[Dextro]

Originally Posted by 00Coyote

I've always though the pricing structure, and how they market and place anime DVD/BluRays is a horrible way to do business. The absurd price + low content of the discs narrows their customer base to a very small niche market.

It comes down to perceived value.

Take 'Ben-to' or 'Yuru Yuri' or 'Denpa Onna ....' all three of those shows I enjoyed immensely, I would love to see more of them (Yuru Yuri is getting a 2nd season) and I'd really like to support the companies who did all the work animating such fine shows ... but I didn't think they were spectacular enough to drop $500+shipping per show just to have the discs sitting on my shelf*

There are a whole lot of decent shows, a handful of good shows, and a few really spectacular ones, but how their pricing structure works, you have to be fanatical about a show to buy it, so I guess they end up turning away 80-90% of their potential customer base.

And they base their whole industry on this. I'm really surprised any anime gets made at all.


*To watch a BluRay, or a R2 DVD I have to beak the law, to use a product that I legally purchased. Not to mention the time/HD space/annoyance factor of ripping, de-DMRing, transcoding plus adding the subs in.... I have to shake my head at the Media Industry, and why they choose to treat their paying customers as criminals.

Ranting a bit more...

And the mostly dead US anime industry seems to pick the most mediocre shows to license, and then saddle the whole process with the expensive dub production, which usually ends up being underwhelming. I really want a Japanese producer to wake up one morning and realize *shock* If we lower the price on these discs, we'd sell a whole lot more, sure we'll make less per disc, but the volume sales will far surpass the measly returns we were getting. And, what if we included an English subtitle (since we already have it timed from Crunchyroll) for those crazy Gaijin who happen to like these shows. We don't have to cater to 'Mainstream' but having the subtitles on a reasonably priced disc greatly expands our potential customer base. Brilliant!

But alas, the world isn't that sane.

I think you should read this: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature/2012-03-07 It's actually a pretty decent piece that explains everything you just mentioned and explains why the current model is what it is. I'm as unhappy about it as you but there's quite a long history of why lowering prices doesn't bring in the kind of volumes we think it should.