Payne is calling for his Award Lol
 
www.animenewsnetwork.com

Animator Dormitory Project Launches 2023 Crowdfunding Campaign

Campaign has a US$30,000 goal, which would house 10 new animators
www.animenewsnetwork.com www.animenewsnetwork.com

I'm always conflicted when it comes to this project. On the one hand it's a great opportunity for anime fans to directly help downtrodden animators. On the other hand it does feel like using charity to prop up a broken industry that desperately needs to change from the top down.
 
Dai said:
www.animenewsnetwork.com

Animator Dormitory Project Launches 2023 Crowdfunding Campaign

Campaign has a US$30,000 goal, which would house 10 new animators
www.animenewsnetwork.com www.animenewsnetwork.com

I'm always conflicted when it comes to this project. On the one hand it's a great opportunity for anime fans to directly help downtrodden animators. On the other hand it does feel like using charity to prop up a broken industry that desperately needs to change from the top down.
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Yeah I'm no expert but whenever I see anything said about the anime industry my gut tells me it's seems pretty unsustainable. Though it going this long proves me wrong of course lol.
 
Dai said:
On the other hand it does feel like using charity to prop up a broken industry that desperately needs to change from the top down.
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I reckon that a good solution is for them to stop charging silly odd yen for anime Blu-ray's in Japan; if they instead charged something more reasonable like the equivalent of £10 to £20 a season, as opposed to £50 for a few episodes, then it would attract far more customers who would spread the word about the show; Japan is the main center of anime but the medium seems to be struggling to really take off there predominantly due to this fact; that and the fact that there are so many generic shows that bury the good ones but that's true of any medium.
 
Aeon said:
I reckon that a good solution is for them to stop charging silly odd yen for anime Blu-ray's in Japan; if they instead charged something more reasonable like the equivalent of £10 to £20 a season, as opposed to £50 for a few episodes, then it would attract far more customers who would spread the word about the show; Japan is the main center of anime but the medium seems to be struggling to really take off there predominantly due to this fact; that and the fact that there are so many generic shows that bury the good ones but that's true of any medium.
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Well I mean Anime is pretty popular in Japan, it's already taken off, it's not struggling in that regard. The prices come from Japan's history for video rentals over ownership and I recall reading somewhere that they did look to drop the prices to improve sales but discovered that it wouldn't have had any effect.

The problem with the industry is that the animation process itself is harsh, unsustainable and the margins are terrible. I also have problems with them trying to dictate oversea's markets but that's neither here nor there.
 
Aeon said:
I reckon that a good solution is for them to stop charging silly odd yen for anime Blu-ray's in Japan; if they instead charged something more reasonable like the equivalent of £10 to £20 a season, as opposed to £50 for a few episodes, then it would attract far more customers who would spread the word about the show; Japan is the main center of anime but the medium seems to be struggling to really take off there predominantly due to this fact; that and the fact that there are so many generic shows that bury the good ones but that's true of any medium.
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They have experimented but the problem is that the economies of scale don't really work. Here we have comparably large houses and amassing a large collection of stuff is possible even for people with relatively small flats; in Japan, living space is tight and the vast personal collections of junk that we sometimes see in otaku anime are unusual. People collect a small number of high value things and resell the items they don't need any more at recycle shops, which are ubiquitous and offer a much friendlier buy-in for people who won't pay the premium for a brand new release. Slashing the original prices won't cause a huge surge in sales because the number of people actively buying stuff is already fairly limited - even more nowadays when there are hundreds of short-running shows rather than ongoing cash cows that people dedicate themselves to more broadly - and devaluing the income from the hardcore collectors isn't going to fix things.

This is all exacerbated by the global drop in interest in physical ownership (even though anime prices in the UK have dropped by miles since the VHS days, and public awareness has grown, I'm not seeing any sign that all of the anime companies are making vast amounts more money). In fact, it's premium releases which get the most discussion here while standard releases tend to slip under the radar with little fanfare. As Vincentdante says, though, anime doesn't need help taking off in Japan itself. It needs more ways to monetise the same content beyond simply selling on disc, which is why everyone is experimenting like crazy to find a model which works in the modern era - and why they're courting overseas markets so aggressively. Japan has a very active streaming industry too (as well as television broadcasts, of course) so it's not like people who can't buy the BDs aren't watching and spreading the word about stuff. But the market is now oversaturated with pandering content which isn't all that high quality, and that's squeezing everyone in every direction; for every runaway success which gets the formula just right, there are a ton of failures where studios lose money.

I can even see it in myself. I buy a lot of anime but I don't even remember the last time I imported a show from Japan (I think it was Sarazanmai) and all of the recent merchandise I've been buying has been for Chinese titles. They need more titles which spark passion in the audience rather than drowning viewers in content which will be forgotten five minutes after the last episode airs. Overworking all of the animators to create an overabundance of entertainment instead of figuring out how to get the most out of each series and find it a proper audience is a big problem.

R
 
Rui said:
They have experimented but the problem is that the economies of scale don't really work. Here we have comparably large houses and amassing a large collection of stuff is possible even for people with relatively small flats; in Japan, living space is tight and the vast personal collections of junk that we sometimes see in otaku anime are unusual. People collect a small number of high value things and resell the items they don't need any more at recycle shops, which are ubiquitous and offer a much friendlier buy-in for people who won't pay the premium for a brand new release. Slashing the original prices won't cause a huge surge in sales because the number of people actively buying stuff is already fairly limited - even more nowadays when there are hundreds of short-running shows rather than ongoing cash cows that people dedicate themselves to more broadly - and devaluing the income from the hardcore collectors isn't going to fix things.

This is all exacerbated by the global drop in interest in physical ownership (even though anime prices in the UK have dropped by miles since the VHS days, and public awareness has grown, I'm not seeing any sign that all of the anime companies are making vast amounts more money). In fact, it's premium releases which get the most discussion here while standard releases tend to slip under the radar with little fanfare. As Vincentdante says, though, anime doesn't need help taking off in Japan itself. It needs more ways to monetise the same content beyond simply selling on disc, which is why everyone is experimenting like crazy to find a model which works in the modern era - and why they're courting overseas markets so aggressively. Japan has a very active streaming industry too (as well as television broadcasts, of course) so it's not like people who can't buy the BDs aren't watching and spreading the word about stuff. But the market is now oversaturated with pandering content which isn't all that high quality, and that's squeezing everyone in every direction; for every runaway success which gets the formula just right, there are a ton of failures where studios lose money.

I can even see it in myself. I buy a lot of anime but I don't even remember the last time I imported a show from Japan (I think it was Sarazanmai) and all of the recent merchandise I've been buying has been for Chinese titles. They need more titles which spark passion in the audience rather than drowning viewers in content which will be forgotten five minutes after the last episode airs. Overworking all of the animators to create an overabundance of entertainment instead of figuring out how to get the most out of each series and find it a proper audience is a big problem.

R
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This is very formal and is spot on really... Not enough "long running" show to make the big money...soon as one piece ends and maybe a few others... What then?
Alot really are short 12 eps and i doubt they make a fortune from them.... And a year or 2 passes and then alot are forgotten unless it really is a quality show.....its a tough market.... Also as rui said... In japan they cant really collect as much as us in the "west" due to the size of places where they live.. so really no room to collect etc

On the other hand... Its strange...i really really enjoyed bloom into you recently... Its a 4 year old show now.... Trying to find merch for it is proving difficult.... I would pay a premium for it if needs be... But thats from 3rd party sellers and not from stores etc due to they no longer sell the stuff... Most is oop etc.... Its a weird market...
 
Rui said:
They have experimented but the problem is that the economies of scale don't really work. Here we have comparably large houses and amassing a large collection of stuff is possible even for people with relatively small flats; in Japan, living space is tight and the vast personal collections of junk that we sometimes see in otaku anime are unusual. People collect a small number of high value things and resell the items they don't need any more at recycle shops, which are ubiquitous and offer a much friendlier buy-in for people who won't pay the premium for a brand new release. Slashing the original prices won't cause a huge surge in sales because the number of people actively buying stuff is already fairly limited - even more nowadays when there are hundreds of short-running shows rather than ongoing cash cows that people dedicate themselves to more broadly - and devaluing the income from the hardcore collectors isn't going to fix things.

This is all exacerbated by the global drop in interest in physical ownership (even though anime prices in the UK have dropped by miles since the VHS days, and public awareness has grown, I'm not seeing any sign that all of the anime companies are making vast amounts more money). In fact, it's premium releases which get the most discussion here while standard releases tend to slip under the radar with little fanfare. As Vincentdante says, though, anime doesn't need help taking off in Japan itself. It needs more ways to monetise the same content beyond simply selling on disc, which is why everyone is experimenting like crazy to find a model which works in the modern era - and why they're courting overseas markets so aggressively. Japan has a very active streaming industry too (as well as television broadcasts, of course) so it's not like people who can't buy the BDs aren't watching and spreading the word about stuff. But the market is now oversaturated with pandering content which isn't all that high quality, and that's squeezing everyone in every direction; for every runaway success which gets the formula just right, there are a ton of failures where studios lose money.

I can even see it in myself. I buy a lot of anime but I don't even remember the last time I imported a show from Japan (I think it was Sarazanmai) and all of the recent merchandise I've been buying has been for Chinese titles. They need more titles which spark passion in the audience rather than drowning viewers in content which will be forgotten five minutes after the last episode airs. Overworking all of the animators to create an overabundance of entertainment instead of figuring out how to get the most out of each series and find it a proper audience is a big problem.

R
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Fair point about the limited space in Japanese apartments, I didn't think of that, but if they wish to court western audiences then they should stop disregarding our support by deliberately creating issues for us such as locked subs or forcing delays where they are not needed to name a couple; I believe these issues are caused out of a fear of reverse importing but how bad can reverse importing really get if there is limited capacity for people in Japan to buy home video releases anyway?

I absolutely agree that these companies need to stop with the pandering content as the way it is now they are mostly making stuff that is practically identical to the next show on the shelf which is never going to stand out; I would like to think that even the otaku crowd are getting sick of the same type of show by now; I reckon that anime companies need to put in the effort to be more artistically creative with their ideas.

Obviously anime is popular in Japan but considering that it's the main hub for it; one would think that it would be even more popular than it already is and I'm sure that there is an audience for a basic standard release of a show on Blu-ray that costs a reasonable price in Japan but to take advantage of such an audience, the companies indeed need to make their show stand out and of course, allow such a release to exist.

Edit: I had another look at my original comment and I realised that I worded my point about anime in Japan not taking off wrong, as it obviously did take off there, so that was a mistake on my part, what I meant to say was that, from what I've heard, it is not all that commonly represented outside of places like Akihabara which is incredible considering that anime is indeed a part of modern Japanese culture.
 
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D1tchd1gger said:
For any of our non-UK users that order from places that use Royal Mail:
BBC News - Royal Mail 'cyber incident' hits overseas post
www.bbc.co.uk

Royal Mail tells people not to send post abroad due to 'cyber incident'

The firm is telling customers to stop sending items abroad while it tries to resolve the issue.
www.bbc.co.uk
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Well, I only have one UK international parcel that may be in the system right now, although it doesn't look like it was actually picked up by Royal Mail yet from AlltheAnime - the Love Me, Love Me Not Collector's Edition that I got shipping notification on Monday morning. I guess I shouldn't expect that one in the usual 10-12 day shipping timeframe to me here in the USA. My next UK pre-order title doesn't release until mid February, so that one should not be affected by this - it will just have another manufacturing delay added to the release date again as usual, lol. 😜
 
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Rui said:
They need more titles which spark passion in the audience rather than drowning viewers in content which will be forgotten five minutes after the last episode airs.
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The lust for pretty greens by fat cats holding the reins, as opposed to the creatives, probably doesn't help. Reminds me of how a show with the Netflix tag would instantly go on my watchlist back in the day and now has the exact opposite effect. It seems more and more now that quality is being overlooked for quantity (of views) with some great shows never getting made or being cancelled before they get going, though thankfully that is not always the case.
 
Geriatric hedgehog said:
The lust for pretty greens by fat cats holding the reins, as opposed to the creatives, probably doesn't help. Reminds me of how a show with the Netflix tag would instantly go on my watchlist back in the day and now has the exact opposite effect. It seems more and more now that quality is being overlooked for quantity (of views) with some great shows never getting made or being cancelled before they get going, though thankfully that is not always the case.
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Tbh at this point Netflix's binge model is causing damage to their shows. It smothers discourse due to people viewing at different speeds and everyone has moved on within 2 weeks. Doesn't help that it can cause massive spoilers for people with trolls just watching the end of the final episode of stuff like Stranger Things and blasting the ending out on social media within minutes of release.
 
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