FUNimation Sales Down 15% in Q4

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

Ugh, don't remind me. I'm still angry over that cancellation. Couple that with the fact that I doubt anyone's willing to try a second crack at releasing that anytime soon.

Agreed, I don't we're ever going to see the rest of the episodes released officially uncut.


We Dragon Ball fans take having the original language track on our DVDs for granted. Fans of such as Anime as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Digimon, Shaman King, Sonic X, Hoshi no Kirby and Tokyo Mew Mew, don't have this luxury.

[Super Sonic]

I didn't know they made dvds for Kirby. Though that show not being released dual-language is not really surprising, due to its young fanbase.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I didn't know they made dvds for Kirby. Though that show not being released dual-language is not really surprising, due to its young fanbase.

All of those Anime got English DVD releases of some sort, except for Tokyo Mew Mew.

[SHINOBI-03]

You know what I think the real reason for the sales drop?!

Uneducated casual fans who can't decide what to buy because they don't know the contents of each release.

And we have three formats of DBZ each with their ups and downs.

[Rory]

One word: five years to go.

lol

As I said before about the Ultimate Uncut Editions, FUNimation really have nobody but themselves to blame if the Dragon Boxes aren't selling well. They've confused their target audience to the point where the majority don't even know what the product is, nor do they know what Kai is. I wouldn't be surprised if both Kai and the Dragon Boxes sell poorly overall, because of the poor marketing they have been accompanied with.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

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.

I'm not saying "go nuts and spend every dollar of your desposible income on Anime". That's just overdoing it. I'm saying that if you have $15 or so dollars to spare, instead of torrenting an Anime series you're interesting in, buy the DVD and support the series so maybe more DVDs or episodes might get produced.

[Rory]

I'm not saying "go nuts and spend every dollar of your desposible income on Anime". That's just overdoing it. I'm saying that if you have $15 or so dollars to spare, instead of torrenting an Anime series you're interesting in, buy the DVD and support the series so maybe more DVDs or episodes might get produced.

But the Dragon boxes are around 50 dollars on release, much more than 15. Take into consideration that a lot of of the fans (including myself) do no live in the US, so we pay even more for shipping. Starting to look a little ugly for those who can't afford to be forking out this kind of cash.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I'm not saying "go nuts and spend every dollar of your desposible income on Anime". That's just overdoing it. I'm saying that if you have $15 or so dollars to spare, instead of torrenting an Anime series you're interesting in, buy the DVD and support the series so maybe more DVDs or episodes might get produced.

But the Dragon boxes are around 50 dollars on release, much more than 15. Take into consideration that a lot of of the fans (including myself) do no live in the US, so we pay even more for shipping. Starting to look a little ugly for those who can't afford to be forking out this kind of cash.

I can see where you're coming from. I'm personally not buying the Dragon Boxes myself for that very reason. I already bought all the cheap Season Sets and I just don't have the funds to re-buy the whole series with improved picture quality for a considerably more amount of money.


I could save up over a long period of time to buy the Dragon Boxes, but the difference between them and the Season Sets isn't big enough to justify me doing this, when I could spend my money on other things (I have interests outside DB, you know ).

[The Time Traveller]

One word: five years to go.

I literally burst out laughing at this, but it would be cool having Dragon Boxes for special order, the only problem would be if Funimation enforced the whole anti-UK bullshit...

[Cipher]

I'm ... not really seeing where this whole idea that the Dragon Boxes aren't doing well is coming from. I thought they've been placing fairly highly in terms of anime sales lists.

And even if they're being beaten by other Dragon Ball products, I can't imagine they're selling worse than Random Funimation Anime #47. And unlike Random Funimation Anime #47, they don't have to do jack-all for these releases now except packaging and printing. I can only assume it's one of their larger profit-to-cost ratios.

[The Time Traveller]

I'm ... not really seeing where this whole idea that the Dragon Boxes aren't doing well is coming from. I thought they've been placing fairly highly in terms of anime sales lists.

Idiots being idiotic. Probably because the UUE got cancelled for the seasons, even though they were shit anyway.

[Rory]

Idiots being idiotic. .

That was necessary.

[Super Sayian Prime]

Those on the fence waiting for the entire series to be released have got to know they're part of a self fullfilling prophecy. If 3/4 of the DragonBox wanting audience sits on the fence waiting for it all to be released, then it certainly won't be completely released. Obviously, I understand the concern about getting burned, but risks sometimes are taken.

As for my reason as to why I don't own the DragonBox releases, it's because I'm unsure of if I want to sit through Z again. I have all of the orange bricks and it was a chore to get through it, and Kai isn't cutting it for me either. Now, I'd buy DragonBoxes for DragonBall and GT (even though I own a few of the blue bricks, and the green bricks) just because those two I can see myself realistically rewatching.

[DbzFanboy]

I am one who tries my best to purchase and support an anime that I'm a fan of. Although I'm far from wealthy I still can manage to buy a $26 box-set of something that I'm really going to enjoy. In a way I use the whole "piracy" stuff to help me find new anime that I will like so that I can buy it. I wouldn't own Kodocha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Kenichi or Fruits Basket if I didn't check them out online first but what I hate is the people that watch it online and even if they love the heck out if it they won't go out and buy it. Although no type of piracy is justifiable I say unless you use it to find new anime to buy or your watching something that you know wont be released of here then your just plain messing up the anime industry that we all love. The only reason I would say the Dragon Boxes are tanking is because they're start out msrp was $79.99 and now were looking at $26.99 on amazon.

[The Time Traveller]

I don't watch fansubs at all, I always buy series blindly based on recommendations. Though I haven't bought any in a while...

The funny thing is that I don't buy any music at all.

[Innagadadavida]

I don't watch fansubs because I hate subtitles, I hate watching things on the computer, I like having a physical product and I'm trying to enjoy that luxury while it still exists. These are the reasons I buy DVDs and Blu-rays. After three years of buying them, I have a nice little collection. It's one of the centerpieces in my living room.

While this is certainly sad news and I'm pretty bummed to hear it. There's nothing I can do. I'll keep buying the things I want to support. We all know that if we don't take that responsibility (paying for things we should pay for rather than pirating them), then we'll kill the anime industry. Then there will be no more anime in the West, it'll become an even smaller niche, and even Japan will suffer from the lack of support from licenses.

[Supa Saiya-Jin Tullece]

I think people are becoming numb to the series. There are just so many versions that no one cares anymore.

I mean, here's the situation:

And that doesn't count:
DragonBall
DragonBall GT
DragonBox Singles
DragonBall Evolution
Viz's Children's Novels


And everything else...

[Innagadadavida]

That's a terrible flowchart. It basically says the singles have the same quality as the Dragon Box.

[Supa Saiya-Jin Tullece]

That's a terrible flowchart. It basically says the singles have the same quality as the Dragon Box.

Sorry, I was using some free online thing that had virtually no room to work with, so I couldn't be anywhere near as detailed or specific as I wanted to be.

I was too lazy to do one in paint or anything like that, but you get the general idea that people that aren't of our ilk (who go to Daizex, Kanzentai and the like and are generally well informed) are going to be terribly confused as to what they might want, or why they should care about what's what.

[SilverPlaqueVII]

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