Forum - View topicholy toledo, the Gunbuster 2 DVD is EXPENSIVE!
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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Within the last month Slick deals has had deal for Toshiba HDA2 for $199 and for $238 (with 5 movies) after rebate. There was also a deal for 9 movies and the Toshiba HDA2 for $300 (and change) also not too long ago. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I finally gave in on my BVUSA boycott and bought Freedom as well. Did you ever find the other extras? I didn't see them as well. To make matters worse the standard definition layer had some loading problems in my HD-DVD player and Oppo. Ironically enough I ended up checking the standard definition layer on my PS3! Maybe most of the extras are downloaded content since my player is not currently online. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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From what I hear, most of the extras are only in SD and thus (if I recall correctly) only on the DVD.
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indrik
 Posts: 365 Location: yonder |
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Wow, raised from the dead.
So I saw Gunbuster 2 v. 1 the other day. It's definitely got its technical merits- there was a noticeable difference in how it looked, even on my crappy tv and dvd player. The show was... ok. I'd probably buy it if it was even $20 for two episodes, even if the video quality was downgraded to "normal" levels. But it's just not really worth it to me on a story level at $30, that being the cheapest price I could find it for with shipping. We'll see, I guess. I'll rent the other two volumes, maybe they'll change my mind. |
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Porcupine
 Posts: 1033 |
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My friend eventually bought all 3 DVDs although it was hard to find DVD 3 at a reasonable price (Suncoast had 1 and 2 for $27 if you reserved it, but did not offer a discounted price for DVD 3 so he had to order online).
Indrik, I agree with what you said. Unfortunately I have to say that at least to me, volume 2 and especially volume 3 of Gunbuster 2 is of lower quality than Volume 1. I am not talking about the story and such, but the quality of the animation and the consistency of the drawings in particular. Of course, it doesn't degenerate to terrible quality like happens on the "bad episodes" in a TV series...but the last 3 episodes of Gunbuster are essentially the quality of an average or slightly above-average TV episode, I thought...not really "good OVA quality" like the first couple episodes were. Also it seems like Bandai Visual USA is releasing other lower-quality animes now at the same ridiculous pricing. Such as Galaxy Angel Rune (which I've not seen but I presume is of similar quality to Galaxy Angel...which the ANN review seems to support). So it's not like BVUSA = high quality anime....just overpriced anime, seems to be the case. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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And yet people apparently continue to purchase their releases. Although I honestly have no intention of buying any of BVUSA's products anytime soon I must admit that I'm somewhat impressed by their ability to sell fairly ordinary anime at prices substantially in excess of average releases. |
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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Are significant amounts of people buying these releases? How do you know? (I'm not saying you are right or wrong, I just don't know).
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indrik
Posts: 365 Location: yonder |
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I've only heard a lot of people complaining about them, and generally refusing ot buy them, with a handful of people giving in for that one series they've got to have. But, I talk to very few people about the anime in the real life, and I wouldn't even begin to think about hazarding a guess as to how the anime forum population reflects on anime fandom as a whole, or even the dvd buying public. I think BVUSA might have a sound business plan, if they're selling stuff they expect to sell very few copies in the first place. I can't imagine that Bandai, the parent company, would sit down with sales figure for the rest of the Galaxy Angel series in hand, and decide to sell Rune this way if they didn't have either a solid feeling that a ton of people were willing to pay that much for it, or a solid feeling that only a smaller group of hardcore fans would want it at all. I'm sure there's an option I've forgotten about, but the fact that they're releasing a sequel to one of their previous properties this way makes me at least think they've thought it through seriously. I'm not convinced that they're going to succeed this way, but I don't agree that they're complete idiots. Not that anybody's said that recently or anything.
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Area88
 Posts: 374 |
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I'll defintly be picking up Wings of Honneamise in the upcoming months, i've been wanting it for ages now. I'm anticipating some pretty special treatment for this movie given that the US release with mirror the Japanese. |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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With not dubbing and (probably) no licensing costs, they really don't have to sell much before they start making a profit.
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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This is exactly my concern. I don't think this is actually costing BVUSA anything. They are not even adding subtitles for the HD releases since the Japanese version has them, and might even be using the same pressing. Those who think that they are going to be hurting because of their marketing plan might be really wrong here. The bottom line cost of manufacturing and licensing a disc also cuts heavily into recent companies that have MSRP $25 and sells for about half (I think that is what we speculated on a different thread) to a reseller. BVUSA in theory will make more than twice the profit per disc if they sell a DVD at twice that MSRP since the baseline price is relatively fixed. This is not considering the cost of creating a dub. This is also not considering that the DVD episode count is lower, so BVUSA is making a ton of cash per DVD.
BVUSA is contrary to many peoples belief not being stupid in what they are doing. I know that the Gunbuster 2 DVDs have been doing fairly well according to the amazon top 100 DVDs which when multiplied by how much profit they are making per disc might make it one of the most lucrative releases this year. The other titles might not be doing as well, but I doubt that they are hurting BVUSA. On the other hand BVUSA claiming that they know what fans want really is quite sad. I really hope that other Japanese companies don't follow suit and put US based companies like Funimation and ADV out of business in preference to releasing sub only DVDs themselves. |
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Porcupine
Posts: 1033 |
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Then again, Bandai Visual might still have licensing fees even though they are close to (or the same as) the Japanese licensing/distributing company. It's not like only the American licensing companies pay a licensing fee to release an anime. Bandai Visual pays royalties to the people who produced Gunbuster 2 as well (Gainax, etc). So there should still be costs involved, it's just that there might be one less middleman in this case. This also goes back to the question I posed earlier, about whether the licensing fee is in the forum of one lump sum payment to sell as many copies as they can, or XX dollars (or percent profit) off of each copy sold. Although several people responded to that question, people stated that no proof was given and most likely the companies do not want us consumers to know the answer. So I am not certain that things are the way you envisioned them to be, but I admit that it is a disturbing possibility. Regarding your second statement, can you back up your claim somehow with a link to specific amazon.com or related pages with the figures you are referring to? |
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indrik
Posts: 365 Location: yonder |
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I was going to say that I'm sure there's a licensing cost, but now that I think about it, I'm not.
I didn't know that there were English subtitles on the R2 release. That's interesting. In the interview that was linked on the news page, the BVUSA guy said that they basically want one identical release for the whole world, so that's not surprising. I wonder if Bandai-Namco licenses an anime (like, say, Gunbuster 2 from Gainax?) for the whole world, and then decides which of its subsidiaries is most likely to make the most money on it, or if all the little finger companies get together bids. I guess it's six of one, half a dozen of the other. I imagine there's a "licensing fee" from B-N to whichever of the American companies license it for the US market, even though that effectively amounts to taking money out of your left pocket and putting it in your right. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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... Okay, what the hell? Seriously, let us think for a moment on this: one company has licensed what are fourteen titles over the course of two and a half years since their foundation. All but three of their releases are subtitled only, and only two of them received new English dubs. Outside of three titles (Gunbuster 2, Freedom, and Galaxy Angel Rune) they were likely to never be picked up by any other anime company in R1. Now then, let us take a look at the fact that these are, for the most part, niche titles. If BV USA tried to nab some series that might have success -- let's say that the Japanese division were behind The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya instead of Kadokawa and brought it over -- they would find a reception that would make the current complaints completely and utterly pale in comparison to what they would take then. Oh, and how about Toei's attempts failing because they failed to completely grasp even the most basic concepts of how to release a proper DVD. Or, just maybe, that Kadokawa USA has set up camp and is apparently doing quite well for themselves with Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and The Third because they understand supply and demand. And they are succeeding. Anime has been, and always will be, a better seller with English dubs. There are some cases where it would be better served if companies want to break profit, forcing them to not make a dub themselves (see: Rightstuf's situation with Emma, and also possibly Media Blaster's and their licensing of yaoi and yuri). The likelihood of BV USA's current strategies becoming the norm here for North America is so embarrassingly low that I am shocked that an intelligent person like yourself, Randall Miyashiro, would concoct such paranoia. @Porcupine: I'll try to pull up the exact quote, but someone stated on AoD that the Gunbuster 2 DVDs are selling 1,000-some units each, or else it was the first one reaching that mark... I don't exactly remember, but it was something like that. Honestly, I'd love to see BV USA shape up and at least lower their prices about ten or fifteen dollars, but if this business model is working for them, then there really isn't much you can do about it. |
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