Pitching Anime in America ~How to Phrase a Premise~

[brocko]

I think visuals are pretty much the main selling point too, but that's not to say that the little back-cover blurbs are entirely useless either. A good well-written one should be able to complement the visuals and help tip someone sitting on the fence over once they've read it. If it manages even that much, then it's already done its job.

But as already mentioned, probably the biggest pull is from word of mouth.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

I don't know, a picture is worth a thousand words after all...

Also you can tell a lot about a show by it's art style. For instance, there's no way this could ever be a good show.

No way! Those visuals are right up the alley for some! You want something more like this Judging a book by it's front cover, damn lol

Originally Posted by Random32

I'm going by the standard of Netflix blurbs. They serve the same purpose as these writeups, to basically say what the show is and why its interesting.

Netflix is in the position to have a lot of experience and knowledge about these blurbs, so I trust that their blurbs are a decent standard to compare other blurbs by.

Also, more examples, of anime specifically. Though not stellar, most of these are decent blurbs.
http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spi...14163_full.jpg

Both styles are valid, but just because one company favours one style over the other, does not make it the one true, definitive standard. Also keep in mind that Netflix does pack a rather large library so they can't afford to invest too much time in 'sugar-coating' their write-ups per say due to the sheer volume of it alone. Same thing with the season charts, they're not there to sell the show to you, just give you a rundown of what's up and what to expect.

It seems to me there's a slight confusion in differentiating between selling and informing. Netflix, season charts and reviews are all informing, Sentai ones for example are trying to sell. It's okay to prefer one method over the other, but I feel it's particularly important to notice the purposes of each and why they're used when they are.

@ Tari Tari blurb
Well she pretty buskers at the end of the first episode does she not? But yea, if that's the only instance then calling her a street performer may be a bit of stretch lol

[Master_Yoma]

Well getting all 13eps on 2 dvds for 40 to 60 bucks in the US dosnt make hard to pitch anime here

[DonQuigleone]

I don't think building a business model based on blind purchasing is a good idea. Casual buying is becoming downloading.

Instead, I think the Japanese approach might be the better one. Charge an arm and a leg to the few customers you have.

In this respect, they should make their DVDs works of art rather then mass market consumer items. I want to be able to place my DVDs on their shelves with a sense of pride, not to try to hide it so that people don't see the teeny bopper description.

[Akito Kinomoto]

Originally Posted by Master_Yoma

Well getting all 13eps on 2 dvds for 40 to 60 bucks in the US dosnt make hard to pitch anime here

It does become a tough sell when there's boxsets for ~25 and sometimes ~50 episode series at ~$30 to ~$40. Cheapest I've ever gotten was $14.99 for a cour of episodes. Inconsistent prices are inconsistent.

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

In this respect, they should make their DVDs works of art rather then mass market consumer items. I want to be able to place my DVDs on their shelves with a sense of pride, not to try to hide it so that people don't see the teeny bopper description.

...Who's going to go in your room? Some things are going to be awkward buys regardless of the description.

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Akito Kinomoto

It does become a tough sell when there's boxsets for ~25 and sometimes ~50 episode series at ~$30 to ~$40. Cheapest I've ever gotten was $14.99 for a cour of episodes. Inconsistent prices are inconsistent.

Those cheap boxsets become an even tougher sell when it's so easy to download stuff illegally online

...Who's going to go in your room? Some things are going to be awkward buys regardless of the description.

I'd never actually buy a DVD to watch it, that's what my hard drive is for. By comparison, DVDs are just dead weight storage wise.

The only reason I'd ever buy a DVD would be to show it off to my friends. In that respect, it's a lot more important for the case to have nice respectable looking art, then it does for the disk inside to actually work. So I'd never buy a disk just to secret it away in my room somewhere. Instead I want to put it out for others to see how amazingly cultured I am.

Online media is going to make physical disks a luxury item. The only way to make money off of them will be to charge luxury prices, like in Japan...

[Sackett]

Well, personally I am always astonish how the taglines for advertising books are horrible, inaccurate, and would make me less likely to read the book- even for books that are among my favorites.

My personal opinion is that whoever is writing these blurbs are either just mailing it in, or they are cleverly expressing their dissatisfaction at being unable to get published by sabotaging their competitors while only pretending to be that stupid.

The same thing applies to all blurbs about any media.