Seriously. I was all excited to find out that Kodocha was being released here, since I never managed to get fansubs (that whole baby thing having kept me pretty busy). Evan was going to get it for me until we realized: It's $30 per 3 episode DVD. And there's 102 episodes. That's $1,020. Even at Amazon prices, or with discounts....that's a ton of money. But obviously they think there's a bunch of people out there that have it! When we realized how much these series are costing people we just couldn't believe it. I know DVDs aren't cheap but...the Emma Peel Avengers megaset cost us $99 for 51 episodes, for example. The recent Pee-Wee release? $80 at Amazon for, I think, 48 episodes. How are the anime companies getting $10 per episode? And do "the kids" really have that much allowance to spend? Holy wow.
A lot of anime series now get re-released in cheaper boxed sets after ten or twelve months, minus, say, extras and some of the shiny art. Nowadays, this is the way to go -- especially if you're not keeping up with the release month after month and you end up missing an intermediate volume or two, because you run the risk of the individual volumes going OOP (I've been stung by this a couple times).
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes you luck out with boxed set discounts, too. Never anything so good as when the Sailor Moon series 1 and 2 licenses lapsed and the boxes could be had for $40, of course. But Right Stuf regularly have pretty fantastic clearances, and dvdpricesearch.com is a Good Thing. (I see they've spotted Kodocha volume one at $18 and the starter set at $25, which is more reasonable).
I have no idea how they're getting people to buy Kodocha at that price point. None. That must be one expensive license. At least when ADV did Gantz at 2 episodes a disc, the price reflected it...
Wow, thanks for the tips! Too bad I missed the Sailor Moon thing, we'd have loved those sets for Emily!
ReplyDeleteLater cheaper sets make sense, I'll wait and see if that ever happens.
Ah! And it looks like Kodocha is 4 episodes per $30, which is still a lot but...at $18 we're getting down to $4.50 per episode. Which is not quite as horrible. Even so...even at that price it's nearly $500 for the series. I'll keep waiting...
Google around. Some places still have those first two Sailor Moon sets (Right Stuf jacked the price on them up to $140/each! Try non-anime vendors who are clearing old stock), and it should still be possible to get S and SuperS for between $75-$90 with a little bit of effort (either as individual "Signature Series" discs or the thinpak boxes) 'cause the license for those only just lapsed.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard good things about GreenCine's anime stock levels (and, to a lesser extent, Netflix), although I can't use it over here in England -- my guess is a lot of anime fans rent these days.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I definitely want the dual audio version (so we can show them to Emily) and it looks like I'll have to be careful to make sure I get them.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Kodocha was apparently posted through usenet and just finished up. Not that I'm endorsing downloading things that way or anything. ::coff:: Too bad I missed it!
Only S and SuperS were dual-audio, sadly. Too many footage differences in the dub and original for the first two, some episodes never dubbed at all, things like that.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not too worried about having the sub for BSSM and R, there are dub-only discs floating around discount bins and the like, so you could probably gather up a set for not a lot at all. When I've been over, I've mostly seen them in places like Walgreen's.
The fansubbers never got past the first third or so of the series, I seem to recall. ^^;
Er, the first third of Kodocha, meaning...
ReplyDelete