Why does anime cost so much? (WARNING: a LONG rant and Evangelions spoilers)

I’ve been hearing people talk about anime for a long time, so some time ago I decided to try it. Because of a suggestion someone on this board gave me, I bought the Evangelion graphic novels. I loved them, but there were two slight problems. One was that each book was over $15 (US). Maybe it’s just that I’m not used to graphic novels, but that strikes me as rediculously expensive. (A normal paperback novel of the same length would be maybe 6 or 7 dollars, maybe even less.) Here’s the second problem: The guy who wrote/drew "Evangelion" did things ass-backwards: He created the anime and then the manga. So, unlike the anime, the manga isn’t finished! In fact, it’s only the first half of the anime. (Give or take a few episodes.) So now I have to get the anime to find out how this thing ends!

Now here’s where I hit a huge problem: The anime is $168 in most places. I did find it for $100 dollars at one online store, but even that seems crazy to me.

So I can’t afford the anime. This leaves me with three options:

1) Never find out how it ends. Live with the fact that Toji may be dead. (You did see the "spoiler" warning in the title of this post, right? Then don’t complain. :rolleyes: ) Never know if Shinji ever manages to forgive his father. Never know if Rei ever stops being so withdrawn. Never know if Asuka dies a slow, painful death. (I pray for it every day… :p)

2) Try to befriend an anime fan once college starts up again (this week. >_< someone, save me, pleeeeease….) Maybe we could split the cost of the dvds. But there’s one problem: I may not seem like this here at FFShrine, but in "real life" I am even more pathetic than Shinji. I’d say I’m maybe halfway between being Shinji and being Rei. :uh?: So this isn’t as easy a solution as it seems. (Besides, there’s no way I’m going to hang out with someone just to use them to see anime.) Well, anyhow, I’d like to stop being a loner, so maybe it’s a good idea anyway.

3) In the meantime (too impatient to wait for "option 2" to work) I’ve resorted to downloading the episodes off the internet. This sucks for several reasons:

-I feel like dirt. I am breaking copyright laws, ripping the creators/publishers/etc of Eva out of their hard-earned money.

-You have no idea how hard it is to find episodes when you don’t have streamload. (You have to love the concept of streamload. Pay to download videos that you’re trying to get for free.) I’ve only found one place where I can get Eva episodes and it’s so slow I get 3.6k/s at 4 in the morning on a cable modem.

-You have no control over what the episodes will be like. I don’t mind that they’re not good quality. It’s that the first two were subbed and the third one dubbed that bothers me. (Haven’t gotten further than the third one yet. Actually, I haven’t even finished the third.)

I was really enjoying the fact that the first two were subbed. For one thing, it seemed more "authentic." This is how the original is. This is how the characters are supposed to sound. This is how someone like me, who would like to learn Japanese, can get used to pronounciation and simple words like "yes" and "no." Besides, the story takes place in Tokyo. It makes sense that the characters speak Japanese. Not to mention that with subtitles, you never miss what the characters are saying.

Then I tried watching the third episode. First of all, I couldn’t hear a word the characters were saying. Nothing wrong with the video file, just that it’s hard to hear anything over my screaming "THAT IS NOT WHAT SHINJI SOUNDS LIKE!!!" Secondly, they give the names American pronouncations. They called Ritsuko "Ritsuuuko," for example. Third, if they have to dub it in English they could at least stick with how the characters sounded in the manga. Where is Toji’s "Godfather" accent?

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for this post to be this long and pointless. I just needed to get this off my chest.

I need to switch to decaf… o.o;;;

All I can say is, anime is a privalege. Not a right. If you want the DVDs, you’ll have to pay for them like everyone else. :\ Unless you can find a place to rent them, or borrow them from a friend. I’ve let a bunch of people borrow my Eva set (which i paid for. though I didn’t buy em all at once time, namely because I bought them each as they were released. ugh.. the frustration of waiting 1-2 months in between DVD releases was mind-numbing.

and to answer the question in your topic, i’ll say, why are DVDs so expensive? I don’t think its any plot from the anime industry to take advantage of die-hard fans (though I won’t necesarilly count that out as a possibility). I work at a store where we sell a TON of DVDs. Many of them being anime DVDs. And they’re really not anymore expensive then any other DVD you’d find.

The reason anime is so expensive in the US is because, for one, the licenses to air them on TV are very expensive. Plus that the anime market isn’t very big compared to regular movies. Anyway anime is cheap in the US compared to Japan were they usually have three (sometimes two!) episode per dvd and they cost 6090 yen (about $50). Most movies cost about 4900 yen ($40) and Ghost in the shell costs a whoppin’ 10290 yen ($85).

So it’s like Atom said, anime is a privalege and a right.

$15 for a manga is too much, in my opinion. I don�t pay more than �6… mostly �5 for one. I would not pay more unless it is a special edition of some sort.
Where I live manga are cheap. Still, people are complaining. People are especially complaining when it comes to importing mangas. They rather download scans instead of buying a manga. But this is theft… Like Atom said, nobody has the RIGHT to watch anime and read manga, it is something you can buy for money.
Like candy. Nobody has the right to buy candy. If you don�t have the money to buy candy or you don�t want to spend your money on candy, you cannot expect that you can get it for free. This is simply ridiculous.
DVD box sets ARE expensive… Wait for your birthday and tell your friends to buy it for you.

In Germany I was a bit "impressed" by the prize of the Slayers DVDs: one DVD (3 episodes) costs �30. This is odd because one tape (6 episodes) costs �30, too.
I�d love to buy DVDs, but not if the prizes are so ridiculous.

Anyway: If I had so many different anime legally available as you have them in America, I�d be happy, and I would not complain.

Yeah, you guys are right. I’m sorry about my previous post; this is one of those situations where I write something late at night when I’m tired and then look at it the next morning and think "What the hell was I thinking?" I need to learn to shut up when I’m not thinking coherently. :uh?:

I’ve stopped downloading the avi files. It isn’t worth it. Besides, with school starting I won’t have any time to watch them.

But if I’m going to start saving up for them, I may as well research what I’m buying. Does anyone know if they sell Eva episodes that are just subtitled? The only things I’ve seen have the ability to be played dubbed in English. Since there’s no way I’m going to watch the dubbed version, that feature isn’t important to me.

EDIT: I found 3-dvd sets on E-bay that are subbed in Chinese and English. Does anyone know anything about these? o_O

The only US version there is is both subbed and dubbed. anime dvd’s usually are.

As for that dubbed in Chinese version, it’s probably chinese versions. But i’d advise you to stay away from them, you never know what the video quality will be like and such.

there are sub VHS versions. but you might as well get the bilingual DVDs.

and yeah, stay away from those HK rip DVDs.

besides, if you buy the DVDs just one at a time, its not gonna seem as expensive.

Hong Kong import 3 dvd sets sometimes have crappy quality, and sometimes don’t. So far I own 3 of them, and only one of them had a slight problem (once my ps2 seems to skip when reading it and freezes the picture for a second, and other times the audio skips). But if you can handle that, plus it may have been my ‘dvd player’ than go ahead with them. Although you might want to make sure you have a video display that has built in processing chips to clear up low dvd quality noise (like mine). But even with the overpriced Pioneer/ADV America DVDs (where they needlessly decide to span it over 8 DVDs (where they could cut down a little by getting rid of those damn previews), you still get crappy quality at times, and in turn still have to keep your noise filters on. I really would like to hit those who commerically distribute anime in the US, they overprice the anime way too much, even if the market isn’t that big here, they don’t need to jack up prices (compared to other DVDs) by 200%. At least be reasonable about trying to make a profit…Anyway, if you do go Hong Kong Import, it’s usually very cheep (so don’t bash it) in comparson. Lets see, a whole series on 3 dvds for $40 (including shipping) vs. A whole series on 8 dvds for $200. (not including shipping). I think I’ll go with FX as long as it’s a bilingual DVD with optional english subtitles, the sets with those options are usually acceptable quality (even if you don’t use the options).