ICv2 - Interview with Viz’s Gonzalo Ferreyra

[WTK]

FWIW, I figured that this probably deserved a thread here too...Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Some of the questions are directly quoted below...

Let’s switch over to anime. How do you evaluate the market for anime and for Viz anime in 2010?
It’s certainly become more competitive again, going back to some of what I was saying earlier. The issues are a concentration into the mass market and pricing. I think those are the two major challenges anime is facing and has faced for the last couple of years. We can’t be going out there with thirty dollar four-episode single discs any more when we’re competing against a full season that’s $29, $39, no more than $39 in many cases from the major networks and cable channels.

The opportunity has been (at least for us and this has always been our strategy) to focus on a few A+ titles and maximize what we can do with them in terms of their placement and in terms of really as broadly as possible reaching the market. Obviously that also is to some degree dependent on a strong television strategy as well. We’re very blessed by titles such as Naruto and Bleach that fit quite firmly into that strategy. I believe there’s a smaller market now, a shrinking market for the B and C titles. There’s no question those are harder to place largely because such a massive percentage of the DVD business goes through the mass market.

One of the things that’s happening in the DVD or home video business at large is the impact of Blu-ray. Where’s Viz on releasing Blu-ray versions of its titles?
Again, we’re in the early stages of examining it in terms of the U.S. market potential. As you know we’re distributed by Warner Brothers. It has a very active and successful Blu-ray program. One of the challenges with Blu-ray is that it’s region-free. We really need to do our homework in terms of coordinating releases with Japan, with the licensors to get this right. New conversations are happening.

Do you think you’ll get any Blu-ray out in 2010?
I don’t think we’ll see Blu-ray in 2010. It’s not likely.

[Doom86]

I liked how Gonzalo debunked the theory that Twilight was hurting manga sales, that idea never made sense to me either. I mean, I despise the series (well, only read the first book, but I can still call that crap at least), but I'll only put blame where blame is due.

Sounds like not only Viz but Yen Press as well is doing good. Glad to hear it.

In terms of Blu-Ray, it sounds like once again there will be issues with Japan in terms of price differences. I wouldn't be surprised if a deal has to be made where Viz anime can't be legally imported into Japan like the recent FUNi deal that happened. But it sounds like Viz won't be doing any Blu-Ray this year, so no concern right now.

Repackaging for Naruto makes sense to me, it's over 200 episodes in terms of boxset release. But Bleach hasn't even passed the 100-episode mark in terms of singles/boxset release. Just seems a little early to me.

[Quarkboy]

Originally Posted by Doom86

In terms of Blu-Ray, it sounds like once again there will be issues with Japan in terms of price differences. I wouldn't be surprised if a deal has to be made where Viz anime can't be legally imported into Japan like the recent FUNi deal that happened. But it sounds like Viz won't be doing any Blu-Ray this year, so no concern right now.

I don't think you understand exactly what happened with that. It was only a single retailer that's stopped selling Funi blu-rays (or any funi products period...)

There was nothing illegal about what they did, and in fact if they wanted to buy Funi stock from someone else and sell it they'd be within their legal rights.

Viz and Japan can do nothing to stop sales of blu-rays into Japan other than pressure retailers in the US not to export... But they'll never be able to demand amazon.com stop shipping their blu-rays overseas, Japan don't have that kind of leverage. If they did they would have stopped the blu-rays from hollywood and TV series, which are easily importable from amazon.com.

Forbidding imports/exports can only be done by imposing tariffs or other changes in the actual laws, not by companies unilaterally. So if we see a blu-ray from Viz, I would expect it's for a old series Japan has no interest in or is a high-priced simul release like what bandai is trying. Though in 2011 who knows?

[u_nick]

The Blu-ray talk is a bit more on the positive side. Would have liked that 2010 comment to have turned out the opposite, but I understand thier reasoning. Sounds like theyre looking at it, at least moreso than before.

[something]

I believe there’s a smaller market now, a shrinking market for the B and C titles.

I never ever want to see Viz license another anime so I hope this comment means they aren't going to try for anything other than a bare minimum of Shounen Jump fighting shows.

The less Viz touches, the better. I refuse to spend one single cent on any release they ever put out for the foreseeable future, and haven't bought anything from them since the first HxH box.

[treatment]

So is this material not coming out on Blu-ray in Japan either?
I’m not sure. It probably is. The issue is simply that any strategy we proceed with on Blu-ray is more than ever tied back to what they are doing and their release strategy. Keep in mind that if we release a Blu-ray disc in the U.S. with with original Japanese with optional sub-titles, that is an attractive disc back in Japan. It opens you up to a gray market back in Japan that creates some problems. The pricing here is actually very competitive versus the Japan pricing. We have a lot to sort out.

Despite being in the same BD-region, the price protection racket in Japan has very long arms indeed.

[LOUiE]

Anything that’s changing on the anime side then that you’re looking forward to? How do you think the market’s going to change?
You’ll see some exciting things in terms of repackaging of some of our classics, also repackaging of the earlier Naruto, Bleach, Death Note. Like I said earlier, price is an issue in this market. There are still opportunities to turn some of those catalog titles into evergreens. We’ll be doing that pretty aggressively.

Anything we didn’t touch on?
The Beta of Viz anime is out there. In terms of initiatives in 2010 there’s probably nothing more exciting than that.

What’s that?
It is the anime streaming site for Viz. It’s in Beta--it’s out there. The official launch should be in the next month or so. It’s a partnership with Hulu; it’s an opportunity to put our entire category in one place.

Ad-supported?
It’s ad-supported--it’s the embedding of the Hulu player so of course there’s an ad component through Hulu and then obviously we’re using it as an opportunity to link pretty aggressively to our store and feature our properties as well.

This has me intrigued. Viz is already putting Hikaru no Go on Hulu at a fairly fast pace. I'm hoping they do the same with their other "on hold" series like Full Moon. The talk about turning some catalog titles into evergreen titles could hold promise for a second chance for these shows on dvd in more of a box set format.

Of course, I'm not getting my hopes up as this is Viz afterall. But it does open the door a tiny bit to the possibility of getting these titles in their entirety. They've already been dubbed. So their comment about the "box" only gets the dub would work with these titles too.

[Tratious]

that sucks they won't be releasing BD but I have accepted that. I don't even think any of their shows have a BD release in Japan anyway, and we all know how this is turning out in N.A with FUNI

I would have liked to have the second BLEACH movie on BD since it is HD(courtesy of Studio Pierrot and Sony PCL)

oh well thanks for the articles.

[dragonpiece]

Why are they re-packiging Bleach? I thought the boxes were like 20 episodes? So they will make it like 40?! Same for Death Note I guess they are just going to do one big box set on that one.

[joelgundam01]

Originally Posted by dragonpiece

Why are they re-packiging Bleach? I thought the boxes were like 20 episodes? So they will make it like 40?! Same for Death Note I guess they are just going to do one big box set on that one.

Either that or it will be the same discs and episodes, just different packaging and a cheaper price.