| I admit I download most of my anime and manga these days, though I still try to buy licensed stuff when I can (which is not much, because I'm a poor mofo). One of the major reasons for this (especially with anime) is that it's so incredibly overpriced. I haven't seen people talk specifically about this aspect of things very much, so I figured it deserved its own thread. So my question to you, MAL, considering the whole timeless fansub debate, the recent stuff about CrunchyRoll, and all related topics, is how much more likely would you be (if at all) to buy licensed anime and manga if it were considerably cheaper? How much cheaper would it have to be for you to buy some, most, or all of your anime that way? If it were considerably cheaper, would you buy all or some of your anime that way, try then buy, some combination of those, or would you not care at all and acquire your stuff the way you do right now? Kind of getting redundant here, but you get the idea. |
therubiconOct 10, 2009 2:41 PM
| Does not have to be cheap i buy it anyway. |
| lol @ img bbcode not working, mal is such a great site |
| True, I'd be more prone to buying anime if it were cheaper, since I'm not made of money. I currently watch most of the licensed anime via Netflix, which is actually pretty solid in that regard with Instant Watch (Xbox 360) or on disc (since I live a few blocks down from my nearest Netflix shipping location). But I buy the shows I'm extremely fond of though, and end up buying shows I watched/loved prior, when they are licensed |
-- Zune Social - this is the treatment for my ears.
| Anime and manga is pretty cheap. First, anime is more related to TV box sets than DVDs. DVD box sets when they first start out are $80+ for 1 season. 1 season of anime is roughly $40 if you order from the right place. Although a TV box set has 24 episodes and some anime only have 12/13, half the price seems fair. As for manga, a manga is roughly $10 and a book is $16-20. So still cheaper than a book, even when you take into account that a manga probably uses more ink with all the graphics needed to be printed compared to just text. If you had as much TV box sets and books as you did anime and manga, you'd have spent a lot more on the TV box sets and books. |
| Just look for the full boxset deals. Don't bother "collecting" one DVD at a time. |
| Click on this. I dare you. | MAL Fantasy Football League | Currently Watching List RWBY Club. RWBY is anime. Deal with it. |
KyuuA4 said: Just look for the full boxset deals. Don't bother "collecting" one DVD at a time. Well i do it because the boxes that come with volume 6 (or the last volume) are prettier then the complete collection boxes. |
| lol @ img bbcode not working, mal is such a great site |
| The price isn't the problem. The main problem is the quality of the product. I honestly don't know how good is the quality of the anime releases in Europe or US, but here in Russia it's total crap. The translation sucks, about 50% of licensed releases are voiceovers (meaning, you hear the slightly muted original voice and the russian voice at the same time), sometimes all characters are being voiced by one person (who's not a professional voice actor but a random guy from the licensing company), and some releases are simply dub-only, without the possibility to watch the show with the original voice and subs. Really, I wouldn't buy that crap even if the price was $5 per dvd, not the usual ~$20. And there's no such things as "boxsets" here. |
| It's getting better though. Tons of older stuff seems to be around £15 or so for 3-4 episodes whilst recently it's been about the same price for 8-9. |
| Quality and price come into account. I'll take to examples (sorry for the spelling btw). France: A complete box set is around 40 to 60 euros, so for Cowboy Bebop I find it cheap, but for something else I fing it expensive. Also note that I cant stand the french dub, really cant. England: for some reason when I go to england (family there), it's hard to find any mang or anime, and when I do thind some it's one dvd, two eps for 25 pounds. A total ripoff, and the dub is crap. Therefore I spend most of my time on trackers downlading my favorite anime, I still buy some, at the condition that VO is availble (not always the case). XxX Shiinigami |
| If you think American and European prices are bad (which they are, admittedly), many anime DVDs in Japan retail for about 6000 yen (or about $66-67 US dollars right now). And those DVDs often only have 2-3 episodes, rather than the 4-5 most American anime DVDs have. :-/ I'd probably buy more new DVDs (as opposed to renting or buying them used) if they were around $15-20. |
| Prices are bad because physical medium is an outdated model. Licensing companies should move to digital distribution. |
 |
fidelas said: Prices are bad because physical medium is an outdated model. Licensing companies should move to digital distribution. But that shouldn't be the only option for the consumer. Many people still prefer physical copies over digital ones. |
| If they were cheaper, i'd buy more. Half the anime I pass up because I don't want to spend $50+ for a boxset. |
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KyuuA4 said: Just look for the full boxset deals. Don't bother "collecting" one DVD at a time. And also looking through Ebay after 2 months of the release.. Prices are dropping like fly, even more if you dont mind 2nd hand Only never buy used manga from online, I've disappointed 3 times, even from high rated seller. |
| I used to buy tons of cheap season boxsets. But I haven't in a long time since anime sections in stores near me have been shrinking and a lot of the boxsets I've seen recently have been half season sets or boxes with one dvd and a shirt or key chain or something. |
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| If it was far cheaper i'd more than likely buy my favorite shows, but i wouldn't and couldn't go out and buy any random anime that gets released, theres far more average/crappy anime than really good anime. If i had a better job i'd probably think of buying some occasionally (at todays prices), but honestly at the current prices i don't consider anime worth buying at all. For a single anime (sometimes only a few episodes of a show) i could go out and buy a 360/PC game and get far more hours of entertainment out of the price. |
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ShadowbladeEdge said: fidelas said: I, for one, rarely ever pay for nonphysical media, and I hate it when I do. I need to own something, and I don't believe it's an uncommon sentiment. The main problem, I think, the industry has, is that it's run by the Japanese, and they don't know how to sell shit in/to everywhere else.Prices are bad because physical medium is an outdated model. Licensing companies should move to digital distribution. I agree with having to own physical media. I'm a collector and I love staring at my collection. I'll always find myself turning my head and looking at all my manga or all my anime. Sometimes I just can't help it. Personally, I do pay for digital media, but only the cheap sources where I still wont feel like I'm overpaying when I also buy the DVD. Personally, I think the perfect scenario would be digital media + BluRay. You have digital for the cheap and easy access, and BluRay for the collectors. |
| i bought too much death note dvd's on the weekend on friday i bought volume 9 (with mikami and takada on the front) and on saturday i bought volume 4 (with misa misa on teh frontzz) and today my sister gave me my birthday present which was volume 9 (LOL!) BUT it was that special box edition where you get a limited edition action figure with it :D |
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