Best ways to Support Anime Industry?
 

I know there are people here who probably have a more clear understanding than I do but whats the best ways to help support the industry? Is it only through DVD sales? Or does subscriptions to various places (Funimation, Crunchyroll, etc.) help out more?

Thanks :#

In my opinion, subscriptions to legal download/streaming anime sites is the best way in the long run. If Anime companies makes money distributing anime through World Wide Web, they will make more efforts reaching out and communicating with international viewers, which may result in more revenue away from Japan, which is a very saturated market.

At this point in time, DVDs still bring in a lot more revenue per customer than online streaming subscriptions do (which is many orders of magnitude more than the ads in free legit online streams provide), but by the same token sometimes the money may be supporting different people along the way. The overseas anime industry generally consists of various middlemen who translate, publish, and distribute the work (whether online or on physical media), but some money does go back to the rightsholders in one way or another.

You might be interested to read this series of ANN articles which provides some relevant information about how licensing works.

Now, if you really want to support the Japanese anime industry more directly and are willing to spend a bit more (or sometimes a lot more) to do it, there are a ton of products being sold at every price point in Japan for nearly every show that's airing. The product that would seem to bring in the most direct revenue in Japan is the DVDs and Blu-Rays, which are many times more expensive than their licensed equivalents. But there are also CD, Games, Books, Figures, Character Goods, and so on, all of which bring some money back to the Production Committee in various ways. Some of these products are easier than others for foreigners to import, keeping in mind that many of them are not translated into English (so you may be buying them purely as keepsakes, rather than for their practical value).

But we're probably getting way ahead of ourselves here. A subscription to legit streaming services is a good place to start, and supporting your favourite shows by buying the license DVDs/Blu-Rays does help.

thanks wontask and relentlessflame...I appreciate the time :)

According to ANN, legal stream nets little compared to importing anime Blu-Rays from Japan.

DVDs/Blu-Rays licensed outside Japan nets little (but it's the source of income for the industry as well)

Merchandise from an anime nets 5% (Danny Choo's website).

Well, of course, but what good is a Japanese BR to someone who doesn't speak Japanese? Even an item as attractive to me as the BD box of Apothecary stories by Nakamura Kenji isn't going to make me part with $300+ if I can't understand what is being said.

Selling DVDs, manga and merchandise widely out of Japan. Right now, the only way I can buy manga is by going to conventions or driving to Tel Aviv. ´●ω●｀

Don't buy for use. That is a huge mistake.

If you want to watch anime, just torrent (xdcc, ddl, etc) it. It's several times more convenient and often higher quality than if you took the legal option.

Buy anime/merch to support the industry. Doesn't matter if you can't understand it, that's what scanlations and fansubs are for.

Its collector thing, personally I found its can be fascinating hobby.

...If you're going to buy something purely to support the industry and be "a collector", wouldn't it make more sense to buy a figurine than a DVD/Blu-Ray? A collection of anime figurines displayed well would be much more eye-catching to me than a stack of DVDs or Blu-Rays.

Figures don't bring the producers of the anime as much money as buying their their discs. Most of of the revenues of the figures goes naturally to the manufacturor of the figures.

Buying other kind of merchandise more directly related to the anime also helps, like their soundtracks (or some opening and endings cd's that are not sung by actual music artists but rather the seiyuu's of that specific serie), artbooks etc.

edit and semi off topic : my recent support for an anime serie that i liked last year
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...shirodiscs.jpg

Bingo.

And some of BDs actually already include english subtitle, its the recent trend lately.

Btw nice collection dude.

I personally love both. I also collect manga, artbooks, and recently I've taken a liken to glasses/mugs.

I don't buy Japanese BR's though, that is beyond my price range and well I still don't have a Blu-ray Player. I have bought Japanese manga purely for collection reasons though (since I can't actually read it).

Just curious, but how many of you who collect Japanese BDs, etc., have families? Hobbies are nice, but it's hard to justify spending hundreds of dollars on anime and anime collectibles when you've got other more pressing needs like paying the rent and putting food on the table.

If you can do both, then more power to you. As for me, I've got college tuition bills to pay.

I think everyone should do what they can. People shouldn't feel bad because they can't buy everything or don't buy the most expensive thing possible. When I was unemployed I was buying way less than I am now. Not to mention you can buy a lot but space is also going to be an issue.

Well, I'd say it's certainly true that the prime target for Japanese BD collectors are people with large amounts of disposable income, i.e. people (likely single/with no dependants) with good jobs and few responsibilities. For example, speaking personally, I rent an apartment by myself but don't own a car. So all the money people might normally spend on car payments, maintenance, fuel, etc. I can use instead to collect stuff. If I were in a situation where I didn't have a choice but to own a car, then that would certainly cut into how much I can spend. I also don't spent a lot of money on other "vices" (don't drink, don't smoke, don't otherwise spend lavishly)... collecting anime and related merchandise is what I choose to do with my spare funds. Clearly, not everyone can do that, nor are they necessarily expected to. This is why there are products at every price point.

But that aside, I do generally agree that, for those who buy the BDs even in Japan, it's much more to collect than for any sort of practical use. It's frivolous spending by its very definition, but I like supporting the shows I love in that way because I can... realizing that I may not always be able to do so.

Soundtracks are another good option. No sub concerns, and you generally hear stuff not in the show itself.

I spend mainly on books (artbooks, light novels, manga, special publications etc) figma, soundtracks and games....

Yeah, not having dependents other than yourself is great. It's obvious why most hardcore otaku are single...

Thanks everyone for keeping the discussion and adding alot of information for me.

I've been introduced into anime like 6 years ago and theres been alot I've watched and really enjoyed like Naruto, Baka Test, School Rumble, Freezing(not even including big ones that everyone says are must watch anime like Gundam, Gurren Lagann, etc.)

But now that I have a bit of income now for spare use and I'm looking to buy more anime related stuff like DVDs and other collectibles. Any particular sites anyone here particularly uses for buying?

That is exactly what I'm doing.

Aside from figurines, I also buy music cd's from CDJapan.
I like the free stickers (often comes with first press editions), and the booklet. :)