The Boutique Model
Well the last few weeks have been overly hectic here – without discussing anything that gives the game away there are some interesting developments coming to the UK market soon it seems.
As I was discussing elsewhere this month – there’s been a rise in announcements of late from Nozomi Entertainment in the USA. These guys form the licensing and production side of TRSI and are highlighting a resurgence of a licensing model that hasn’t been seen for a while: discriminate picking of titles that will appeal as “boutique” releases to fans.
Recently titles that large companies like ADV, Bandai and Funimation couldn’t hope to do big numbers on have been picked up by TRSI. Maria-sama ga Miteru? Aria? If you had to click or even hover your mouse over those links to jog your memory odds are you’re not really the target audience. If however your eyes caught on them with vague curiosity at the least – then you are the target audience. Perhaps you’re a friend who professes to be a big fan of the shows has discussed them before or you yourself found it based on a scanlation you’ve read or fansub you downloaded.
The underlying point is – instead of setting the targets outwards to the “new generation” of fans waiting to be indoctrinated beyond what they catch on TV or such, now the sights are being set inwards on fans who may be tempted into buying rarer releases. It’s a good idea, these series will often be snapped up subtitled and will provide fans with a chance to own legit series they enjoyed already.
Maria-sama ga Miteru – one of the more ‘niche’ titles – years ago nobody would have dared touch this. Are we about to see a rise on these kind of titles in the US and eventually UK market too?
What are the odds of seeing these titles in the UK now? After all the UK has its share of hardcore fans so why can’t a small company do the same here? Sadly the answer is very little.
Why? Quite simply there’s no good outlet here. Sure any one of the 5 main distributors could pick up the rights and produce similar releases, but even if they held the releases as their own web stores only the sales would never exceed 100-200 units maximum. This is attributable purely to the fact places like TRSI already have a heavy subscribed amount of clients buying other products on their site willing to give such releases a go. This is the equivalent of a company several times the size of say UP1 in the UK releasing a title like that. However here, you would get some sales from the hardcore – the rest would scoff and download sub-only from the net instead sadly.
Is this kind of model a good one though? One where series are released in 13 episode boxsets, subtitles only along with a bundle of shiny extras? Of course –after all would Bandai Entertainment use the same model initially for their release of Gurren Lagann otherwise?
Well the answer is yes – but TRSI are certainly not the first to use this model successfully. At least in terms of subtitle only, shiny extras and a good episode count for good effect. Again take a look at France – many of their releases lack a dub unless an AAA title but each release often has 13 episodes on them with extras the UK and US either do not get or get less frequently.
It’s a model considered for the UK often, as has been piloted by one or two companies in the past for anime releases. It’s the old problem of not being able to guarantee sales numbers for a half season boxset at 39.99, nor the high number to break even at a release for 24.99 for half a series initially. One or two companies based on strong ties to retailers can – but the majority just can’t take that kind of risk.
Here’s the interesting question, if the industry decides the model above is the only profitable one left and it can be proven to be sustainable for unit sales – the question is will it encourage enough fans to buy anime to grow the market? After all, more titles at affordable rates could give a boost and encouragement to try more “out there” releases.
The cynic in me thinks this has very little chance of happening – then again you really do never know. Stranger things have happened after all…
REGULAR SERVICE WILL NOW RESUME AGAIN! APOLOGIES FOR THE DELAYS ON UPDATING EVERYONE!
