Why does anime cost so much?

[Kai Stromler]

Answerman actually answers this question in his current column at ANN.

The short answer is that what you pay for US television series on DVD is, to the publishers, essentially 100% profit. The show's production costs have already earned out through television advertising and the only expense is encoding and pressing the discs.

With anime, you're paying not only for physical production, but for translation and licensing costs. And despite what the consensus here may be, dubs outsold subtitled tapes by large margins back when anime fans had to choose; given their low margins, US companies would have to be crazy to give up that revenue stream.

HTH,

--K

[BasharOfTheAges]

And despite what the consensus here may be, dubs outsold subtitled tapes by large margins back when anime fans had to choose;

Think that may have had something to do with subs being stocked less and costing $5 to $10 more?

[Kai Stromler]

And despite what the consensus here may be, dubs outsold subtitled tapes by large margins back when anime fans had to choose;

Think that may have had something to do with subs being stocked less and costing $5 to $10 more?

This is chicken-and-the-egg; were subs unpopular due to cost and availability, or were subs understocked and more expensive because they weren't as popular, and the production cost of the run needed to be made up on fewer tapes? I only got into anime about 2000 (and at that time, subs were almost as available, and differing little in price point), so I can't say for sure; prices and availability did diverge markedly as DVD came in, probably because sub fans were more likely to early-adopt.

--K

[DocturKnowles]

Interesting. I actually didn't think about that - that American DVD sales are pretty much all profit.

I thought of another question to throw out there:

About how much does it cost to dub a show (percentage wise), and how do the companies go about getting the voice cast?

As I said before, I own Excel Saga. During one episode Excel laments the fact that she didn't get the chance to do a voice on Sailor Moon because it was dubbed in Canada. Is that an allusion to a big rivalry between American dubbing and Canadian dubbing or is that merely another of endless jokes in Excel?

[dokool]

Interesting. I actually didn't think about that - that American DVD sales are pretty much all profit.

I thought of another question to throw out there:

About how much does it cost to dub a show (percentage wise), and how do the companies go about getting the voice cast?

As I said before, I own Excel Saga. During one episode Excel laments the fact that she didn't get the chance to do a voice on Sailor Moon because it was dubbed in Canada. Is that an allusion to a big rivalry between American dubbing and Canadian dubbing or is that merely another of endless jokes in Excel?

Many companies (such as ADV and Funimation) have a "stable" of voice actors - this is why you see the same names popping up in shows released by them. As far as the cost, I think I read a while ago that ADR on a single episode costs something like $20-$50,000?

Was the joke in the sub or in the dub? Context means a lot in Excel Saga.

[oldwrench]

Interesting. I actually didn't think about that - that American DVD sales are pretty much all profit.

I thought of another question to throw out there:

About how much does it cost to dub a show (percentage wise), and how do the companies go about getting the voice cast?

As I said before, I own Excel Saga. During one episode Excel laments the fact that she didn't get the chance to do a voice on Sailor Moon because it was dubbed in Canada. Is that an allusion to a big rivalry between American dubbing and Canadian dubbing or is that merely another of endless jokes in Excel?

I'm going to anime detour next week and Matt Greenfield, co-founder of ADV, is a guest. If I remember, I'll ask him your questions. It would be interesting to know.

[angelx03]

I'm assuming that joke is for the English dub especially with the fact Sailor Moon was dubbed in Canada. You have to consider that the Japanese VA did both the voices of Excel and Sailor Moon though both series were licensed by different companies and have their own voice actor pool. Probably in order for that joke to fly, ADV had to make some of self-reference joke about that fact.

[hypes]

Are you kidding?

Anime is cheaper than it's ever been. Don't like suncoast prices? go to best buy. Plus those new slimline sets are waaaaay cheaper than buying certain series by individual discs.

Suncoast and Best buy have this relation that I like. Suncoast has it all but for 10 bucks more. Best buy has it cheap but limited supplies. Besides, some companies like Synchpoint don't get sold at Best Buy. I had to pick up Leave it to Piyoko at Suncoast for thirty instead of the Best Buy standard of twenty (though you can get Panda Z for ten at Best Buy).
But if your going to buy in bulk, go conventions. A lot of times they have a buy 5 DVD savs 30 % type thing going on.

[BasharOfTheAges]

And despite what the consensus here may be, dubs outsold subtitled tapes by large margins back when anime fans had to choose;

Think that may have had something to do with subs being stocked less and costing $5 to $10 more?

This is chicken-and-the-egg; were subs unpopular due to cost and availability, or were subs understocked and more expensive because they weren't as popular, and the production cost of the run needed to be made up on fewer tapes?

Subs were more expensive because they knew purists would pay the extra for them. As for the size of runs, I can only account for certain locals in the north-east that never seemed to have subs in stock, or when they did they had quite higher prices.

[Scintilla]

And despite what the consensus here may be, dubs outsold subtitled tapes by large margins back when anime fans had to choose;

Think that may have had something to do with subs being stocked less and costing $5 to $10 more?

This is chicken-and-the-egg; were subs unpopular due to cost and availability, or were subs understocked and more expensive because they weren't as popular, and the production cost of the run needed to be made up on fewer tapes?

Subs were more expensive because they knew purists would pay the extra for them.

<b>LETTERS AREN'T CHEAP</b>

and there's a LOT of them in anime!