Angry About Anime DVD Prices...

That cowboy Bebop set sucks and they are far from the same products...poorer audio/video quality than the official releases and often times the subtitles are really just fan-subs which suck and are poorly translated. That and your suport of bootleggers is one reason why anime is still expensive.
 
I only buy bootleg anime dvds when I kno a distributor is going to shaq-fu them up or an anime that will not come to America.
 
COMIC CITY NOVI/PONTIAC/CANTON MI RENTS ANIME FOR $3 ANIGHT AND HAS ABOUT 500 DVD'S PER STORE...

damn caps lock, and bold... :twisted:

Seriously though, we carry quite a few for rent, and we are pretty up to date on the important stuff
 
People pirate anime because prices are high.

Anime producers charge a lot because people pireate their stuff.

No win-win situtation here.

And the way they change the story to fit the off-sync mouth dialogue and the soccer-moms of America - they should be paying me to watch American-neutered anime.

I'm not going to pay $20 for 3 episodes saying the characters are going to HFIL!
 
[quote name='OldSchoolNinja']Same video/audio quality from what I've seen/heard (friend has an official CB DVD).

But whatever...I'll just go straight to hell.[/quote]

Maybe it was me, but I tried watching a bootlegged copy just like that that I barrowed from somebody in an anime club for a mini-marathon ( I don't own the whole series on DVD yet). When I watched it in progressive scan the video quality seemed to drop and the 2.0 surround sound seemed more subpar.
 
[quote name='m0rningbreakfast']
I'm not going to pay $20 for 3 episodes saying the characters are going to HFIL![/quote]

lol Wasnt that an edit from Dragonball z? I used to say HFIL all the time.
 
I will agree with some when I say anime prices are high. I haven't bought any anime new. My local pawn shop used to receive tons of anime that I picked up cheap. There are a lot of people who are into anime (like myself) that will not pay such a high price for it.
 
I currently have around 70 anime dvds since its an addiction for me. Btw they are pretty cheap at my Best Buy ($19.99) and I bought a crapload of them when Best Buy had a 20% off all anime sale. BOOTLEGS ARE EVIL!!!! AND SO IS TOKYOPOP FOR RUINING INITIAL D!!!!!!!!!!!
 
[quote name='crazytalkx']I currently have around 70 anime dvds since its an addiction for me. Btw they are pretty cheap at my Best Buy ($19.99) and I bought a crapload of them when Best Buy had a 20% off all anime sale. BOOTLEGS ARE EVIL!!!! AND SO IS TOKYOPOP FOR RUINING INITIAL D!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

I bought a bunch of stuff from BB during the sale too. The actually have some pretty good sales on anime, but they never advertise it. Oh well, more for us, right?
 
[quote name='OldSchoolNinja']Seriously, who cares if these are fake? They sure don't look like it (Hellsing and Kenshin actually are official releases by a distribution company called FX. I'm willing to grant that the Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and Trigun DVDs are bootleg). I'd rather pay $30 for a nice looking box set then $130 for a bunch of slapdash official US releases.

Same product but cheaper. Isn't that what being a cheapass is all about?[/quote]

FX is a known bootlegger. Hellsing was released by Pioneer and Pioneer ONLY.
 
i never bought an anime dvd just rent them.. and their not that expensive to rent.. well while i was in cali. being a cheap ass (and poor) anything 10+ = expensive

the prices of anime dvds in stores (especially suncoast) i gotta say are really not worth it at times. i mean unless that the ONLY place in the world you can find it, which i highly doubt, and you love it with all your heart by all means buy buy buy. but geeez to think about it.. the dvd is like $1 and the cover and such is $2 (poor calculations yes) it's like those card games.. it takes like a penny to make one card practically.. so it sucks to be paying $20+ for something that was made so much cheaper. .. and to the bootleg thing.. i dont buy any of that.. hehe dling is fine with me (thank god bit torrent) but it sucks for animes that are licensed -.-
 
Best Buy's anime prices have gone up. Suncoast's prices have ALWAYS been much higher than anywhere else, but that usually is the case with mall stores [gotta pay for those nice fountains and plants somehow.] I was surprised when I got Excel Saga vol 1 on release date for 17.99.
There will always be pirates, no matter what the price is. There are the people to whom 1.00 is 'too much' when they can get it free. And the people who just like to 'make' their own dvd's or whatever. I think the effect of the average 'downloading' type pirate on sales is overestimated; it's really sort of a pain in the ass to do it, and for most people, spending more money, getting a quality product you can rely on to play and possibly resell, is worth the money. It's the 'professional' pirates, and ignorant consumers or consumers who don't care, that are the problem. the ignorant consumers buy pirated stuff, which *usually* is of poorer quality, either audio, video, translation, or voice; then they get mad and think 'Anime sucks' so they don't buy it anymore. Or they'd rather buy it for 20 bucks instead of a 100, eventually that does affect the producer's revenue, and they either stop producing, or raise prices.
You don't have a right to steal product just because the price is too high for you.
If people don't buy at a certain price, the companies will either quit releasing anime, or make the price/offering more attractive.
You can be a cheapass without being a thief.
I do agree that I'm disappointed in some American releases when they edit the dialog or change the story; but I'm also very disappointed in American DVD releases that use pan and scan or zoom, and I don't pirate those to 'protest.'
 
[quote name='Final Starman']Procuding Anime and bringing it to the US has a lot more costs involved than making cards for a CCG.[/quote]

What she saying is that it sucks to pay so much for something that doesn't cost alot to make.
 
I agree with the point that U.S. companies have to buy the distribution rights and that must add some cost to the ordeal. What I don't understand is why they view dubbing as a must before releasing. I won't go into the huge "dub vs sub" war, but suffice it to say I don't know too many people who are so diehard on dubs that they flat out REFUSE to watch something with subs.

If companies stuck with subs only, the time to release (and thus $$) would be shorter, and less costly. Of course how much less and how much shorter I wouldn't know, but as an example this is how most fansub groups work: 1. episode of anime XYZ is aired in Japan 2. Some one in Japan TiVo's it and sends the raw untranslated footage over to the U.S. 3. The episode is translated (prolly a two step process Japanese->Engrish->English) 4. The episode is re-encoded with the subtitles properly timed, sometimes with karaoke to go along with the opening and ending songs (this is becoming more and more usual) 5. The episode is released via Bittorrent and IRC distribution where anywhere from 10 to 10,000 people could view it within the next week.

Total time for this to happen? In the range of 3-7 days, sometimes even as fast as 1-2 days, all depends on the fansubbing group. End quality? Again depends on the fansub group, but most often acceptable or better quality. There are plenty of weakness to this of course - these anime fansub groups can (and often do) up and disappear, they don't have a strict schedule with set deadlines, etc, but if groups of anime fans can donate their time and effort to do this with hardly sub-par results and a general return net payment of ZERO dollars... let's just say it's really undermining to the high prices we are seeing on anime in the U.S.

I know there are be factors I'm skipping out on - re-doing the DVD navigation menus, DVD packaging, DVD production and distribution to name a few - but it seems like these (primarily the DVD production and distribution) would be the major cost points, and translation and what (which everyone seems to be touting as the main reason) would be much less of a factor.

Anyway, my $0.02. And in the interest of Cheap Asses everywhere...
www.animesuki.com
Only torrents to animes unlicensed in the U.S. so it's still borderline legal, hehehe.
 
Actually, I have seen a *lot* of people post messages or say things like "Why can't they do it in English, if I wanted to read, I'd get a book" and crap like that. I don't know if those people would *not* buy a product if it weren't dub, but the feelings are there.
You're missing out on two things in your otherwise very good summary of fansubbing:
First, a official licensor has to go through all the 'legalese' to get the rights to the program, and of course every step of the way [remaster, translate, subtitle, voiceover, etc] an employee does something, so there's salary and overhead on those that they have to recoup.
Secondly, you do allude to this, but let me mention it straight out: Fansubbers do it for the 'love'. Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, like you said, real life intrudes, or they get bored or do a not very good job, etc [I watched a fansub of Maison Ikkoku that looked like someone filmed a Japanese tv set with a handicam; would I pay extra for a 'quality' release? yes.] The companies do it for money. And there's nothing wrong with that, that's how they please their stockholders and put food on the table of every employee. They price their releases based on a carefully balanced set of priorities. They have to balance the costs of production/marketing, with the estimated purchasing fanbase, with the goal of maximizing profit. Which allows them to continue their work and produce more product. I think the number of people interested in anime is slowly increasing, and we are seeing either prices drop or more bang-for-the-buck in box sets or limited editions, but it hasn't hit 'mass market' quantity yet.
I'd rather pay 20-30 bucks for a DVD, and have the company be able to release things, than get one release for a bargain price of 5 bucks, and have them go broke giving that to me.
 
Hell, the cost of DVD sets on a whole is high. I paid $90 for the whole of Star Trek: Season 1, and that was a BARGAIN price (It retails for like $120), so the recent box sets that go for around $100 aren't too bad of a deal.

I will admit, however, that whoever released FLCL has REALLY pissed me off. With no box set and THREE separate releases, it would cost me $60-70 to get all of FLCL on legit DVD, and considering it's only 6 episodes long, that's about $10 an episode, which is far too high a price for my blood.
 
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