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psipsy10 An anime that I've always enjoyed, enough to buy the Blu-rays for, is the Bakemonogatari series. When it originally aired in 2009, it was only 15 episodes. It's based on a series of light novels that are still being written, and Aniplex/Shaft plan on animating every one of them. Which means that what started as 15 episodes turned into somewhere over 80 episodes, a series of shorts, and 3 movies, with more in active production (scheduled to air in a few months), and even more being planned. Which means that what started as a simple box set with 6 discs is now 17 sets, encompassing 38 discs. They're obviously making money from this franchise, otherwise it wouldn't have run for this long.
20 According to Rightstuf.com, the whole series can be had for a hair under $1200, ranging from $50 for some of the shorter story arcs, to $150 for the main series. Naturally, I did not buy them all at once; I got them a few sets at a time, as they came out, over the course of about 4 years. Sometimes online, sometimes at conventions. Spreading the cost over that length of time is much more palatable than all at once. Also, I didn't use or reference Amazon, for reasons discussed below.
30 That $1200 sounds like a lot, because it is. However! When comparing to VHS tapes from 20 years ago, it's a different picture. Were this show to come out in the mid/late 1990s, it would most certainly be on VHS, it would have about the same episode count per tape (2-3 eps or 1 movie), and each tape would cost about $30, a common MSRP for anime in 1998. So, 38 VHS tapes x $30 = $1140 worth of 1998 dollars. That's already damn close to the current going rate for the BDs. It gets better: Adjusting for inflation from 1998 to 2018 means that the same set on VHS would cost the equivalent of $1759 today.
40 Being 1998, would have also meant that show would have been released on LaserDisc too. While I could extrapolate and speculate on exactly how much it would cost, I'd have to make more assumptions to come up with a figure. There's not much to gain from following that tangent. Very few people had anything on that format due to how expensive and unwieldy LD was, as opposed to VHS, which was everywhere and more forgiving. Plus this imaginary LD set would be likely available only as an import, meaning entirely untranslated. Import LDs back in the 90s also cost about $60 to $80, had at most 2 episodes per disc, and often needed to be brought back from Japan in someone's suitcase. There might be about a dozen fans in North America who would be both well-heeled and obsessive enough to buy the entire collection. From a distance, I can say the same amount of money could buy a half-decent used car or make a substantial down payment on a new one.
50 A more realistic (although still theoretical and full of caveats) comparison would be if this show was also released on DVD, through a different licensor, and in a more minimalistic form. The price would be substantially less overall, inflation or not. These days, it's common for an entire 26 episode series to be sold in a thinpak in the ballpark of $50, so the entire franchise would likely be less than $200 that way. But Aniplex is not known for going light on price or extras, and they didn't make a DVD version of this series for the US, so it's another red herring. (Curiously, they did make a DVD version for Japan, but they're priced at $60 for 2 episodes, similar to the imaginary LD.) It's also theoretical because while DVD was in active development in 1998, it wasn't mainstream yet (but it was close). When it did start picking up, the "4 episodes per disc" business model leftover from the VHS era was prevalent. Split the difference and put the DVD release at 2008 (a year before the original series actually aired), and the $50 thinpak could possibly happen. DVD wins on price this round.
60 Then there are the physical differences. The BD set I do have takes up about 14 inches of shelf space, while the VHS equivalent would need over 3 feet. Picture quality? There's no comparison; VHS doesn't stand a chance. LDs might need about as much linear shelf length as the BDs, but that shelf better be strong, because LDs can get heavy. My experience with LDs is that reinforcing the shelf with angle iron is not overkill. The theoretical DVD thinpaks would run away with the lead on space savings, while coming in behind BD on picture quality.
70 Funny thing is, I do have an LD player and a few discs, although I got them when I did only because LD was already in a steep decline due to the advent of DVD. The player was marked down substantially, and some of the discs were being sold for cheap as well. However, to give an idea of how much higher prices were on LD players, while mine was marked down 75%, it was still more expensive than my first DVD player that I bought a year later. The US versions of discs started dropping rapidly in price, while imports held on for a bit longer, as it was more widely accepted in Japan. Eventually, those too started to fall in price. I have a few things that were only available on LD.
80 For the source of current prices of the BD sets, I chose Rightstuf instead of Amazon. I can hear someone saying now "But I can get it cheaper on Amazon!" Yeah, but lately it seems that Amazon is overrun with bootlegs and won't do a damn thing about it, because legitimate or not, they still make money from the sale. There's a good chance that you'll get something that's been translated through 5 languages and then burned onto a DVD-R. If I'm going to spend any money for the physical copy of it, then I fully expect the proper licensed one. Rightstuf delivers on that. Otherwise, might as well just download or stream them.
90 One might ask, why does physical media continue to exist when we have streaming? Streaming has a lot to offer and might be the way of the future, but as long as we have shaky internet service, bandwidth caps, region blocking, expiring licenses, and so on, the future ain't here yet.
100 But I'm starting to get off track with my elaborate straw-man argument. This post itself has already gone on longer than I thought it would, and the "streaming vs physical media" question needs revisited as its own topic. Maybe later.
110 End
20 According to Rightstuf.com, the whole series can be had for a hair under $1200, ranging from $50 for some of the shorter story arcs, to $150 for the main series. Naturally, I did not buy them all at once; I got them a few sets at a time, as they came out, over the course of about 4 years. Sometimes online, sometimes at conventions. Spreading the cost over that length of time is much more palatable than all at once. Also, I didn't use or reference Amazon, for reasons discussed below.
30 That $1200 sounds like a lot, because it is. However! When comparing to VHS tapes from 20 years ago, it's a different picture. Were this show to come out in the mid/late 1990s, it would most certainly be on VHS, it would have about the same episode count per tape (2-3 eps or 1 movie), and each tape would cost about $30, a common MSRP for anime in 1998. So, 38 VHS tapes x $30 = $1140 worth of 1998 dollars. That's already damn close to the current going rate for the BDs. It gets better: Adjusting for inflation from 1998 to 2018 means that the same set on VHS would cost the equivalent of $1759 today.
40 Being 1998, would have also meant that show would have been released on LaserDisc too. While I could extrapolate and speculate on exactly how much it would cost, I'd have to make more assumptions to come up with a figure. There's not much to gain from following that tangent. Very few people had anything on that format due to how expensive and unwieldy LD was, as opposed to VHS, which was everywhere and more forgiving. Plus this imaginary LD set would be likely available only as an import, meaning entirely untranslated. Import LDs back in the 90s also cost about $60 to $80, had at most 2 episodes per disc, and often needed to be brought back from Japan in someone's suitcase. There might be about a dozen fans in North America who would be both well-heeled and obsessive enough to buy the entire collection. From a distance, I can say the same amount of money could buy a half-decent used car or make a substantial down payment on a new one.
50 A more realistic (although still theoretical and full of caveats) comparison would be if this show was also released on DVD, through a different licensor, and in a more minimalistic form. The price would be substantially less overall, inflation or not. These days, it's common for an entire 26 episode series to be sold in a thinpak in the ballpark of $50, so the entire franchise would likely be less than $200 that way. But Aniplex is not known for going light on price or extras, and they didn't make a DVD version of this series for the US, so it's another red herring. (Curiously, they did make a DVD version for Japan, but they're priced at $60 for 2 episodes, similar to the imaginary LD.) It's also theoretical because while DVD was in active development in 1998, it wasn't mainstream yet (but it was close). When it did start picking up, the "4 episodes per disc" business model leftover from the VHS era was prevalent. Split the difference and put the DVD release at 2008 (a year before the original series actually aired), and the $50 thinpak could possibly happen. DVD wins on price this round.
60 Then there are the physical differences. The BD set I do have takes up about 14 inches of shelf space, while the VHS equivalent would need over 3 feet. Picture quality? There's no comparison; VHS doesn't stand a chance. LDs might need about as much linear shelf length as the BDs, but that shelf better be strong, because LDs can get heavy. My experience with LDs is that reinforcing the shelf with angle iron is not overkill. The theoretical DVD thinpaks would run away with the lead on space savings, while coming in behind BD on picture quality.
70 Funny thing is, I do have an LD player and a few discs, although I got them when I did only because LD was already in a steep decline due to the advent of DVD. The player was marked down substantially, and some of the discs were being sold for cheap as well. However, to give an idea of how much higher prices were on LD players, while mine was marked down 75%, it was still more expensive than my first DVD player that I bought a year later. The US versions of discs started dropping rapidly in price, while imports held on for a bit longer, as it was more widely accepted in Japan. Eventually, those too started to fall in price. I have a few things that were only available on LD.
80 For the source of current prices of the BD sets, I chose Rightstuf instead of Amazon. I can hear someone saying now "But I can get it cheaper on Amazon!" Yeah, but lately it seems that Amazon is overrun with bootlegs and won't do a damn thing about it, because legitimate or not, they still make money from the sale. There's a good chance that you'll get something that's been translated through 5 languages and then burned onto a DVD-R. If I'm going to spend any money for the physical copy of it, then I fully expect the proper licensed one. Rightstuf delivers on that. Otherwise, might as well just download or stream them.
90 One might ask, why does physical media continue to exist when we have streaming? Streaming has a lot to offer and might be the way of the future, but as long as we have shaky internet service, bandwidth caps, region blocking, expiring licenses, and so on, the future ain't here yet.
100 But I'm starting to get off track with my elaborate straw-man argument. This post itself has already gone on longer than I thought it would, and the "streaming vs physical media" question needs revisited as its own topic. Maybe later.
110 End
