The Old School Otaku Lounge

Heero wrote:When I was younger I would have wanted to run an anime store, but I'd have gone broke because I'd have stocked it full of COOL stuff that too few people would have wanted to buy. But I learned a LONG time ago that as much as I SHOULD be, I'm not anything close to the final arbiter of taste and popularity.

Same here! It was kind of a dream of mine to run an anime/asian snacks/bubble tea/comics store. But I know it's difficult. One of our local anime stores which has been around since...gosh late 90's I think, recently closed down because they couldn't stay open any longer. But going there right before they closed, it looks like they made some bad purchasing decisions. There was a HUGE wall of brand new, 2000's and up anime, and no titles I personally collected. And they carried nothing but Gundam, Figma, and Nendoroids. The only section that interested me was a tiny bookshelf in the back with old artbooks and shitajiki. A few years ago as well, a Hobby Gunpla store also closed down, after being open for only a year I think.

There's still 3 major anime stores in our area though, Kinokuniya, International Hobby Toys, and Sweet Kitty (which we recently visited again, and they are doing well, they are half anime, half Sanrio). I even bought some Ranma 1/2 posters from them (shocked they had some!).

Back onto the subject of H selling well...yeah guys definitely download it. But man my guy friends spent more on H VHS and DVD than actually getting downloads of it back then. I do feel like that wouldn't be the case as much now, but if I tie this with doing freelance anime artwork...I get asked alot more for adult art than I do for clean art.

Heero wrote:

greg wrote:If they really think that they will stay afloat by focusing on releasing pervy stuff instead of great shows, then they are really shooting themselves in the foot. I can't imagine that the demand for H stuff is greater than for regular stuff, but then again, maybe I'm naive.

No offense intended by this, but yes, you are naive. I'm not a fan (of hentai, yaoi or yuri) either but I CAN say that I have some friends that ran an anime rental store in the early boom years and pervy and/or hentai titles were the best renters. I believe they noted that F3 got stolen TWICE but had already paid for itself in rentals both times. Whereas many other quality titles got few if any rentals. This is one reason I was never a believer in anime becoming "mainstream".

I didn't believe anime would become "mainstream" either at some point around the turn of this century, but to be honest, what you said could also apply to movies in general in the pre-2000s era. There are plenty of quality films that get rented maybe 5 times a year, whereas I'm quite sure a store with "MILF Hunt Volume 6" probably gets rented out over 50 times a year. It's not that regular anime isn't popular enough in this case you cited, it's just that porn in general will always do more consistent business.

It should be noted that in my city, the video rental stores that have lasted the longest are probably the adult video stores. Chains like Blockbusters have come and gone, and boutique video rental stores--while plentiful--have a very high turnover rate in my city, but there are like a half a dozen porn stores that opened in the 1980s that are still standing. They may not make as much as a video rental store chain overall, but they make consistent business because there are always at least 500 guys in any given city--big or small--who don't have internet yet who consistently watch porn.

That said, I don't think people who watch porn are willing to buy porn for too much money. So while there are certain hentai connoisseurs, I doubt actual hentai SALES are that smashing. And they're usually like $30 for about 50 minutes, which is just not worth it. Especially if as a customer you're just going in for a 5 minute wank. That's why porn is much better suited for rentals, or bargain bin sales.

I own about 5 or 6 hentai titles on DVD and about 3 of them were bought used. Thank goodness there wasn't any sticky business when I opened up the cases! Opening up a suspiciously sticky used porn DVD case has probably happened to many people somewhere, believe me. I'm beginning to run off track, though...

That said, I don't think people who watch porn are willing to buy porn for too much money. So while there are certain hentai connoisseurs, I doubt actual hentai SALES are that smashing

Yeah, see, that's what I was getting at, too. I don't know if sales are really THAT great on H titles to really be warranting a new DVD release each month? I mean, most of them are kind of on the expensive side from what I've seen...which is why I usually see people talking about downloading them instead.

Not that I'm trying to say people SHOULDN'T buy DVDs (no matter what genre) just because they think they're "too expensive", but that seems to be the mindset of many in this younger generation of anime fans, I notice. So I dunno if Media Blasters should count on a lot of sales just from this. :S