Looking for a good deal on Fighting Spirit..

[Dwapook]

RightStuf has Volumes 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 11 for $9.99...

That'd still leave me without volumes 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15..

Any suggestions on where I could probably get the best price for all these?

[rokkon]

Your best bet is the next DeepDiscount[DVD] sale or another random sale. You missed the RightStuf Geneon 10 for 50 sale (which is how many people got 10 volumes of Ippo for $50), although they didn't have all volumes or consecutive 1-10 of it on sale. Now they're just moving left overs at $9.99.

As far as not waiting goes, DeepDiscountDvd has them for $19.99 a piece, which is as good as I've seen them without coupon or buying used.

[WTK]

RightStuf has Volumes 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 11 for $9.99...

That'd still leave me without volumes 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, and 15..

Any suggestions on where I could probably get the best price for all these? FYE/Suncoast stores are currently running a Geneon B1G1 sale. If you have a Backstage Pass, you get to save an additional 10%. The sale is supposed to end later this month. This is probably the best deal right now for select volumes of Fighting Spirit!

[furyk]

Your best bet is to wait on the thinpacks/box sets which is an awful thing. Fighting Spirit is a great show, but Geneon screwed up the release. Who the hell wants to buy 15 DVDs?

[orochi]

Well, I wouldn't blame that on Geneon seeing as how there's 75 eps of the show. Basically it's 3 boxsets worth of eps. Even if you crammed 6 into a DVD, it's still 13 discs. I think if they cut it down into "seasons" it would look less painful to the wallet.

[Chacrana]

Your best bet is to wait on the thinpacks/box sets which is an awful thing. Fighting Spirit is a great show, but Geneon screwed up the release. Who the hell wants to buy 15 DVDs?

There won't be boxes. I recall hearing that Geneon wouldn't do them because the show hasn't sold that well. And 15 DVDs is generous by anime standards considering that it's 75 episodes. 5 episodes per disc is a luxury.

[furyk]

There won't be boxes. I recall hearing that Geneon wouldn't do them because the show hasn't sold that well. And 15 DVDs is generous by anime standards considering that it's 75 episodes. 5 episodes per disc is a luxury.

And that's a problem. Name any other medium you're willing to pay $30 for 100 minutes of entertainment. Fighting Spirit should have been released in 13 episode sets minimum. ADV fucked up with Saint Seyia in the same way, Toei with Slam Dunk/One Piece/everything, Manga with Fist of the North Star, Funi with Case Closed/Detective Conan and Geneon with Hajime no Ippo. The only company that ever seems to get this consistently right is Animeigo who almost always releases series either complete or in large box sets.

If there aren't box sets, I'll pick the episodes up when they drop to $3-$5 because I refuse to support such moronic release schedules anymore (and this is from someone who buys 80% of the anime he watches).

[Chacrana]

And that's a problem. Name any other medium you're willing to pay $30 for 100 minutes of entertainment. Fighting Spirit should have been released in 13 episode sets minimum. ADV fucked up with Saint Seyia in the same way, Toei with Slam Dunk/One Piece/everything, Manga with Fist of the North Star, Funi with Case Closed/Detective Conan and Geneon with Hajime no Ippo. The only company that ever seems to get this consistently right is Animeigo who almost always releases series either complete or in large box sets.

If there aren't box sets, I'll pick the episodes up when they drop to $3-$5 because I refuse to support such moronic release schedules anymore (and this is from someone who buys 80% of the anime he watches).

Well, to be fair, you're getting 125 minutes for that $30 retail price. It's not ideal, but I wouldn't avoid a long show like Fighting Spirit because of that... especially not when Fighting Spirit is as good as it is. As for Animeigo? Yeah, they put stuff out in boxes all the time, but they typically only release very, very old stuff that nobody would buy if they didn't come in box sets.

[Soujiro_Seta]

Its 5 eps on each disc which imo is very nice of geneon. They could have done 4 eps. And honestly you cant say its $30 cause who really pays retail for anything now. But any way even if it was $30 fighting spirit is a really great show and well worth the price. As for the OP check rightstuf.com i think they have some volumes for $10 still. You could wait and hope rightstuf runs the 10 for $50 deal again.

[Dwapook]

And that's a problem. Name any other medium you're willing to pay $30 for 100 minutes of entertainment. Fighting Spirit should have been released in 13 episode sets minimum. ADV fucked up with Saint Seyia in the same way, Toei with Slam Dunk/One Piece/everything, Manga with Fist of the North Star, Funi with Case Closed/Detective Conan and Geneon with Hajime no Ippo. The only company that ever seems to get this consistently right is Animeigo who almost always releases series either complete or in large box sets.

If there aren't box sets, I'll pick the episodes up when they drop to $3-$5 because I refuse to support such moronic release schedules anymore (and this is from someone who buys 80% of the anime he watches).

They also have to cover the costs of translating, dubbing, licensing and all that.. dunno how expensive that is though..

Thanks for the replies.. The nearest suncoast around me is an hour away and I don't drive so the sale is out of the question, if it's even still on.. I kinda wanted to get the series by mid february to watch with my gf, but May would be okay too.. I knew about the rightstuf 10 for 50 sale but I procrastinated and forgot about it.. I'll get the $10 ones that are avaible on rightstuf tomorrow, I really have to get to bed..

[Masterkyo]

If you lucky .. you can get it super cheap at local FYE, Suncoast or Samgoody for $15 Each with Buy 1 get 1 FREE all Geneons DVD's.

[furyk]

Well, to be fair, you're getting 125 minutes for that $30 retail price. It's not ideal, but I wouldn't avoid a long show like Fighting Spirit because of that... especially not when Fighting Spirit is as good as it is. As for Animeigo? Yeah, they put stuff out in boxes all the time, but they typically only release very, very old stuff that nobody would buy if they didn't come in box sets.

First off, your comment about Animeigo shows sort of the problem with anime fans today. They're unwilling to try out older stuff because it looks old, and often times they end up settling for mediocre creepy M.O.E. show of the month. Part of the reason Ippo failed in the US market is because there's a glut of shit and spending $30 on 4 discs is less of a chance then spending $30 on 15 discs (since let's face it, when prices are cut on a volume the company has cut it off).

Secondly, anime fandom is the only group of people that feels $25-30 (which is what Best Buy sells it for these days) for a single volume. I would want to buy stuff at retail, but please name any other thing you'd spend $200 for 26 episodes for. Sure, it's cheap compared to Japan, but we're not Japan. We don't have an eight to ten level tiered distribution system driving up prices. Anime in the United States has to compete with much more things then other anime like other, cheaper DVDs, video games, and a multitude of other things. In the current market, a 2 Disc $90 Patlabor the Movie release will not sell in the American market and guess what, it hasn't sold.

As it stands, every anime company in the United States besides Animeigo and maybe Right Stuf ends up liscencing a lot of shit shows flooding the market with truly terrible stuff like Eiken or UFO Valkyrie Maiden which drives both the cost of liscencing up (because everything gets liscenced these days the good stuff can be put out at a premium) and extends the length of releases (because everything costs more, anime companies need to release more volumes to make up the costs). The only solution is either liscence less and liscence smarter for the US market or get Japan to lower prices. The US anime industry is hurting right now because of this, but you'll never realize it because anime companies don't release sales numbers.

They also have to cover the costs of translating, dubbing, licensing and all that.. dunno how expensive that is though..

The translating isn't that expensive. There's about 20 translators in the US who really translate everything. The dubbing costs can be knocked out to some extent if anime companies were smarter about it. Take ADV's release of Macross for example. There are two people who want to watch Macross, people who want to see Robotech in it's original form or people who just want more Robotech. In the first case, that group will watch the sub because they want to see Macross as close to the original as possible. The second group of people don't want Macross, they want Robotech and thus won't want to watch the dub. The same thing goes for Gatchaman, Saint Seiya, Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors) and so on and so forth. About half of the discs out in the wild right now don't need dubs because the people who watch dubs don't watch show X. That's why a dub only show like Mobile Suit Gundam didn't sell in the United States. Liscencing is the biggest cost because Japan over estimates the American market simply because we're willing to pay double what the Japanese are willing to pay for manga so why can't our anime prices be comparable.

[rokkon]

To be fair, Ippo has a lot going against it for the typical anime fan. It's relatively unheard of for mainstream anime fans, the art is fairly unappealing (I'd say on part with Initial D), and it's about a sport that most anime fans probably don't care about [boxing]. In general, sports anime just don't do that well, which is kind of too bad because some are really good. (Touch being one of my favorites that's both old and about baseball... something only AnimEigo would look at...)

But seriously, since the big boom in the later 90's and early this decade, companies like ADV have been licensing way too much and anime fans are just spread way too thin by having too many bad choices to waste their money on. Don't even get me started on how many bad series there are on japanese tv, either...

There's really no way to recoop costs for spending so much money on shows that fail...in fact I'm surprised there aren't more abandoned unfinished series out there. It just becomes ridiculous that ADV and Geneon try to restructure and make more money by later reducing the price of DVDs to try to make more money. To the watchful consumer, that just screams "wait till later and you can buy me for cheaper!" which pretty much goes against what they want. I guess this is what happens in an oversaturated market where supply is much greater than demand....and they try to pin lower profits on fansubbing.