Aniplex of America in recent years has been purchasing the distribution rights to many of the more popular series. When distributing their content they create expensive collector's edition that can cost upwards to $200. Is it right for them to be doing this to the common fan of the series that may just want to own Fate/Zero on Bluray for a reasonable price? Or is it their right to charge however much they want to because they own the distribution rights?
The prices Aniplex of America use seem to reflect the Japanese Anime Market mindset, where they charge a large amount of money, because if they get at least a couple of people to buy it they will have made their money back. Though these prices seem to mainly affect their series on Bluray and not on DVD. An example of this is you can get the first 6 episodes of Aldnoah Zero on DVD for a retail price of $39.98 USD, while the Bluray edition is priced at $94.98 USD. Though this can be added to the extras added to the Bluray release.
So, do you think that Aniplex of America's pricing is fair to the common anime collector? If yes, why do you think that? Also if Aniplex of America created a line of Value Blurays would you be interested in purchasing it?
I can completely get on board with this Anger Train, so many times my wants of collecting a series/a special edition box set of something has been dampened because of the extortionate prices.
Take the Fate/Zero Part 1 box set, even after I subtract what I assume the DVD/CD are worth, I'm still going to shell out nearly $12.50 per episode! I'm a big fan of Fate/Zero, but sadly not that much of a fan.
(Great article by the way) – Isaac Bernamont9 years ago
And the sad thing is, Aniplex's prices are reasonable compared to the anime prices in Japan. – Flawfinder9 years ago
Alas, it's not just the US either. For a while, only the special edition of Durarara was available in the UK with a jumped up price and nothing but a series of art cards to warrant the price. Then there are the series that are only available in the US and not in the UK (such as NISA's 'Our Home's Fox Deity'). The pricing on anime can be a nightmare at times. – mattdoylemedia9 years ago
Sadly they probably will learn this lesson to late. Much like Bandai America did. Luckily you did mention that they reflect the Japanese Anime Market, which is what causes this prices to be so high in the first place. Keep up the good work Dandylion. – ajester9 years ago
Yeah... those prices are pretty ridiculous. Especially when considering what it costs to toss something on a blu-ray. My only assumption is that they figure not enough people know about or would purchase these so they figure they have to have high prices. Maybe they bank on the people who do know and enjoy these anime's to enjoy them so much that they will be forced to purchase them. It's a sticky situation, a normal blu-ray of an american cartoon/film has a higher target audience than anime, so maybe they have to raise the prices to compete with that? And although I KNOW anime is enjoyed buy all age groups, I'm willing to bet a large amount of anime watchers are young people without money who would rather stream or illegally download than purchase something. So maybe this inflates the costs as well? Either way... it totally stinks. – Tatijana9 years ago
Because Aniplex was not interested in causal anime fans (myself included) who were very poor with no income and they're very low-class cause they can't afford the japanese and american releases on dvds/blu-rays that came with a few episodes and some extra stuff like for example: the blu-ray box set release of gurren lagann was $500 for 27 episodes and i was like WHAT IN THE FUCK!?!? O_O Then there's 3 special edition dvd/blu-ray box sets of madoka magica that came with a few episodes that they have to separate for each of them with CD's and stuff for $95-$120....so yeah it's too fucking expensive!!!! no wonder people pirate anime. - superautisticworld – superautisticworld5 years ago