Support NeoGAF

[Big Chungus]

Anyone remember how much anime dvds cost in the late 90s/early 2000s?

I swear I paid almost $100 for the Ghost in the Shell dvd when it first came out...but my memory is foggy.

 

[Dio]

Anyone remember how much anime dvds cost in the late 90s/early 2000s?

I swear I paid almost $100 for the Ghost in the Shell dvd when it first came out...but my memory is foggy.

Blurays are far worse now.

The Fate/zero box sets together were like 800 dollars.

The Kara no Kyoukai one alone was 600.

 

[bigkrev]

29.99 for 3-4 episodes is burnt in my head.

 

[Busaiku]

Blurays are far worse now.

The Fate/zero box sets together were like 800 dollars.

Aniplex is not the market at large.
Aniplex charges Japanese prices because they can.
It's usually $60 or so for 12/13 episode sets from other companies.

 

[Tom_Cody]

29.99 for 3-4 episodes is burnt in my head.

Getting all of Evangelion was murder.

 

[ShirAhava]

I remember paying $80 for the Bubblegum Crisis OVA

The original Tenchi Muyo OVA DVD set was like $120-$180 at suncoast....dark times but the cover was really nice

 

[Big Chungus]

Also...the Berserk (2016) blu rays are going to be 22,500 yen each...which is $210 USD??

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...lans-suggest-12-episode-run-for-berserk-anime
"A home video listing has the series coming out in two 6-episode Blu-ray sets on October 28th and December 21st for 22,500yen each - for a total of 12 episodes."

This has to be a mistake right?

 

[bjork]

Most titles we sold new for $24.99, with some coming in lower if they were budget-label reissues.

Hentai was $26.99 and up, and we had people who drove from other states specifically to load up on hentai. Craziness.

[edit- I never watched Tenchi but I always wanted the box a few posts up because it looks so neat.]

 

[Narag]

Also...the Berserk (2016) blu rays are going to be 22,500 yen each...which is $210 USD??

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...lans-suggest-12-episode-run-for-berserk-anime
"A home video listing has the series coming out in two 6-episode Blu-ray sets on October 28th and December 21st for 22,500yen each - for a total of 12 episodes."

This has to be a mistake right?

No, that's accurate. Domestic releases in other countries are likely to be priced closer to respective markets after a sufficient amount of time has passed.

 

[FLEABttn]

I paid something like $205 for the entire series of X so I could have those slip covers.

 

[tirkaroKujo]

This thread reminds me how lucky I was that my mom had a Netflix subscription, back when it was exclusively just a DVD mailing service. There's no way I could have kept up with all the anime I did if I had to buy all of it with those prices. Still there were plenty of anime I wish I could have owned forever, like Lain.

 

[Goro Majima]

I was paying like $18 for a whopping 3 episodes per DVD of Dragonball Z.

That was the internet price too from Deep Discount DVD I think? If you went to a store you'd pay something like $25 each.

 

[Spenny]

I think the first anime DVDs I got were the X series and they were, like, $30 for two episodes.

They did come with nice slip covers though.

Edit: FLEABttn knows what's up

 

[thebeeks]

Six episode show, two episodes per DVD, $30-35 a pop.

 

[disappeared]

Getting all of Evangelion was murder.

Yes, yes it was.

Like, a lot of my part-time job money went to anime on DVD, because I had to either order it online or wait till I could make a trip into the big city to buy it at a ridiculous markup.

 

[Breads]

IIRC I bailed when I saw Blue Submarine No. 6 OVA episodes being 29.99 each. This was 2003 or 2004.

 

[Ran rp]

Six episode show, two episodes per DVD, $30-35 a pop.

and it ain't even HD

 

[jstripes]

Cowboy Bebop was 6 discs, at $50 a disc.

I can't believe I spent $300 on that show.

Thank goodness for CrunchyRoll.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

I can explain something, since I worked for a anime-publisher before from around 2004-2007.

The reason why anime-DVDs were expensive af wasnt because of the western publishers, but the japanese publishers.

Let me show how a negotiation went:

"Hey. We would love to buy the rights to your anime Haruhi. How much is it?"
"You cant buy just Haruhi. If you want to buy a popular anime, you have to buy Formula 1 anime that no one even in Japan watched. So you have to buy the rights to our shitty anime if you want Haruhi."
"Okay. That will be expensive, since no one will buy the other anime, but okay. So what kind of bonus material can we use?"
"Bonus material? The price is just for the rights. If you want bonus material, pay more. If you dont like it, take it or leave it."
"We just want to print a small poster."
"Yeah. You need to buy the rights for that too. We wont give it to you for free."

Thats how it worked. So actually you didnt just pay for Haruhi, but you had to pay for 2 anime and if you dont want to lose money and still get some, you have to put around 2-3 episodes per DVD for 25-30€.
I can tell you that the western publishers wanted to release those for 12-15€ each DVD, but they just couldnt, because the japanese dictated eveything. From the price, to bonus materials, to the coverdesign, to marketing...
Also here is an explanation if you were always asking yourself why some publishers released trash anime. They got the rights by buying a popular anime, so why not just release the bad anime.

I just post that here, since during that time a lot of people were accusing the western publishers to set the price so high to make a lot of dosh, but thats not the case. The japanese publishers were a pain in the ass to work with and in Germany a lot of publishers left the anime-market because of that. A counter-example is when you buy the rights for an indian, chinese, korean or taiwanese movie. Its "We give you 100.000$ for the rights." "Okay. You can use it for 5 years. Here you go."

 

[Sanjuro]

I think I paid $60 for Jin Roh. Ended up returning it somehow back to the store and got my money back. Never went back.

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I just stuck with VHS tapes, still got a few put away somewhere.

 

[kswiston]

I was in Canada, so it was closer to $40-50 a DVD. As a result, the only anime I ever bothered buying as Princess Mononoke, Akira, and Cowboy Bebop.

At least Blockbuster video existed.

 

[bjork]

I just stuck with VHS tapes, still got a few put away somewhere.

I still have my "special collector's edition" Akira VHS that came in a weird off-green box and I forget what was different about it. I think I had a Kiki's Delivery Service that was all Japanese but had a US release?

 

[Giolon]

I remember paying $80 for the Bubblegum Crisis OVA

The original Tenchi Muyo OVA DVD set was like $120-$180 at suncoast....dark times but the cover was really nice

I had this and only replaced it with the Blu-ray release about 2 years ago!

Gundam Wing, 10 DVDs of ~5 episodes each. $25-$30 per DVD. $250 for the whole set. (The other option was 3 episode VHS tapes at $20 per tape).

Ditto for Gundam SEED.

 

[erotic grandpa]

Yeah, the old anime market was kind of a nightmare. Even worse if you go further back (imagine paying $30-40 for two or three episodes, but on a VHS).

As stated above, publishers had a lot of unreasonable demands, to say the least, and the market had to price accordingly.

I think the only show I ever bought, volume by volume, was Excel Saga? The inserts and "pop up video" style notes were pretty fun.

Also remember the releases of Outlaw Star and Saber Marionette J being blessings, of sorts. Three rather affordable volumes for each, instead of the standard six or seven.

Full series sets and Bandai's Anime Legends line followed not too long after.

 

[Exis]

You guys complaining of the cost, I remember the cost of tapes in the 90's. With DVD the price went down, spurned me watching Anime for a few years.
Been ages since I have watched anime tho.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Yep. I remember paying $19.99 for each Cowboy Bebop Session DVD that came out. And they were broken up into 3-4 episode per disc chunks. I made sure to buy them when they came out because if you waited the price shot up to around $30 at retail. Evangelion discs were the same way.

What really sucked is that around the same time in the early 2000s TV on DVD was catching on big. But the cost of anime DVDs was astronomical in comparison. I didn't notice a change until 2006/2007ish. Whenever the Bleach DVDs started coming out in the US. They had Season DVDs that you could get at retail for less than $30. Getting that many episodes for that price was unheard of to me at the time.

 

[Hazmat]

I just stuck with VHS tapes, still got a few put away somewhere.

I was thinking earlier this week that I definitely owned at least one straight-up bootleg VHS that I bought in my comic book store (Evangelion Death and Rebirth). And I have all my Eva DVDs, bought on Amazon at nearly $8 an episode.

 

[Chairmanchuck]

As stated above, publishers had a lot of unreasonable demands, to say the least, and the market had to price accordingly.

The worst demand we had was from one publisher that, in 2005, wanted us to mail the design of the cover to them via mail. No. Not E-Mail. Post....
So we sent it to them, had to wait 1 month and sometimes got "We dont like it. Redo it." or "Use another font."

A mangapublisher in Germany also did anime for a while and stopped that, because of those ridiculous demands and the reluctance to change.

 

[bjork]

You guys complaining of the cost, I remember the cost of tapes in the 90's. With DVD the price went down, spurned me watching Anime for a few years.
Been ages since I have watched anime tho.

Back in the good old days when you had to make a choice, subbed or dubbed. And either way, you were out at least $30, so if it was a blind purchase you had to just hope for the best.

 

[Slagheap105]

Traded my copy of Deus Ex: Invisible War for my friends Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team DVD Set. Worth.

 

[rocketskates]

I paid something like $205 for the entire series of X so I could have those slip covers.

I remember over a decade ago, back when GameStop used to take in DVDs I was getting a game and the guy in front of me was asking how much he would get for trading in the box set and it was such a low amount I was like hey I'll give you $30 and he sold it to me. Complete, in perfect condition.

 

[JudgeN]

My FMA entire series is 4 eps per desk and I paid about $20 each.

 

[erotic grandpa]

Also worth noting that, depending on the publisher, a lot less...care, I guess you could say, went into the authentically presenting some shows.

It was a different time with different expectations and production methods, sure, but going back and seeing hard subs, painted-over signage, or incredibly amateurish replacement title cards is a bummer these days.

Waiting to see if Right Stuf will drop the price of Magic Users Club during their holiday sale to replace my Anime Works/Media Blasters set that's rotten with those sorts of things.

 

[Kite]

I remember anime vhs tapes with 2 episodes being $30ish dubbed and $35+ subtitled back in the mid 90s. I swear I paid over $200 for all of Evangelion, and that is after receiving a few as bday/christmas gifts.. That model was obviously unsustainable, thats like $300 nowadays with inflation lol

 

[NeOak]

Man, it was painful.

I shudder when I remember the cost of the early Pokémon DVDs at Tower Records.

 

[rocketskates]

I should be mad at myself for spending full price on both Valvrave Blu-ray sets.

But Valvrave was fucking awesome.

 

[Dishwalla]

I remember buying anime DVDs at Suncoast. Those were the days.

 

[jstripes]

You guys complaining of the cost, I remember the cost of tapes in the 90's. With DVD the price went down, spurned me watching Anime for a few years.
Been ages since I have watched anime tho.

Yup. DVD was a blessing compared to VHS. Two episodes for like $40 of series like Ranma 1/2. Lucky for me I had a friend who bought them.

I had another friend who was even crazier, and bought the LaserDiscs. Think in the area of $120 a pop.

 

[FLEABttn]

I think the first anime DVDs I got were the X series and they were, like, $30 for two episodes.

They did come with nice slip covers though.

Edit: FLEABttn knows what's up

I remember over a decade ago, back when GameStop used to take in DVDs I was getting a game and the guy in front of me was asking how much he would get for trading in the box set and it was such a low amount I was like hey I'll give you $30 and he sold it to me. Complete, in perfect condition.

It was my most expensive purchase of that era. Next was Excel Saga and Cowboy Bebop, both of which were probably around $170. Most of the rest of my purchases then were bootleg releases because a two cour series was $30 that way and when you're in high-school that's the difference between your birthday money getting half to one single series if you get the legitimate R1 discs or getting three to five series if you go with the bootlegs.

 

[KenzinFive]

I remember paying $80 for the Bubblegum Crisis OVA

The original Tenchi Muyo OVA DVD set was like $120-$180 at suncoast....dark times but the cover was really nice

I bought this exact DVD set at a Suncoast. It's probably the first anime DVD I ever purchased. DVDs weren't entirely ubiquitous yet, so I had to watch them on the main TV on my dad's DVD player. God bless him, he even watched them with me. That was...interesting to watch with my dad.

Such a nice and classy cover...back when those OVAs were considered great stuff. Shame about OVA 3....

 

[CarpeDeezNutz]

I was thinking earlier this week that I definitely owned at least one straight-up bootleg VHS that I bought in my comic book store (Evangelion Death and Rebirth). And I have all my Eva DVDs, bought on Amazon at nearly $8 an episode.

I had a bootleg copy of Vampire Hunter D and some other random stuff thrown in.

 

[Ruruja]

I don't think I even saw a DVD until the 2000s. Who are you rich lunatics buying DVDs in the 90s?

I remember having VHS tapes from 'Manga Entertainment' here in the UK. Stuff like 3x3 Eyes and Dominion Tank Police.

 

[jstripes]

I don't think I even saw a DVD until the 2000s. Who are you rich lunatics buying DVDs in the 90s?

I remember having VHS tapes from 'Manga Entertainment' here in the UK. Stuff like 3x3 Eyes and Dominion Tank Police.

I didn't buy a DVD until 2000 either, when we got a PS2.

But the late-'90s sorta blended into the early-'00s.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

In the mid 90's Anime VHS tapes were so expensive..

 

[MooMilk2929]

I remember when I got the project a-ko 1-4 dvd it was at a very reasonable price. Something $20-$40. Nowdays it sells for over 50 used. They stopped producing them a long time ago so you can't get them new.

I do remember a single episode of a ova costing 20 dollars on vhs tho. It was a really niche market then.

 

[TheDarkKnight774]

Anyone remember how much anime dvds cost in the late 90s/early 2000s?

I swear I paid almost $100 for the Ghost in the Shell dvd when it first came out...but my memory is foggy.

No way it was that expensive. Buying anime at sundosst was always overpriced. I bought a lot online and it'd be around $20 at online stores.

Way back in the day anime was like $30 for 1 to 2 episodes on VHS. Costing more for the sub

 

[Kite]

I don't think I even saw a DVD until the 2000s. Who are you rich lunatics buying DVDs in the 90s?

IIRC the first anime dvd to come out in the US was in 97, can't remember if it was the Street Fighter 2 movie or Battle Arena Toshinden hmm.. But yeah, I didn't get any anime dvds until I got a PS2 in the early 2000s.

 

[Demoskinos]

AFAIK I bailed when I saw each Blue Submarine No. 6 OVA episode being 29.99 each.

Jesus christ. And people complain about game prices....

 

[RomanticHeroX]

$200 for a 26 episode series seemed totally reasonable at the time, when I wasn't spending my own money. I remember seriously considering spending something like $800 for Dragonball Z. I think I probably did spend about that much on Ranma, actually.