Can you get financing on Anime?

Look, I'll be the first to admit, I have no earthly idea how much it costs to make Anime. I just know I love the stuff, and if given the chance, I'll gladly buy a boxset. Lately I've had to ask for something a bit more, just because of the advancement of technology. Hi-def? Necessary. 5.1? I can do without, but it's certainly a plus. And with Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society coming out in 3D, I'm hoping we'll get more anime that lends itself to this as I think it could bring some extra pizazz to certain titles. Spirited Away, for instance: It certainly doesn't need 3D, but some scenes would be absolutely stunning with it implemented.

In my search for Blu-Ray anime, I haven't paid more than about $15-20 for a disc yet. I got a great deal on Evangelion 1.11 - about $11. Even without the discounts you see at Amazon, the ceiling looks to be about 50 or so dollars for either 1/2 a season of anime or one of the movies. Granted, this price is set regardless of the quality of the transfer and there's usually few or no special features, but it's not bad coming from the days when 1 5 episode DVD ran you about 30 bucks.

So honestly, we have it good over here. And I thought for sure that it would be even better in the Land of the Rising Sun (not to be confused with that house in New Orleans), since after all, it's local, right? All they gotta do is put it out there! Even with the exchange rate, there's gotta be some kind of price parity, right?

Holy hell, was I ever wrong.

Let's start with Angel Beats! (their exclamation point, not mine), which even though it's not one of my faves is as good an example as any. It's not out yet in the states, but the Blu-Ray is going for about $46.00 for the complete collection pre-ordered at Amazon. Sure, that's a little high for only 13 episodes, but it's still reasonable for High-def, dual audio anime. Meanwhile, over at cdjapan.co.jp, 1 volume of Angel Beats on DVD is 6000 yen, or $73.08. That whopping chunk of change gets you two whole episodes in standard definition with no subtitles and Japanese audio only. I doubt the Japanese Drama CD and booklet will do much to soothe the pain of dropping just under $75 on this.

But hey, let's do this the right way and compare straight across...as best we can. If we want blu-ray, the price jumps up to $85.26 and you still only get two eps. Yeah, way to use up that extra space on the medium. On top of that, they give you an extra DVD with a making of. WTF?! But keep in mind, this is a 13 episode anime with an OVA bringing it to 14 episodes total- on 7 separate discs as well. So that's a total of 7 Blu-ray releases, which if you total it up comes to just shy of $600 American Dollars - and you haven't even paid for shipping yet!

This isn't just Angel Beats! either. God help you if you're a fan of any of Key's works. Clannad, Clannad: After Story, and Kanon all run over $700 each for the complete blu-ray sets, though thankfully they've decided to actually have box sets for each series, unlike Angel Beats. AIR is a little gentler at $405 USD, but that's still $2500 for all of Key's portfolio. Even worse, that's currently the only way to get the Blu-Ray discs. Stateside, we have AIR on DVD through the S.A.V.E. category of Anime, the whole series going for only $14.99. Unless that Blu-Ray is a 4K re-release, it's not worth that price. The aforementioned Solid State Society 3D Blu-Ray ($150) is the only one I've seen where the price is somewhat justifiable, and even then, I realize I'm mainly buying that because I don't think SSS3D has a chance in hell of seeing release stateside. And if it did, I'd gladly double-dip for the low, low price of $50 - and that might be a high estimate for what I'd pay for it.

I honestly don't get this. Anime is probably not cheap to make, but is it really worth it to price something this damn high? Isn't this overwhelmingly prohibitive? Well, it turns out it is, because anime is either being purchased from us and imported or flat-out pirated, leaving anime studios to recoup their costs through merchandise sales. Guess Yogurt was right after all. But I'm seeing some absolutely blockheaded decisions being made here. Two episodes on a Blu-Ray, when you can fit 6-7 on one in the states? And furthermore, why the hell is a country with an advanced network infrastructure wasting their time and money on printing this stuff? You could easily put this up on a controlled channel for digital distribution. Sure, you'll get pirates, but you have those now. At least with this you can get a better chunk of the pie rather than leaving your customers to decide if they'd rather buy Haruhi on Blu-Ray or vacation in the Bahamas and very rationally going for the latter.

It ultimately comes down to this: The anime industry is contracting, like it or not. Seasons used to be 24 eps, now they're 12, and if a series doesn't push merch or set the world on fire during that time frame, it's not seeing a 2nd one. K-On! and Madoka may be entertaining, but even they aren't worth this insane pricing. It's time to take advantage of the available tech and get this stuff to customers in a reasonable fashion. Either fill those Blu-Rays or get rid of them entirely. Let's get this stuff down to a price that ensures that the market is accessible - there's some awesome stories here, and I'd much rather lose them to people's tastes than their wallets.