As disposable income decreases for anime fans across the country, it becomes increasingly tempting to resort to alternative, less legitimate methods of obtaining our fix. This hurts an industry which is trying its best to stay alive in an increasingly volatile environment, but ultimately a person with no money to spend on entertainment will choose free entertainment over no entertainment. It’s an absurd level of Catch-22, with both and neither side to blame.
Anime companies want to take as much of our money as possible, and it’s only fair that they do so. I may often say that “I want to support the shows that I like,” but I also know that in the end, no matter how friendly the higher-ups and the employees are, a business is a business. Anime companies want to maximize their profits, but we fans have limits on how much money we’re willing to spend, especially as of late. The issue then becomes finding an amount that’s agreeable to both sides.
I know this sounds incredibly obvious, but we’ve seen at least one company (Bandai Visual) eat dirt because it didn’t even consider compromise.
OGIUE MANIAX 
I can afford manga, but I am not sure if I wan to throw down 60 or more USD for a whole series with dub I will never use. They are not the only ones feeling the hurt right now. Capitalism, what can we do? Nationalize them? ;)
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Considering how the video game industry did better in October than September with over 10% month-to-year growth, I doubt the premise of this post just a bit.
As to Bandai Visual, I don’t really think it is an apt example because it was dealing with a crowd who spends more money importing and waiting for Blu-Ray, and its demise had more to do with the herd mentality of “it’s too expensive” from people who they weren’t interested in selling to in the first place than the price of the goods they had.
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I had asked about this about a month back, and the responses were varied from things will be alright to things might suck a bit. I guess all we can do is wait and see what happens. :3
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We, as Filipinos (in before imprecations), don’t really have much of a choice. Despite most of us recognizing that piracy is bad, original DVDs here in the country remain to be seen. Most DVDs are badly done, some well-done, but all are fake. Since we couldn’t really get anime legitimately anywhere within the country, I just watch it for personal consumption. I don’t get rich watching anime, but I watch it for my own enjoyment.
I think this is how most of us think.
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I find that ridiciouls there is this series with 26 eps that cost 80 bucks and one 25 series cost 44 bucks. reason why they are loosing sells they put alot out like a boxset 5 boxset sometimes once a month. how can people aford 5 series they love? that is nearly 300 bucks @_@. i wish companies work something out and give us something that isn’t to high maybe 35 bucks per boxset or something.
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If I had $60 bucks to spend on entertainment and I wanted to maximize the hours of enjoyment that $60 could buy then video games is the way to go.
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I recently figured out that I’ve spent a total of 300 hours playing Civilization 4 in the 3 years since it’s come out. And it’s not like I’ve spent a ton of time playing it in this time period. If you want to get even more extreme, our house’s copy of Final Fantasy X has been played by many different people, my one sister spent 160 hours playing it, I spent 120 hours, my younger brother played 200 hours on his two trips through, and my other sister has spent 80 hours on it. Pretty good deal for only $50.
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On the other hand I recently spent $60 to buy all three volumes of Gurren Lagann. If I watch the entire thing 5 times through, which I probably never will do, I’ll have gotten roughly 61 hours of entertainment out of it. Doesn’t really match up.
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“Bad economy” is just an excuse for people who don’t really give much about anime, they just think they should say something about the topic matter. Real fans will buy what they can and will not make excuses for their actions. Every show has its die-hard fans. Those are the people the industry is aiming for, not some guy with an opinion on why that show is gonna perform badly.
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My spending on anime is unaffected by logic or reason. I’m an otaku, no recession will reduce my spending level :P
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Btw, in response to:
>If I had $60 bucks to spend on entertainment and I wanted to maximize the hours of enjoyment that $60 could buy then video games is the way to go.
No, the true greatest bang for your buck is buying an tabletop RPG rulebook for $20, which gives you and 4 friends an infinite amount of entertainment from the pure depths of your imagination.
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How about making a fort with blankets and some boxes? greatest way of passing a rainy afternoon.
I spend mostly in books than DVD because I can just read the mangas in the store. I decide if I like it after reading. With DVDs I’m pretty much screwed if it turns out to be crappy.
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Even games without a lot of replay value will still give you like 30-40 hours for $50 for that initial playthrough compared to like, 8-9 hours for $50 for an anime box set. $1.50/hour for a game, or like $7/hour for an anime. Hmm…
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Is online distribution a viable alternative for anime companies? I’m pretty sure Crunchyroll is making a pretty penny from it, but how much, if any of it actually goes back to anime companies? A lot of people like to use iTunes as an example of doing it right, but i think i read somewhere that they’re barely making a profit. And consider this, how many people do you know like listening to music compared to how many people you know like watching anime?
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