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Collection size vs. re-watching opportunities.


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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7358
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:12 am Reply with quote
I've finally started to notice something, in specific it seems, after the con ended, and that is that as my collection of both anime and manga increases, I seem to have less time that I can spend actually re-watching or re-reading any of it. I remember back during my first two years or so of collecting that I'd re-watch/read anything I had like a fiend (back when I had 10 titles or so) and that was really fun, but as my collection grew, I just don't seem to re-watch things the way I used to, but having more titles at my disposal is fun too. Since I don't see the point of keeping things in my collection that I never have plans to watch ever again, this can almost be a bit of a problem.

The re-watching of things a million times was probably more common in the VHS era when higher prices and fewer titles meant that your collection had to be limited, but with cheap-o DVD boxsets coming out every month and bargain bins, collecting has gotten pretty easy.

So, does anyone else notice or even have an issue with their collection size increasing while their time allocated to re-watching most of it slips? Do you not mind this or do you wish you had more time to re-watch things you put on the back burner after one viewing and never got around to watching again? Am I not awake enough to have written this so it makes sense to everyone else?

(I know I worded the title rather awkwardly, if any mod can think of a better topic title, I won't be offended. Also, I was a loss wether to put this in anime or retail, but since it involves watching more than buying...)
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24161
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:28 am Reply with quote
Considering I have around 50 series in my collection that I haven't watched even once yet, I have to say that worrying about re-watching time is not a huge concern. I have made the somewhat arbitrary decision not to re-watch anything I own until I have watched everything at least once. I'm kind of jonesing to rewatch TMofHS for some reason, but I'll hold off.

I went way overboard in buying anime earlier this year and my plan is to either buy nothing or very little until I've cleared my backlog. It would be nice if I can hang in even longer than that. Re-watching old faves, as well as streaming stuff, should help tide me over until my bank account recovers sufficiently to resume buying.
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kyokun703



Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 2505
Location: Orgrimmar
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:33 am Reply with quote
My manga re-reading is okay, even though my collection is huge. I am a voracious reader and re-reader, so that is not really a problem.

My anime collection though is something else. I've really cut down my anime buying, but I still have series that I haven't opened or haven't watched past the first time. It's rather exasperating. I love buying anime and the artboxes and such, but I also feel like I'm vaguely wasting my money if I'm not going have the time to rewatch stuff. However, I do make it a point if I've enjoyed a fansub, I will buy it once it gets licensed to R1. That I don't feel bad about spending money at all.
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Xenosaga1980



Joined: 05 Jul 2009
Posts: 16
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 11:54 am Reply with quote
I do try to rewatch some of my anime series.
But when what I receive each month, and i struggle to keep up with that even:)
Plus that my anime collection is well over 1300dvds
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Kimiko_0



Joined: 31 Aug 2008
Posts: 1796
Location: Leiden, NL, EU
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:09 pm Reply with quote
I am still early in my anime collecting career. Anime I buy on DVD I have usually watched not too long ago, so I'm not in a hurry to watch the DVDs. Occasionally I'll pick out an anime to re-watch in between the new ones. Or I'll end up watching a few episodes when I look up something for the guessing games.
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
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Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:10 pm Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:
So, does anyone else notice or even have an issue with their collection size increasing while their time allocated to re-watching most of it slips? Do you not mind this or do you wish you had more time to re-watch things you put on the back burner after one viewing and never got around to watching again?


Oh, I first started noticing and commenting on this problem a couple of years ago, and it's distinctly gotten worse with the passage of time. I still find occasion to go back and rewatch part or all of favorite series, but my regular cycle of rewatching certain favorites every few months has gone down the tubes. A significant increase in my fansub-watching over the past few months hasn't helped matters, either. Razz
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Imperialkat



Joined: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 227
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:53 pm Reply with quote
Of all the series I own I think I've only rewatched two so far: FLCL and Afro Samurai. Having a huge backlog (over 50% of my relatively small collection. Thanks, TRSI) isn't helping. I have a similar problem with my manga collection. I feel like I simply don't have the time to rewatch everything.

Mathematically, this problem happens to everyone who has some size to their collection. I mean, if you have 500 DVDs that amount to 600+ hours of anime, how do you find the time to rewatch all that while still taking in new stuff? I'm not even sure that rewatching everything is possible once you reach 1000.

Then again, it could be done with a little discipline. Maybe you could strive to rewatch one episode of something from your collection for every new episode watched. If you watched 20 hours of anime a week ( about 3 hours a day), with ten of those hours being rewatches, you could burn through 500 DVDs in a little over a year while taking in the same amount of new stuff. Hmm, maybe I should try that...
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JacobC
ANN Past Staff


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:06 pm Reply with quote
That's definitely a factor with me as my collection has grown. I have one or two series that I haven't watched yet layin' around, and many that I've only seen all the way through once...back when all I had was Fruits Basket and Fullmetal Alchemist in my collection (the status quo for well over a year before obtaining anything else,) I watched each of them dozens and dozens of times...in both languages. (Ah, awkward young teen years. I had just about NO life then, too. It sucked. <_<)

But there is a pattern with me rewatching series, I'd say. Sometimes I have several shows I've never seen put on hold for a while (Baccano! and Romeo X Juliet most recently...) just so I can rewatch Trigun or Ouran AGAIN. (Even though I've seen all of each well over five times...in both languages.) So I still rewatch frequently, but just a select couple huge faves.

By the way, Baccano! was one of the most enjoyable romps I've ever had the pleasure of sitting through, absolutely ingenious, and Romeo X Juliet got much better...kind of. It was still so unbearably painful at some points that its more brilliant moments tragically got washed out time and time again. (Don't we always focus on the bad too much?) Still above the norm, though, right?
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Ggultra2764
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Joined: 21 Jan 2004
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Location: New York state.
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:47 pm Reply with quote
With online stores like Rightstuf around and finally getting a debit card for myself a couple months ago, expanding my collection's become a great deal easier than having to wait on video stores finally getting what I want. But it doesn't change the fact that I don't re-visit titles in my collection too often since I'm too focused on checking out the latest titles from Japan or those I have yet to see. I think the only time I might ever totally re-visit my collection would be if I ran out of new and interesting titles to watch. But considering I have a good enough list of titles I want to see at some point, I don't see this happening anytime soon.
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DerekTheRed



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 3544
Location: ::Points to hand::
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 1:54 pm Reply with quote
Well, I just counted and I have 40 TV series in my collection, which I think is on the smallish side of average. I've seen 17 once, and the remaining 23 I've seen 2-3 times with some exceptions. Excel Saga, GTO, Martian Successor Nadesico, all 3 Slayers series, Outlaw Star, Gunslinger Girl and Planetes I've viewed more frequently than that. These are also some of the shows I've had the longest, and many of the newer shows to my collection fall in the seen once category. L/R, Rune Soldier and Now and Then Here and There, are all new and in the rewatch queue, but they are behind some of my older ones that still deserve a second go, like Haibane Renmei, Blue Seed, Noir, Le Chevalier d'Eon, Harlock, and Sakura Diaries.

When I began typing this I was under the impression that there were only a few shows in my collection that I've only seen once. When you factor in my movies and OVAs, it looks more like I've only watched half of my stuff twice. If that. With the exception of only my Lupin movies and Golden Boy, I've not rewatched a single one.

But I've now reached a point where my purchases are going to be less frequent, so I'll have a chance to catch up. There are only a few things on my buy list, Samurai Champloo and Princess Nine are it actually. From here on out it'll probably be a show a month, unless I win the lotto.
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Zopelthe543





PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:28 pm Reply with quote
Well Damn you I wanted to make a similar thread about this today, but you got and beat me. You see I have a decent size collection right now (one shelf filled finally of manga and anime) and I've been starting to wonder if I'll ever end up having a huge collection like some people who have over 5 bookshelves worth of anime and 4 bookshelves of manga. With a collection as big as a library full of anime and manga there's no way a single person can just re-watch there stuff on daily or monthly bases. There is no doubt that there will be series that will be left in the dust for over months and maybe years, so I wonder whats peoples reasoning to have such a huge collection if its only gonna collect dust. Is it just for bragging rights, or to say I have it so I don't have to worry about it no more.

At the moment It bugs me that in my collection of stuff I'm gettin to the point where I don't care to re-read or re-watch certain series anytime soon(for example shonen titles and shoujo that go up +20 volumes) and it bugs because its like "whats the point in having it anymore." The only use I have for series I don't care about is use it as refrence for artistic purposes and lending it to other people who are interested in checking it out. anyways as much as it bugs me I doubt I'll ever sell what I have because I still have some attachment to them.

JesuOtaku wrote:

By the way, Baccano! was one of the most enjoyable romps I've ever had the pleasure of sitting through, absolutely ingenious, and Romeo X Juliet got much better...kind of. It was still so unbearably painful at some points that its more brilliant moments tragically got washed out time and time again. (Don't we always focus on the bad too much?) Still above the norm, though, right?

Well its awesome to hear you watched it and enjoy it. Need more people lovin the series. Its just like a rollercoaster and each episode doubles in strength. I love that series so much. Plus the voice acting is just too amazing. Hopefully with enough sales in the U.S. it might get another season or something that or they could release the light novel to the U.S. lol.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7358
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:55 pm Reply with quote
Well, I'm more awake now, my brain is a bit fried from having read 7 manga in a row though Smile

One of my rules has always been "my collection is not a museum", therefore I have no problem lending easy to find (at least easy to replace and find online) stuff to friends (I do have a few really hard to find manga that my friends can read, but only at my house/dorm). I rather wish my collection were smaller sometimes, except for some stuff from Otakon though, I have read or watched everything at least once (except for some manga I got for free off a friend, I haven't touched that one yet because it was some random volumes in the middle, but I am interested in the series, just wanna get the first 7 volumes at least before starting it...rambling now), and I'm in the process of watching the last two unfinished series from Otakon, but my main problem is just re-watching them. I'm keeping them in my collection because they were good and I do want to watch them again but at the same time I must buy Baccano when a set is released for it!

But the thing I noticed and don't like is that as my collection has more stuff in it, I just don't even feel like re-watching stuff like I used to. Outlaw Star was one of my first boxsets, I'd seen most of it on TV before, but when I got the boxset, I popped in discs all the time! Metropolis was another early addition, I used to watch it every few months it seemed, but I probably haven't seen it in over 2 years (and it's my favorite anime movie!) I dunno, it feels like I really want to see more new things but at the same time I want to re-watch oldies but goodies and these plans seem to conflict with each other frequently. Being at college both helps and hurts this, on the plus side, I can only put those series and games into my DVD Binder that I either haven't played or want to rewatch, so my choices are limited in that way and it's difficult to buy more stuff there, but then of course schoolwork and social life cuts down time.

Zopelthe543 wrote:
Well Damn you I wanted to make a similar thread about this today, but you got and beat me.

Must be on the same wavelength today Very Happy
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PetrifiedJello



Joined: 11 Mar 2009
Posts: 3782
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 5:06 pm Reply with quote
How funny this thread shows up as I thought the same thing last night while looking at my growing collection!

I had thought: "Start from 'A' and work the list to 'Z'" for rewatching, but then I hit Air.

Yeah, not really a series I want to rewatch right now. The story delivery is still too fresh in my mind. Moving on... and on... and on...

I'm watching To Heart now. "T". From "A". Yikes.

I believe my collection's too small as I still have them all in mind. The sole series I haven't watched, Star Ocean, is there only until my buying starts up again and I can view it awaiting the delivery.

I'd be interested to see how I feel about my collection in 2 years, wondering if they'll be still as memorable. As an anime viewer since the 80s, I can't recall most of the series I've seen! That's 20 years, though.

With online streaming and on demand services exploding, I want as many DVDs as I can get my hands on such that I can create a museum (I like that term).

For 20 years from now, I can slip a DVD in my 3D virtual environment hardware and become a guest in Shakugan no Shana* and be content as I'll have long since forgotten about it.

*I'd do Clannad, but I'd never, ever leave that 3D world.
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ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:24 pm Reply with quote
well with anime I only own about 4 series and I do re-watch most of them. Only one I dare not touch/re-watch again is Fruits Basket and I have the nice slim back full boxset with all the extras on it. Still can't bring my self to re-watch that anime. I mean I have re-watched Negima (both series) and Ouran at least 3 times though already from the DVDs alone, online streams legally I have watched it again so that makes it at least 4 times.

Manga, thats a different story I go manga shopping about every three months. (Seeing as I only get around $20 a month from my parents and I'm to young to get a job still) I get about 3 or 4 volumes of $11 a volume manga along with one maybe two volumes of SJ series. I re-read my manga like crazy if I don't get some new volume from the public library. Really I think my Ouran manga needs to be replaced cause the spines breaking from me re-reading it so much
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Zopelthe543





PostPosted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 8:27 pm Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:

Zopelthe543 wrote:
Well Damn you I wanted to make a similar thread about this today, but you got and beat me.

Must be on the same wavelength today Very Happy
yeah totally. Well even though you wanna re-watch series an all don't you ever have the problem like where to start or saying to yourself "well I don't care to watch this episode, so I'll start here". Nowadays I'll have a problem on what I wanna rewatch and think over an hour and still not got an answer. For example I wanna rewatch beck, but I feel like thats a series you gotta start beginning to end hands down, but I don't wanna spend to much time watching that. Then you got those series like school rumble and cowboy bebop where plot development hardly exist so you can watch just a random episode of you favorite. I feel that I get tired of rewatching some series of mine and don't get the same impact like I did the first watch, because I already know what happens and all.

The only thing I know how to fix this problem of mine is to sit and watch it with a couple of buddies of mine who haven't seen it. When I do that it totally feels like I'm watching the series for the first time. I guess its because of hearing everyones reaction when you hit a certain climax.
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