Emma Scores a Spot in Last Newtype USA Ish
Anime, News, Western News January 30th, 2008Tags: newtype-USA, right-stuf-international, Victorian-Romance-Emma
Just got a press release from TRSI, whose sub-only release of Victorian Romance Emma will be previewed in the final issue of Newtype USA (the February issue). And allow me to point out, for those of you still reeling from BVU’s prices, that Emma is coming out in two 12-episode box sets (one for each season), and the first one is $49.99. Go TRSI!
They did want to point out, though, that although the Newtype USA DVD will feature a letterbox (4:3 aspect ratio) early cut of the first episode of Emma, the actual DVD set will have widescreen (16:9) video.
Allow me to also note that Emma is a fantastic show, even if (like me) you’re not usually all that in to romance. It’s a beautifully animated period piece with spectacular character development and I highly recommend it.
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January 30th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Still comes out to more than 4 bucks per episode. Funimation recently put some episodes out for download at 1.99 each. That’s how much iTunes charges for TV shows in the US! You can but a Lost: Season 3 bundle, 23 episodes, for 38 bucks! That’s less than 1.65 cents per episode!
Tell me how 4 dollars an episode, even with the extra work for translation and marketing to a new audience, is in any way a good deal.
January 30th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
$1.99 gets you a relatively low-res episode that is riddled to death with DRM to prevent you from doing anything with the episode. $49.99 for 12 episodes gets you a high-res (DVD-quality, specifically) physical copy that you can then make additional copies of for your own other media, legally speaking.
I didn’t say it was an amazingly low price, either– just closer to reasonable. ;)
January 30th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
The reason American tv show box sets are so cheap is because they’re also AD supported. Lost is aired to millions of people across the US who corporations line up to pay millions of dollars to market to in 4 minute chunks. Consider that as an hour-slotted show, only about 44 minutes are content. The other 16 are advertisements that bring in millions of dollars of revenue for the broadcasting company.
Anime is a niche market that is supported by sales, NOT ads. DVD sales for tv shows are a nice supplement. DVD sales for anime shows are a requirement. Digital distribution is still in its infancy. To expect a niche title in a niche market to be as cheap as american television is short sighted to say the least.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
@Taylor: Good points all.
Roryo is right, though, that FUNimation (and VIZ) have put out anime eps at $1.99 each, but my points about low resolution and DRM remain, too.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
“To expect a niche title in a niche market to be as cheap as american television is short sighted to say the least.”
It already is though: “Roryo is right, though, that FUNimation (and VIZ) have put out anime eps at $1.99 each, but my points about low resolution and DRM remain, too.”
iTunes releases at shitty resolution with DRM too. Now I can’t assume that FUNimation/VIZ is making a profit like iTunes is from this, but it does show that it can and is being done. That also means FUN has the translations for them too, and are still able to sell them at 1.99 per ep.
So where’s the problem then? It’s a business strategy.
You take what used to be a niche product, and you charge the fuck out of it because there’s a certain market that will pay the asking price no matter what it is (40 bucks for 2 episodes? EXACTLY), despite the cost of production dropping grossly.
You know what, never mind. If you’ve got the money to pay for that stuff more power to you. I’ll wait until prices drop to a reasonable amount, which apparently won’t occur until anime starts getting US ad revenue.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:16 am
It does suck a lot that some 2 ep dvd’s sell for $40 (I’m looking at you BVusa). I think the big problem is that japanese licensors just ask too much. They don’t have the tv on dvd market that the us has. Once they realize that’s the only way anime is going to be able to compete over here, they’ll have to lower licensing fees so anime dvd’s aren’t completely overrun by cheap american tv shows.
February 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am
[...] each plus one 1-episode disc at $29.99 = $269.93, divided by 13 = $20.76 per episode. I later talked about Right Stuf’s release of Emma as being more reasonable and was brought back to a per-episode [...]