Since jumping into the anime retailor ring, I’ve noticed even cons with 1000+ attendance lack home video vendors, and oftentimes lack manga vendors. More than one convention has been thrilled to see us come in with our bins of DVDs to fill that void, as we are the only DVD dealer at that particular show.

Speaking from a 30-year-old dinosaur who purchased VHS tapes for $20 or more for ideally 4 episodes of content, I’m dedicated to expanding my shelves with new titles, an ever-growing momument to my fandom. It also provides an ensured ability to pull a favorite title off the shelf and watch it when I want and whatever device will support it. No DRM, no titles dropped from a streaming server. The deal is I handed over my cash and received a real thing, and it is mine until it is sold, lost, stolen, broken, etc.

This is not compatitable with the thinking of the newest fan generation. As John said, it’s all about the culture, even if that culture has nothing to do with anime in any direct sense. We live in an era where young fans will drop $800 for an artist to make them custom-designed furry pants, but balk at the idea of paying $20 for a complete series.

And why should they? They can stream it, legally or otherwise, for free, and they’re only interested in series that are sucessfully thrust in front of them anyway. With so much culture to absorb, the modern fan has little time for experiementation.

Massive bulk purchases are not unknown at cons, and there are many of still buy DVDs. The culture has changed, however. It’s frightening, yet fastinating to see what this decade will bring as the young fans grow up and take their experience with the technology of now into the mass culture.