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Profitmon Catches The Dollars
An anonymous reader writes "The mainstream press has finally discovered the cash in anime. Fortune's Daniel Roth profiles ADV, the largest anime distributor in the U.S.. He uses it as a way to talk about how the anime and manga business has, in what's become a rarity in showbiz, managed to find a way to do 'more than not alienate its customers: It has found ways to keep them buying and buying.' The article also details the madness of the anime superfans--the Otaku--and the likely Neon Genesis Evangelion live-action flick that Weta's Richard Taylor is pushing for." Good Content + Bittorrent = Profit?
Profitmon, I choose you!
It's a hand twinkler, you dumbass! And I got a bag of whoopass for you!
I've been an anime fan for a while, but it's spreading quickly. It seems like most of my friends watch it now. Not just geeks, but even Jock types.
Someone save me from this sanity.
The more mainstream anime becomes, the worst it will get. I like anime because it often has much different story lines then traditional North American movies & cartoons.
LINUX ONLINE POKER: Linux Poker
Methinks you mean WETA.
I think the money is from the fact that they can import on demand pretty much, they don't have to overproduce in case there's a large demand for it. The Anime sub-culture of the US is interesting in that it seems to often times follow certain trends and when something is popular you can just import it and sell it for a lot more than you usually would a normal DVD.
There's also the fact that a lot of anime sales are online which can be on demand as well, it's just a safer business I think than producing large numbers of an item and hoping they all sell.
$fortune
Tomorrow has been canceled due to lack of interest.
Production costs for Anime are less because they can repackage content that is already made and add north american dialogue at marginal cost. Add to that licensing fees from action figures etc. unlike regular content they are not totally tied to advertising revenue because there is low overhead and multiple streams of $$.
It fails to mention ADV's recent financial troubles, highlighted by the fact that in the past year they've had to give up funding the creation of several new shows and didn't announce any licenses during this year's con season (which is very unusual.)
It also fails to account for the fact that despite how small all of the anime companies are compared to say the music and movie giants in the states, the size of the warez base is MUCH LARGER relatively. There's a prevalent attitude among anime "fans" that paying for it is somehow supporting "the man" despite the fact that international licensors provide the japanese with a non-trivial amount of funding.
And thanks to ADV's insane pricing, I'll probably never be a customer again. Of course, Geneon et alia have the same mindset when it comes to price points.
That would probably be (and I'm just going wayyy out on a limb here, speaking right off the top of my head) beacuse Anime fans are already used to paying outrageous prices for porn. I mean anime. I mean anime-porn. Wait; what's the difference again?
Weta, not Meta. What kind of nerd are you?
FTFA: Certainly the aging of the Pokémon generation--the first to have widespread exposure to anime at a young age-- When did Speed Racer start airing over here? That was the first anime I ever saw.
"You know you're narcissistic when you quote yourself in your sigs." -- PRoPAiN!
Bring me Bleach in English, and Gantz. And Yakitate. Yeah, bring me Bleach, Gantz, and Yakitate. Oh, and Initial D. Bring me Bleach, Gantz, Yakitate, and Initial D. Oh, and......nevermind. Bring me them all.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Crap, forgot to preview http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,11345 96,00.html
Hmmm... I have no freaking clue what you are talking about. I have Cromartie High and I can pretty much skip through any of the intro animation that I want to. By intro animation you do mean the annoying ads at the beginning right?? Yeah I can skip through those.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
To be perfectly honest, the reason ADV is raking in the dough, is that as one of the biggest anime distributers in America, they can charge an arm, a leg, and three kidneys for their product, and it will sell. You'll notice there are not a lot of anime distributers out there, so there are only a few mediums where you can get it from. While it is still cheaper to obtain it from online sources (AnimeNation and the like), it is still costly. I could buy all of Buffy, Angel, or even Hercules right now, and it would be cheaper than getting a box set of a particular anime series.
They won't come down in price, cause pretty much there is no reason for them too. While I download the occassional anime series, I still buy some of my stuff from Brick N' Mortar, or other various online sources. Hell, I am going to buy Grenadier, even though I have the fansubs to it on my computer.
Seriously, if they want to really rank in the dough, start dropping the prices to under the $20 level. At least then, it might make is justifiable to only the DVD for its extras. Keeping it at $29.99 might net you big profits in the short term, but as the years progress, there is only so much people are willing to take before they forever go the way of fansubs.
The Galatic Freedom Force marches on! Defend!
I have to agree, if it wasn't for the fansubs I wouldn't have bought about 90% of the anime thats currently in my collection. They should be thanking the fansubbers not trying to make them out into criminals.
I pegged anime for a fad in the late 90's. There was some incredible stuff coming out, but there was a TON material dating back to the 1970's that still had not been shown to outside [of Japan] audiences. Most people outside of Japan didn't watch Akira or Vampire Hunter D until they were 5 - 10 years old. I figured the well of good old material would dry up and there wouldn't be enough new material to keep interest going. Looks like I was wrong.
If you look at anime prices as a whole they have come down. It used to be $25 dubbed or $30 subbed for two episodes. Yes Evangalion cost me over $300. Thankfully Suncoast Replay program was sweet back then and you got 5% back in store credit, and they even had the 10% off day and weekends. One of my friends pissed off a clerk by by the $150 Lodoss boxset with credit on a 10% off weekend. Ahh... why do we only have Mediaplays crappy prices and 2.5% back anymore.
I'm sorry, but I can't afford to travel to Japan, find a job there, find a place to live there, and then pay monthly rent, food expenses and cable bills just so I can watch a few shows past midnight for "free." Along the same line of reasoning that you proposed, why would people want to pay money for shipping when they can just drive out to the shop to pick it up for "free."
You forgot the missing ingredient
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
I think this could work:
Bitcom FAQ's:
What is a bitcom?
It is a sitcom distributed by BitTorrent.
Who can view a bitcom?
Anyone with a computer, high speed internet, and custom BitTorrent software.
How much does it cost to view a bitcom?
Nothing.
How do I view a bitcom?
You download custom BitTorrent software, create an account, and log into the website. Once logged in you search for a bitcom you want to view and click on it.
How much to set up an account?
Free. You do need to provide a name, email address, zip, age, and whether you're male or female. We also would like you to answer one survey question per week to build a profile of you.
How can it be free?
Advertisers pay all costs. You will have to view a 30 second commercial before you can watch the bitcom. It is a part of the BitTorrent file and is targeted to your profile.
I don't want advertisers knowing this info about me?
They won't. They will only know your profile. Your name will never be provided. The closest they can come is your zip code.
I'm still nervous...
Then make up a name. Please try and be honest about your profile though, it is for your benefit.
Is it limited to sitcoms?
Nope. I just haven't come up with any witty names besides bitcom. Anything that has not been copywritten and can be uploaded to the website can be viewed. In fact, the concept is completely scalable. Local programs such as weather or sports can be created that would include advertising targeted either by national or local business.
Who owns the file?
As soon as the file is uploaded it is considered copywritten by the creator. The creator and the website are the only ones that can get revenue from the file.
Who can make a bitcom?
Anyone with a video camera, computer, high speed internet, and custom BitTorrent software. They will also need a creator account.
Who gets the revenue from the advertiser?
Fifty percent goes to the creator of the bitcom. Fifty percent goes to the website.
How much do ads cost?
Advertisers will bid against each other based on the number of advertisements they want to send out and the demographic they wish to target.
Why do advertisers have to bid against each other?
Because I have no idea how much per person an ad is worth. But I bet advertisers do.
What does the website do with its fifty percent of the ad revenue?
Technology and development, employee salaries, headquarters. Possibly advertising the website using other mediums.
Why can't I start a company producing bitcoms?
You can. In fact, it would probably be a good idea.
If I produce a bitcom how do I get paid?
All transactions will be made electronically through Paypal and/or Automated Clearing House (ACH). Ideally I would like to have as little latency as possible. Advertisers would pay nightly and creators would be paid as soon as that batch is run. It would all be automated.
Why would advertisers agree to pay daily?
Because this is a more effective way to advertise. It will also be easier for them to evaluate the effectiveness of an ad by being able to target specific areas and take note of any changes in sales.
Are you one of those guys that hates network television commercials?
No. I just don't think it is a very effective way to market anything. You really don't know who, if anyone is watching.
How do you know people will agree to watch one commercial?
Because the business model will be done in the spirit of open source software and available for anyone to look at. They will see that half of the revenue is going to the creator.
How do you know they wouldn't agree to watch more than one commercial?
I don't. Maybe users can have preferences and if they are willing to watch more than one in order to support the artists that create the programming, they can choose to do so.
Why does the website get half?
Seems like the logical place to start. Maybe i
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
But I don't see what that has to do with collecting underpants...
Because they have to recoup the costs of the license?
You don't seem to realize that the audience for a given anime series is many many times smaller than the audience for any single show on national television in America. So much smaller that they do not have the following:
- Advertising support
- Millions of viewers weekly
Which alone guarantees that the show is either paid for entirely by advertising, such as reality TV shows which are cheap to make. That and with millions of viewers you're guaranteed a large audience willing to buy the shows on DVD.
The anime companies in the US have none of that. Advertising doesn't even cover licensing expenses much of the time. They are VERY DEPENDENT on the fanbase supporting them.
And no, they have pointed out the conflict and the possible problems but they have -never- pursued a group nor gotten on anyone's case unless the series had been both licensed AND announced, The only exception was GANTZ and even then people were expecting it to be announced.
And why does my copyright infringement sense keep tingling? Something about a "Toei Animation"...
ADV does have some really nice sales every once in a while - they are having one for christmas right now. Wonderful prices on a lot of their boxsets.y
http://www.advfilms.com/track/sales.asp?id=holida
But seriously, quit whining about it. You had your chance to download the fansub before they licensed the show, so if you were slow, or they licensed mid season, tough tits. I would hope by the end of (or at least by 5 episodes in), you could determine whether or not you enjoyed a series enough to support those who bring it here by actually purchasing it (or just stop watching). Don't complain about high prices, just look harder.
RTFA: "But as the majors take their first tentative steps, Ledford and his peers keep racing along. The most dramatic example of this attitude is their tolerance for folks who have the potential to put them out of business: pirates trading anime online. And not just trading, but competing to see who can create the best subtitled version of a particular show." Unless the artical is flat out lieing, they support free downloading.
Someone save me from this sanity.
Profitmon! i choose you!
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Well do you mean the first Evangelion release? The one from back in 2000? Yeah, that was made from the best analog masters they had at the time, but the Japanese video wasn't much better. Then GAINAX remastered it and ADV released the remastered version here in the US, which is phenominally better than the old release.
Other than that I don't see how you can compare ADV to MS and the RIAA. And everything else in your rant makes no sense, or is completely false.
- amateur voice actors: they've gotten some fairly high profile people, and many people working for them have been doing this thing for years. Of course, if you want a fair discussion of dubs you'll have to do it at animeondvd.com because I don't listen to dubs.
- sitting on series: every company licenses a series then releases it down the line. It's called building a back catalog and is insurance against something happening that stops new series. Also, they can't pick up a bunch of new series then dump them on the market, as that'd damage it. Also, ADV has not announced any new licenses this past year, which is uncommon for them.
- Unlike MS, they have neither a monopoly, nor engaged in anticompetitive practices. Their products are generally good to great in quality, and they listen to the audience.
Oh, and they don't use Macrovision or CSS on --ANY-- of their DVDs. How about that?
I just hope that the story lines in general don't get 'dumbed down' for a more 'general' audience (and by general I actually mean stupid) the same way Hollywood films have
most Hollywood films these days are complete garbage because they're so formulaic (or is it the pirate terrorists ?I can never remember) i.e. bad guy fights good guy, good guy suffers humiliating defeat, good guy comes back anew and pounds bad guys ass, the end
most Anime seems to have pretty good story lines (or in some cases ones that are so complicated that your left scratching your head wondering what the hell went on)
after just finishing watching ghost in the shell stand alone complex I have to say it beats the pants off of anything I've seen from Hollywood recently Lord of the Rings is probably the only exception I'd make to that, as the CG didn't look mostly fake or overdone like some other films I could probably mention
I'd just wish they'd bring Adult Swim back to the UK
goI wouldn't worry too much about anime and manga being mainstream in the U.S. just yet. Until I can see prime time anime series on the major broadcast networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC every week or cable networks other than Anime Network or Cartoon Network, anime has not made the mainstream. As a fan, I'm more worried about American fandom beginning to influence how anime and manga are produced in Japan. I want to see the stories as the Japanese see them, not (dubbing notwithstanding) as Japanese producers think American audiences want to see things. In any case, I'll keep watching and reading as long as the stories are good. Of course the other downside of anime becoming mainstream would be the likelihood that crappier anime will start being imported by people wanting a quick buck.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
From what? It doesn't cost anything to copyright something, unless you mean from selling something, in which case no copyright law is needed, just sales tax. Your ranting in incoherent and at best smacks of entitlism.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I just bypass ADV entirely and buy imports. Can get english subtitles from almost anywhere these days, and I don't care about the dubbing, I'd rather hear it in Japanese anyway.
Find something region free and buy a season for $30.
If ADV gets their prices to the $45ish that most seasons of tv cost in the US these days I'll buy their products since they tend to be a bit better quality, but $150? I can survive with a little bit of engrish for $120 savings.
Rentals contribute more than Fansubs.
Not hard when fansubs contribute $0.
They don't support it.
They tolerate it, and only to a point.
One a show is announced they generally expect sites and fansub groups to delist it. Those that don't get a nice letter saying "stop or else." Those that do stop, don't.
Well, whatever ADV has done with EVA, they need to forward the corrected version to cartoon network asap, cuz it's nearly unwatchable. Given the incestuous relationship between broadcasts and the sales of the product, you'd expect them to put their best foot forward here. Hell, I've seen fansubs of it more watchable despite being lower quality.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
Roth makes some interesting points about the profit model but his premise is really weak because he doesn't understand the word he's using. The reason otaku can mean a household or a hardcore geek fan is because it describes someone who is so into something, not necessarily cartoons, that they don't tend to get out of the house. They can have whatever it is they're into -- and food -- delivered. This does not describe what Roth is talking about. I can think of a few people who would love nothing more than to watch DVDs of "Good Eats" and order All Clad cookware to experiment with, and they are more otaku than someone who really likes Furikuri.
So kwitcher whinin', fanboys!
--
"Open source is good." - Steve Jobs
"Open source is evil." - Microsoft
* * Beatles-Beatles is going to continue to taint every single freaking slashdot article, regardless if he is the submitter.
Its a difficult situation, on the one hand, people will continuously complain, on the other, doing something about it will require the editors to (some might say unfairly) selectively target the guy.
As I see it, the editors will either continue not doing their jobs/allow the whining to go on, or they'll probably just silently start ignoring Beatles... while allowing the whining to go on.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
one possible reason for the success of anime specialists like ADV is that they don't have very much competition for product. Big Media (TM) has, so far, ignored much of anime, choosing only to acquire kid friendly titles. when Big media companies have tried to bring in more adult fare, they've edited the life out of it short circuiting its success.
this leaves the market for anime to a few companies willing to experiment with alternative distribution and not afraid of competition from fans (such as fansubs, fandubs, etc.) they've even learned to use fan culture to generate interest and promote sales, something Big Media has a hard time doing.
i fear they day when a Big Media company recognizes the big profit margins available from anime and starts to buy anime up in a big way. a big Big Media company could outbid small outfits like ADV for the best material, threaten the fan culture with legal attacks, and ruin the animes they bring in with aggressive and insensitive editing.
when religion is no longer the opiate of the masses, governments will resort to real opiates.
I'm an Otaku - An Anime Fan Elite and Anime Fan Fiction Writer.
Japanese Anime has seen an explosion of popularity in the US over the past few years. What attributed to this was the broadcast of Anime on TV. Cartoon Network's Toonami accelerated this and the popularity of Pokemon also helped. Not all Anime is for kids, though, but the mentality of most American's is to catalogue all animated TV shows as kids shows. This is dangerous thinking, and its caused several good series to be ruined when released in the US.
"Dragonball Z" and "Card Captor Sakura" are two series that were released in the US in a highly edited form. Fans spoke out and now you can get unedited versions. The distributers of Anime have been very good at listening to the fans. The number of "edited" Anime DVDs on store shelves has dropped dramatically since the 90's due to the fans. I'm waiting for the fan blacklash against 4Kids for their hackjob on "One Piece".
It goes like this, the Anime producers in the US make money because they make the fans happy. Make them unhappy and you start to loose money. Unless the rest of the music/movie industry they listen to their customers and the fans. The RIAA should take notice.
Michael "TheZorch" Haney
thezorch@gmail.com
http://thezorch.googlepages.com/home
I bought the dvd version of macross plus. Thought the upconversion to 1080i may be a factor, the reason I bought the dvd versions wasn't necessaritly to have pristine visuals as much as to keep from completely wearing out my VHS copies. I tried to rip and transcode them myself, but I had a crappy capture card. I am definately nt a famboy.. I own 6 titles. Macross Plus, Macross 2, Robotech, GITS, Orotsukidoji, Wings of Honiiamise (sp?). All on VHS.
0xB315AA8D852DCD3F3DCA578FD2E0BF88
I've been following it, and it seems safe to say it comes out after Duke Nukem Forever...
Sendou Wave Kick!!
My family and I just finished watching all of "Last Exile", which we enjoyed despite much confusion with it. Any recommendations for other anime along those lines?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Of course, all the fanboys that have confronted me face to face that defend ADV are usually people that worked for ADV or people that have only seen 8 anime titles.
They can't possibly have been former ADV employees. The ones I 've talked to have hated the place, citing it as a terrible environment to work in.
I mean anime. I mean anime-porn. Wait; what's the difference again?
I'm sure someone will be happy to explain it all to you when you grow up...
Heh... Maybe they should just license the subs of the better subber groups. Might cut some translation costs and give them some "street cred" with the other subber groups. OTOH it might backfire and give them the image of greedy bastards who want to make money off the scene ($DEITY forbid!).
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Unless you wath only tv anime series, I disagree. Japanese fans pay around $60 for a single OVA (original video animation: straight-to-video anime). Japanese people paid $15 to see Howl's Moving Castle. People bitch about how FLCL (a popular ova) is two eps to a disc here and costs $60 bucks total, but that's one SIXTH the price it originally sold for. Heck, it was even aired on cable here (eventually that might happen in Japan too, but most likely not for as many runs or in as good a time slot). And nowadays I'm noticing "value packs" where full seasons are much cheaper than before, due to anime geting more mainstream here or something. It's entirely possible that supporting the industry could lead to better prices, at least on select series.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
I pegged anime for a fad in the late 90's. There was some incredible stuff coming out, but there was a TON material dating back to the 1970's that still had not been shown to outside [of Japan] audiences. Most people outside of Japan didn't watch Akira or Vampire Hunter D until they were 5 - 10 years old. I figured the well of good old material would dry up and there wouldn't be enough new material to keep interest going. Looks like I was wrong.
I'm actually surprised that anime isn't as popular as it could be. I'll admit that the growth of the anime/manga industry over the last 15 years has been pretty phenomenal considering that the availability has basiclly gone from a couple of shelves in a comic/hobby store to entire sections in the largest national chains. Unfortunately it still carries the stigma that animated shows are only for (a) little kids, (b) freaks with too much time on their hands, or (c) contain thoughtful social commentary that the public 'doesn't want to think about'.
The article says that there has been a 7.4 percent drop in prime time viewership, and IMHO I believe that people have become bored with the stream of cop/law dramas, forensic scientist doctors, and alternative domestic relationship shows that derive their entertainment value from sexually implicit humor. 500 channels and nothing good on? I do however, think there is a change in the way studios produce shows and they seem to be shifting to serialized shows that an actual storyline (i.e. 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives). This is one of the reasons I got interested an anime, because it was different, it had an actual plot that I wanted to follow to the end, and it doesn't patronize its audience. I've had more personal revelations with series like Evengelion, Lain, Lone Wolf and Cub, OMG, Ranma 1.5 and so forth then I have from American television.
I'll agree that there is a lot of good stuff that hasn't been released in the States, but there are also a lot of gems from Hollywood that have been buried in the sands of time when actors actually *had talent*, but you're not likely to find unless you really go looking for them. The industry is always looking forward.
Try netflix, or if you're lucky enough to be in the San Francisco Bay Area greencine. You no longer have to suffer with the laughable selection of your local Blockbuster, and the economics is better too. I agree, I don't want to pay bundles of money for a TV show I'm not sure I'll like and I'm only going to watch once and should have been able to see on TV, but until advertising-supported video-on-demand with a full library of anime is available, renting at about $1.50 a disk isn't a bad compromise.
Now that virtually everything gets licensed eventually, I've quit fansubs. Aside from some annoyingly long release schedules and the occasional translator cock-up (It's Alucard not Arucard morons, GITS:Innocence's lack of dubbing AND subtitles for the non-hearing impaired, music licensing issues for Kodocha, and of course shitty dubbing), it's worked out fine for me. Although of course not all shows get picked up, including good ones... Ebichu for instance. If someone would just pick up Daa Daa Daa and Sexy Commando Masaru-san I'd be set for now, especially since the fansubs for those have effectively stopped.
The US distributors of course make their money on sales, not rentals, but tough tits to them for that.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
Arg... ADV rant coming on... run!
:/ That is, with the exception of fansub and fansub pirate groups. :) I'm not using this as an excuse to get fansubs... I still buy plenty of manga, mostly Del Rey, and *gasp* Tokyopop (apart from certain cases like Initial D, they're pretty good now!) but I'm done playing games with ADV. They're monopolistic gougers who will do anything to an artists' work if it boosts the profit a little bit, and I'm not going to pay to support that.
:/) I guess history has shown us: If you translate carefully, include additional subtitles for cultural notes, and include copious amounts of liner notes further explaining translation to the curious, then charge the least possible amount, you'll have no chance compared to those who rewrite the shows to fit their translation, include no notes, and charge 2x what someone would pay for a video of any other genre/medium. Kinda sad, really...
I couldn't agree more. If ADV has taught me anything though, it's that most of the anime fan community is very faddish. Lots of people love ADV now, but I've yet to find one who remembers the Slayers movie impro-dub they did... or the fact that their tapes used to cost 2-3x as much as anyone else's, and sometimes contain a single 30-minute episode.
Though then again, CMX, and even Viz are censoring manga these days. Now that anime has gone mainstream, it seems that it's ok to redraw, rewrite, adlib, and just generally shred and reconsitute titles to get them to a wider audience. ("Robotech it!") Basically, if you like anime/manga and didn't start learning Japanese at the turn of the century, you're outta luck.
If I had to guess, I'd say the catalyst was Evangelion. ADV sucked before that, but they didn't own half the titles in the industry because they were still somewhat small. After Eva, they suddenly had new logos, new promos, and a swack of licenses they probably still haven't moved on. If AnimEigo got it instead, the anime industry in North America would look a lot nicer... and pigs would be flying, since they could never afford it! (Who's even heard of AnimEigo now? Bubblegum Crisis? Urusei Yatsura? Riding Bean? Otaku no Video? Meh... forget it... if you haven't heard of any of these, just go back to Digimon.
BT may just be a big move for these companies; but not without pairing the downloadable anime with their american televised counterparts: edited and nerfed into a smoldering mass of nonsense.
I say that if they want to be more successful online, they should stick with 100% original content and 100% original dialogue. Hell, SUBTITLES.
Just because they "aren't as bad as they used to be" doesn't mean it's not bad now.
I am not a rabid anime fan. I am only casual because I cannot fathom spending so much for anime. Not only that, but I have dial-up, which limits pirating opportunities as well.
I went to the store and saw Tenchi Universe for 200 dollars. That's 26 episodes(about 25 minutes each) for 200 dollars. Is it worth it? Hell no. I pity the fool who thinks it is.
One thing that IS working though, is Netflix. The local rental store in rural wisconsin does not have anime, and never will. But I can over Netflix. I hate renting things though, if my favorite shows like Ghost in the Shell and such weren't so expensive. Ghost in the Shell 2 is 30 dollars! Is it so hard to import that it has to be 10 dollars more then any other movie? I mean come on.
and I'm tired of people complaining it is. The art and animation are high quality, the plots are complex (for a children's show), creative and fun (the whole majin buu arc was particularily goofy). Near as I can tell it became fashionable to bitch about dbz when 'normal' people began buying the shirts. I can understand not liking the show for what it is (fighting anime), but I don't like seeing it thrown in with a glorified advertisment (pokemon).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I think ADV's success has a lot to do with their relationship with their fanbase. They've been pretty receptive to suggestions, and the founders are actually fans themselves. The companies that were founded by fans are typically more attentive to details. They make a lot of trips to anime conventions and mingle with their fans. Heck, the co-founder is married to a voice actress. One of their main producers maintains a blog. All three were at a New York anime convention a few years ago and were quite obviously very passionate about their work.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
Not supporting ADV is different from not supporting anime.
I support AnimEigo, Viz, CPM, Manga Ent, especially small newer companies like AnimeWorks. I'll buy manga from Kodansha, Kadokawa, Shogakukan, Del Rey, Dark Horse, even TokyoPop, though sadly I've dropped Viz since they think unlabelled censorship is cool...
But, In the 10 or so years I've been into anime, I've been burned so often by ADV, it's simply not worth it to do business with them.
Some suggestions:
Frist Post!
You Have Been Trolled
SlashDot: Anime for nerds, mechas that matter (notice the BiCapitalization. When an anime has an Englisch or German name it's often strange in some way)
Roland de Piquepaille and the Karma Whores
Repost Warrior CmdrTaco
CowboyNeal
And let's not forget the OVAs:
Slashdot: Beowulf Cluster
Slashdot: Hot Grits Panic!
Slashdot is dead - Confirmation: Netcraft (gotta love Engrish)
In Soviet Russia, Slashdot watch YOU!
Internet Crisis: Slashdot Effect
Slashdot: $sys$Goatse
And of course the manga, Slashdot: RTFA.
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
You realize the whole "ethic" behind fansubs is not to support mooches who want something for nothing, right? If you don't like the price *don't buy it*! You are not entitled to something for nothing.
The idea behind fansubs is to generate interest in unlicensed material. *Good* fansubbers stop subbing once something is licensed, and *good* sites stop linking to licensed material. It is individuals such as yourself that put pressure on licensors such as ADV to crack down on fansubbing. And, well, if the fansubbers are distributing lisenced material, ADV and friends should be cracking down on them.
You mention that anime is aired for "free" in Japan. Great, go to Japan, buy the satellite service that shows what you want to watch (you don't think they all appear on broadcast TV do you???), and watch it in the native language, with the commercials. There, you have your "free" anime. Or, buy it direct from Japan where you can get a DVD with 1 - 2 episodes for $40 - $60!
Most aren't. I have a couple that are and I've been horribly disappointed with the trash quality.
Most are quite well packaged euro releases.
If they are bootlegs/copies of us releases they certainly went through enough effort stripping out logos and bonus content and writing up nice case insert books that describe the series and give some historical info to help keep some of the more odd shows in context.
Worse,
Rent 1 = BitTorrent +infinity.
AVD has been dumping videos at rock-bottom prices since the summer. $6.00 for a DVD that sells (or doesn't) in stores for $40 or $50. Dozens and dozens of titles all at bargain prices.
How long before the stores and middlemen disributors get pissed that they're being severely undercut by ADV selling direct at what has to be a loss? Why so many firesales? Is warehouse space THAT expensive?
Sig for hire.
To say something like that!
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
You might as well save your money and watch fansubs because the bootlegs you're buying are no better for the creators.
Yes, you are buying bootlegs. Sometimes the quality of bootlegs can be very high and you may not think it, but based on your description I'm 99% sure you're buying bootlegs. Just the fact that they are region free is clue enough (I know of no legitimate DVD manufacturer that produces region free anime...yes, it's theoretically possible, but nobody does). Anyway, check out the Pirate Anime FAQ.
Physics is good
Oddly enough, ADV's Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi DVD's have higher production value than any other series I've seen. There were thick booklets with each disc, and a decent amount of effort was put into explaining the Japanese culture injokes with little popup bubbles. And although the voice acting was kind of jarring at first (southern accents) once you got used to it it made sense.
Some have done that. Bandai did it for Escaflowne and AN Entertainment did it for Risky Safety. However, much of the time it's easier to just re-translate it, since they've got translators on hand and much more in terms of translation resources.
Also, the Japanese often demand a say in how things are translated some times, if they don't do it all themselves (see Zeta Gundam and Love Hina.)
Also before you been complaining yes Best Buy and Media Play's price suck. But for your example you can get the new Ghost in the Shell series for $15/each at http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com. Volume 1, Volume 2 so don't buy at the over priced stores, order online if you want deals. So no things aren't bad, they are actually fine.
FLCL is a six episode series spread 2 episodes per disc across 3 DVDs for $30 each at release. The data on disc 1 totals 2.26 GB and the other two are of similar size. In all, you end up spending $90 for 1 disc worth of content. As much as I enjoyed the series, I certainly felt cheated by the 75% empty DVDs.
I own a fair number of anime DVDs but I don't see myself buying anything but the better feature length, feature-laden discs in the future.
It's just absurd to pay $100 or more for the "standard" set, $200-300 "special edition" set and/or $200 for the inevitable "remix/director's cut/limited edition/anniversary" set.
BT currently brings me excellent quality TV/DS rips with superior fansubbing that can be burnt by the dozen to 4.5GB discs.
I see them as fufilling two different roles: Subs should be the more literal translation for people who know the original language or culture while dubs should be a cultural translation for those without that knowledge.
I think a lot of the problems with anime not appearing to make any sense is that they try to make a literal translation but since Japanese and English are so different, a ton gets lost in the translation. If they started from scratch in writing a script that aims to convey the same *meaning* as the original, I think they'd be better off than simply trying to convey the same words.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
If that was the best they can do at the time, it would explain why the pirate copy that was floating around china *before* the ADV release has better quality.
...well... not listening to the audience. They say they do, but at the panels that ADV's held at AX, all the questions, requests that were asked where heard, then promptly ignored. Pioneer/Genon panels, Broccli panel and some of the others actually listened and within half a year, our requests were fulfilled. Namely Yoko Ishida's single Sweets, were published, as per audience request, in romanji and english translation. (Although that was not my personal reference, that was what the crowd wanted).
High profiled people? Well, I suppose maybe afterwards. But look at the the people they started with, hell, the reason why I make this complaint is because many of my friends where scouted by ADV to do voices despite the fact that they had *no background in voice acting what-so-ever*. Needless to say, they turned it down.
Every company licnese new seires and releases it down the line... right... that's like saying that automobile companies sits on the electric and hybrid technology to build a back catalog and insure against something happening. New anime series comes out every season, not to mention the OAV's. Many of them would *want* to be released here. There isn't a need to create a back catalogue other than for the reason of waiting for a higher price on it if you're in good relations with that studio that releases it in Japan. (Which some companies are in better relations than others.) For those that sick of the politics, they do it themselves *points to FLCL releases, also by gainax, if I might add (the studio that did Neon Genesis Evangelion)* They made a special deal with a distrubtor who's base is in japan and does their own series. (Digi-charat among others)
ADV doesn't have monopoly, but they very much have and anticompetitives practices. Namely sitting on series. I mean, come on. Why are they sitting on Rockman *japanese* holiday education oavs for? There's no chance that they'll make it here. Not only that, they're boring to watch unless you're showing it to elementary school kids who's learning about Japanese culture. They do massive hoarding (and ask around the fansubbers, they all know abotu this) on what's getting fansubbed, just to make sure there's nothing left for anyone else. Which, usually results in sitting on series and picking up a lot of bad, and I mean BAD series. They also mistranslating series (I'm trilingual. English, Chinese and Japanese, for heaven's sake, anybody that knows japanese knows that "sora mimi" doesn't mean fancy. It means imaginary. *reference to Azumanga Daiou* ) and
If you're reading some personal resentment, you bet there's some. I bought many of their DVD's and regretted it. And I've collect quite an amount of anime, which a good portion of are ADV stuff. *keep in mind, I'm asian, so I've been an anime fan since I was about 4 or so. That's back in the 80's.* But comparing ADV DVD's to all my other ones... ADV clearly has the worse quality. A good comparison would be to check the quality of Orphen (ADV) and Ranma OAV's (Viz) (Ranma was released before Orphen, mind you) and you'll CLEARLY see the quality was much better in Ranma (translation, voice acting and picture quality. I have another beef with Viz, but I can actually admit that they do some good stuff.).
My two cents where returned, I see...
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
I mean worked as in, worked at that time they confronted me. Because I don't know if they're still working there now. ^^;
please... let me sleep... a little more... yay, no longer annonmyous coward.
I just want to be free to take what I want and give what I want.
"The differences between theory and practice are greater in practice than they are in theory."
Well, as long as it's not as ridiculous as the German Weiss Kreuz DVD... The line "Können Sie mir ein Gebinde binden?" (I can't find a good translation to "Gebinde", but the question is about binding together a flower arrangement.) appears as "Können Sie mir ein Gewinde binden?" ("Can you bind me a screw thread?") and is ansered by something like "Ja, ich kann Ihnen ein ein Gebinde winden." ("Yes, I can wind you a flower arrangement."). Just one example.
Even sadder is that if the translation had been made by MTV (who translate anime series from time to time) they wouldn't have such ridiculous errors. Okay, so the entire thing would have been dubbed by five quite untalented voice actors and have the into music replaced by generic chart music but hey, you can't have everything...
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
The easiest way is to edit your "hosts" file
/etc/hosts
Unix/Linux:
Win XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS
Win 2K: C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS
and add this entry:
127.0.0.1 slashdot.org
I'm sorry, but if he doesn't realize Evangelion wasn't made by ADV, he is no real fanboy. Might as well complain to an ISP about the bad grammar in a fansub he downloaded. Except I doubt this guy has ever heard of fansubs.
Whether or not the quality of their DVDs is good or not, the fact that ADV is doing well for themselves is a good sign. The better they do, the more other companies will take notice. That means more anime will be brought to the Western Hemisphere. Just look at Disney/Miramax. They sat on some of the finest anime films (Laputa, Nausicca, Kiki's, Totoro, anything else by Ghibli / Miyazaki) of all time for years because they believed it wouldn't make money. However, due to the popularity of anime / manga AND because of companies like ADV, Disney finally released these films for U.S. consumption in high quality 5.1 surround sound DVDs. You can question these distributors for their high prices but there are places on the net where you can get them for under $20 a pop. You can say their translations suck and the voice-acting is horrible. Just listen to the original tracks and learn Japanese. The point I'm trying to make is, I no longer have to perform surgery on my copy of a copy of a copy VHS tape to watch my favorite anime. I can go to the store and browse titles, rent from Netflix, or lend out DVDs as easy as any other mainstream movie. Sure there is bittorrent and IRC. I love fansubs as much as the next person. They deserve credit for the popularity of anime as well. But I can't reward the creators through them. I can give the creators some inkling of my cash through companies like ADV and end up with a decent quality pressed DVD. Like it or not, ADV is good for anime.
sorry I did mean CNX sort of the equivilent of Adult Swim back in it's day but I do remember a lot of Anime being on late on the SCI-FI channel (instead of the cheap porn they have at the moment) also there was a lot of Aqua Teen hunger Force / Harvey Birdman / Outlaw Star (inspired me to buy the box set) / A lot of other Anime on the CNX channel that I miss I'll have to see if I can find Rapture on Cable
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