(Although it looks mostly normal and I love it to death, a bunch of people like to hate on it for no reason and others keep telling me it’s terminally ill and will drop dead at any second)

Undertaker: “Bring out your dead!” *gong*
Panicked Anime Community: “Here’s one.”
U: “Twenty-five dollars.”
American Anime Industry: “I’m not dead!”
U: “What?”
PAC: “Nothing, here’s your twenty-five dollars.”
AAI: “I’m not dead!”
U: “Ey, he says ‘e’s not dead.”
PAC: “Yes he is…well…he will be soon…because he’s charging money for anime.”
AAI: “I’m getting better!”
PAC: “No you’re not, you’ll be flamed by thousands of ‘fans’ in a moment.”
U: “Well, I can’t take him like that, that’s against regulations.”
PAC: *looks left, looks right, clubs the anime industry over the head*

(incidentally, I just realized there was a trove of better sketches here)

Monty Python aside, the American anime industry, depnding on who you ask, is going through anywhere from a small trouble spot to a complete implosion. Like the state of the U.S. economy, there is a lot of awkward coughing and forced smiles being passed around higher-up, and depending on how you look at things there might be a fair bit of slashing prices and rates to encourage purchasing.

It’s a time that’s spurred a lot of panic, flaming, sharp sarcasm, and general feeling that would warrant a sad piano track or a dramatic orchestral build, and it’s one that I can’t really ignore much longer, as an American anime fan myself.

Like most disturbingly pleasant people, there’s an inner yandere side to this blogger, one that’s getting inflammed at all the reaction to the latest – what would one call it – ‘discussion’.

Actually, the ADV implosion-or-not is the lesser concern here; death panics aren’t incredibly new, and they’re rather like trying to light a wet fuse, one that’s been doused in water too many times to be taken seriously unless someone takes a flamethower to the table.

Rather, Bandai Visual USA’s much-publicized-by-now move to quickly license, release, and ratchet up the price on current shows True Tears and Shigofumi, and its following discussion, is what really spurred a boxcutter-and-boat-filled inner monologue. It’s the can of gasoline that they left on the table; it could be used to power a car on a trip to somewhere, but right now, people are just playing chicken with it and a lit match…

(Anime industry, can you feel the ZAWA ZAWA?)
If you remember the long, days-ago time of 2007, there was a similar crises regarding anime, when Justin Sevakis called fansubbers very bad people. It spurred a similar amount of discussion about what needed to be done, on both sides of the anime (production and consumption) divide. The general consensus was that American companies don’t get anime out fast enough; the lag between airing and licensing allows fansubbers to get in the door with subtitled releases, for free.

Not a bad thing in itself, as it’s a great “try before you buy” model, but even the most discipled fansubbers might end up seeing the works circulating around for long after the license is announced; by licensing a show earlier, perhaps even during its airing, the amount of fansubs available for a show will be cut down – not to mention, it’s easier to pinpoint any illicit subs floating about the channels if there are less of them.

But, leechers will be leechers, and for every fansub group that follows the rules there will be ten more who toss up fansubs or R1 DVD rips on sites like Tokyo Toshokan. The fact of the matter is that there really is no money to be gained from these people who enjoy “fighting the man” or whatever they’re doing. They wouldn’t buy anime DVDs outside of the rare blue moon.

Why? Maybe they’re too expensive, maybe the quality is too low, maybe they just hate even thinking of seeing their characters tainted with English. Any way you put it it’ll be a silly tangent which will go nowhere; kind of like the subs and dubs debate, there’s not a lot to be said that hasn’t been said, or a lot to be done that hasn’t been done.

And so, the audience here that really needs to be gone after is the casual to semi-pro anime viewer. The hardcore anime viewer will fall into one of two sections: that who knows all the right connections and channels to get their underground fix for free no matter what, and that who will buy anything anyway. The former has just been discussed, and the latter’s probably shelling money out the butt for R1’s, R2’s, and figurines (among other memorabilia) anyway. The swing vote, so to speak, is the middle ground: the collector with less money to spare, or the fan who is less tied into the community.

These people asked for faster releases. Now, Bandai Visual USA is giving them faster releases, with True Tears and Shigofumi landing stateside in May, probably just weeks after the end of their respective airdates in Japan.

And yet the discontent in the purchasing community continues. Why? Because the price has gone up. A lot.

Those who are optomistic will call this a “fair trade-off”. Those who are realistic will call it “highway robbery.”

I understand that these shows are niche shows, I understand that they are getting released at the same time as Japan, and I understand that these companies have mouths to feed too. That is why I am ranting about a topic such as this.

But honestly, a price jump like this really signals something wrong with the anime industry. I think, at best, they are deluding themselves into thinking that people will take an almost doubling in premium from past anime DVD release conventions. At roughly $15 (I think that is being on the short side) an episode, compared to perhaps $7 ($25 for a 4-episode disc, rounding up), purchasing anime begins to become a cost that less casual viewers can afford. And this shows in all the criticism – fair and otherwise – of BVUSA’s pricing scheme.

Now I feel for the industry too. Essentially, here they have their hands tied. If they raise they prices, everyone moans and no one purchases. If they lower the prices, the profit margin drops. But wait, you say. They may lose profit, but they will sell more! That equals more money!

Close. The big “r word” in anime business, as opposed to the “r word” in America, is “reverse importation”. At such cheap prices relative to Japan, R1 DVDs are supposedly quite tempting to spendthrift otaku; after all, they still have a Japanese voice track, which is all they need. The main advantage that R2’s have is speed; the gap between Japanese and American release, sometimes, is very long. And with BVUSA eliminating this gap, what’s stopping Japanese importers? (Aside from, potentially, shipping, if Amazon USA charges $30 for shipping like Amazon Japan does.)

And so, it’s kind of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’. It seems to be either late releases which are cheap, or early releases which are an arm and a leg. But, I wonder -

Why the hell is anime so expensive in its native land to begin with?

Quite frankly, Japanese anime fans are getting ripped off, more than we are. The key card in most R1 arguments for the industry side, like in any discussion over gas prices, is that “it’s more expensive over there still”. Why do they pay so much for so comparatively little?

Theoretically, prices could be lowered there, which would allow prices to be lowered here, which could potentially boost sales. After all, personally, I am willing to drop $10, $15 to test-run a new series, maybe for 3 or 4 episodes, but $30 for one episode? Even I’m not that crazy.

Going back to the gas-station analogy, it’s just too much of a jump. If you go to sleep with gas at $3.10 and you wake up and it’s $3.75, are you going to drive as much as before? No way. It’s too much of percieved change. Maybe it seems wrong to say this, but a gradual change is almost always better received than a sudden change. Is it better? Probably not. Either way, you might end up with $40 anime. But, the fact is, people don’t like surprises. Give them the chance to adjust instead of just slapping them up the face and going “kk new rules”.

Which brings me to the other ace up the sleeve of R1 anime, digital distribution. It won’t work.

In theory, it sounds great. Releasing things on the internet is cheap, it’s easy, and it’s quick. It’s all the things that the masses demand and more. But, I’m not seeing it.

Digital distribution requires a lot of compromise which a lot of serious viewers won’t take. Either slow-internet viewers will be peeved off by the long download of a 255 MB file, or the quality-obsessed viewers will take offense to a low bitrate and image quality. And, whether it’s streaming or downloaded, it’s not likely to work.

Streaming is kind of silly in concept. After all, you remember, anime is a form of TV, just like anything else that could potentially be on the airwaves. Would you pay money to watch Desperate Housewives? Or Survivor? And only once, too? It’s not a contained movie, after all. You buy anime like you buy TV shows, and that is in bulk, in season releases (mostly), because you support the creators, because you liked watching it and want to see it again. It’s not meant to be a drug hit where you have to fork up (or, at least, queue up) every time. I could see streaming work for series-previewing (something that I think is VERY smart, and I applaud ADV for doing this with Gurren Lagann)

And downloading…well, you have high-quality anime video, with subtitles, available on the computer. That’s called fansubs. A lot devout watchers will have trouble paying for something that’s virtually identical as what they could hypothetically get for free.

I think DVDs are here to stay, because a bit of the anime-purchasing reasoning is not just to support the creators but to have something for yourself as well. The DVDs are a physical representation of the show you liked, that you could watch anytime, that you can display as a sign of your pride. After all, what the anime industry runs heavily off of us is that collector’s pride, whether it be DVDs, figurines, posters, or more.

If BVUSA wants to sell anime to us at Japanese prices, they have to give us Japanese quality, then. Typically, Japanese releases are filled with all sorts of delightful extras, goodies, and material that bare-bones R1 releases lack.

This sort of thing strikes me as the thing that would appeal to a lot of viewers who might otherwise be turned off by a $15-20/episode price point. If they want to charge us that much for a TV show, why not give us some of the tangible goodies that come with it too? The feeling of “I supported the industry” won’t merit the price of admission on its own.

I think there are a lot of incredibly interesting things that come with Japanese anime DVDs; some may not be the most useful, but isn’t that the point of collecting? A little book detailing the animation or character details, a little drama CD, a poster, little figurine, something, if you ever follow the posts over at Moe Moe Rabu or something, you find there are a lot things that DVDs contain. Most of these are probably limited editions, but still, even the more basic DVDs I imagine, get something. Here, my AIR DVD collection consists of: episodes, previews, and creditless openings. Not even a little card inside, like the old Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs used to hold.

There’s a certain appeal to such a basic presentation, for example, cost, and I’m still failing to see just how casual fans (the kind that buy blind and don’t surf forums as rabidly) will take kindly to the price hike without, y’know, not raising the prices as much, but I think the lesson that BV USA needs to keep to heart as they charge into the unknown is: Deliver the quality to match the price. It’s the only way to silence the critics.

I applaud them for trying something new in a time in which many companies are simply struggling to keep on a good face and bottom line, and change is definitely necessary in order to keep any semblance of order in this industry that almost shouldn’t be, but they can’t half-ass this one. Very few viewers are willing to pay extra just for a few months’ earlier release (and those people probably would buy R2s anyway).

As for ADV…keep breathing. Here’s a good “don’t panic” article over at the Anime Corner Shop. I know it’s worrying, but showing fear in the face of adversity is useless. As you’re balancing 22 stories above the ground, don’t delude yourself into feeling a gale of wind that isn’t there.* After all, the company is committed to bringing anime to its audience. They’re not holding Gurren Lagann, 5cm, Kanon, or whatever from you because they hate you.

And why are you so angry about it, anyway? You get to watch your fansubs if they go under, don’t you, eh? So stop saying that ADV’s issues is “why I don’t buy anime DVDs.” Kicking people lying on the floor is aggravating to watch. Same with “I don’t agree with their practices, so I’ll pirate more / flame them / blame the Americans.” They’re not going to change from that, and it’s not going to help anything, but only make it worse. It’s the same thing as the American economy – sitting on your hands and pouting will only make things worse.

-CCY

(say it with me: ZETTAI DAIJOUBU!)

*Well, I had to string in a reference to something, I was beginning to get shaky.

(I guess this wasn’t as much of a flaming post as I thought, beginning and end aside.  Maybe I HAVE FURY – what happened to that? – only when conceptualizing posts. Incidentally, I wrote this in the back seat of a car, away from happy researching land, so feel free to call me an uninformed idiot who’s talking out his behind…if you have contrary evidence.)

(Personally, I am amazed that the entertainment industry – movies and video games as well – still makes money, given all the fun that the internet has with it. I feel so out-of-touch. Maybe I should be swearing about how I walk both ways, uphill, in the snow, to purchase things. Incidentally, to be less of an old man teenager, I’m fine with “try-before-you-buy” downloading; it’s just that the latter, very rarely happens, or is discussed about.)

(Final Soapbox: Be civilized, guys. So much haet. CCY hate haet.)