Do you have any idea how rare fansubs for live action releases are?Rui said:I don't think it's really helpful to say all fans of material in its original language will most likely have downloaded it illegally, so companies should only rehash readily available American releases :s
For one thing, it's simply untrue! And the fact that subtitled shows do fine if they are live action proves this. It's just an unusual situation that anime viewers are happy to watch subs when they are [often illegally] free but magically want dubs instead when they're spending money. I think all shows which can support a dub should have one for the good of the dub fans, but when a show can't I'd rather have the show than not. More choice makes me happy.
The fanbase simply isn't big or keen enough to get fansubs made.
My money (as a sub-only anime fan) mostly goes on manga or chara goods, the products it's much much easier for me to actually buy. I'm totally prepared to spend ~£100-£200 on a series and normally have done before it comes out here. e.g Bakemonogatari, Magical girl Lyrical Nanoha Striker S, Hayate no Gotoku, Higurashi, Kare Kano, Clannad, Cardcaptor Sakura, Lucky Star...
That's at least £800 spent due to those anime, and only ~£70 going to it's English anime licensor, courtesy of the Lucky Star manga. (then ~£160 going on the anime themselves, only £25 to the UK)
Quite a lot of us are fans of the franchises not the specific adaptation, so being outmanoeuvred by book publishers, with no VAT or BBFC requirements slowing imports and already less contractual hold-ups, can't be good for you.
In my situation with only 10-30% of my buying power going to the show itself, if it ever gets an English release, and even less to an eventual UK release.
That's what amounts to an average of a 97% drop in value from the time of Japanese release to a UK one.
How much of this is accounted for in licensing?