Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

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Akage
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Re: Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

Post by Akage »

SteveH wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 7:52 pmThis is not Japan. The market just won't support $500 box sets. If you seriously believe the company can survive on sub-500 unit sales, well. Good luck with that.
..Except that Aniplex has used this model in the US, and for most of their BDs/DVDs, they've sold very well for their price point.

I remember that I thought the same way you did when Aniplex first started to branch out to the US with Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of the Sinners). I went to their premier at New People in Japantown, SF and laughed when they told the audience that we could own all 7 movies in the deluxe box for $500. A quick Google search shows that it's out of stock on Rightstuf at a price of $319.98 for the standard edition. That tells me that there are at least some folks out there that don't mind coughing up $300+ for physical releases. I also seem to recall that Aniplex did the same with Madoka Magica, and the limited edition Blu-Ray box sets have only increased in price since their initial release.

Funi is doing is what Aniplex is doing. Funi believes that Cowboy Bebop is a hot enough property for people to want to still shell out hundreds of dollars on a new release. Assuming this is a US version only exclusive, they've spent some serious cash designing these new books, packaging and limited edition tchotchkes. Unlike most of Aniplex's US releases, CB has been released multiple times in the past. The tchotchkes might be the only thing enticing fans to consider buying the series again, particularly at the prices Funi wants. So, it'll be interesting to see if US fans, despite having access to the series and perhaps already owning multiple versions of its release, want to spend $500 to buy the series again. My guess is that this particular release will be Funi's experiment to see what their clientele is willing to spend and what sort of premium items, if any, they value most. If the Bebop fans are wise, they'll see the writing on the wall and not want to send that sort of message to Funi.
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Re: Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

Post by usamimi »

DKop wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:12 pm Well, lets hope Funi doesn't do what Bandai did on those Patlabor boxsets where they printed limited 10k in copies that NO ONE BOUGHT till years later when there 10 bucks on Amazon when people actually started to buy them (like I did for the first two movies, well worth it!). So its either these will sell well, or not sell well and flood the market and be marked down in a decade to less than 8 percent than what they were going for.
Well, like it says in the press release I linked in the very 1st post, only the ones that get the most preorders will get made & they're most likely gonna be Funimation shop exclusive, so....This basically sounds like a Kickstarter situation minus the Kickstarter. Again, I'm pretty sure they're playing it safe & gauging interest for this kinda thing with a title everyone loves.

Also, keep in mind they're including the movie in this set, too. The old Sony bluray for the Cowboy Bebop movie was not very good, so this is yet another incentive to order the set.

Akage also has a good point with the Aniplex releases. People bemoaned the prices of those, but definitely still bought many of them.
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SteveH
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Re: Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

Post by SteveH »

Akage wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 10:28 pm
SteveH wrote: Sun Apr 29, 2018 7:52 pmThis is not Japan. The market just won't support $500 box sets. If you seriously believe the company can survive on sub-500 unit sales, well. Good luck with that.
..Except that Aniplex has used this model in the US, and for most of their BDs/DVDs, they've sold very well for their price point.

I remember that I thought the same way you did when Aniplex first started to branch out to the US with Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of the Sinners). I went to their premier at New People in Japantown, SF and laughed when they told the audience that we could own all 7 movies in the deluxe box for $500. A quick Google search shows that it's out of stock on Rightstuf at a price of $319.98 for the standard edition. That tells me that there are at least some folks out there that don't mind coughing up $300+ for physical releases. I also seem to recall that Aniplex did the same with Madoka Magica, and the limited edition Blu-Ray box sets have only increased in price since their initial release.

Funi is doing is what Aniplex is doing. Funi believes that Cowboy Bebop is a hot enough property for people to want to still shell out hundreds of dollars on a new release. Assuming this is a US version only exclusive, they've spent some serious cash designing these new books, packaging and limited edition tchotchkes. Unlike most of Aniplex's US releases, CB has been released multiple times in the past. The tchotchkes might be the only thing enticing fans to consider buying the series again, particularly at the prices Funi wants. So, it'll be interesting to see if US fans, despite having access to the series and perhaps already owning multiple versions of its release, want to spend $500 to buy the series again. My guess is that this particular release will be Funi's experiment to see what their clientele is willing to spend and what sort of premium items, if any, they value most. If the Bebop fans are wise, they'll see the writing on the wall and not want to send that sort of message to Funi.
Except what Aniplex was/is doing is releasing new content unavailable in the U.S. unless one buys the Japanese release. As you say, Cowboy Bebop does have a number of releases in the air, so the key selling points are the LPs and Book, with the PVC 'bookends' and Fancy Box being variables.

And neither example negates my point that all this does is squeeze the market into smaller and smaller numbers. There is no GROWTH possible with this strategy.

People feel pretty burned by the Head of Speed Racer set. Annoyed that the 'general release' of Speed Racer on BD is just Speed Racer and not Mach Go Go Go. I think Funi has already done their 'experiment' and figure just keep bumping that price up (see also the Sentai Films LoGH box monstrosity), something will sell just you wait!

Madness. Madness. If Funi actually believes that their future lies in sub-500 unit sales of $300 and up product, well, they don't have much future.
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Re: Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

Post by DKop »

Yea I don't get how we cant get a Bluray set of LOGH for roughly 80-100 bucks MSRP. It's the set people are going to buy to enjoy the show physically because owning 100 plus episodes of an anime and movies on bluray for that price isn't too bad. It feels like they might do the Bandai approach and after the fansy smanshy Zeta Gundam boxset, then the dvds can come out by themselves which is what sold more for Bandai.
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Re: Funimation's 20th Anniversary Cowboy Bebop sets announced

Post by usamimi »

Yeah, even tho Sentai made sure to say they have no intentions on selling "non collector's editions", a lot of people are speculating that these pricey box sets are to help gauge interest/raise funds for future releases. Which, if that's the case, maybe I can understand the price point a little more? But if it doesn't, that's gonna be a bit disappointing.

BUT getting back to the Funimation sets, I'm almost certain the $250 one will probably get made since it's the cheapest and has everything most fans would want. I'll be curious to see if the other sets make it, and if that $500 goes, how the bookends end up looking for real. :lol:
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