Rant: Why I Almost Left the Fandom.

Welcome to the scond Rant here on Blog of a Heretical Dub Lover. Revenge of anger it is, warm fuzzy it is not.



WHAT! DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS!

Oh. We're doing a Rant today?

I'll be your raging Minoru today, Richard J. Today's Rant is about anime fandom.

Maybe I'm a naive fool but shouldn't anime fans enjoy talking about anime? I mean, I know everyone isn't going to like everything but what the heck is up with people just hating on stuff ALL THE TIME?

I'm sure you've seen them too. The Troll in fan's clothing, the bitch-monger, Lord A-Hole the Insulter who thinks you're anime sucks and you suck for liking it. These people can't get enough of insulting you or your anime. If a thread starts, even one that has little if anything to do with their personal berserk button, they show up and start railing against whatever it is that they hate so much. (And don't you just LOVE how so many of them HAVEN'T WATCHED/READ THE THING THEY HATE SO MUCH?!?)

Typical targets are moe, lolicon, fanservice, Yaoi and Vic Mignogna. Even if I agree with the jerk's opinion (which isn't often since I tend to be a bit more sane), it's still unnecessary and damned repetitive. What, are you the anthropomorphic version of a broken record player? Are you being paid to constantly bitch about this? ARE YOU JUST THAT BORED?

Next in sheer "I can't stand them" levels is the elitist fans. Oh, I'm sorry, did I just watch that show English dubbed? Oh, excuse me for being a peasant my grand liege of subbiness! Pardon me!

Yeah, okay, I've ranted about this kind of jackass a little here and there before and you've surely seen them too. When someone insults you, calling you "illiterate" and "racist" for preferring an English dub to the Japanese, you are dealing with a sub-elitist, the bane of all English dub fans!

So what about dub-elitists? Personally, I've not really encountered this species of fan per-say but for the record, I hate all people who get in my face about what they think is so bloody right for me. Excuse me New York but if I want to eat salt I'm going to do it! If I want to watch my anime dubbed, I'm the one buying it so it's my choice! Maybe I'd feel more inclined to listen to you sub-elite if you weren't always insulting me. (And maybe I'd care more about what New Yorkers think of my dietary habits if they'd stop trying to use the police power of the state to change them.)

Last but not least, let's talk about fans who hate most anime and anime fans but feel they are part of a special group that stand above all others. The deal with this group is that they think anime is some sort of sacred art form through which enlightenment or something can be found. I don't know about the rest of you but I always kinda figured this was supposed to be FUN.

Not so to this fan-type. This person disects their video panel by panel for any animation errors, demands the absolute best animation and video quality, a unique (to them at least) plot and characters every time and most important of all, unless a whole damn lot of people agree it is all for nothing! That's right, this fan isn't even really talking about what they believe!

This is the fan who says that only Miyazaki movies are good or that Cowboy Bebop and Eva are the only truly great anime series. Yes, they are great but aren't there other series that are great but under-appreciated? Not to these fans. They hate it if it's not critically acclaimed by people whose opinion they think matters. (You know, real critics.)

Okay, sorry, I'm not sure why I should care about whether or not a Hollywood film critic thinks my favorite anime sucks.

But surely the worst type to run into is the political off-topic posters.

Oh, excuse me, I thought I was on an anime site! Why are you adding random political insults to your posts all the time? Is there a reason you want to make an anime forum politically polarized? Is that really necessary? Isn't the world screwed up enough because of politics?

I'm aware that my political views might not be the majority viewpoint on the Internet but for the love of lol cats can't I at least go to an ANIME forum and not have to read random political crap? Isn't that why there's an off-topic area, so regular posts can be devoid of this fecal matter?

Also, if you must give your political opinion, can you do it without insulting those who disagree with it? It would be nice to not be insulted and then feel that it was inappropriate to respond because THE POLITICS HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH THE THREAD TOPIC TO BEGIN WITH!

I admit, I've posted this kind of crap too. When it's all one-sided, one party, you start to feel like you need to say something just to remind everyone that yes, there are other opinions out there and maybe, just maybe, people who hold those opinions are also on the same forum and perhaps their opinion is just as legitimate.

These kinds of people are the reason I almost left anime fandom. I just got so fed up with it all! For a while, I didn't want to post and was pretty much just forcing myself to keep going. I didn't even do anything with this blog for a while. (Apologies again.)

Then one day I thought: "if I give up, they win."

So, here I am. Back to fight the good fight and try to be the best otaku I can be.

That's it for this Rant. We now return to our regularly scheduled limited entertainment.



Well, now that I've gotten that mess off my chest, I feel better.

Thought I would mention here, I'm going to be getting the chance to do a guest review for ANN for Strike Witches!



I'm excited about the chance and have already started planning. I just hope my lazy procrastinating nature doesn't screw me up on this because I'd really like to give it my all.

Bye-ni!

Rant: What Do You Mean It Costs Too Much?

Welcome to the first Rant here on Blog of a Heretical Dub Lover. Please give me a moment to switch borrowed personalities.

Pst. Minoru. You're up.



WHAT! DO YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS!

Oh. We're doing a Rant today?

I'll be your raging Minoru today, Richard J. Today's Rant is about the cost of anime.

Like the title says, what do you mean when you say it costs too much or a new boxset set is "premium pricing" at $59.98 or even $49.98 for HALF A FREAKING SERIES!

I know, I know. Arguing about the price is pointless. Anime effectively has no value due to all the illegal free subbing. So, while you can argue that the official releases have come WAY the hell down in cost, you can never quite convince people that they are getting their money's worth. R1 companies used to use premium packaging and physical extras to entice buyers but now that doesn't work well enough and the number of anime consumers has dropped.

They've cut costs as much as they can and in the cases of several of Funimation's competitors, tossed out the English dub which is one of the very few features that actually counts as 100% value-added content versus fansubs/bootlegs of the Japanese release. They've cut the disc count and gone for cheap packaging, dropped on disc extras for the most part and all of it to bring the overall price down. According to Robert of the Anime Corner Store, keepcases can save a studio 2% or 3% in replication and transportation costs due to their lighter weight and thus are cheaper to ship in bulk. We also know that the costs of anime dubbing have actually dropped below the often quoted $10,000 an episode number. (Which is good to know as I intend to one day use any spare thousands on paying for dubs to be made for shows I love. Yes, I'm serious.)

So what is going on? People still complain about the cost because it's still more expensive than free and, since Funimation is now the only company really licensing a lot, they get to be called an evil monopoly. For managing to not massively cut back on releases, and even expand a little, they're labeled that way. People still complain about the prices and always will. They'll complain about companies not running themselves into the ground too. It only makes sense if you're brain is wired wrong but run with it folks!

Meanwhile, the number of anime consumers continues to drop, not only here but in Japan too! According to ANN, sales in Japan for the marketplace of games, music, manga, films, etc. fell for a second year in a row in 2008. The market fell 2% to $136.357 billion. (Yes, I know that sounds like a lot but remember, that is not the net profit, that's the value of the industry. Little of that is liquid assets. Traditional income sources like DVDs and such fell 3.9%, after having already dropped 3.6% in 2007. Some good news on TV and the net though with television and broadcast revenues increasing 2.9% and Internet sales increasing 12.5%. Unfortunately this doesn't make up for the falling DVD sales and, no, Blu-Ray doesn't either. In other words, the Japanese costs are going up on a product that many people don't even want to pay for.

On the US side of things, the economy has gone to hell and if the economists are right, either we're getting set up for another big drop or we're still not going to see enough jobs coming back. So anime consumers look at the price for a half series set, say "wow, expensive" and just download it. Even though the cost is demonstrably lower than it used to be. Plus, falling sales in Japan mean that eventually there will be increased licensing fees while the value of the US dollar has dropped so low, foreign governments are losing confidence in it.

Geneon prices? DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THEM? Over a $100 bucks for a 13 episode series? TODAY'S PRICES ARE NOT PREMIUM!

A big part of the problem is that no one actually cares about the costs to the company. They just want it cheap, fast and perfect. Period. No exceptions, no concern for reality. You see this kind of mentality everywhere nowadays. People simply don't care about the logistics of things.

Another part of the problem is that corporations have been made into a modern day bogeyman by the general media, with people being told that they are all extremely wealthy and just charge people apparently for giggles because it could all be free if not for the evil and corrupt corporate executives. Look at the "Funimation is a monopoly" line that people are using in many places now. They suggest that their prices are higher for no logical reason other than they've managed to not shrink while others have all but vanished from the market place. (Dear goodness, heaven help us when success is rewarded with paranoid delusion.)

If Funimation qualifies as a monopoly at all (it doesn't under the classic "only one firm produces the good" definition though it does under more modern ones) it may be considered a "natural monopoly" because anime distribution costs a lot to start up, has marginal at best profit and has numerous natural barriers to entry, such as the need to form a relationship with people from another country as well as to convince anime fans to become anime consumers. The fact is, however, that if Funimation is a "natural monopoly," then they are actually considering their competitors price-structures, which is the exact opposite of what bad monopolies do! Do a price comparison on MSRPs for them and other companies and you'll find that when both titles have an English dub, the prices are more or less the same and can be better than their competitors.

Look at the MSRP for half series sets of Sasami Magical Girls Club originally at $39.98. Compare them to ADV's Clannad release MSRPs at $39.98. Sasami has a dub. Clannad doesn't. Does anyone actually believe Sasami sold better than one of the most highly fan-anticipated series of the year? (Oh and Sasami's come way down in price too.)

Yes, that evil Funimation, charging so much more than their competitors for anime sets! Fiends! (Yes I'm aware that $49.98 and $59.98 are also used but again, consider the presence of a dub and compare. They differences in price are just not significant.)

Moving on, the vast majority of anime fans/consumers simply do not know what it actually costs to make anime, distribute anime or do anything legally with anime except buy it. $59.98 is a fairly typical MSRP for season box sets of live-action series that are out of the mainstream. Supernatural season 4 has such an MSRP. It also has a lot of bonus features but it already made back many of it's production costs in commercial sales while it aired on US TV and product placement. Anime sales in R1 represent virtually the only profit the R1 company gets for the series. Also, complaining about the half-series sets: 13 episodes is considered a cour in Japan, though it can vary dramatically. That's the equivalent of a full season over here. So in my opinion, current prices are in line with many live-action TV series releases so, frankly, I wonder what exactly fans are comparing the current prices to. A theoretical price? A price of Free? Bootlegs?

Heck, I've been buying for years now and by any rational and objective standard, the prices are at a low for anime. To consider the current pricing to be premium is just. . . well, I'd very much like to know exactly what a fair price is under this scenario because even sub-only half-series sets aren't that much cheaper than this when they are cheaper and if Bandai is any indication, they're going to be LESS cheap going forward. In fact, this is almost a certainty as maintaining profit margins with a continually diminishing number of actual anime consumers and the rising costs of doing business. (Taxes are going up and so are utility costs! Damn I love paying more for my electricity so some bureaucrat whose got millions can feel like he/she's "saved the planet" don't you? By the way, guess what a confirmed "natural monopoly" is? You're local power company! Don't like your power bill being so high? Your SOL! Oops, didn't mean to get political, won't happen again in this Rant!)

So, to bring this Rant to a conclusion because it needs one at this point, anime is NOT premium priced and is in fact MUCH CHEAPER than it used to be. English dubbed anime is especially cheap when you consider the cut profit margins for the R1 company. Cut profits that have led to ditching artboxes and sweet on disc extras.

Now, does that mean we shouldn't want more bang for our buck? Should we not expect extras on disc or better packaging? HELL NO! We should want them. We should demand them! All I'm saying is we have to expect to pay more for them and, for now, we shouldn't expect anyone but VIZ, Funimation, Bandai (when they have a TV deal) and Media Blasters (when they feel like it but don't expect them to get back prior casts because they aren't doing it with Ikkitousen: Dragon Destiny and NO I AM NOT BITTER ABOUT IT AT ALL) to do an English dub and as time goes on, none of them will provide bonus on disc content unless they got a really great deal on it as a standard feature for a release. (Why do the Japanese charge for extras separately from licensing? They can so they do because they need the money too!)

I suggest a new take on Limited Editions: Extremely small runs, less than a 1000. Very expensive, totally tricked out, for the HARDCORE fan of a series. And sold online only because that cuts the price too. Direct to consumer from the company too, they can have an unpaid college intern handle it.

That's it for this Rant. I'm sure you're all hoping to never see another one. Back to you Akira-sama.



Hmm, she's stunned. Well, this has been Richard J. in Minoru mode ranting at you. I would have gotten it up sooner along with some more reviews but I've been sick this week and only really started getting back on my game yesterday. Expect two reviews this weekend though. One anime complete series set and a complete manga series. Ones from a favorite company and ones from a company I am now only finishing already begun series from as I have vowed to never again start a new one from them!

By the way, I think an Ame-warashi must be hanging around my house because it's been raining daily for about three weeks now. Seriously, I am not kidding, the house of Richard J. has been rained on daily for weeks now.

Bye! Akira-sama cute mode will be back next time!