Quote:
Originally Posted by August138
Again, whatever Europeans are getting hit with is frankly not the problem of Bandai Visual, Amazon Japan, or whatever service one can buy the Blu-rays from. Would I like them to be cheaper? Sure, in a perfect world, but we live in reality, and this is what the situation is — it's a market dictated by the set price of Japanese home video releases. This is something I really love and really want to see, so I'm willing to pay a premium to do so — and it's been worth every, single US Cent to me. Your milage may vary — that's up to you.
I don't watch a lot of current anime all the way through; most of it has no appeal to me, with some rare exceptions (like FLOWERS OF EVIL), but even those I regularly watch, I don't need to own them —I just want to see them once, and I'm done. I'm a YAMATO fan and YAMATO: 2199 is something that I can enjoy over and over and share with friends — and out of a lot other series being currently produced, even in the last few years, this one will stand the test of time.
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Just that those things are not sold by amazon directly but by japanese companies, who have no additonal costs when selling it to other countries. In fact they even increase their market range resulting in greater profits.
So its a bit peculiar to ask for 30 Euro more than they'd ask for in their own country, while in theory one could just go to japan taking 3 friends with him, buy 6 blu rays and get away without customs if one distributes the blu-rays before the plane back starts off between the 3 of them.
The problem is also not if Yamato will stand the test of time, the problem is whether the blu-ray will.
Again, I can see how a theater version would cost more (though isn't it just the normal episodes combined to a movie oO? ).
And I wouldn't say its not bandai's problem either because in the world of billions of people having internet and just need to go to some streaming site to watch it they are better off making it as available as possible then risking to that said mass will just go watch a stream.
Another point is that whoever directly sells them makes 50 EUR less profit at some point of history because no one wants the ware anymore.
Another thing you have to mind is that they will inevitably get cheaper after a while, due to the company having to keep them available, because as you already mentioned Yamato is something that will last. However the more available they are the less they can ask for, so yeah its definitely more profitable to make them as available as possible to everyone from the start than charging other countries 30 Euro more than they ask for in their own country.
In fact I just checked the US Amazon page and I would be off 20 euro cheaper when buying it there rather than from the japanese import companies. They pretty much ask for the same price they do on the US market which is a mistake since the Euro has atma higher value than the USD.
Either way there is a shop in my hometown that might be able to order them for me for accpetable prices, I will see that next month when they get back from their vacation...