Deciding your anime purchases...

[Wakarimashta!]

Are most of your purchases the result of actually watching the show beforehand, or simply hearing about it without seeing it yourself?

I would think that most of my purchases have been the result of seeing in one way or another. Renting it, seeing it on TV, or downloading fansubs have contributed to me purchasing the series later. With the exception of a few series, I have never bought a DVD that I haven't had any prior experience watching.

With the cost of most DVD's, it's tough to make a buying decision simply by reading a review or hearing it from friends

[Tenshi no Ai]

For 90% of the time, I have in fact seen at least PART of the series before I decide to buy it. Yes I'm bad, I download, but for me it makes my decision on what to buy. As for Miyazaki movies, I have boguth some of them without watching, knowing they'll be good. But I've bought movies in the past that I ended up reselling: Graveyard of the Fireflies (I'm sorry it was just plain depressing!) and Lupin 3: Twilight of the Geminai (Guess other Lupin movies just can't cut it if it's not Cagliostro... well course that one was directed by Miyzaki^^)

But yeah if I download something and it's reeeally good, msot chances I'll buy it if I can get ahold of it.

[Puguni]

I don't think many people would buy their DVDs randomly anyway. Just a thought. I find it wasting money more often than not

[Arnobius]

Being a person who would buy depending on how interesting the description on the box sounded, I go by a few things... I try to avoid the raunchy stuff, I prefer slapstick comedies and try to avoid the big mainstream stuff. Maybe that last part is elitist, but I tend to like the less common titles.

Back in the old days, it used to be that a person with a job could buy every DVD that came out in a week, so yes I did some blind buying before the explosion really began where you could go in to debt buying all the DVDs and you started having to be discriminating.

[Rev. Doc]

I've gotten to the point that I pretty much know what I like and can tell from a discription, review or even screencaps as to whether I will like a title or not. About 75% of my purchases tend to be "blind" purchases having never viewed any of the material beforehand.

[Tenshi no Ai]

As a bit of a hypothesis, I'm gunna say that due to downloading, anime DVD sales have gone up. Well, not to say that shows TV shows like FMA had to have been downloaded, but I'm just thinking titles like Fruits Basket etc. were probably downloaded and seen before purchased. Or at least hearing from peopel that have seen them. Or somethign like that^^ Then there's shows like AIR that obviously only downloaders would know about and so forth and people that heard from them.

[Momo-P]

For me, a lot of my anime purchases were decided upon by reviews. There were some cases (Furuba) where I watched a few of the Japanese episodes, but for the most part I'm not big fan on downloading anime. Usually the video moves really slowly and skips, resulting in the soundtrack getting way ahead. Really sucky I tell ya.

So ya. Lots of reviews for me. :x

[Debitt]

I usually buy anime I've seen in part before. The only exception I make to this rule is if 1) I REALLY like the manga 2) I've repeatedly heard REALLY good things about the said anime.

...I stick very firmly to these rules now, since I've made a couple blind purchases in the past that I've regretted.

[shooraijin]

I watch first. I'm leery of stuff off the shelf, especially, as Kokoro said, you can regret blind purchases.

Nowadays, though, I'm on a moratorium and I'm only going to finish my existing series before I pick up any others (that mostly means Nadesico, Maison Ikkoku and Urusei Yatsura).

[bigsleepj]

I browse forum such as these to see what there is, then I pick people's mind about them, then I pickle their minds and extract the information and experiences through a machine I ordered off the Internet and then pick the anime. I'm rather picky so I don't pick just any old thing.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I look at reviews on websites, browse the local dvd shops, maybe download a few trailers of the anime. Then if I enjoy the look I may buy it. For Noir I downloaded the trailer and had it on my computer for about 2 years. Then I looked at many reviews and bought the first volume to check it out. Then I bought it when it came out as a boxset. For Last Exile I was on another forum about a stealth game called, Thief and people were talking about steampunk literature and tv/movies. Someone mentioned Last Exile as really good. I checked out some reviews, watched a trailer and bought the first dvd. Then the others followed over time.
For my anime movies it was a combination of reviews and word of mouth (not much).

Anime isn't cheap here. Especially boxsets. So I either have to do the above options or buy the first volume of the series and see if I enjoy it. Bit annoying since if its good the boxset would be cheaper and you would get the first volume twice, but I digress. But if its not so good then you have saved a lot of money not buying the boxset.

Non purchasing options:
Anime is not shown often here in Australia. Recently Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Kiki's Delivery Service and Spirited Away were shown on tv. Currently the Ghost in the Shell Stand-Alone Complex is on. And Bubblegum Crisis 2040 was on about 5 years ago and Neon Genesis Evangelion around the same time (but that's all really - the odd anime movie every year maybe). Very rare stuff.

There is a very limited range of anime to hire in Australia, but I may choose that option for some I want to check out in the future - Full Metal Alchemist, 12 Kingdoms.

Libraries are good also. Recently my library has had an influx of anime and manga coming in (still not a huge range). I've reserved some and I just have to wait... and wait... and wait.

[Maledicte]

Since I can't download (well, maybe I could but it would take 40 hours for a 30-minute episode) and don't have cable, and since I am no longer in contact with my anime-toting buddies, I have to rely on internet reviews before deciding on a purchase. A few shows I have seen and then bought, but most I ruminate over for a while before buying.

Some shows I've bought purely on recommendation. (Impact Alberto hint hint)

[mitsuki lover]

1.Based on what I generally like over all,e.g. the type of genre I usually watch
such as Sci Fi,Fantasy or Horror and Comedy as well.
2.Based on a favorite creator like Rumiko Takahashi.
3.Based on wheter or not I enjoyed something like it on either AS or AU.
4.Based on if one of my favorite VAs is in it.
5.Based on wheter or not I enjoyed the manga.
6.Based on recommendations on others.
Ok not all of these might hold true all the time but these are reasons I would have
for purchasing a partiuliar anime dvd.

[agasfas]

I have a few methods....
First, I skim anime review sites such as animetempy.com or animeondvd.com
It really doesn't matter the genre: dramatic, action whatever... If it looks like something I may like I tend to download a AMV to get another look at it.

Second, I do occasionally do blind purchases if they look interesting. Some titles I've gotten have been Princess Nine, Great Teacher Onizuka, Ceres, Figure 17 and The place promised in our earlier days. All really good titles in my opinion.
I have only gotten a few duds, so I'm okay.

I tend to have a feel for whether or not a series may interest me. If I'm just not sure, I'll just rent it at this place downtown. Though if I do buy dvd's, I pefer to buy something that doesn't have a lot of dvd's in the series.

[eva-boy7985]

I use a number of different methods before I buy, and more often than not, combine many of them. I have some very trustworthy friends regarding anime whose opinions I seek if they've seen something I'm intriqued about. Also, the Hastings here has a very large selection of stuff, so I will often rent say the first disc or two of a series. I also check on http://www.animeondvd.com which gives, in my opinion, excellent reviews for anime. Sometimes I take a bit deeper plunge and buy the first disc; if worse comes to worst, I just resell it on eBay and at least make a good portion of my money back, should I not have liked it at all. Those are the things I usually do in buying anime. Yes, though, occassionally it's kinda fun to do something on impulse having either no or very little prior knowledge. I bought all of Noir after having only seen 15 minutes of the first episode, just because I had alot of extra money at the time, and lo and behold, it was a great show!

[Sennin]

For most of the anime I've purchased, I usually have been able to preview the series or discovered it by way of manga (which is much cheaper than anime) and then decided to see what they did in the anime version. Occasionally, I've bought works because of the talent of certain authors that I know.

[hawaiishirtguy]

If i've seen some episodes of the series I may blind buy, otherwise I rent first. Only thing is I only buy from pre-viewed shops or trade-ins to save cash. I'm a cheapskate. Lol.

[mitsuki lover]

I decided that if it's an uber popular series like Inuyasha that can be found in
places like Borders then I will buy it off line.If it's a hard to find title like
Silent Mobius or Geneshaft or Dual then I will purchase it online.

[Kisa]

I have either watched the show, read the manga, or researched it thoughroughly after someone reccommending it ^^