![]() ![]() I bought it because I just thought it would be neat to own even not owning a laserdisc player. Which is kind of ironic because back in 2004 on ebay I ended up buying a copy of "Akira" on a special collection laserdisc set that is split up into 3 different discs even though it's only one movie for only $30. ![]() Older Anime on DVD now is like trying to get your hands on your favorite out of print music on vinyl. I could sell this used to a true collector for over $300-$400 if I wanted to even if the series is just trashy entertainment at best. The condition and the rarity of this collection I have far exceeds the normal value of anime on DVD because of this. Even though the series had 27 episodes they never released the dubbed version after the 12th episode due to the lack of popularity surrounding it. I have the western release of a 3 disc DVD collection of "Air Master" when it was dubbed by Toei Animation. Unless you are looking for Anime officially being released currently, it's going to be very expensive to buy older obscure titles due to the lack of supply. So even older Anime was being produced on DVD like "Akira" that was originally released in the 80's making it affordable around $20 on DVD in the early 2000's. A lot of this at the time had to do with the transition from VHS to DVD too. ![]() Mainly because you couldn't just stream it to your TV like today so the only way to actually get your hands on the obscure titles fans like to watch was to actually rent it on DVD or buy it. Back in the early 2000's in America Anime was incredibly cheap to buy on DVD compared to now. I can buy the James Bond Movies for 3-5 dollars apiece, but getting Watamote on dvd will cost me 100 dollars.Ĭollecting Anime on DVD and Blu-ray is more of a niche hobby now. 25 dollars was the cheapest, some went for as much as 100 to 200 bucks.īut dvd's of other movies and shows are hardly ever above 5 dollars in cost. Seriously, i've looked up some random series released by Geneon and ADV and Funimation on Ebay and many of the series i saw were expensive. Japanese companies wouldn't keep making these deals year after year if they felt they were being ripped off. If a given show is being legitimately sold or streamed outside Japan, it's because the Japanese companies involved have signed off on licensing deals that they believe will benefit them. It's probably best to think of legal anime consumption, regardless of the method, as "paying into the system" that funds anime production. It feels like there are a larger number of people who are supported by profit via anime DVDs in Japan than there are American ones.ĭoes that apply to dvd's bought from Licensors, like ADV or Funimation? Even Japanese discs have their middlemen involved, like disc retailers, disc distributors/publishers, and the production committee investors that own the rights to the show. Likely, some of the profit also goes towards the original creator as well. I have a feeling a lot of the profit gained from the DVDs are put right back towards the production of the next season and/or studio project? It may also be to help support all the people who helped create the anime (animators, inbetweeners, etc.) since they are grossly underpaid while making anime. Licenses typically last around 7-10 years, so Sentai's 2014 release of a 2013 show getting scarce falls within expectations. While those prices may still be higher than the ones for mainstream/Western content, they're still lower than what anime used to cost in the 2000s, when DVDs with 3-5 episodes apiece usually sold for $30 MSRP.ĮDIT: Also, I've seen Watamote on Blu-Ray for under $40 on Amazon. Funimation typically re-releases shows on their Essentials line for $30 (MSRP) a few years after their initial release. The manufacturer's suggested retail price (excepting Aniplex USA) for ~13-episode sets these days is around $60-70, but sets can typically be found for a bit less than that, and sales on Rightstufanime and Sentaifilmworks' shop will drop that even more. But as GlennMagusHarvey points out, citing secondary-market prices of rare/out-of-print anime discs from defunct distributors does not capture what the present market landscape looks like. anime distributors have to deal with costs, like licensing fees, translations, and (often) dubbing, that do not affect distributors of mainstream U.S. Some of the factors involved are explained here. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |