John wrote in a column a few weeks back about keeping anime in circulation simply because they’re so important to the creative history of Japanese animation — and I think this can be said of a number of titles Geneon used to distribute. I’m only part-way through Geneon’s release of FUSHIGI YUUGI, but I plan to finish it one of these days. Also, I’d like to see another adequate release of KOI KAZE…

And they definitely didn’t adapt quickly enough to the market. As the market, lead primarily by ADV and Funimation, continued to devalue anime with cheap singles, followed quickly by even cheaper box sets, Geneon kept charging the same prices. In fact, their prices were often even higher than those of the other companies, usually $5-$10 for a single. And don’t even get me started on their box prices….

Add in the fact, that they stuck primarily to niche series in the end years, their obituary was written. Now personally, I really enjoyed the premium box sets we use to get, but I know very few people bought them. At Best Buy, the boxes are always the first things sent back or marked down. And even marked down, people still didn’t grab them. Late last year, the art boxes for Beck were marked down to $5.99, and yet they still sat on shelves until they were all shipped backed to Funimation.

And the lower prices we enjoy today are good, but they also have a downside. Despite anime being more reasonably priced than ever, DVD sales are continuing to slide. Unfortunately, it means less profit margin per release, hence the cheap paper boxes, bricks, and stack packs we have been getting lately. Cheaper releases can make it much harder for a series to make a profit, or even break even. In the end, less profit, means less series licensed.

Anyway, here’s hoping that X TV, Chobits, and Ai Yori Aoshi find new homes soon. Those were some of my favorites in Geneon’s catalog.

http://pockybox.com/RandomActsofNerdness/rippioneer.html

I agree the expensive premiums were a bit much. When I headed over to Best Buy to buy a new anime, I didn’t really want to pay an extra $20 for a $3 trinket, even though I had to have said trinket more than anything. This stuff should still be offered today, just as an extra piece of merchadise seperate from the DVDs (Dokkodai?! car antenna toppers? Sign me up!).

I also agree Pioneer never was all that good at adapting. While ADV was training us to ignore single DVD releases and wait for drastically reduced box sets to come out, Pioneer kept releasing premium-priced wares. It was worse when they released a box set, which typically cost maybe $10 less than if you were to purchase all the DVDs seperately. $160 for 26 episodes is borderline criminal these days.

Here’s hoping we keep getting high-quality Prioneer releases from Funimation. They seem to know how to wrangle this fickle industry. $30 for a new 13 episode anime is a brilliant balancing act and should encourage sales in this recession. That I was able to purchase One Piece on preorder for $23 gives me hope for the industry.

But was can only have an industry if fans buy legimate DVDs. Come on, people, these are good deals!