Anime woes
Jan. 20th, 2009 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riariThis post is ging to be me rambling on the current state of anime. :P
Man, reading the Region 1 forum on AnimeonDVD (well Mania.com's AnimeonDVD forum) is getting really depressing. There are two threads about Best Buy cutting back on anime purchasing. Best Buy also recently, according to two of the forum posters who work there, have been sending back a lot of Media Blasters and Bandai Entertainment discs and a few older ADV and Funimation discs.
Which normally isn't too bad, with the except most Best Buys are no longer carrying the newest of Bandai's catalog. Media Blasters isn't doing all too well lately but they're opening a retail store. So it will be interesting too see how that goes. But at least Best Buy will still carry anime. And that should keep the R1 market going for a while longer. Apparently most anime is still being sold at brick and mortar stores. Huh.
But look at, for example, Bandai's releasing pattern. Sure, it's great for the collectors that you can get either: a) a limited edition box with all the extras and two DVDs every two-pack release, b) a 2-pack of DVDs that are cheaper than buying two singles, or c) the singles by themselves. But that makes for a lot of shelf space being used. And Best Buy bought lots of them. Now a good chunk of them are going back.
Sure, there's going to be market correction. I doubt there's very few markets that aren't going through correction right now. But it makes me worry about the health of some anime companies.
I'm worried about titles I would like to purchase later. Will they still be there later? I mean, the finishing up of Geneon releases by Funimation, Media Blaster's titles like Go Lion, and so on. Though so far I'm not too worried about Funimation's own half-set releases because they're relatively easy to find so far. And I suspect with Funimation holding half the market share, at least, their boxsets will hang around for a while. At least with online stores, I can find most of them, and for a really good price.
I guess it's a waiting game right now. And maybe not reading some of the depressing news threads. But I like trying to keep up with anime and manga news.
Man, reading the Region 1 forum on AnimeonDVD (well Mania.com's AnimeonDVD forum) is getting really depressing. There are two threads about Best Buy cutting back on anime purchasing. Best Buy also recently, according to two of the forum posters who work there, have been sending back a lot of Media Blasters and Bandai Entertainment discs and a few older ADV and Funimation discs.
Which normally isn't too bad, with the except most Best Buys are no longer carrying the newest of Bandai's catalog. Media Blasters isn't doing all too well lately but they're opening a retail store. So it will be interesting too see how that goes. But at least Best Buy will still carry anime. And that should keep the R1 market going for a while longer. Apparently most anime is still being sold at brick and mortar stores. Huh.
But look at, for example, Bandai's releasing pattern. Sure, it's great for the collectors that you can get either: a) a limited edition box with all the extras and two DVDs every two-pack release, b) a 2-pack of DVDs that are cheaper than buying two singles, or c) the singles by themselves. But that makes for a lot of shelf space being used. And Best Buy bought lots of them. Now a good chunk of them are going back.
Sure, there's going to be market correction. I doubt there's very few markets that aren't going through correction right now. But it makes me worry about the health of some anime companies.
I'm worried about titles I would like to purchase later. Will they still be there later? I mean, the finishing up of Geneon releases by Funimation, Media Blaster's titles like Go Lion, and so on. Though so far I'm not too worried about Funimation's own half-set releases because they're relatively easy to find so far. And I suspect with Funimation holding half the market share, at least, their boxsets will hang around for a while. At least with online stores, I can find most of them, and for a really good price.
I guess it's a waiting game right now. And maybe not reading some of the depressing news threads. But I like trying to keep up with anime and manga news.
