Why Are Anime marketers such douches?
 

I like to collect anime that I enjoy. I have the entire Gundam Wing series on my wall that came in a nice 5 episodes per disc case. Cases were normal sized. Thats fine.

Nowadays, I feel like any anime that I want to buy has to come with some stupid oversized "SPECIAL LIMITED EDITION" box that easily is a bigger box then most tv seasons on dvd. Now don't get me wrong, I am fine with the oversized boxing...but isn't it being overdone? I don't remember what I picked up but I though "Huh, thats a nice box. I am attracted to this so I may buy this now". However upon closer examination I realized it one single disc that didn't really come with anything, aside from some shitty booklet that tells you about the anime or whatever, and the price wasn't out of this world either.

My point is, is that really necessary? I dont mind those limited special collectors editions if say it was the whole series or maybe a movie. But this was like volume 3 of a 9 volume set with all the other volumes being as oversized and awkward looking as the previous. Maybe its just me, but I really don't want to own an entire bookshelf just for one anime series.

I'm not sure I get what you're saying here. If you're arguing that it's a bad business idea, that's one thing, but you're not doing much beyond listing out your personal preferences here. While you might not be the target audience for limited edition sets, there are people who will buy them for the added extras, so why get into a huff just because the anime licensors release a normal and limited edition?

Buy Taiwanese bootlegs with 52 episodes on one disc! Problem solved.

I think it can be excessive (sup Bandai with Lucky Star/Haruhi), but if there's a demand for it, then whatever. There are always standard releases and an inevitable complete boxset, so it's not like you're obligated to buy into all these LE releases (unless you really like the stuff they bundle, in which case, hey! you're the target demographic) anyway.

I thought this was about how certain manga or anime is presented or advertised in a way that gives off the wrong idea of the title :(

One that kind of pisses me off that I saw recently is the plastic brick that ADV released for Princess Tutu. I hate plastic bricks but most of all they never put out one of those special cardboard boxes to hold all the standard DVD cases for Princess Tutu in the first place. I'm actually pretty sure that the plastic brick they have is actually all six DVDs that they had overstock of. Instead of doing a nice thin pack release which is pleasing to the eye and far more practical (and less likely to fucking break might I add) they release a fucking plastic brick because it's cheaper. Fuck you ADV. Maybe if you hadn't completely fucked up in releasing the series in the first place (seriously it was like half a year or more between volume 1 and volume 2) then you wouldn't have so much unsold DVDs.

They did this to Nadia as well. I FUCKING HATE BRICKS. FUCK YOU ADV.

Thankfully there seems to be a trend recently to release full seasons of anime TV series now on thin packs. This is especially true of Funimation. I hope this becomes the standard. I don't mind paying 30-35 bucks for 12 episodes like they've been doing with One Piece.

Gotta say I prefer the Hong Kong bootlegs. I guess the only downside is they can only fit 52 episodes on 4 discs. Well that and the English subtitles were written by someone with a 1st grade English comprehension, but those discs sure look pretty!


Also, I have mixed feelings on the special edition boxes.

On one hand you've got people who want the box, but would rather buy the DVDs as they are released and watch them. This is who I think they are catered towards specifically. On the other hand you have people who just want the series, or maybe they watch anime with a 1-2 year lag time (hey that's me), which is why they sell full box sets.

So what it comes down to is money, since buying super oversize boxes with bonus t-shirts is so much more expensive than buying the entire series in one swoop. These guys are out to make the most money possible and they probably are correct in this method. Are they douches for this? Eh... maybe.

I haven't purchased anime in a while but I can feel your pain when it comes to strange packaging for DVD's and Blurays. The new bookstyle case that WB is using for some of their Blurays is really annoying, to me at least. You can't open the book enough to read anything without putting creases in the binding which makes everything look really lame when it's on the shelf. These also make it very easy for my 2 yr old to get the disc out and play with it. Granted Blurays have scratch resistant coating and nothing has been damaged so far but I'm also learning that if there is a way to tear something up, a 2 yr old with find it :D

No shit some of those bootleg packages are fucking beautiful. I mean it's been like six years and they still haven't released a version of Trigun or Cowboy Bebop that can match my Hong Kongs. Just gorgeous.

And I hate a lot of that pack-in shit they like shoveling in these special edition boxes. Soundtrack CDs? Alright. A booklet with information and art behind the creation of the series? That sounds interesting. A volume of a relating manga? Sure I guess. A small figurine? Mmmm... I guess I'll keep it. A giant HAY GUYS LOOK AT ME I LOEV ANIME T-SHIRT XXL? No thank you I will never wear it in public. Cosplay items such as an armband or cat ears? Ugh... not sure if want leaning towards do not want. A pillow case with sexy animow goil spread centerfold? FUCK NO! WHY WOULD I EVER USE THIS EVER? WHY DO I OWN SUCH A THING NOW?! THIS IS MY GREATEST SHAME!!

Not nearly enough profit.

@ Nehmi. I waited a while for Mai-Hime and Otome to be cheap and now each dvd (plus the LE box,etc) are like 3-5 bucks a piece. The marketers aren't such douches.... Its just a matter of waiting >=3


@acerbandit : thinpacks aren't so bad. I chalked up 30 bucks for the full set of Captain Tylor (didn't give my ultra edition versions.Couldn't bring myself to giving it up lol) and it was worth it. Being remastered and all.. now I can finally watch that ova this month XD.


Anybody notice that companies are releasing animes with just the subs ? Look at Hayate the Combat Butler and Clannad. Selling dvds for 30 bucks. In my opinion, it isn't so bad as long as they release a great amount of episodes for each dvd.

Any thoughts?

You can get them from China too. I used to like oversized boxes with all the goodies till I started really collecting them. Now I have to make my own case to hold dvds