American anime DVD prices

This has been something that was somewhat of a minor irk of mine, both at conventions and in regular movie stores. I can somewhat understand the upcharge at conventions, because it's a quick way to make major bank on a niche market. However, this troper was browsing an FYE store the other day out of boredom. I was looking to see if there was any decent anime titles that were on sale, seeing as FYE tends to have amazing deals on some pretty cool collections (recently, for instance, it was "buy one marked used item full price, get another marked used item of equal or lesser value for a dollar", which meant that, if one bought two indicated used items that were $60, the other $60 item would be $1) Now, that previous example might seem outrageous, but it might be reasonable if it's a high-quality box set of an extremely popular, highly sought-after franchise that has some pretty sweet extras, in addition to some eye-catching, awe-inspiring box art and material. That, this troper can understand the high upfront cost. But, sometimes, one has to shake his head when he sees what is essentially a bare-bones, no-frills, single volume DVD of an anime, especially an anime like Bleach, which is just wrapping up its American run get charged for upwards of forty-four dollars, regular price. I know roughly why anime DVD's are so expensive in Japan, but why are they so expensive here in America, too?

Because... they... cost money to make?

Because it costs money to license the episodes and dub the show, not to mention to design the covers, write copy, design logos, DVD menus, rent office space, keep track of the communication with the Japanese companies (of which there is a lot)...

How cheap do you expect it to be? Maybe there weren't many at that particular store, but almost any series that's in print can be had for under $40 for 13-26 episodes, while in Japan it's the equivalent of ~$60 for 2 episodes. Not to mention how easy it is to stream almost everything. There's really not point in buying shows that aren't your top 10 anymore. I really don't know why this is still an issue.

If they're too cheap here, they can't stop the Japanese audience from importing no matter what they try.

This honestly makes me laugh a little, because anime really isn't that expensive. The prices are comparable to any other movie or television series purchase. And they're not only much cheaper than Japanese versions, they are MUCH cheaper than anime used to be. I remember when $40+ would net you maybe a 2 or 3 episode dvd, often without any sort of special features and often Dubbed only. Now you can usually purchase a 13-episode box set for $60 or so, with special features and both language options.

The only guys who charge outrageous prices for anime in America are Aniplex.

The rest? Usually 13 to 26 episodes for about $40 - $50? That's pretty standard for a TV season on disc. Yeah, anime "seasons" are generally much shorter than American series, but they're also more work to produce due to translation, dubbing, and overseas licensing. It's unfortunate, but foreign stuff always costs more.

edited 17th Feb '16 8:12:59 PM by DarkHunter

Didn't I hear that Aniplex is taking back a bunch of its licenses soon? Maybe you're seeing more and more Aniplex out there.

Aniplex puts out $60 sub-only sets for less popular stuff like Oreshura.

PonyCan USA has the gall to split these into 4-episode sets for less popular shows.

Yeah, I know that the anime industry can be a fickle business, both with distribution and licensing, and it's somewhat understandable how box sets can go for upwards of 40-plus dollars, but it was a little shocking, as one person who hadn't browsed for anime titles in any other venue except for conventions, to see a single-disc volume of Bleach, which, as far as extras, would probably only have a very minmalistic art gallery, at least one creditless version of the closing and opening themes for those episodes, and, if lucky, a bilingual audio track with subtitles, be charged for $44 American dollars, while, within the same shelf, a copy of The Castle of Cagliostro is being sold for just under $11, and within the same store, various season box sets, with all the trimmings, of Seinfeld is being sold for $9.99 (with a non-sale price of $15), and various box sets of The Simpsons (ones that are used and have been on the market since the sets were first being produced, mind you), were being marked for anything between $15 and $26.