5 July 2008, 1:16 PM
[This one is a long one]
It hasn't been mentioned here, but Funimation has their own broadcast network and is also beginning to get into digital distribution (download-to-own and ad-supported streaming), so these two deals have given them quite a bit more content to offer on those services. I say they made some pretty good deals here.
As for the quality of Funimations past releases... I don't see much wrong with it, I think their releases are usually pretty high quality. Because they had their "sure thing" shows like Dragonball and Full Metal Alchemist, they earned themselves ALOT of money. That money is the reason that Funimation has been able to take occasional risks on shows (Slayers, Kodomo no Omocha) and is now able to take over all of these licenses.
If you focus entirely on pleasing "the fans" and bringing our small-market titles, you will eventually fail. Look at what happened to Geneon for proof of that.
As for too many releases of shows... well, there are alot of different reasons for those. Usually they're a way of getting a show out for a lower price or getting an older show back into circulation. (Alot of recent releases have basically been experiments to see what type of strategy works best.)
1. Singles - Single DVDs usually come first and are for those who want to BUY their anime as quickly as possible.
2. Boxsets - These are for the people who can stand to wait to get their anime. You get it all at once and usually get it for a lower price too.
3. Thinpaks - These are pretty much the same thing as a box-set, except they also offer the advantage of saving space. This is very important to retailers who want more product on their shelves (many retail stores won't stock singles for older series because they take up too much space).
You'd be surprised how cheap you can buy anime too if you're willing to wait a little while and shop around online. You'll never pay more than %50 retail price unless you want a show badly on release.
It hasn't been mentioned here, but Funimation has their own broadcast network and is also beginning to get into digital distribution (download-to-own and ad-supported streaming), so these two deals have given them quite a bit more content to offer on those services. I say they made some pretty good deals here.
As for the quality of Funimations past releases... I don't see much wrong with it, I think their releases are usually pretty high quality. Because they had their "sure thing" shows like Dragonball and Full Metal Alchemist, they earned themselves ALOT of money. That money is the reason that Funimation has been able to take occasional risks on shows (Slayers, Kodomo no Omocha) and is now able to take over all of these licenses.
If you focus entirely on pleasing "the fans" and bringing our small-market titles, you will eventually fail. Look at what happened to Geneon for proof of that.
As for too many releases of shows... well, there are alot of different reasons for those. Usually they're a way of getting a show out for a lower price or getting an older show back into circulation. (Alot of recent releases have basically been experiments to see what type of strategy works best.)
1. Singles - Single DVDs usually come first and are for those who want to BUY their anime as quickly as possible.
2. Boxsets - These are for the people who can stand to wait to get their anime. You get it all at once and usually get it for a lower price too.
3. Thinpaks - These are pretty much the same thing as a box-set, except they also offer the advantage of saving space. This is very important to retailers who want more product on their shelves (many retail stores won't stock singles for older series because they take up too much space).
You'd be surprised how cheap you can buy anime too if you're willing to wait a little while and shop around online. You'll never pay more than %50 retail price unless you want a show badly on release.
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