FUNimation Sales Down 15% in Q4

[Hujio]

Our love and worship of the Dragon Boxes is clouding us from the fact that they might actually be canceled due to insufficient sales.

Anyone that says they won't cancel the Dragon Box releases is actually thinking more logically than anything. They won't cancel them due to insufficient sales. FUNimation sank a ton of money into getting the Dragon Box masters. If they stop releasing them, they'll never get most of their money back. But if they keep releasing them, they'll at least get some sort of return on investment. If they just set the masters on the shelf and don't do anything with them, then they wasted all their money for nothing... Why would they do that?

[TheBlackPaladin]

Anime is too fucking expensive, it's that simple.

That's not an excuse to not buy it. And besides, anime is cheapest over in the U.S. If you were to buy both Dragon Boxes over in Japan for their original price, the equivalent U.S. price would be $2,178.76. Before anyone asks, this was found by going to kanzentai to look up their yen price (100,000 yen), converting that to US dollars via a money calculator (the first one I could find on google), and then doubling that (because there were two Dragon boxes, both of which cost 100,000 yen).

Anime costs A FORTUNE over there. That's why the Dragon Boxes are such a great deal over here in the States. Granted, the price is lower partially because they're being split up into seven boxes instead of two, but still. The same rule applies for anime in general. Japanese releases favor expensive DVD releases with low episode counts, whereas in the U.S. we always get them cheaper and with higher episode counts. So I say we support it, and with money. As Greg Ayers once said, "Fan is a shortened version of the word 'fanatical.' How are you fanatical about something if you're not willing to pay for it?"

I'm not accusing anybody here of not buying anime, but I want to spread the word as much as possible because people aren't buying anime. They're either downloading it or they're watching illegally-uploaded episodes on sites like YouTube. Artists like Eiichiro Oda, Masashi Kishimoto, Hiromu Arakawa, Hideaki Anno, and of course Akira Toriyama...they've created stories that had a huge impact on my life. The least I can do is thank them with my wallet.

[Rory]

Anime is too fucking expensive, it's that simple.

But if you love something a lot, you'll support it, no matter the costs.

You're not looking at the big picture. Only a handful of fans think like this, hell, not even I do.
I've bought one Dragon Box so far. One. Why? I wanted to see the quality on my HDTV and as I expected, it was gorgeous. Now why haven't I gone ahead and bought the rest? FUNimation really dug themselves a nice deep hole when they cancelled the Ultimate Uncut Editions (and to a lesser extent, the movie singles). I refuse to start buying a product which I feel may get cancelled somewhere down the line. When 1-7 are all own, I'll go on a spending spree but until then, I'm holding out.

But that's just one way of looking at it.

What about those who have low-income jobs? Can they just afford to start tossing money at a series because they "love it a lot"? You need to draw a line between what you want, and what you need. This whole "you'll buy it if you're a fan" mind-set (I'm aware that isn't what you said, but it was verging on it) is a bit of a close-minded way of thinking really.

[TheBlackPaladin]

But that's just one way of looking at it.

What about those who have low-income jobs? Can they just afford to start tossing money at a series because they "love it a lot"? You need to draw a line between what you want, and what you need. This whole "you'll buy it if you're a fan" mind-set (I'm aware that isn't what you said, but it was verging on it) is a bit of a close-minded way of thinking really.

I don't think so. Fan is short for "Fanatical.' You're not really that fanatical about something if you won't pay for it. I understand that not everybody has the money to effortlessly pull out of their wallets towards a DVD box set, I totally agree with and understand that. The disconnect, though, is when people say, "I can't afford it, so I'll just download* it." I don't mean to sound rude, but if you can't afford anime, then you do what you do with other things you can't afford--you don't get it (and in this case, by extension, don't watch it). No harm in that, all things considered. I love anime, but food, clothing and shelter kind of take priority.

*In this case, I use download to mean either literally downloading it or watching ilegally-uploaded episodes.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Well this sucks but I don't think the Dragon Boxes will be cancelled, we may however not get dragon ball or GT.. We may get the Movie box but that may be in 2011 after FUNi leaves the parent company.
What may happen is that FUNimation may have to merge with another company like VIZ for example, I can see that actually happening. VIZ actually holds allot of the manga titles that FUNi owns for the Anime versions so it'd be a perfect match, or.. FUNi will just go down and the licenses will be up for grabs. I'd rather see VIZ take Dragon Ball than 4kids...

[Rory]

I don't mean to sound rude, but if you can't afford anime, then you do what you do with other things you can't afford--you don't get it

But we live in a day and age where you can view this stuff with the press of a button. If you aren't going to buy it and have no intention of buying, what do you have to lose by watching it online, apart from some sort of.. weird moral high-ground?

I tell you something, if I didn't watch Full Metal Alchemist online (yup, every single episode..oh, and the movie!), I'd have never thought of buying it, but I checked out and loved it. Guess who's suddenly profiting from piracy? There isn't much point to this whole black and white "you're a twat if you pirate" mindset, because it's not the same as it used to be.

Yes, I'm aware I'm on thin ice here, but it irritates me when people have these kind of strict opinions. Do you honestly think anybody in the world doesn't watch an anime because they can't afford it? Of course not. It's just not a rational thing to ask somebody in this digital age.

[Godo]

I would love to be a good fan and to buy all the releases, but I have to face the fact: A Dragon Box for 30$, or food to eat for the month.
Every fan doesn't live at home, every fan doesn't get money from their parents. Every fan doesn't have a good salary, or one at all.
Looking at the "What I want for Christmas" thread, leaves me with the notion that some people here actually don't get why some fans don't (or simply can't) buy anime.
Myself, I buy second hand or I'll wait for when my studies are done and I start to work. Until then I download them, since I'm going to buy those beautiful boxes sooner or later.
I always buy and support my favorite movies and anime, when I can afford them. When I lived at home, I could do that, but for now, the Dragon Boxes are on hiatus, as well as some movies and box sets (which I haven't even downloaded yet, I watch them on TV or the cinema).
I'm not saying that it's my right to do so, but I make my own choices in my life based on my own conscience, god dammit, and no pimpled nerd on an online forum will make me think that I'm a horrible, horrible hypocrite asshole.

[TVfan721]

This post has been deleted.

[SSJSteve]

The Dragon Boxes are a good price in America ($26), it would cost me about £30-£35 to buy a Dragon Box which is about ($43). It's strange how the sales are so bad, FUNimation's DVD's are quite cheap. If I had to pay £17 for a Dragon Box I'd be pretty happy.

[CheechMonger]

Well this sucks but I don't think the Dragon Boxes will be cancelled, we may however not get dragon ball or GT.. We may get the Movie box but that may be in 2011 after FUNi leaves the parent company.

I agree. I also think that Funimation will complete the release of the Dragon Boxes (I just received volumes 2 and 3 yesterday in the mail yesterday, btw, thanks to Amazon.com's sale), but unless things improve we may not see any future boxes for DB or GT, which would be a shame (though I probably wouldn't cry so much over GT ). You can never have enough Dragon Ball, though.

[Vegeta Jr]

There is definately no way they will cancel it, they have invested too much into it to just pull out. If sales did plummet to a low enough mark they would still sell it to at least make back what they can.

The ultimate uncut series was cancelled because of Orange Bricks, they thought the Orange Bricks were better value for money and that people wouldn't buy both sets and decided to go with the bricks over the ultimate uncut.

[Cipher]

Out of every title in their catalogue, the Dragon Boxes are what I'd worry least about. They've already purchased the footage, and outside of packaging and printing, there are few additional production costs involved. They've already got the dub, the subtitles, the menu layouts, etc, etc.

And even if they aren't quite as strong a seller as the Season Sets (and I don't think Funimation ever intended for them to be), they have to be outselling most of their other catalogue just by having the words Dragon Ball Z on them.

Also, to everyone complaining about U.S. anime prices, go to Japan. Or the U.S. about five years back. They're equivalently priced to domestic shows now. I.e. cheap.

This whole "you'll buy it if you're a fan" mind-set (I'm aware that isn't what you said, but it was verging on it) is a bit of a close-minded way of thinking really.

Maybe. How about, "You'll buy it if you expect similar releases in the future"?

[jordanator]

Well, I hope they don't cancel them, as do most people.But I'm very aware, and suspicious, that Funimation would do such a thing.
I just thought of one thing.Funimation cancelled their releases for newer release, right?
What if Funimation were to cancel the remaining Dboxes for the rest of Kai?
Sorry, just a thought.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Well, I hope they don't cancel them, as do most people.But I'm very aware, and suspicious, that Funimation would do such a thing.
I just thought of one thing.Funimation cancelled their releases for newer release, right?
What if Funimation were to cancel the remaining Dboxes for the rest of Kai?
Sorry, just a thought.

If like that, they should do that from before Z Kai announced but if DBox Z canceled it's probably because of this

[jordanator]

Okay, now, I'm startin' to get a little bit worried.
On the upside, it can't be too long before the next Dragon Box announcement is released, one of which we can rely on.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Wasn't there a new Afro Samurai release that quarter last year? That alone is a huge blow to sales.

[piccolo-san785]

All I'm saying is I will not be purchasing the dboxes anytime soon even if they are just $26 (which is a very good deal to pass up), I would rather wait till all seven sets are out rather then finding out later that they would be cancelling them do to poor sales or some other reason.

[Echo64]

I really doubt they will cancel the Dragon Boxes, people are just making assumptions that they are not selling well, but I don't buy it. If it is true that they aren't selling well, then maybe they should make the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT Boxes for special order only. I guarantee the GT ones (or one) will sell like crazy, considering they are pretty rare.

[piccolo-san785]

maybe they should make the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT Boxes for special order only.

I like that idea.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

maybe they should make the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT Boxes for special order only.

I like that idea.

Unless it's too quick. One word: five years to go.

@Timo

What the hell, why did that happen?

One word: Rippers!


Of course a few other issues, but the DVD-rippers are the main reason that the German Anime industry (an industry which was never really big and healthy) is pretty down.

They have piracy issues and YouTube takes down any episodes (after the famous Viacom vs. YouTube issue). Also, many anime stores were shutdown over counterfeiting, piracy, bootlegs, fansubs, and more. FUNimation enforced the 'cease and desist' letters to those having problems.