Hi. Looks like Geneon USA are pulling the plug on new DVD releases - while DVDs set for release up to November are still on the cards, that will be it. Thankfully, the last DVD volume of F/SN will be out next month, so will still make it.
Hmm, I wonder what the actual reason was. Doesn't really surprise me though. Hardly anyone I know actually bothers to buy anime dvd's, either because of cost, the shows being years old already, or that most of the stuff people have never heard of. About the only outlet for anime these days in the US is cartoon network(couple of shows are on sci-fi channel now), but they're airing cowbboy bebop again for the millionth time. They really need to work on a way of introducing this stuff to potential customers, rather than just trying to cram retail dvd's down their throats. One example I know of recently(dunno if it was geneon or who, but it's the same problem) was haruhi. I had never heard of it, then out of the blue it's plastered in ads all over the place. Ok, that's fine, but how do I know if I'll be interested in it? I can't preview it, the first volume isn't dirt cheap. So I wound up getting the fansubs, and after going and getting the fansubs, why bother waiting 6 months for all of the dvd's to come out? Time between releases being the other problem.
It's too bad, I haven't been into anime in a long time but I see in stores that Geneon actually charges reasonable prices for it.
The prices these days aren't too outrageous, but think of it this way. Even if you go to the store, see a show on the shelf, you have no legal means of previewing it in any way before committing yourself to waiting a month or two between DVD releases, and the cost of those DVD's. The easiest way to settle that IMO, would be to offer cheap digital downloads of the first couple episodes of a series, which would be enough to get people hook, and thus buy the rest of the DVDs.
It was bound to happen and continue to happen. The anime DVD bubble burst a year or two ago. There was just too much too soon. Anime is still a very niche market in the US, no matter how much shelf space is dedicated to it at Best Buy or Suncoast may fool you, and charging a SMRP of $20-$30 for maybe 60-90 minutes of material is a hard sell to the average consumer. The only show Geneon was putting out that I would have had any interest in watching was Black Lagoon. The thing is, I already have seen all of Black Lagoon for free when Shinsen was subbing it while it was still airing in Japan. The anime companies need to jump on what the fansubbers do. They need to get the license to shows as they are airing in Japan and have them up to watch the next day. If Dattebayo can have the most recent episode of Naruto or Bleach fully subbed and ready to watch the day after it airs in Japan, no reason why the US anime companies can't do the same thing. Charge a dollar or two for people to watch it (though that still won't stop them showing up on torrents). Not to mention that with a Netflix subscription, enough hard drive space, and the proper DVD decrypting/shrinking/burning software, a person can amass a quality anime library very quickly, very cheaply
Yeap, that's the huge catch. Most of the anime fans who might consider buying DVDs are well aware of the fansubs out there. And having companies publishing DVDs in the US a year after a group made it available to download as a quality sub, isn't usually very appealing. Hell, the few people I do know that rely on cable TV to watch anime will tell me about some cool new show, and every time I'll point out that I watched it 2 or 3 years ago. Hell, aside from the occasional movie like that ff7 advent children, the last anime series I bought on dvd was Bubblegum Crisis, and that was easily 6 years ago, maybe more.
My last anime purchase was the Gunbuster collection. Bandai more than deserved my money for releasing that classic on DVD. Before that, I hadn't bought an anime DVD in over two years. I couldn't tell you though how many hundreds of hours of it I've watched fansubbed over those two year either
The last time I bought anime was back in 2001 when the Outlaw Star - Perfect Collection Boxed Set came out. If I had a decent internet connection back then and could watch the unmutilated version online I wouldn't have bought it. At least I got 10 hrs of pure win for my $40.
Beautiful! Hopefully the other companies will finally clue in that they have to stop charging $25+ for a DVD with only 3-4 episodes on it. It's very annoying buying all those DVDs, then at the end of the series, they release a box set for 1/3 of the price all those DVDs costed you.
I think it comes down to a few thing. A) How good the series is B)Most people would rather wait till the boxsets come out so it wont cost them as much c)How good is the Dub? I have heard some horrible dubs and it can ruin a good series. In the old days of VHS they used to be able to justify $25 an episode. At the time it cost that much and you would only get 1 to 2 episodes on a tape. It was novel then because there really weren't any Cartoons that were adult oriented. The closest at the time were Ren and Stimpy, Bevis and Butthead, and Cartoon Sushi. These days we have shows like south park, there's adult swim, and even cartoons like Superman Doomsday with more adult orientation. They are also competing with a vast DVD market. Does the general public want to buy 4 episodes for $30 bucks or do they want to buy the whole series of a live action show? Honestly they need to try to get more of the good shows on to networks where people can see them. Then they will sell more DVD's. Show's like Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist are selling well because people have seen them and liked them. But if they haven't seen the series, they won't try to waste their money on a series they may or may not like. Also at this point there are so many western series trying to ape the style, it seems like more of the same.
I only watch dubbed anime and I'm willing to pay extra for that luxury, understanding the extra expense in translating and dubbing a foreign show, compared to just slapping a domestic series on DVD. That said, I think the price being currently charged for anime releases is insane and I've gone to waiting for boxsets for any series that looks good, as I'm patient enough to wait for them. I'm not concerned about how quickly a series comes out after airing in Japan, but I'd really like to see dubbing companies switch to only releasing cheaper 'season' boxsets. Isn't that starting to change though? I could have sworn Death Note had some legal previews available. In all fairness though, unless you're new to buying anime on DVD, it's pretty common knowledge that (virtually) everything will be released in a cheaper box set eventually.
Ok, by the way you worded the rest of your post, I'm going to assume you've watched more than just a couple shows here and there. And I'm sure you're aware of just how much anime is crammed into retail shelves these days. You've listed 1 series, that's 37 episodes long, will have it's third dvd with 4 episodes(making for a total of 12) released on Jan 28th 2008, for a series that originally aired in 2006. Assuming they finish the dvd releases in 2008(very likely), that's still a 2 year difference, and again 1 series out of a crap-ton(official unit of measurement) on store shelves.
Part of the problem is oversaturation of the market. There's simply too much out there that people can't keep up. It seems that they bring anything over these days regardless of quality. I think the same thing is going to happen to the manga market pretty soon. I understand the costs are higher due to dubbing and lisences, but the price is still really high. Spread that out over a series like Dragonball or bleach with hundreds of episodes, and the costs are astronomical. That being said, I do enjoy fansubs, but if there were cheap downloads of individual episodes on iTunes or something I would get them.
True its just one example, but its not the only one. ADV usually offers a free preview of the first episode of its new shows around the time its released. Plus they have their own internet store where you can buy episodes, mostly from their newer stuff, but some of the classic stuff mixed in, for a few dollars an episode. Several of the other companies are starting to do the same as well. It just takes time to set up a working infrastructure that will allow them to do business and make a profit. Lets face it, as this thread has shown, a large portion of anime fans download but never buy. I have a feeling that if the fandom as a whole would buy more the companies could eventually start generating enough revenue that dropping the prices wouldn't hurt them as badly as it would now.
That's why I noted it as something that's "starting to change", solely in reference to your point that there aren't free previews available (nothing about the long release times), and I didn't word it as "oh you're wrong about no free previews because of this one series". The change has to begin somewhere. Also, I know there are more examples, but I couldn't think of any other shows, off the top of my head, that I know with relative certainty are offering free previews. I keep thinking something similar was done for Haruhi, but that's not a show I pay attention to and can't say for sure.
Look at the music industry. They're a much bigger organization and they're still trying to figure things out on content delivery. It basically took Apple coming in from outside the industry and bringing iTunes to get things going. Changes take time for businesses to adapt to.
