Anime beating out all other genres in Blu-ray sales in Japan

[Buster Darkwings]

http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081128/gfk.htm

680,000 Blu-ray discs were sold (actual sales, not shipped discs) from January through September in Japan, a 357% increase from the same period last year. Of those, 34% were anime. However, many of those sales come from August and September, in which the percentages for anime Blu-ray sales were 53% and 64%, respectively. This happens to be the same period in which Bandai Visual started releasing Blu-rays of recent TV anime such as Macross F, Gundam 00, and Code Geass/Code Geass R2. This was a sharp increase from the previous months, as seen in this chart (the red line represents total Blu-ray disc sales): http://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20081128/gfk1.jpg

In terms of yen, sales were 3.8 billion yen in the January-September 2008 period, an increase of 373% from the same period last year. Percentage of Blu-ray disc sales compared to DVD increased from 0.9% in January 2008 to 3.8% in September.

[Daimao Raki]

This isn't suprising. I wonder if most fans over there don't care about the price of anime.

[Geno]

This isn't suprising. I wonder if most fans over there don't care about the price of anime.
It's not so much that they don't care, it's just that there's not much they can do about it. They could reverse import, but with shipping figured in it's not really that much cheaper. Another thing is that we have a fraction of the Anime Blu-Rays that they have.

[JeffDM]

This isn't suprising. I wonder if most fans over there don't care about the price of anime.
It's not so much that they don't care, it's just that there's not much they can do about it. They could reverse import, but with shipping figured in it's not really that much cheaper. Another thing is that we have a fraction of the Anime Blu-Rays that they have.

Isn't their average income a lot higher too?

[Skywise]

Yes, but other costs are higher as well, so it evens out.

[JeffDM]

Yes, but other costs are higher as well, so it evens out.

That was what I was thinking, everything is expensive, but the income should balance that out. Like maybe a Japanese blu-ray costs the same fraction of their income as it would be in other major economies, say one BD available locally is 0.05% of an average person's annual income in that region. So relatively speaking, maybe roughly similar pain for similar gain.

[Skywise]

Yes and no. DVDs, and anime ones in particular are very expensive to begin with. If you compare Japan to Norway, both of which are at the top list for expensive countries to live in, Japan is cheaper for food, but more expensive for DVDs. OTOH cars are more expensive here than in Japan. Rent seems to be about equivalent for the same living standard, but of course if you actually want the same space as here, expect to pay a hefty premium.

It's an incredibly complex piece of math, especially once you add in things like DVD sales ratio compared to population size differing - space limitations will automatically put a damper on stuff like building a DVD collection and having a home theater. About the only thing you can say is that compared to other forms of entertainment, DVDs and BDs are expensive in Japan, even for Japanese.

[Njr Scrawl]

Wouldn't anime Blu Rays in Japan be rented more than bought, as for other media in the past?

Out of interest, what are Japanese customs & any other import taxes like? What values attract attention & costs, & how would that increase the price of a reverse import compared to a Japanese domestic release?

[Buster Darkwings]

A lot of anime Blu-rays aren't available for rent in Japan. The recent HD TV anime that's been coming out from Bandai Visual (Macross F, Gundam 00, Code Geass, etc.) that seemed to cause the spike in Blu-ray sales are sale-only at this point.