Once again with the delays…

It seems every second week there’s an apology for a delay – and I must apologize again this month as the next 3 weeks is a pretty intensive crunch time for us for any number of reasons. There will be updates during the next three weeks but they may well be at sporadic times in the respective weeks. I can only apologize for this profusely and normal service will resume soon!

Let’s talk anime’s popularity in the UK for a moment shall we. I’m going to let people in on a well known, if commonly ignored fact. The sales figures in the UK very often don’t add up.

Sure if you’re delusional enough the hordes of fans who will hail a title as a dashing success in the UK because they bought the release (or know someone who did) equates to a successful release. But here’s the scary thing – the total number of people buying more often than not wouldn’t fill a large pub or Cineworld screen. In extreme cases DVD sales for some releases don’t really exceed the number of review copies going out, nowadays this is becoming more and more a universal for every company on certain releases now.

Let’s not get into a background rant about fansubs stealing business or how the tin foil lining to my hat isn’t keeping the aliens out of my mind as much as it used to etc and let’s consider what this from an income point of view. At the price point of 19.99, those kind of sales figures discuss in a twisted way worked. Sure you weren’t making shed-loads of money – but enough to guarantee your immediate future.

However in an ironic way the anime industry for the larger part has become a victim of the pop status many in the industry have propagated for it over the last few years.

“It featured at x or y festival – that means it sells fantastically doesn’t it? So why do they charge 19.99 for it? Down with extortionate prices or we’ll import!” say many of the import-savy fans, faced with closer release dates but not equal to US rates.

So lo and behold most of the companies have almost been arm-twisted into lowering their prices on stand-alone volumes and short of any company with exceptional ties to retailers what happens? Sure it may pan out at about the same point as before at first but after a while you’re suddenly going to start seeing “pubs” feeling the pinch and either having to consider raising their prices again, trying new ways to distribute their titles or just shutting up shop.

What many distributors wish they could look like after every sales meeting, reality more often than not can prove disappointing though.

From a personal viewpoint yes, single volumes should not be 19.99 for 4-5 eps a DVD – in fact I would argue there are better formats for a release if you look at France or Germany as examples. Inevitably you are going to start seeing revamping of release structures coming, following in the wake of some companies already doing so.

It’s a sticky situation, price cuts are inevitable now – there’s no escaping that – but ask yourself this, even if a remodel of releases is done to compact titles down to say 2 releases per series or 1 complete box. At a price point of even £34.99 for a complete series, will it sell enough to fill a cinema? If not – then the odds are it’s going to be a release style that does especially badly for the company both in the short term and the long….