Forum - View topic

Interview: Garden of Sinners' Atsuhiro Iwakami and Hikaru Kondo

The movie is extreme niche as it is, I'm glad that it didn't go up to $1,000. Here's crazy Japanese video pricing back 14 years ago. When Tokuma released all of Studio Ghibli films except Princess Mononoke in Collector's box set (Ghibli ga Ippai) in laserdisc, it was almost $2,000. We're talking about all of Miyazaki and Takataha movies produced in Ghilbi before 1997 priced at almost $2,000!

Only extra it had was Miyazaki interviewing Akira Kurosawa. Extreme it maybe, but all of hardcore Ghibli fans pre-ordered and bought the box sets. Thank god I didn't buy the box set.

I really don't want to get into this too deeply, but it does seem we are headed (or basically there) towards casual v. collectors when it comes to anime. Some just want DVD-only, and some want the whole nine-yards of the Japanese market. (with the latter group finally starting to grow)

The thing that surprises me though is that the Aniplex's release in the US is currently sold out. So, it proves that there is a market for this pricey release, even if we think otherwise.

reanimator wrote:

The movie is extreme niche as it is, I'm glad that it didn't go up to $1,000. Here's crazy Japanese video pricing back 14 years ago. When Tokuma released all of Studio Ghibli films except Princess Mononoke in Collector's box set (Ghibli ga Ippai) in laserdisc, it was almost $2,000. We're talking about all of Miyazaki and Takataha movies produced in Ghilbi before 1997 priced at almost $2,000!

Actually, it was priced for 98'000 Yen, IIRC. I bought the box 14 years ago in Switzerland for around $1'500.

So when I hear today's fans complaining about too high prices, I can only snear.

Quote:

Only extra it had was Miyazaki interviewing Akira Kurosawa. Extreme it maybe, but all of hardcore Ghibli fans pre-ordered and bought the box sets. Thank god I didn't buy the box set.

You forgot the making of Omoide Poro Poro, the On your Mark clip and all the short animated clips produced by Ghibli up until that day. And some of the movies like Kiki and Porco Rosso also contained the old English Dub by Streamline. These were all exlusive bonuses. Finally, the box itself had a nice surface finish, like smooth silk. I'm glad I bought the box but would I have bought it if I knew that two years later Ghibli would start releasing its movies on DVD for a cheaper price.... I don't know, maybe yes, maybe no. Fact is, the Ghibli ga Ippai LD-Boxset was the only way to get all of the Ghibli movies in best quality for the same price as if one would have bought all the individual laserdisc, plus the aforementioned bonuses.

I really don't want to get into this too deeply, but it does seem we are headed (or basically there) towards casual v. collectors when it comes to anime. Some just want DVD-only, and some want the whole nine-yards of the Japanese market. (with the latter group finally starting to grow)

I really don't want to get into this too deeply, but it does seem we are headed (or basically there) towards casual v. collectors when it comes to anime. Some just want DVD-only, and some want the whole nine-yards of the Japanese market. (with the latter group finally starting to grow)

Quote:

But calculating the costs, we couldn't make the same package [at a more normal U.S. price] that we made in Japan. But we recognize the expense.

So why not just make a cheaper package? I mean, do we even need all that junk? Look what happened to Working Designs when it went that route with games. The die-hards were the only ones buying their products by the end.