Why does anime cost so much?

DocturKnowles · Post by **DocturKnowles** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:57 am

Note: This is not a justification for piracy, just an honest question.

I love Anime, and I wish I could see more - but I just can't deal with the pricetags. I own the Samurai X OVA, Spirited Away, and the first Hellsing DVD (it was 4.99 at Wal-Mart). I mistakenly purchased two pirated DVD sets on eBay - I returned one but couldn't contact the other seller - I still own a pirated Cowboy Bebop: Perfect Sessions set, but can't bring myself to pay $120 to get the real version. I hate piracy, it's destroying every entertainment industry on the planet but I also can't throw out something that I've paid for.

My problem is, how come I can buy the first season of the Sopranos (which runs 680 minutes) for $43 but Trigun (which runs 650 minutes) costs $160? Cowboy Bebop (which runs 675 minutes) costs $120 and D.N. Angel (which runs 650 minutes) costs $81.

I would love to own FLCL, but can't justify spending 80 + dollars for a handful of episodes. Samurai X was bad enough for my wallet.

What makes Anime so much more expensive than live action television series?

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:24 am

Here the jist of it. R1 companies like ADV, Bandai, Geneon, and so forth has to pay up hefty amount of money in order to license the series. They also have to pay to encode the DVD, package it, get extras, dub the series, and whatever that they need in order to make it marketable. With all that in mind, they need to turn in a profit thus selling each DVD for a rather high price (most of the time it's $29.99).

Of course the ironic thing is that original Japanese DVDs sell at least twice the amount with each DVD having a ridiculously low episode count (hell there are time they sell anime DVDs that only has one episode). So basically, we got a better bargain!

garbra · Post by **garbra** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:33 am

well i do hate when the pricess r too high i wait till the price goes down or find a better bargan

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:58 am

If this helps, I would suggest Best Buy for box sets (they really have some awesome deals on them much of the time) and www.deepdiscountdvd.com for individual discs (they usually have the lowest price around and free shipping).

Rev. Takahashi Fan · Post by **Rev. Takahashi Fan** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:52 pm

If you have a Pay Pal account [MOD99: Link removed.] usually gets them through an importing company and you can get some series for a steal (practically)

For example they have
InuYasha Season 6 Boxed Set
for $27.95
tech specs
* Audio Tracks: Dolby Digital
* Dialogue: Japanese, English (Dubbed)
* Subtitle: English (On/Off)
* Aspect Ratio: 4:3
* Released By:FX

* Genre: Action / Adventure
* No. of Discs:3
* Region: All code , Region Free
* Episode: 91 - 108

angelx03 · Post by **angelx03** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:54 pm

Dude, that's seriously a bootleg.

Rev. Takahashi Fan · Post by **Rev. Takahashi Fan** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:00 pm

ha ha,

they had InuYasha eps 1-160 a year ago undubbed. Occording to the "How to Spot a Bootleg" thread it is. They are, legal copies though. I also failed to mention anything by Geneon will be full price though..

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:02 pm

For future reference, anything by FX is a bootleg, and therefore not to be linked to on this forum.

Stryyder · Post by **Stryyder** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:13 pm

Yeah, considering they don't even have a box set out for season 3 yet.

But truthfully, as Scintilla says, best buy has some great box set values (I got Rune Soldier, 25 eps, for 29.99). As well, if you are looking for places offline to buy the newer stuff at cheap prices (without waiting for them to drop) my best advice is preorder at Suncoast/sam goody. You basically pay the same price as you would after they are out for a while (I pay $20 a piece for discs of FMA and miyazaki movies that normally cost $30 at launch).

Stryyder · Post by **Stryyder** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 1:13 pm

For lack of an edit button (don't know why) I forgot, Cons are a good place to find stuff as well.