Anime - is the franchise too pricy?

[Tenshi no Ai]

Trying to make a topic that might actualy last a while, and I wanna debate.

Anyhow, do you think that anime is just a tad too expensive? I think it's a pretty pricey hobbie, in fact a bit too much. For people who can't afford a whole lot (like me,) anime is a bad hobbie to get into, but you can't get out (and I have nothing else better to buy.)

Manga - Well, the price isn't too bad about $16 total (using Can dollars though, and I'm bad at converting) for all the pretty art you get, knowing that 3 single manga in comic-form is about $5 each.... yeah it's not too bad a price to complain about.

Merchandise - Walk into a local comic store and notice a stuffed Chobits keychain for... $10??!! $5 maybe, but ten bucks is a bit much! Then I notice a small Kenshin figure for once again, $10! The detail is good, but for something that tiny.... One thing I can understand is $21 for FF-X2 fully articulated figures. They look nice and have nice detail added. When I walked into a Sanrio store, the prices were through the roof. $10 for a One Piece mechanical pencil and $4 for a tiny Beyblade notepad. Ok, the only excuse I can come up with is the fact that it's all imported, but still, give the non-rich people a break...

And of course, DVDs - Very pricy objects. First of all, they're twice as much as regular DVDs. Sure, their specialty ones and they lower in price in their popular sometimes (Geneon sig. collection), but I still think it's a little much. Tipically a title like Angelic Layer and so on is about $35, but if it's a more popular title like Chobits, it flies up to $45! Sure, they can have flip-covers and what not, but do they really have to be THAT much? Then again, maybe it's just Geneon period (haven't really looked). And it's even WORSE when a loooong series like Inuyasha has only THREE eps on each DVD, and still priced around $40!! And of course, there's the art boxes. As nice looking as they are, is around an extra $10 worth it? For a cheap piece (quoting what some say about them) of cardboard really worth the money? If it was cheaper it would be nice to get, but I still see a lot sitting on store shelves.

DVD boxsets - These are usually the best buys if anything, and yet some are only special edition, which doesn't help :/

So with that, I think that anime is a bit to pricy, and should lower their prices at least a little. It's not fun to buy a title for like $40 and then finding out it's dumb, then selling it to EB for only $14!

Comments? Ideas? Whatever's on your mind?

[CobaltAngel]

Well, you could always tape the episodes off TV. I know of friends who do that. And my brother is very good at finding cheap prices on anime, you just need to know where to shop. There's an used anime video store in our town that sells anime DVDs for $3. And I say: Its about dang time. (I live in a pretty small town)

I do agree, however, that it can get pricey. My dad is contantly putting my brothers and I down for spending so much on anime and manga. But he spends thousands on fixing up his bike, so he can't complain, now can he?

[Technomancer]

The prices are pretty high, if you're luck you can avoid most of them though. Some places will have anime for rent (try your local video store or comic/gaming shops). The one that I use rents them out for $3 a night or $5 for a week. Also, if you live near a college or university campus there may also be an anime club that you could join. It usually isn't a problem if you're a non-student since such groups are typically open to members from the general public.

[AngelSakura]

Yeah, that's like my dad. He has about fifty thousand golf clubs.
Manga in my local bookstore are about 10 dollars each, with SJ ones at 8 and Trigun at 15.

[Lynx]

yeah, anime is expensive, but there are ways to get anime cheaper. do you have a local best buy? they have several anime DVDs there for 20 bucks US a piece, which isnt bad considering you can buy a regular DVD for that price. also, you can buy anime DVDs online, but be careful that it's not bootleged anime. http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com has some cheaper DVDs, and there is always ebay. i got a few disks of his and her circumstances off of e-bay for about 5-7 bucks US a piece.

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

Well, you could always tape the episodes off TV. I know of friends who do that. And my brother is very good at finding cheap prices on anime

I think your brother should give a seminar then! And yes, taping the anime that are on TV is great. I taped the entire Cowboy Bebop series, and the great thing for me is some of the inappropriate content is also edited out. Double plus!

To the original question, I would say that being into anime is, in fact, to expensive of a hobby to pick up, but then again, my actions revert to another answer. Regardless of the price, I am still into anime whether it is expensive or not. I can't help it "I've got you under my skin..."

But yes, there are ways around it. Most of the anime I find is around $30, except Fruits Basket, which was $40, and hence the reason I don't have it, but I have only paid that much for one DVD, and that was the last Haibane Renmei disc, because it was the cheapest in the entire town. But definitely look around, and jump on the opportunities you find. I got a RahXephon DVD for $8 at Half Price Books, used, and Serial Expiraments Lain for $15 at Wal-Mart. I got Voices of A Distant Star and Princess Mononoke for about $15 also at Best Buy. This is the way I justify buying anime. "Hey, there's a sale... I gotta buy it while I can!!"

Here's another trick: ask for the anime that never seems to be any less than outrageously expensive for your Birthday/Christmas....

[Tenshi no Ai]

Concidering stores like Best Buy is a disadvantage to me, since I've never heard of one being in Canada :/ I know large chain stores like Future Shop (dunno is it's Canadian only or not) that has SOME anime, but not a lot :/ Same as music stores, they usually only carry Manga ent. anime.

[Technomancer]

Blockbuster has anime for rent and so does Rogers, admittedly their selection probably won't be that large. Coles has recently stared carrying some manga as well. If you're in the GTA, Silver Snail also carries both.

[Rev. Doc]

This debate will have different reactions dependent of where you live. I realize anime is pricey in Canada and it is hard to find companies in the U.S. willing to ship internationally. This is also going to be true of many of our folks in other parts of the world. In the states the price of an anime DVD is comparable now to most non-anime titles. I usually pay about $18.00 now per title on average. You figure most volumes now have about 4 episodes per volume which roughly comes out to about $4.50 per episode (even at 3 episodes that's $6.00 for an episode). Not too bad. And as the hobby of golf was mentioned. Each time you tee off it's going to run you between $20.00 to $40.00 a game depending on the course, not to mention the price of clubs and all those little balls lost in the rough...I'll keep my anime.

[Hitokiri]

I've found some anime online lot less pricy - boxset versions but later on I found out they were bootlegs

Now I usually buy stuff from AnimeNation which isnt to pricy...bout $30 for anime
$10 for manga

But when I'm out, I usualy try to buy once a month an dI usually go to either Best Buy or my personal favorite Media Play where they have a humongous section of anime and manga and offshoot stuff such as toys, video games, stuff toys, posters, and music.

I bought the Cowboy Bebop movie for like $18. Most of the Dvd's there were like $24. The signature Lain series was like $18 but they didnt have DVD1.

I picked up Voice of a Distant Star for like $13 at Best Buy and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust for like $18. But Best Buy doesn't have the best selection. I found like 13 titles on my wishlist at Media Play and only 2 at Best Buy.

For me though, money isn't really a problem cause like I said...I restrict my anime purchase to once a month so you accumulate alot of money (like from work) and I just usually buy 2 DVD's or like 1 DVD and 1 manga.

[Ashley]

I know Suncoast does occasionally put on sales on their anime dvds that make them quite a bit cheaper--basically the only new advice I can give you is to be patient. If you find a series you really like, watch for it--the prices may drop around particular seasons or because it's just not selling well. Sellers have to play a tricky game of most profit verses too high price, and they're willing to conceed if they sense too many people aren't buying because of the price. I'm not saying you can always find great deals if you wait, it's just an option to consider. And I'd definately advocate used dvds; c'mon, most people watch a dvd once or twice in it's entire shelf life, so half the time they are pratically brand new and selling for far less than the new price.

and I wanna debate.

Discuss, sure---I think we pretty much all agree our little anime fix can get quite pricey and offer some alternatives--but debate? That's what gets threads locked.

[Heart of Sword]

A friend of mine found a VIZ sale where the Fushigi Yuugi boxset was $30.00 instead of $100.00+. Wow. What a clearance sale. It was on the internet at the viz website.

If only they had Anime that I liked...and if only i had some MONEY to spend!

[Pantakrator]

If you guys wanna debate, how 'bout throwing this into the mix; How come Media Blasters sales Invader Zim (through a link to Tower Records) with nine eps for 18.99 and then sales Knight Hunter Eternity with five eps for 22.49? If you look around you can get IZ even cheaper!!! Anime is outrageously priced! I only buy it used or HK... That's for PMing though, I suppose... Then again Deep Discount DVDs has some awesome prices!
Guess I'm just rambling now...

[ShiroiHikari]

Anime is expensive. -____- That's why I don't watch a lot of it anymore.

I buy manga because it's a little cheaper and you can read it anywhere you want. (And manga is usually better than anime but we'll not get into that ;])

[TroutNinja]

Compared to Japanese anime DVDs, our DVDs are cheap!

Take for example Last Exile DVDs. Here you get 4 episodes plus (some) extras for around $25. There the usual release of the same series is two episodes, for about 5800 yen. (that's about $53 by my calcualtions.) Think about it, yes it is expensive for us, but it's even more expensive for the typical Japanese person.

I got my prices for this from http://www.jvcmusic.co.jp/m-serve/last-exile/ and www.amazon.com

[termyt]

I guess I'm turning into an unofficial sales person for them, but RightStuf offers most DVD's at 10% off retail price. If you join their club ($10-12 per year), you get an additional 10% off. Still, that doesn't typically get the usual prices (25-30) prices below $20, but it helps. On top of that, about every other week, RightStuf offers a sale which can get you anywhere from 25% to 40% off regular prices + your membership discount.

Then, there's also the Bargain Bin, Shawne's Deal of the Day, and even bigger discounts if you preorder a DVD more than one month before it's release date.

I know that's not good news for a lot of you who don't have access to buy things over the web for lack of credit cards or parental permission. Sorry, I'm no help to you there!

[Kisa]

*looks away from the topic and sighs*
Don't get me started . . . this is why I stick mostly to anime pins and mangas. DVD are ones I really will watch ALOT (like Fruits Basket, lol). So expensive, but sooooo want it all. Lol. ^^

[Tenshi no Ai]

[quote="Pantakrator"]If you guys wanna debate, how 'bout throwing this into the mix]

Probably the whole concept of making anime more expensive, because they most likely see anime as being able to find it ONLY on DVD (unless it's one of the few shown on TV), so they decide to jack up the price because you can't get it anywhere else. Not trying to go off topic, but it's easy to see why lots of people download eps and do other things in that matter.

[panegryst]

if you live in America, Target is a good place to shop for cheap anime. sometimes they have ridiculous prices 'cause they don't check competitors prices or something. I got Akira for 10 bucks and RK: Trust and Betrayal for 15 there- they're 30-40 dollars each at most other places. Also, look in Gamestop, they have used DVDs. I got NGE vol 1 for 10 dollars there. they also occasionally have manga. they had a Princess Nine dvd for three dollars and FF:Unlimited for 10 dollars a dvd. sometimes they even have import DVDs: I've seen Vampire Hunter D, Onegai Teacher, etc. all for less than twenty bucks.