The official thread for discussions about anime pricing (including Aniplex USA pricing)

I might be mistaken, but I don't think I've ever seen Aniplex claim that paying more for their releases sends more money back to Japan. Which in all likelihood, especially given what great marketing it would be, probably means it doesn't. (At least not directly, they're owned by Sony Music Entertainment, so it will indirectly.)

I'm curious as to whether they're paying the same minimum guarantees for their Bandai Visual shows, as Funimation would be. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if they are

I'm probably completely wrong here, but I don't think we can take it as a given that you paying more for Your Name or In This Corner of the World will result in Makoto Shinkai or Sunao Katabuchi taking more home at the end of the day.

IncendiaryLemon said:
Will it burst though? It's been a few years since AL started up this whole trend of Collector's Edition releases taking precedent, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, especially with companies like MVM and Manga also taking shots at CE releases, to varying degrees of success. The only way I see it crashing down is if AL become too greedy and start hiking prices up even more so than they have already.
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The complete shitshow that has been ERASED suggests to me that there's a very real danger of AL pushing things too far. Especially if consumers remain more savvy than they are. Andrew seemed genuinely surprised when people questioned his line of pricing in comparison to Madman's. I'm not sure it's fair to blame AL, it sounds like maybe AoA screwed them over a bit, but it looked like it could have been handled better.
 
ye Aniplex of America is literally just the american branch of Aniplex of Japan. This is why you see them matching their JP counterpart in terms of releases.
 
I was under the impression that Aniplex of America and Aniplex were completely separate entities under Sony Music Entertainment. (I.e. Aniplex of America doesn't directly report to Aniplex.) And it was that corporate structure that meant Aniplex of America had to bid on titles, rather than just getting.

You might think I'm just being incredibly nitpicky, and to be fair I am. However, it's not hard to envisage a scenario where they pay the same level of minimum guarantee as other distributors and, depending on how their overage is calculated, all of that money goes straight to Sony Music Entertainment bypassing Aniplex.

If Aniplex of America releases make more money than other companies (a big if in and of itself) and subsequently send more back to Japan. It seems a little bit weird they aren't shouting that from the rooftops, given it would be rather hard for someone like me to find fault in.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong and they just aren't utilising the killer argument in their arsenal...
 
If wikipedia is right about the business structure it goes

Sony Music Entertainment Japan is the parent to Aniplex, which is the parent to Aniplex of America.

If that structure is correct that would mean while being separate its direct parent is Aniplex, which handles their Japanese licenses and publishing.

It is possible they still have a bidding system in place for AoA for competitive reasons to show the company is allowing competitive bidding for their licenses outside of Japan, but I don't think Aniplex disclose how their finances flow (not many companies would)
 
Lambadelta said:
If wikipedia is right about the business structure it goes

Sony Music Entertainment Japan is the parent to Aniplex, which is the parent to Aniplex of America.

If that structure is correct that would mean while being separate its direct parent is Aniplex, which handles their Japanese licenses and publishing.

It is possible they still have a bidding system in place for AoA for competitive reasons to show the company is allowing competitive bidding for their licenses outside of Japan, but I don't think Aniplex disclose how their finances flow (not many companies would)
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I was under the impression both were sister companies, rather than AoA being the child company of AoJ, but whatever. If AoA is a subsidiary of AoJ, that probably means the excess money boycotts production committees and goes straight to AoJ. You can be the judge of whether that counts as giving money to Japan or not. As I say, I think it were that simple, AoA would be using it for marketing purposes, but I appreciate it's not the strongest evidence in the world and I sound like a conspiratorial madman.

AoA has confirmed they do have to bid for their titles. I suspect this is to prevent accusations of indealing. (The act of selling something to a related company for less than market value, generally screwing people out of royalties in the process.) There were rumours that AoA actually ended up in a bidding war for The Seven Deadly Sins. If AoA didn't win, that might explain why the title has yet to materialise.

SME is part of Sony, which is publicly listed. I suspect if you asked the right people, or more likely found the right document on their website, you could probably find this information. Toei Animation, for example, publishes very detailed quarterly financial statements, that contain interesting data about the relative popularity of their franchises over the period. I've yet to find another company that goes to quite that level of depth though.
 
Japanese companies aren't generally very good at communicating how buying something helps something else. They don't need that level of transparency in Japan and those habits seem to carry across, whereas in the UK we benefit from an incredible level of openness from our distributors. I don't agree with 90% of what Jerome thinks about anything but the guy isn't shy of talking about it anyway and Andrew/Tony will happily share information when asked if it helps fans understand the situations they end up in.

I would be amazed if AoA ever even thought to drop the corporate veneer and open up about how to best support production houses. Awareness of how Crunchyroll works and helps the industry is quite poor even though they have slipped it into several interviews over the years; the number of fans who would go from hating an £80 BD to accepting it just because profits flow back into the production process is probably minuscule anyway. People upset they cannot afford AoA shows will find the insinuation that AoA purchases are more 'ethical' quite grating, I would imagine.

I like the AoA releases a lot quality-wise (being region free is also a value add for me since most of my hardware isn't region B). But clamping down on distributors in regions they don't even serve directly is frustrating behaviour. I can tolerate the US getting a fancy version and the UK a cheaper one because I see myself as a global citizen who can make the judgement call on a per-series basis and opt for whichever release I want. Reacting to things like undervaluing PMMM and other experiments by stripping UK companies of any ways to make their versions different and more suitable for their market (and swiping the DRRR OAVs from us entirely) didn't exactly fill me with goodwill.

R
 
ayase said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I was used to paying £10 per volume, between 4-7 volumes for shows on DVD back in the early 2000s.
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Wasn't it more than that? The retail price for 3-4 episode discs was £20, which would typically be discounted by retailers to £15 on release. And that's all you got: a disc and a case and cover art. No boxes or booklets or soundtracks (though I accept that some people don't want them). Going back even further, I'd pay £13 for two dub only episodes on fuzzy VHS - and almost double that to import subtitled Maison Ikkoku tapes with the same number of episodes.

It's a matter of perspective, and I don't blame anyone who wasn't there for not sharing mine, but I can't accept that anime is too expensive. Especially not when you consider Japanese prices - which someone has to pay if TV anime is to continue to be made. Nobody needs to own anime on disc, nobody is entitled to it, and while complaining about prices is fine, telling people how they should or shouldn't be spending their money is not.

PS:
posts like that remind me of why I love you so <3
 
Rui said:
I would be amazed if AoA ever even thought to drop the corporate veneer and open up about how to best support production houses. Awareness of how Crunchyroll works and helps the industry is quite poor even though they have slipped it into several interviews over the years; the number of fans who would go from hating an £80 BD to accepting it just because profits flow back into the production process is probably minuscule anyway. People upset they cannot afford AoA shows will find the insinuation that AoA purchases are more 'ethical' quite grating, I would imagine.

R
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To be fair, AoA's PR people don't seem to the best. I genuinely felt bad for EJ Riviera when he was there, he was clearly out of his depth with the pricing questions. And that interview recently where Henry Goto seemed to take the credit for the Fullmetal Alchemist's success in the US was utterly bizarre. The quote originally read "He considers Fullmetal Alchemist to be one of Aniplex of America’s greatest successes. The fact that people thought of it as a Funimation product concerned him." It has now been edited to swap "Aniplex of America" for "Aniplex, Inc." Assuming they had approval on that interview, did they really think allowing such a statement to come out, after they've "stolen" the much loved title off it's former distributor was a wise idea?

The more I think I think about, the more distasteful their 'pyramid of fandom' sounds too. You might rank your customers internally, but to publicly try and claim (or at least use a metaphor that positions) some customers are 'above' others because they spend more money, just seems crude. You don't see businesses like Spotify or Crunchyroll criticising their free users, because they know it lessens your chances of converting them. They also have defined limits to how much they will give their premium users than free users. Spotify, for example, won't allow artists to make music exclusive to their premium service only. Hence why it no longer has Taylor Swift's catalogue.

I heard an interview recently with Emirates president Sir Tim Clark, where he talked about still making sure Economy Class customers had a good experience and weren't being made to suffer too much. Whether he truly meant it or not, there seemed to be an understanding that whilst they might not make as much money from them, it was important not to milk them or penalise them too much. Imagine how insulting it would be if Sir Clark had just made rude comments about Economy Class passengers, and talked about how they were stripping everything away from their experience because of some vague economic difficulties they had experienced in the past (but depending on how you interpret the phrasing, may not currently be experiencing or may not ever experience again). The overall positive experience and opinion of the company and their flying experience was important too, as well as the money it made. Aniplex of America seems not to follow the same viewpoint.
 
thedoctor2016 said:
Its still £57 I cant justify that for 13 eps of a middling show
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Jaysgba said:
Yet you buy Aniplex of America releases for Monogatari, which is even more average.
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image
 
i love AOA Bashing...
ONE its my money
TWO Different markets.... MVM used to be the affordable good value UK company
THREE Flip Flappers is terrible in comparison to monogatari so what a surprise I buy AoA sets that are 5 releases ahead of other western monogatari releases
 
Phobos said:
To be fair isn’t that subjective? Not trying to say monogatari is great here, I’ve never watched it.
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Could be talking about the releases and not the content. You could say the AoA overcharge for releases L.E. Pricing for standard looking releases. For example, I love the video quality and audio on Servant X Service, but I wouldn’t say it’s worth what Aniplex ask for it as a DVD only release. It’s expensive for a Blu-ray. I waited till it was less than half price in a sale, and still paid over the odds.
 
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