Forum - View topicAnswerman - Are Physical Anime Releases In Danger?
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CrazyDreamer
 Posts: 10 |
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I'm fairly certain Justin's seeing a comparison pulled from this press release from the RIAA. However, that report is somewhere between misleading and outright lying; it's trying to bash streaming services, so it compares the gross "retail value" of vinyl to the wholesale net value of ad-supported streaming. Not only are those wildly different—gross "retail value" is essentially multiplying copies sold by the MSRP regardless of actual sale cost or how much (or little) gets paid to the label, while wholesale net value is profit actually paid to the label—but it excludes all payouts from streaming subscriptions, instead counting only the ad-supported streaming. So, yeah, that comparison is "How to Lie With Statistics" at best. However, the lie is in the RIAA press release, and it fits with the general resurgence of vinyl, so I don't blame Justin for being taken in by it. ETA: That inflated vinyl figure was $416 million. The total net revenue from streaming—again, only net, but including subscriptions and SoundExchange—was $2.4 billion. With a "b". Yeah. Last edited by CrazyDreamer on Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ali07
 Posts: 3333 Location: Victoria, Australia |
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Nah, nothing to do with the fans. It just never appealed to me, but my friend finally broke me...though, unless they're going to get copies of it on disc for me (they're living overseas), I may not have to do it. Stan is another streaming service, and recently have been putting ads up about them having all the HP movies. |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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From what I recall, while the 2nd season onward was released on Blu-ray, the first season was only released on DVD, and that was enough for me to not bother picking up the series even though it seemed like it might be interesting. I have too many series to get through already, and it's to the point that I need a really good reason to bother with a series if it's not on Blu-ray. The video quality of DVDs is just too poor to bother, and I hate streaming. I eagerly await the day when no more shows are released DVD-only. |
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Paiprince
 Posts: 593 |
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There's really no point in streaming for me if all the service really gets is the broadcast version which is typically full of unchecked QUALITY and beams of light censoring. It's simple as that. Oh, don't forget inserting OVA's on the latest manga volumes. Streaming sites hardly ever get those either. Rather sly advertising tactics to garner DVD/BD sales, but eh you do what you gotta do.
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FlareKnight
Posts: 174 |
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I think the physical release should remain fine and stable for anime. Streaming really is a big gift. People just aren't going to buy a whole show that they don't know anything about. Streaming and seeing the whole or part of the show first helps solidify decisions. Sure, there is the risk of people just watching what they can already see via stream, but I don't think that's a big threat since people wouldn't have been randomly buying shows that they hadn't seen anyways.
People won't buy every show out there, but fans are fans. If a person loves a show they will probably end up buying the BD/DVDs of it at some point. Owning a physical copy of something you enjoy is still a big thing.Having that physical copy sitting there on a shelf and giving you high quality visuals when you watch it...that's a good thing. Plus yeah, a thing that is still lost to all this is bandwidth. Not everyone has super high speeds or unlimited bandwidth. Watching a show at 720p or 1080p is pretty heavy in that respect. Being able to rewatch a show without using any bandwidth? I can get behind that. Think it's a good direction things are going. Fansubbing lead to streaming services picking up shows, streaming has lead to even more people having access to anime and that in turn should lead to physical sales with people knowing what shows they like and want to own. |
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Kalessin
Posts: 931 |
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To be fair, those OVAs generally don't end up on physical releases in North America either unless they're released prior to the season being released and can thus be bundled with the main release. If anything, I'd have thought that streaming would give us a chance to get at some of that stuff sub-only when it comes out after the main series has actually been released, but it does seem like all you ever get with the streaming is the broadcast versions of stuff, and I have to agree that that makes physical releases that much more desirable. Streaming makes some sense as a replacement for TV, but it's far more questionable as a replacement for DVD or Blu-ray. And broadcast versions can vary wildly from the final version released on Blu-ray. For most shows the difference is likely to be primarily quality improvements (e.g. redrawing scenes when they're not so rushed for time), but for fanservice heavy shows, the broadcast version is clearly there to advertise the Blu-rays, and I don't know why anyone would bother with the broadcast version except to find out whether the show was good enough to pay for the real thing or because they were just desperate to get the next season ASAP. A prime example of that would be "The Testament of Sister New Devil" which has extreme enough fanservice that it's clearly borderline hentai, and the broadcast version is, of course, so heavily censored that there arguably isn't much point in watching it. Crunchyroll actually has both of the seasons that have been released thus far, but of course, it's the broadcast version. And since no one has even licensed it for physical release yet (at least as far as we know), let alone actually released it, the only way to watch the real deal is via fansubs - though in the past, without a physical release, we wouldn't have anything except fansubs, so I suppose that the fact that we have streams for a show like that is something. But for shows like that, really the only way to watch them is to get the physical releases. As long as streams function as a replacement for TV but not physical releases, they can work, but if you want the full quality, final version of a show, you need the physical releases. |
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reanimator
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Streaming is great way to enjoy anime if you are going to watch only once and only to revisit within 2~3 years. Ever since I signed up for Crunchyroll, I've been watching both old and new anime one time for each title and I didn't go crazy with buying physical media of shows which I don't care much about.
As a collector and Otaku data junkie, I only buy discs of anime discs which leaves everlasting impression and what I can do with it. I bought "Princess Jellyfish" BD/DVD after watching it from Funimation stream site and all because the show is really funny and relatable to me. BTW, I do have both Funimation and Japanese version of "Princess Jellyfish". Although Funimation's collector edition can't compete with what Japanese counterparts can do, I was still satisfied with Funimation edition. I bought the Japanese edition because it has loads of behind-the-scene information that only hardcore Otaku would care about (and talking Clara the Jellyfish doll included with first volume of Japanese BD). I think most young fans are pretty much content with watching their translated anime and don't care much about bonus materials in general. It's not the end of the world if we can't watch some cheaply produced bonus footage. On the other hand, older and/or heavily invested fans would want more from the show they watch, so local publishers now are throwing in collector's edition with whatever bonus materials to satisfy them. Most important thing is, collecting anime discs isn't for everyone and fans have been enjoying anime in many other ways. |
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Kalessin
Posts: 931 |
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I expect that part of the equation is satisfying collectors (since increasingly, those are the primary folks buying the physical releases), but another part of it is likely that if the physical release has stuff that the streams don't (be it improved quality or extras or whatever might attract someone to buy it instead of just watching the stream), then some of the folks who are on the fence about whether it's worth buying the physical release will be enticed to do so instead of just watching the streams. |
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CrazyDreamer
Posts: 10 |
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One of the goals of the Skip Beat! physical release project is to really do a proper tear-down and rebuild of the subtitle quality. They've got the sub files from Crunchyroll, but those are simulcast subs that were never cleaned up. There can definitely be a quality issue to getting a physical release.
Simulcast subs are virtually always rush jobs with basically no formatting and a translation that sometimes has to be done in only an hour or two, because that's how little time they have between receiving the episode and posting it. You're looking at a rough draft thrown together in a single pass on Sub Station Alpha at best. Add in the fact that the subbers haven't seen the whole series and have no idea what's going to be important or be an important vocal quirk to indicate or whatever, and you get the usual oddities where a name is corrected three episodes in or some term suddenly gets a much better but very different translation when it becomes plot-important, &c. Plus the usual weirdness that comes from a rough first draft that they don't have time to properly QC. (Full disclosure: I'm probably going to be one of the people doing volunteer work on the subs for the Skip Beat! physical media release, so I'm invested in viewing that as a worthwhile thing. I'm not sure how many of the issues mentioned affect Skip Beat!, but they definitely have typos, unintelligible lines, and formatting errors.) |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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I like having bonus content because they tend to be behind-the-scenes extra information (particularly the commentary tracks), which is right up my alley for a trivia person like myself. |
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reanimator
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Then you fall into Invested fan/Otaku category when you described yourself as a trivia person. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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But the whole point of the Physical vs. Digital wars is, "Who watches the watch...er, stewards?" (Ie., if your content isn't on YOUR shelf, whose is it on, and how do you know they'll stay there?) The old sultans knew, there was only one way to trust a guard to watch over your harem for you... 
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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What happens when CR or Netflix removes that show from their line up? They only keep so many on the service to watch. Most things more than 3 years old won't be up there on CR. With Netflix they have some older titles up but it's sporadic and you never know which handful it will be. I also fail to grasp the "finding something to play them" issue as you have to find something, I.E. a computer or mobile device, to watch streaming options. So if the complaint is simply having to have the device to play the old disc media you still need a device to play/stream the new media. Yes $60 buys you a whole year's worth of CR. For basically $100 you can have CR & Funi for a whole year for the price of 2 shows to buy. The problem is again you never know if that streaming service will last, have connection issues, drop a title, etc. When you OWN that show you can watch it whenever you damn well please. No worries about other companies taking shows back, streaming services having technical issues, or any other problems that streaming might run into. Plus there's just the pure joy of owning it yourself. Knowing it's yours. It's like the difference between owning and leasing a car. |
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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It is not going to be lost unless it is literally lost, like you can't remember where you put it. If a new format comes along it does not alter the old format. You can still buy new equipment to play VHS tapes and vinyl records. I have no doubt that I will be able to play my DVDs for as long as I live.
But then you have no control over what happens to the content. I think that it is less likely to be lost if you have it in your hands.
You still need to pay for Internet access and data. Not everybody is lucky enough to have unlimited free data. Streaming does not well work for me because my connection is too slow, but if I did manage to watch streams the data would cost enough that it would probably be cheaper for me to buy discs.
They are also necessary for some people, including me, just so that we can watch the show. No discs=no anime. Streaming may be the future for video, but I think that it is not the near future. Right now streaming is perfect for some people, and useless for some others. I am in the second group. |
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EricJ2
Posts: 4016 |
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The fans saying "I don't need to buy anime, I have streaming Funi/CR!" are EXACTLY the same people in 2010 who said "I don't need a movie collection, I have it all on Netflix!" And are now tearing their hair out six years later because the industry changed and they don't have it all on Netflix anymore. In fact, there's very little they do have on Netflix anymore, since the studios don't waste their time with dinky subscription services as their main avenue as they used to. (Over the last couple years in the mainstream press, you could tell who had put much faith in streaming when panicky "Netflix-geddon" articles would start to appear about Netflix dropping fifty to a hundred movies in one March or January...Looks like somebody got a little too happy about the advertising promises, and didn't expect movie licenses would ever be dropped, as more realistic users know they are wont to do.) It's just a matter of time before ambition starts reaching into the major Funi/CR players, and some chaff starts getting thinned out. You can't find EVERY Funi series you want to watch on Funi.com, they're going to make sure there are a few you have to go out to the store and buy if you want the subs or the rare seasons. Anime companies aren't as paranoid of disk sales as movie studios are, they know how to work hand-in-glove with both sides of their fandom, but like I said at the beginning, you'd think anime fans, over twenty hard-fought years, MORE THAN ANYONE would know the value of guarding disks that otherwise tend to go "poof!" out of circulation whenever you're not looking. |
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Don't tell me you were punishing the series for its fans.) 
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