Forum - View topicChicks On Anime - Tales from the Rental Front
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Sea Lion
 Posts: 307 |
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Congratulations on having a brick-and-mortar source for your anime. However, you bag on Netflix too much.
Where I live, mom-and-pop video stores are not dying, they're dead. There is one Hollywood Video store in easy driving distance, and if they don't stock it -- and they don't have the room to stock a lot -- then you can't rent it. Without Netflix, I would have to watch illegal downloads, because I don't have the bucks to throw around buying things I might not like. There is a reason for DVDs to remain viable -- you can't stream high-def yet. I paid good money for my Samsung; I want to see my shows in crisp, clear pictures as often as I can. |
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Mysticmidnightmaiden
Posts: 123 Location: California (Bay Area) |
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Forgive me, but I just keep seeing Ranka's \m/ every time I read Kira's responses. DECULTURE~
Good column ladies, and yeah, it would be interesting to hear a younger fan's perspective on the industry. A civil discussion, I hope. |
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crilix
Posts: 208 |
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I think it's really important to stay in touch with current anime titles in a business like yours. My suggestion is that you don't "phase out," because fans tend to notice such things and may resent you for it.
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Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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Oh man, your store sounds awesome. I'm wishing there was a place like this in the area that I live, so that I could actually start renting titles, instead of just blind buying everything.
But you guys are totally right about the collecting aspect - there is something far more satisfying about having the actual DVD in your hands, rather than having a downloaded file. Lord knows, I've replaced many downloaded series with the actual DVDs when I've gotten the opportunity to. Let us hope that digital files will never replace having the actual physical media that you can put on a shelf. And I completely agree about the anime figures - they serve no real purpose, and some of them are crazy expensive, but they're so incredibly cute that I can't help but buy them. The curse of the collector. Anyway, really enjoyed this weeks article - and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an article with some younger fans to get their perspective on collecting. |
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Kenotic
 Posts: 167 |
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Up front: I'm a Netflix user. What I was looking for was getting a little obscure (not just anime, but things in general) and they had such an impressive collection I jumped in a few years back.
I still frequent the local Brick-and-Mortar. Sara, I've yet to be to Nicollet Village Video, but I bug anyone who will listen to go to Video Universe in Robbinsdale - about 5 minutes from North Minneapolis. They've got a ton of anime (I rented Ranma there a lot back in the 90s) and if you rent Sundays or Mondays it's 2-for-1. Their late fees aren't obscene, and it's a local place with a lot of the same people who worked there 4, 7, or even 10 years ago. Places like these need all of the love you can give them. Streaming has a lot of positives, but then there are the hoops to jump through. Hulu works for me, but ABC and NBC's players crash and refuse to work most of the time. Netflix works for what it is, provided you don't get throttled or they just randomly decide to wait a day or two to send you the newest DVD. Now just be happy Redbox just keeps to the hits and new stuff and not anime 
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The_Libertarian_Otaku
 Posts: 189 |
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I've never used Netflix, and the only place I ever rented anime from was Blockbuster, and even then my local store has closed. Of course, out of what little anime they had, I only rented Akira and Princess Mononoke (What little else they had was either sub-only [Millennium Actress, Memories], which I wouldn't be caught dead with, kiddie stuff like Pokémon, or stuff that I'd already bought). There's no mom-and-pop video rental stores in my area, either. Then again, I usually buy anime instead of renting anyway (If not at a brick-and-mortar, then off of eBay, RightStuf, Amazon, or Buy.com--I've managed to find some OOP anime via eBay, and I'm thankful for them because I'd probably have never legally obtained it otherwise).
If only there was a really good video store here in southern Delaware that had as much anime, I'd go and rent there. I admit, I do watch some illegal downloads and streams, but I use them to preview the shows just as with legal streams and TV airings, and if I like what I see, that show's getting some of my Dead Presidents.
You shouldn't have to worry much about that. If everything were to go fully digital, people would have to buy terabyte drives that can ultimately crash and burn, and then there's the DRM crap, codecs, etc. DVDs, on the other hand, are much sturdier, lasting up to 300 years or more if taken care of properly. Also, you can't give someone a video file for Christmas or their birthday like you can with a DVD, nor can you put video files on your shelves. People would much rather display shelves full of DVDs than hard drives. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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I just have to point this out. Doesn't this seem a little silly? It's reasonable to wait months and rent an R1 release instead of watching fansubs but it's not to wait an additional few days on top of that to rent it from netflix? |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14889 |
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Heh, I remember when I could rent 20 or so anime VHS for only around $30 and could return 'em a week or so whenever I'm done. But then, I also remember making an excuse for buying a Sailor Moon CD.
Anyways, a reason fans talk less about anime/manga in public as they get older is because it becomes less cool for older grownups to go geeky on any subject. 
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OZ-13MS
 Posts: 11 |
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You can stream HD, only problem is if your connection and hardware are up to spec.
It's not silly, it's fact. Not everyone is patient, people want everything now, it doesn't matter what it is; it just needs to be now. Fansubs play a big role in the globalization of anime. It began with VHS and now it's the internet.
It appears that collecting for you means something physical. It's not always the case, digital collecting is no different than physical collecting. You can't touch it but it's there in a group with others of similar content. DVDs are the same: It's a physical medium for digital information. Same statement applies for HDDs which contain digital information; data which is stored is placed in groups of that with similar content, thus resulting in a collection.
The digital business is a joke, digital acts and rights have to adapt new ways of doing things. The problem to that is finding a balance between businesses, consumers, and copyright holders. Lobbying also poses a problem in reforming these acts. |
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ikillchicken
Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Thanks! Cause ya know, I was totally thinking when I wrote that "Boy I hope someone will totally miss my point". What I'm saying is that it seems silly to critique Netflix for taking a few days more to get you your rental when people are waiting months already to get it from their store or anywhere in R1 anyway. It's tiny difference by comparison. If people are willing to wait months for a R1 release I expect they're willing to wait a few days more. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24168 |
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Kira seems like a very nice person, but I hope she's making plans to eventually diversify from DVD rentals because in the not too distant future that market will be as viable as VHS. At some point you will be able to download HD content directly to your telev--, er, I mean your wallscreen and you'll be able to keep it. (Actually I can do that now. My cable provider offers HD content on demand and even though HD PVR hard drives have puny storage capacities now, that will change.) This isn't going to just affect Mom & Pop stores (or Daughter & Pop stores as the case may be), it will effect the big chains and Netflix type operations too.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is going to be like the horse and buggy manufacturers who saw the first Model T Fords and assumed that these newfangled horseless carriages would never take off. |
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nechronius
 Posts: 275 Location: So Cal, USA |
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Actually I think you're missing the two different points. When people want it "right now" it might stem from some sort of an impulse, like hanging out with friends, and then someone says "hey, do you remember that one anime about some biker gang and psychic powers and that one dude who turns into a HUGE blob that fills a stadium?" "Oh yea, that's Akira! Hey, let's go watch it right now!" And off to the rental store they go. With Netflix assuming you have an open slot, odds are that they won't ship until the next business day, which means at LEAST two days before you get what you asked for. You can't watch it on an impulse or "right now." The part about people wanting the newest hottest shows "right now" is in reference to the availability of fansubs days after the TV airing. Think Bleach. You can get your fix less than 24 hours after it's aired and obviously nobody can compete with that if they're going through "proper" channels. |
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B-503_MIA
 Posts: 149 Location: Green Bay, WI |
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Thanks to Kira & the CoA for this informative column...
I've been unemployed since last September & have really been giving a lot of thought lately to going it on my own & starting a small business in a similar vein. The job search has been an exercise in frustration & humiliation... Luckily, my unemployment benefits were approved for a full year BUT I'm getting antsy & want to get back into the flow one way or another. It's been a blast playing Mr. Mom for our 18 month old son but it's got to come to an end sooner or later. Anyway, don't people always say "Do what you love"? This may be my chance to do so. Kira, I'd like to pick your brain for ideas & advice, if you don't mind 
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Ceredonia
 Posts: 36 Location: Fort Collins, CO |
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That's exactly what I meant. Thanks for clearing that up.
I'm sorry for bagging on Netflix so much--I understand that really is the only option for a lot of people, but from my standpoint, I'm supposed to hate it. Realistically, if we ever go out of business *knock on wood* I would go to Netflix, mainly because I just refuse to ever go to Blockbuster and waste my money on no selection. So I understand the appeal of Netflix, but I just don't want to support it from our store.
And to the person who asked about diversifying from DVD rentals, sure we're always trying to think of ways to figure that out--but no one knows the future yet. I know digital downloads are beginning to increase in popularity, but there's not really a way to deal with that for rental. So until we think of something, we're just trying to keep on top of the DVD business. And to be honest, not everyone over the age of 35 or so understands digital downloads. A lot of our customers still rent old VHS tapes and haven't upgraded to DVD, so as they go into DVD, maybe downloads will be popular and the main way to watch movies, but we'll still be renting to them.
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SongstressCela
 Posts: 615 Location: Pennsylvania |
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Judgmental much?
There's a community aspect of renting? I don't know, maybe it's because I tend to dislike people around here immensely, the few times I rent from a B&M store I get in, get out, badda bing badda boom.
So true. It works fine on my laptop, though usually just because I let most of it load ahead of time. Every time I try to watch Hulu from my PS3 though, blegh. Don't even bother. I can't help wondering if it's because there's added strain from people only now discovering the site from this new rampant flood of commercials on -actual- TV.
Agreed! I've mentioned before what a huge bibliophile I am, and I've got dozens of shelves full to bursting with books all over the place. I will say, though, from both my ebook reader on PSP as well as the new Kindle app on my iPod Touch, it's certainly convenient. I travel a lot, and there's no doubt it's extremely handy to have an entire library in your pocket instead of bogging luggage down with a bunch of novels.
Really? Like Bamboo said, if you're a real collector, I can't see wanting to make the change to all digital very much at all. I think in all my years as a fan I've seen maybe a single person actually show off his PC folder as a collection, and he pretty much got the unanimous response of "...Dude. Seriously?" I don't see digital distribution really making a huge dent in sales. I think the people that would buy a DVD will still keep buying them, and the people that -wouldn't- might give in to stream things for the convenience. To me, it sounds like a win-win, and I only hope it stays that way. Anyway, not all of us have a local place to rent from. We have the big corporate stores (In our small-town case that's simply Giant Eagle's grocery store add-on, Blockbuster is almost an hour away), but the only video store in town was bought out ages ago. Netflix is the only way to go, unfortunately. |
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