The Old School Otaku Lounge

I am convinced that the entire run of black clamshell subbed VHS was originally meant to be the second wave of Anime Village's direct order system.

Here's the timeline I'm thinking of. Bandai starts up AnimeVillage. It's making money but not HUGE money (something assumed as a natural occurrence -sell in America, make huge money. But that's old playbook. Onward.). The profit margin on tapes sold is HIGH, like sexy 100% high, because there's no middleman. BUT, it's not enough traffic. It's not selling 100,000 units. How to get there?

I *suspect* Bandai then showed up at VSDA or a similar home video conference, where the pundits such as John O'Donnell and Carl Macek schooled them on a couple of 'realities' for American anime releases.

(note that I do NOT agree with these comments, I just present them as they were likely presented to the guy from Bandai. Also keep in mind this was sometime around 1997 or 1998. No later than 1999.)

a. Gotta dub it. You CANNOT reach a wide market with a sub only release. "people don't want to read their movies".

b. Gotta get into stores. 'the internet' isn't a great sales tool and the vast majority of your market doesn't shop online.

c. Really try to get on TV. TV is where it's at.

So, my thinking is, Bandai canceled their second wave of releases, rushed to get dubs made, realized that by selling to retail they were now cutting their profit margin in half so instead of their to-date norm of 4 or 5 episodes on one VHS tape they would conform to the industry standard of 2 episodes per tape.

Except in the case of Blue Sub No. 6 which was Bandai dipping their toe in the "can we release this in the Japanese manner and sell it?" water.

but of course the answer was YES at that time, as Suncoast was buying 10,000 to 15,000 copies of EVERYTHING. ONE SALE to Suncoast was probably more units moved by Bandai/AnimeVillage then the entire time they sold on the web.

Sales on the re-purposed AnimeVillage tapes was sluggish, because $29.95 for 2 episodes subbed, and 13 tapes for the series, was a serious pain to the wallet. Plus there was a s**t-ton of product coming out in those pre-DVD days.

And between the explosion that was Gundam Wing and acceptance of DVD as the new medium, AnimeVillage passed away.

ryoran wrote:Haunted Junction was also released under Anime Village. <:

Initially it was! They re-released it really quickly under Bandai, though. The VHS tapes that I bought in store had the Bandai label....the only AnimeVillage label ones I've seen is the complete VHS box set they released of it, so I don't think they released it under AV in single tapes or not. Does anyone know for sure? (Also one of the rare times they only released a series subtitled.) Maybe that was one of their online-only titles? It's been so long I really can't remember.

SteveH wrote:I am convinced that the entire run of black clamshell subbed VHS was originally meant to be the second wave of Anime Village's direct order system.

Here's the timeline I'm thinking of. Bandai starts up AnimeVillage. It's making money but not HUGE money (something assumed as a natural occurrence -sell in America, make huge money. But that's old playbook. Onward.). The profit margin on tapes sold is HIGH, like sexy 100% high, because there's no middleman. BUT, it's not enough traffic. It's not selling 100,000 units. How to get there?

I *suspect* Bandai then showed up at VSDA or a similar home video conference, where the pundits such as John O'Donnell and Carl Macek schooled them on a couple of 'realities' for American anime releases.

(note that I do NOT agree with these comments, I just present them as they were likely presented to the guy from Bandai. Also keep in mind this was sometime around 1997 or 1998. No later than 1999.)

a. Gotta dub it. You CANNOT reach a wide market with a sub only release. "people don't want to read their movies".

b. Gotta get into stores. 'the internet' isn't a great sales tool and the vast majority of your market doesn't shop online.

c. Really try to get on TV. TV is where it's at.

So, my thinking is, Bandai canceled their second wave of releases, rushed to get dubs made, realized that by selling to retail they were now cutting their profit margin in half so instead of their to-date norm of 4 or 5 episodes on one VHS tape they would conform to the industry standard of 2 episodes per tape.

Except in the case of Blue Sub No. 6 which was Bandai dipping their toe in the "can we release this in the Japanese manner and sell it?" water.

but of course the answer was YES at that time, as Suncoast was buying 10,000 to 15,000 copies of EVERYTHING. ONE SALE to Suncoast was probably more units moved by Bandai/AnimeVillage then the entire time they sold on the web.

Sales on the re-purposed AnimeVillage tapes was sluggish, because $29.95 for 2 episodes subbed, and 13 tapes for the series, was a serious pain to the wallet. Plus there was a s**t-ton of product coming out in those pre-DVD days.

And between the explosion that was Gundam Wing and acceptance of DVD as the new medium, AnimeVillage passed away.

I think those are all pretty good theories. Especially considering the timeframe in which they happened.

Eatman '98 and Haunted Junction have been added to the list.

Thanks ryoran and usamimi!

I spent a good amount of drunk time on Saturday night at AWA talking to a guy who worked for Bandai America in their mighty time of power. If only I'd thought to ask these questions!

I’ve made some interesting acquisitions over the last few weeks; two of which were Anime Village VHS box sets. The first box set is the subtitled Mobile Suit Gundam 0080/0083 box set that I’ve wanted since I first laid eyes on it. Please ignore that the Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 tapes come AFTER the 0083 tapes in the set, I didn't notice that until after I uploaded the image.



The second set is a Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 box set…dubbed in English.





This is the first time I can recall seeing an Anime Village release that was dubbed instead of subtitled. I was aware of the English-dubbed Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 release from Bandai (pictured below), but had no idea that this was also released under the Anime Village label.



I find it particularly interesting that Gundam 0083 takes up six tapes in the dubbed box set, but only four tapes in the subtitled box set.

I'll go ahead and add this to the list in the first post, but does anyone have any further information on this?

wow, nice finds!! I always loved all the Yaz art on those releases, I'd probably buy em just for that if I ever stumbled on them for cheap. As for the releases...hmmm. I might have to consult some of my friends that are big Gundam heads and see if they might know. I'm curious now, too!

Oh and I have another title you can add to this list! Don't Leave Me Alone Daisy was also an Anime Village release:

Thanks usamimi, I'll add it to the list!

I have the set of the dubbed Gundam 1-3 films at home, but I can't remember if they're labeled "Anime Village" or not. They aren't in clamshells, unlike the subtitled set (which I also have and have kept for the great box art).

davemerrill wrote:I have the set of the dubbed Gundam 1-3 films at home, but I can't remember if they're labeled "Anime Village" or not. They aren't in clamshells, unlike the subtitled set (which I also have and have kept for the great box art).

I believe that the dubbed versions of the Mobile Suit Gundam movies that came in the cardboard sleeves were not Anime Village releases, but please let us know if you find out that they are!