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Originally Posted by relentlessflame
I read some analysis recently that suggested the opposite, actually -- that the industry on the whole got spooked by Netflix's revenue/growth situation, investment into streaming is slowing down, and this purchase of a retailer suggests they want to diversify their revenue and increase the emphasis on physical sales and merchandise.
I also don't think they'd have any reason to buy RightStuf (and Funimation previously) if this was "the plan" -- they could just stop putting out their shows on disc and retailers would suffer accordingly. If anything, it makes more sense to do the opposite and use this synergy to push "conversions." By owning the store themselves, they retain more of the margin, and can be a real "one-shop stop" for licensors who want to maximize their revenue potential.
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I guess my concerns are more of a price hike. The inability to own anime was the worst case scenario. But being priced out of doing so isn't far off and one I can see happening. Aniplex titles always seem to be absurd in price. Sincerely hope that doesn't become commonplace.
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Besides that... not to put too fine a point on it given this site's origins, but piracy does still exist. If they start playing too many games with catalog availability, it'll just cause an uproar with the fans and drive people to other places that won't care about licensing. Even today there are a lot of anime fans who watch "Crunchyroll shows" every week without ever visiting the site, so it's not like they can pretend they can really "disappear" a show by removing it from the site. I'm sure they are quite aware of this. Plus, any revenue licensors make from catalog shows is just gravy because production costs are already sunk, so I don't really see why they wouldn't want their shows to be available, barring very unusual licensing complications (e.g., Macross until recently). Likewise, I can't really see why they wouldn't want to get whatever revenue they can get from disc sales if possible, unless it's so unpopular they don't think the discs will breakeven.
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Also that whole episodes appear on Youtube and get watched there along with the other obvious methods. And when licenses expire, the chance to support a place/studio is lost. I've only recently reached a place where I can properly afford to do so, but that is being exacerbated by the likelihood that a bunch of titles will vanish from being sold in the near future. Thankfully, the majority of my list is done. In the coming months, I can have that list near complete and keep an eye out for the remaining few.
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I do think the work of archivists is important and we should be concerned about media preservation in the streaming age... but yeah, anime is the one area where I think the fans are passionate enough and there's enough a history of access issues that it'll end up being one of the better-preserved. (Now, anime-based mobile games on the other hand...)
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Absolutely. Thankfully enough people care. When I started watching anime proper in 2003, it was still very limited as to what you could get hold of. In hindsight, the depth of the mid 2000s is rather eye-opening once you could see all those titles. And in the early 2010s, all the early decades of anime became accessible. My concern is that amidst this opportunity, there is a trend condemning the past, even to the point of ignoring almost everything that was made before a person started watching anime. I know when people start out, they're reluctant to explore beyond the easily accessible, which is fair enough. But what drove me to stop participating in community/group gatherings/events was that there was a heavily increasing amount of people only watching shounen or isekai or the currently airing titles, giving utter contempt at the mention of anything else - not so different from the 'you're with me or against me' mentality of the modern world in general. It was what led to me finding peace with maintaining contact with only specific people with open minds that still want to discuss things patiently and provide valid differing views at various points.
I consider myself lucky as hell that Monster was licensed in full for a few years in Australia - the only place in the world that it ever was - and was able to get it. You see a lot of places still holding it in reverence, thankfully, but lamenting it not being purchasable in anime form (thankfully was in manga for them, though). But with that narrowing accessibility and range of content, it's harder to find titles beyond those genres and thus harder to find people who care enough to find them and discuss them. It it is even harder in manga. I know there are ways to, but there's an utter monolith to search through. Eventually comes down to sheer luck or a miracle license or word of mouth. Manga publishing runs are very short outside of shounen/isekai. Good luck ever getting hold of a physical copy once the run is over. Or with digital services getting very interfering with overt censoring.
And per your final point, it's even worse with games. When places like Nintendo don't make their older titles available but hunt down anyone making it available, or 'live services' being shut down for good making the game never available again, it is the true death of a product and the most tragic. Even though I don't play them, I guess a time will come that things like Genshin Impact, Fate/Grand Order and the like in the mobile realm, along with MMOs and server-based FPSs. They will hit a point where they won't be available in time.
In short, I'd like to think Crunchyroll will do the right thing. But I have my reasons to be doubtful.