Forum

Last edited by Rukiia on Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:35 am; edited 1 time in total

I recently had an argument with someone in regards to this topic. I then thought this might be a good discussion to bring up on the ANN forums.

Basically, Person A said they did not like Bandai's quality of Blu-rays and therefore wants to import, for example, the Haruhi movie. Person B then starts to chastize Person A on how importing products from Japan kills the North American Anime industry. Yet Person A still buys R1 products but wants to ocassionally import because they feel that the Japanese products are better quality. Person B, however, still ridicules them for importing and proceeds to call them ignorant.

Now in my opinion, as long as Person A is not buying bootlegs then they do not deserve to have their head bitten off by Person B. It is their money and what they are wanting to buy is legit/legal and still supports the Anime industry. Plus not very many people import because it is expensive to, or because the product doesn't have English subs/dubs. More people buy bootlegs then Japanese imports because:

A) They don't know that what they are buying is fake.
Or
B) Because they want whatever is cheap and because it contains English subs (even though they are poorly translated).

Instead of getting upset with people importing goods from Japan they should instead be using that energy to educate those who aren't aware that buying boots is bad.

In my case, I want to get the import version of Black Rock Shooter. I can't get an R1 release of it because nobody has licensed it, and the limited edition set comes with very nice goodies plus English subs. I was belittled for saying I wanted to import the series because I am "killing the English industry". Yet how can an unlicensed Anime kill the English Anime industries? If it was available in my country I would definitely buy it. But the only way for me to own a legit copy of it is if I buy it from Japan. I mean, it is my money and I shouldn't be raged at for wanting a legal physical copy of the series. I can't hurt Funimation, Sentai, Bandai, etc over a series that they did not license.

I am curious as to what your guy's opinions are on importing Anime goods from Japan. Do you think it is bad for the English Anime industry when people occasionally import DVD's/Blu-rays from Japan? If so, why?

Last edited by Kruszer on Mon Apr 25, 2011 2:41 am; edited 3 times in total

Well, importing is expensive, and I'm frugal with my disposable income. So if I want to own it then it's sure as hell not going to be imported if I can help it. Just like I'm not going to buy the BD if there's a perfectly good DVD. I'm not going to buy imported DVD/BD if there is a less expensive domestic source of the product for one. For two, the Japanese totally rip you off completely in both price and episode count per disc. Thirdly, I'm not going to buy DVDs in some language I don't understand, like Japanese, with no means of translation into English. So my guidelines for buying imports would be:

1. I have to REALLY want the item. Enough to "justify" the extra expenditure and hassle.
2. The Item is not available domestically and not likely to be.
3. The item must have English subtitles.
4. The item has to be playable in my region (so either DVD region 1 or legal 0 or BD region A)

I only have two imports The Garden of Sinners boxset and the Time of Eve ONA.

Does buying them hurt the US industry? Only if they're losing a sale because you bought something you could have picked up locally for less money. In which case I would question the sanity of the person in question. Otherwise, you're jing is going to completely different country's economy.

One thing I was told by a person wiser than me (an industry rep giving a talk in a panel at a con) is that foreigners buying a product directly from Japan is like a godsend (at least to the Japanese industry).

1) if it's being exported it's probably an aftermarket item, which retailers are always trying to find people to buy. If it's a recent product that's fine but the Japanese industry is so reliant on the success of just released product that sale of anything left over is just that much better. Definitely better than it sitting around taking up space.

2) The argument that you are hurting the N.A. industry is just silly. That would only be valid if EVERY piece of production of an anime series was done ENTIRELY in the U.S. When you buy an anime DVD in the U.S. you are paying a U.S. company for dubbing, subtitling, advertising and repackaging, that's pretty much it. If consumers did not support the actual PRODUCTION of the anime show itself in the first place there would be no dubbing, subtitling, advertising or repackaging or any U.S. industry at all. All those VA's would still be doing their Macbeths and Les Miserableses.

I think it's cute that person B thinks importers form a large enough demographic to actually pose a threat to the North American anime market. Being bilingual and a jackass means that if I were to assume (for the sake of argument) that this were the case, I'd still be able to support importing from a populist perspective and end up ahead. I watch everything in unsubed Japanese and visit Japan at least twice a year, so the state of North American anime as an industry is far less important to me as the state of the industry at large. That means I usually make my purchases in the land of the rising sun; so more of my money is going to the people that made the anime, instead of to licensers.
I don't mean to come off as callous or uncaring; but I am, so that's how it comes out.

Well sure, if you import something instead of buying the R1, you're hurting the R1 industry by not supporting them. Of course, it's equally true that if you buy R1, you're 'hurting' the Japanese industry since a chunk of your money goes to the R1 company instead of it all going to Japan. That's just how it is though. The R1 industry and the Japanese industry offer competing products (or rather, competing versions of the same product). You've gotta pick which one you want. Obviously that's going to take away something from the other but that's fine. It's your duty to support the product you use and that's all.

And honestly, putting aside the more theoretical and just looking at this practically, it's a non-issue. Sales lost to imports are going to be a drop in the bucket for R1 companies.

What do you owe the R1 industry? You're not obligated to buy something in the R1 just because that's where you live. People love to throw around the saying "The anime industry isn't a charity", well, neither are you. If there's a better product out there and you want it, go get it, no matter where it's being sold. It's not your fault the R1 industry didn't want Black Rock Shooter.

Last edited by Rukiia on Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:41 am; edited 2 times in total

Thanks for your opinions everyone. From what I am reading so far you all pretty much agree that I should spend my money however I want, which should be the case.

Yet I probably should have mentioned in my opening post that Person A is not a reference to me. I was actually defending Person A and added my two cents to Person B in regards to BRS. Person B then proceeded to call me an idiot and said that I knew nothing about how industries work. Person B was actually someone who friended me on Facebook a while ago via meeting me through the fan page, but I blocked them right after they started to disrespect me on that page. It was funny though because they claimed to respect me deeply for the things I said on the page, yet they clearly didn't after the way they talked to me in the thread.

I only imported one product from the UK (the Professor Layton movie) and the Clannad Taiwanese artbox (but only because I wanted the pretty box for my collection). BRS is going to be my first Japanese import. I, personally, don't want to import series if its available via R1. However, if its not available where I live and Japan offers it with English subs then I should buy it if I feel its worth every penny. But if someone else wants to import their Anime then that is their choice and we have no right to rip them to shreds over it. As long as what they are buying is legal and legit then kudos to them for supporting the industries.

The King of Harts wrote:

It's not your fault the R1 industry didn't want Black Rock Shooter.

Exactly! Yet Person B was completely disregarding that and continued to chew me out after I explained my desire to own BRS. Why should I sit back and twiddle my thumbs hoping to have that pilot episode get picked up when, in all likely hood, it will never ever get an R1 release. Person B wasn't even being a troll. They just have this horrible "I am right and you are wrong! My opinion is the only thing that matters here!" complex. I noticed them displaying that kind of attitude in other threads and I really can't stand people like that. I don't deserve to be treated like a criminal for being a collector.

All in all, if I do import BRS and someone decides to pick it up for R1 release then I'll most likely sell the import and buy the English release. I would do it especially if they get the same kind of limited edition goodies that the import has to offer. Very Happy

Poor person B. Not for them is the lavish release of Macross: Do You Remember Love?. If one's local industry is unable to provide one's desiderata, opting for the fruits of other nations is by no means deplorable.

In my country, I must admit that importing from other regions puts pressure on local companies. Our main distributor has recently pleaded for local fans not to import a certain series they cannot release until the next calendar year. Unless we see ourselves as acting through charity however, to which The King of Harts rightfully objects, it is difficult to meet these requests in face of legal products readily available elsewhere.

Japanese imports are so expensive and there are sp few people doing it that it is a drop in the ocean in terms of Japanese sales.
The impact is in quality over quantity - for every Japanese disc I import there's an entire series I can't afford to buy locally and overall I'm buying less hours of anime than I would if I was buying local only.

While I think supporting the industry is important, I think it's more important to support the people who actually create the story, which you're still doing when you buy imports.

i buy from u.s. liscenced and manufactured anime...mostly from amazon.com,...but i also buy bootleg dvd rips.
only because its impossible to get anime en espanol in the states. now that being said, if i try to buy anime in spanish thats a legit dvd...it opens up a whole can of worms.
for example, if i wanna get Bleach, en espanol(spanish), the only site i know that sells legit copies is dvdgo.com site/store in spain...
but, but....
its R2 coding, so, even if i import it, can't see it. thanks to region coding nonsense.
ok, 2 ways of solving this
1)buy a region free dvd player....problem is that a region free dvd player plays most dvds but not if the dvd is hard coded. uh-oh. thats a problem now isn't it.
2)import a dvd player from spain....uh-oh, another problem. spain has a different electrical system than u.s.,
so now, to use an imported dvd player from spain...i gotta get a ac/dc converter specifically for these 2 regions....

lets review.
spend x amount of money on:
-bleach dvds
-dvd player
-cost of shipping dvds
-cost of shipping dvd player
-cost of ac/dc converter adapter
just imagine how much $$$ thats gonna cost just to watch 50-90 eps of bleach in spanish.
Rolling Eyes

uh...no thanks.
i'll just buy dvd rips from someone i know thats willing to make rips 4 me.
it makes me sad that tite kubo never sees a dime from me...that i can't financially reward him and everyone else involved in the anime making process.
but, region coding...is an abomination....and no one wants to do away with that horrific nonsensical business/industry practice.
so, the consumer suffers....and the industry of dvds and video games suffer soooooooo much worse because of it.

don't even get me started on the fact that puerto rico is R1 region coded and if you didn't know, R1 might as well mean-in English! a language know one speaks, reads, understands, or wants to see/hear movies, tv shows, programs,etc in.
and i'm not even gonna mention how french canadians have the same exact problem of stores selling dvds in english language,...when people speak french and plainly won't buy dvds in english....why would they, they speak french.

would you enjoy it if every store where you lived only sold dvds in a language you and everyone else in your region/province/country can't understand? somehow i don't think you would.

why, if region coding is going to continue as a practice*which it shouldn't* why isn't it more effecient i.e. designed to follow the languages spoken by regions instead of geographical region?
wouldn't it make more sense to have all english speaking countries/provinces be R1, and all spanish speaking countries be R2?

that way england, jamaica, english side canada, and australia can be R1.
and south america(minus a few countries in south america like brazil), spain, mexico and central america+spanish speaking caribbean countries be R2.
that way people can buy, enjoy, trade, sell dvds that are possible for them to enjoy since they share the same language therefore can experience them.

why is australia R4, like mexico is R4, Spain and england is R2, u.s.a and puerto rico is R1.... Confused

that makes no sense!!!!!!
australians aren't watching shows from mexico, why would they, they can't understand the language!...so why are they sharing the same region code?
region coding is retarded.
its dysfunctional.
outdated.
and counter-productive
has never worked for either the consumer,manufacturers, distributors, or publishers, or anyone for that matter.

only company smart enough to wake up from the nightmare called region coding is SONY. they woke up from their region coding mistake of coding the ps1 and ps2....and made the psp and ps3 region free. or at least their ps3 and psp games are region free. smartest move they ever made.
perhaps their publishers suffer a little....but not developers. game developers thank sony for their wise decision.

look at arcana heart 3 for example.
by the end of the week it was released in japan....sold out throughout all of japan!
why?
because everyone that resides in japan that planned on purchasing it for their ps3 did....AND so did the 100,000 plus people around the world that wanted the game and were willing to import it from japan.
thats why AH3 was sold out, only for the ps3.
so everyone was happy, the consumer, sony, the games developers examu, everyone.
meanwhile, the game was released for xbox360 at the same time it was released for ps3.
but xbox360 is not region free, and neither are their games...which is why....lol, microsoft made no money off of AH3.
dumb.
just so dumb, to negate yourself business. laughable.
with the high sales in AH3 copies,...sony decided to re-release AH3 as downloadable through PSN.
as for xboxlive...nope, why,....cause they made no profits from the initial release of the game. who's fault is that but their own.
lol.
region coding=we don't want to make money off the consumer

point is, i wanna support anime every chance i get....but i can't...region coding won't let me.
can't give bandai or toei my money.
region coding won't let me support akira toriyama, or tite kubo or anyone else for that matter.
thats my 2 cents on importing. want to, but can't.
as for the op,...thats nice an all. you can import since japanese electrical system is almost exactly the same as america's but i'm talking european, mexican dvds...that involves a different electrical system....i.e. i just can't plug a mex/span appliance into my outlet....
and i'll be damned if i'm gonna have to risk my apartment's/entire building's electrical system explode just to watch a measly bleach ep en espanol.
thanks region coders.
tite kubo thanks u for making him 100 bucks poorer.
seriously.

If you want to support the creators, I don't see why you don't just pirate the Spanish version for free (via torrenting), and buy the English DVD. I know a lot of people with pretty big DVD collections who never actually put the disc in the player, instead preferring to stick to digital copies.

Que_Tal wrote:

1)buy a region free dvd player....problem is that a region free dvd player plays most dvds but not if the dvd is hard coded. uh-oh. thats a problem now isn't it.

I'm sure this is my own ignorance, but I don't understand the issue you're describing.
We have a cheap region-free player (Philips's DVP 1013) and have never run into a coding-related problem.

The only items I really have ever imported are action figures (or Gacha figures in some cases) and that is because the really cool items that are made usually stay in Japan or if they are licensed by a company, the quality is almost usually very different.

For example, I recently bought a very rare, out of production liquid slime figurine from Amazon. It wasn't all that cheap, but considering the fact it's not only out of production and hence is rare, it was worth the price.

I usually imported a Diddy Kong figure recently as well. Nintendo of America does license some Gacha figures, but not all that much. Especially the items from the 90's and 2000's.

But I don't really choose sides, as at the end of the day, it all depends on two, maybe three factors. Price, availability and quality.

I much rather have a nice looking figurine that might cost a little bit more than a very cheap figurine that looks like it's been mass produced and sloppily made.

The scenario of a person buying a Japanese DVD when an English one is available seems unlikely to me, since they cost so much more than R1 dvds.

I buy *some* R2 DVDs/Blu-Rays, but only if I really love the show, and think that it's unlikely to be brought over.

...or if willpower fails me (Madoka vol 1... which is pretty likely to get brought over).

With R1s, I basically buy anything that I both like and think that I'm going to want to watch more than once... which is a lot. If a show I import gets an R1 DVD release, I'll end up buying it twice... which doesn't hurt the R1 market at all. But that's hypothetically speaking... not many R1 companies would bother with a bunch of magical girl shows or something as weird as Kaiba, so it hasn't yet happened.

Now bootlegs... I admint that I've bought a few in exceptional cases (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which had decent subs before fansubbers got to it, Robot Carnival because it's Robot Carnival), but 99% of the time, I don't understand why people would bother. Fansubs are usually higher quality across the board.

Forum - View topic
Importing products from Japan: good or bad?

The Fall 2024 Anime Preview Guide

Metaphor: ReFantazio Game Review

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO Game Review

Creating a Multi-Volume Rom-Com Manga from a One-Shot

Dungeon People Anime Series Review

The Elusive Samurai Anime Gets 2nd Season

Hideaki Anno, Khara Produce New Yamato Anime Film Project

Oshi no Ko Anime Gets 3rd Season, Reveals More Cast

Mission: Yozakura Family Anime Gets 2nd Season

Tonbo! Season 1 Anime Series Review

Gushing Over Magical Girls TV Anime Gets 2nd Season

This Week in Games - Tilting at Windmills Instead of Dragons

Go! Princess Precure Episodes 26-50 Anime Series Review

Bringing Hololive to the U.S.: An Interview With Motoaki Tanigo, CEO of COVER Corp

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Anime	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page 1, 2, 3 Next
Page 1 of 3

Forum - View topicImporting products from Japan: good or bad?

Forum

Forum - View topic
Importing products from Japan: good or bad?