Crunchyroll world domination continues with purchase of RightStuf

[Last Sinner]

One interesting thing to note. Apparently Crunchyroll will still ship manga internationally and have a flat rate of $44US regardless of the size of the purchase. Given I get manga through someone who gets around 50 manga each order, this will be cheaper but be a bit slower to ship.

Kind of confused that if they're willing to ship manga overseas that they won't do anime unless they're that keen to end physical distribution ASAP.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Kind of confused that if they're willing to ship manga overseas that they won't do anime unless they're that keen to end physical distribution ASAP.

I always assumed the anime restriction had something to do with their heritage as Funimation, which only technically ever owned the US/Canada DVD/BD distribution rights, but third-party resellers like RightStuf just shipped things anywhere regardless (since, before, it wasn't RightStuf's responsibility to enforce Funimation's territorial rights). But now that Crunchyroll is Funimation, it'd be like Funimation is competing with local market distributors, and so now that RightStuf is Crunchyroll (is Funimation) they probably have to keep the same separation. Funimation doesn't distribute manga, so Crunchyroll distributing stuff from third-party publishers isn't the same kind of "conflict of interest."

Technically maybe they could have distributed non-Funimation anime globally, and Funimation stuff only within their territory, but probably that'd be very weird to customers, so probably easier to just be consistent and stay out of it.

It does seem like an opportunity for someone else to pick up the slack for that market, but yeah -- I wonder how much money there is left in this tiny niche these days.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

One interesting thing to note. Apparently Crunchyroll will still ship manga internationally and have a flat rate of $44US regardless of the size of the purchase. Given I get manga through someone who gets around 50 manga each order, this will be cheaper but be a bit slower to ship.

Kind of confused that if they're willing to ship manga overseas that they won't do anime unless they're that keen to end physical distribution ASAP.

This is referring to like, importing JP manga to the US?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

This is referring to like, importing JP manga to the US?

English-translated manga from the US to other international markets that don't have good prices/distribution. I don't remember Rightstuf ever selling imported JP manga.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

English-translated manga from the US to other international markets that don't have good prices/distribution. I don't remember Rightstuf ever selling imported JP manga.

Ohh, the opposite. that makes sense.

Yeah, at least several years ago when I bought manga/LNs, there wasn't a system setup and I just imported from Amazon.jp where the shipping cost was almost the price of the book itself. My LN days ended with stuff like Shana, Shinigami no Ballad, Zero no Tsukaima, etc, golden age, so I'm out of touch on present day importing though
I love the smell of new books though, so I'd still suggest real over digital if I had to choose

Amazon.jp prevents importing of R18 games, so I never got a chance to import those though. If I ever go to Japan, I'd love to buy some just for collection
(Because for some dang reason, laptops these days don't even have disk drives)

[stray]

I ended up deleting my old Crunchyroll account (https://www.crunchyroll.com/nuke) and just making a new account using my RightStuf email/password ahead of the migration but the order history has yet to carry over. I still have a couple of stalled RightStuf preorders but decided to take advantage of some bundles (mainly Tearmoon Empire) during the current sale on Crunchyroll Store and noticed billing on PayPal at least is going through as RightStuf...

Spoiler for RightStuf:

I'll see how it goes but the one thing that kills me is that you can't order anything that's on backorder from the CR store, you have to wait until its in stock.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Amazon.jp prevents importing of R18 games, so I never got a chance to import those though. If I ever go to Japan, I'd love to buy some just for collection
(Because for some dang reason, laptops these days don't even have disk drives)

This is a complete and total side-topic to this thread, but actually they do allow it now (at least in some countries, anyway). As for disk drives, easy thing is to just buy a USB one for cheap.


Anyway, on-topic...

Originally Posted by stray

I'll see how it goes but the one thing that kills me is that you can't order anything that's on backorder from the CR store, you have to wait until its in stock.

I wonder if this is a technical limitation of their web store or something they did on purpose to prevent orders from sitting in backlog forever. Definitely not ideal for buyers.

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I wonder if this is a technical limitation of their web store or something they did on purpose to prevent orders from sitting in backlog forever. Definitely not ideal for buyers.

Not really fair. If there is something someone legitimately wanted and can be sourced, shouldn't they be obligated to? Amiami and 1999 have found me things previously that were listed out of stock but they were able to find one more of. Rightstuf did find a Boogiepop Phantom omnibus months after I ordered it during a sale but they never did find the other half. If anyone knows of a place stocking the 1-3 omnibus of Boogiepop Phantom, would love to know...

[stray]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

I wonder if this is a technical limitation of their web store or something they did on purpose to prevent orders from sitting in backlog forever. Definitely not ideal for buyers.

I'm pretty sure its deliberate considering that so many discounts are tied into having an active CR subscription.

Speaking of technical limitations I checked the status on my RS orders and noticed that the order I placed on the Crunchyroll store IS showing up in my RightStuf history...

Spoiler for RightStuf:

So the accounts are definitely linked just kinda going the wrong direction. I assume its because everything is going through the RightStuf warehouse in Iowa which still needs to update their internal systems at some point.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

This is a complete and total side-topic to this thread, but actually they do allow it now (at least in some countries, anyway). As for disk drives, easy thing is to just buy a USB one for cheap.

Hmm, maybe still not US. I took a look at 彼方の人魚姫, but the Amazon shipping version still gives me the good old "Not sending to yah country" message

[stray]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Hmm, maybe still not US. I took a look at 彼方の人魚姫, but the Amazon shipping version still gives me the good old "Not sending to yah country" message

I believe it needs to be sold by Amazon as well; its not in 3rd party sellers interest to ship overseas.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by stray

Speaking of technical limitations I checked the status on my RS orders and noticed that the order I placed on the Crunchyroll store IS showing up in my RightStuf history...

Spoiler for RightStuf:

So the accounts are definitely linked just kinda going the wrong direction. I assume its because everything is going through the RightStuf warehouse in Iowa which still needs to update their internal systems at some point.

Oh, so the accounts did get transferred? Good, was worried it was just email addresses with all the damned promotional spam they've been sending me. Will have to log in to turn that shit off then.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by serenade_beta

Hmm, maybe still not US. I took a look at 彼方の人魚姫, but the Amazon shipping version still gives me the good old "Not sending to yah country" message

Late reply and side-topic, but interesting. It does seem to be country by country; you can click the "Deliver to" link to check. Countries I checked in Europe are okay, both Canada and Mexico in North America are okay, but countries like United States and Australia are not (along with mainland China, though that's more expected). I have no idea what logic they used to figure out what countries are and are not okay, but maybe it has something to do with customs rules/paperwork.

[Last Sinner]

I have a couple of interesting things from my end.

My merch friend has found an interesting loophole. If you order a load of manga and just a bit of anime...they will ship it to Australia...

But...I found a far better option...

Turns out Amazon UK is loaded with titles, lower price than Crunchyroll but most importantly...free international shipping anywhere...

Scoured Amazon for any title that was licensed still on my wishlist and found almost all of them. Found the final few on eBay that were overall fair in price. So...final all-in push...because things are running out of stock there. Now or never...