Forum - View topicNEWS: Viz to Distribute Anime through Warner, iTunes Canada
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AnimeCornerStore
Accredited Retailer
 Posts: 119 Location: Winchester, VA USA |
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Well, the cats out of the bag now. We were hoping this would not go public until after new years once all the details are worked out, so it’s time for me to make a small appeal to the folks at Viz.
While Hidemi Fukuhara is busy trying to put a positive spin on this move, in reality, we feel like this will be a huge negative for the core Anime market. As it stands now the Warner deal is going to significantly increase wholesale pricing for Viz's Anime catalog in retail, and will probably eliminate most of Viz's direct accounts as WHV trends towards accounts with very large retailers that can only buy in direct at a 7+ figure annual sales level. When you deal with WHV as a retailer, they don't care a lick about your market, they only want to know one thing - 'how much can you sell?'. The big video retail clients that Warner services buy thousands of SKU's through them, but Anime only retailers that serve the direct market don't have a prayer of making their minimum purchase requirements buying only Viz titles. Warner’s direct wholesale pricing (even to large retailers) is quite poor, and adding another layer of distribution for Anime only retailers will only make product availability worse for most fans, and most likely force retail level price increases for all of Viz’s product. What Viz is doing is essentially putting volume business first, and spitting in the eye of all the direct core market retailers (like us) that have been their backbone over the past 10 or 11 years. I recently reminded Viz executives that Anchor Bay’s big box deal with Sony distribution essentially killed Manga video as an Anime company (as did CPM’s deal with WEA a few years back), and they are taking the same risk with Warner as WHV does not understand a thing about who buys Anime titles and/or why. We're hoping that Mr. Fukuhara does understand the importance of Anime only retailers that directly service core Anime fans, and will ensure that this new deal with Warner will continue to ensure timely and well priced delivery into our market as well, and not just the big box movers. Mr. Fukuhara – please don’t kill Viz’s video division, and all of us along with it. Merry Christmas, Bob (aka Robert) The Anime Corner Store |
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JINROH
Posts: 56 |
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If its done so much damage to other R1 companies/Industry as a whole/community,why would Viz go out of its way to shoot itself in the foot like this ?
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Daimao Raki
 Posts: 593 Location: Dark Side of the Moon |
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Ragebot
Posts: 42 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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With all respect to Robert, he is only looking at the perspective of the niché distributor. From a Canadian perspective, this is possibly the best news of the year. Viz's distribution has been historically less-than-mediocre to downright atrocious, and the potential for improvement in this regard is enormous.
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Primus
 Posts: 2817 Location: Toronto |
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More like years. Some shows they have licesensed are reaching 3 years since announcements. THREE YEARS. |
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bleachj0j
 Posts: 926 |
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funimation annouced they had dgray man in 2007 and are releasing it in 2009 not much differnt from when viz announced their liscense of monster and honey and clover which will come out in 2009 with this hikaru no go might make a come back.
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Primus
Posts: 2817 Location: Toronto |
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With FUNimation though, it's more likely the show will actually come out, and FUNimation actually tells people information about the shows they're working on. Viz tells people they are working on it two years after the fact in a magazine. Also, Viz's Solicitations for the first few months of 2009 have come and gone, no Honey & Clover, Zoids Genesis (I doubt I'll ever see this series), no Monster, no Nana. FUNimation? D.Gray-Man is coming in March in 13 episode sets.
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bleachj0j
Posts: 926 |
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ever heard of waiting 2009 isn't even here and their Solicitations are not over for 2009.
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KabaKabaFruit
 Posts: 1901 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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Sourcey source? 
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Primus
Posts: 2817 Location: Toronto |
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Most companies like to start off the new year with new series. Viz isn't. FUNimation is going to have a ten licenses in ten day bonaza at the end of this month, and Bandai just had Kurokami. Where ADV probably had more Switchblade stuff they can't talk about. And most are happy about that. The less series Viz has, means the less likely hood of that show getting a cancelled release.
http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=89116
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bleachj0j
Posts: 926 |
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oh plese stop their relaseing monster and honey and clover in 2009. get over it.
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AirCooledMan_2006
 Posts: 594 Location: Delaware, U.S. |
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They still haven't even announced a release date for NANA. Why, Viz? Why can't they grow some balls and announce release dates instead of sitting on shows? |
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mmangelly
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I'm not getting my hopes up but I want this to mean that Hikaru no Go, Prince of Tennis, and MAR could come back out.
I didn't know Manga was having trouble being a part of Starz Media. I hope things work out and this does turn out to be beneficial for Viz and fans. |
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AnimeCornerStore
Accredited Retailer
Posts: 119 Location: Winchester, VA USA |
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Of course. We will still carry Viz's titles under the new WHV deal, but the prices will be higher and availability will not be as good (ie - we will probably no longer be able to offer shipment of Viz products 3 or 4 weeks before the stores.) Now all retailers will get their products at the same time on the same wholesale pricing scale which is quite ugly. Wholesale discounts on certain MSRP ranges will fall from an average of 40-45% off MSRP to around 30-36% off MSRP through WHV. That means the prices for Viz's products are going to go up at retail. At those margins retail will not give Viz good product placement, and Viz will immediately become the least profitable Anime line for retailers to sell and the most expensive for fans per unit based off of MSRP. The move demonstrates that Viz feels they have become incapable of in house indigenous growth within their home video line, so they are basically throwing in the towel on the home video business, letting an outside company (who knows nothing about the Anime fan base) take control of the dstribution of their home video segment. My feeling is that Viz is looking down the road a few years and no longer seeing themselves as a major player in the 'Anime' market. My understanding is that the WHV deal only effects distribution within CONUS, so I'm not sure what help it will provide Canadian fans. Viz has gotten a taste of what it's like to do low margin bulk business through their deal with Walmart (it's probably the only place they have been able to expand sales volumes in hte past year), and they are trying to capitalize on that. Unfortunately the deal with WHV will not bring them those kind of results. Taking an Anime line out of the 'niche' market is a huge negative for them and for us (and certainly for 'niche' companies like my RACS and our competitors in Tampa, New York, and Iowa). I understand Viz's thinking on the matter, but it's been done before and is pure folly long term. Bob (aka Robert) The Anime Corner Store |
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bleachj0j
Posts: 926 |
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this really changes nothing expect their new distrubutor is a bigger name. I mean funimaton's distrubutor is the company that owns them. Viz hasn't given up there just trying to get anime in more stores. They have enough popular anime to sustain own their own. |
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