]]> http://animeraw.com/archives/2191/feed 0 http://www.animenation.net/blog/2012/02/20/funimation-acquires-level-e-sengoku-basara-movie/ http://www.animenation.net/blog/2012/02/20/funimation-acquires-level-e-sengoku-basara-movie/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:18:52 +0000 John http://www.animenation.net/blog/?p=27827

During this past weekend’s Katsucon convention, FUNimation formally announced its acquisition of domestic distribution rights to the 2010 Level E sci-fi/comedy television series and Sengoku Basara: The Last Party motion picture. Level E is a 13-episode adaptation of Yoshihiro Togashi’s 1995 manga about a self-centered alien prince who takes up residence with a rural Japanese high school boy. The Sengoku Basara movie continues the story from the two Sengoku Basara television series, already distributed in English by FUNimation.

FUNimation will release “Sengoku Basara ~ Samurai Kings: The Movie” this winter. FUNimation will begin digital distribution of the Level E series in March with a home video release to be determined.

Source: Anime News Network

Sentai Filmworks has acquired the domestic distribution rights to K-On!!, the 26-episode second TV series in the K-On anime franchise. (The first TV series is officially titled “K-On!” with one exclamation point; the second series title has two exclamation points.) The series will be released on DVD and BD later this year. Bang Zoom will produce an English dub, but there’s been no confirmation yet about whether the second series dub will retain the English voices from the first season.

Bandai Entertainment presently distributes the 14-episode first TV series on domestic DVD & BD.

The Japanese branch of Amazon now hosts a 3:45 trailer for this spring’s Space Battleship Yamato 2199 television series. The remake of the 1974 Uchuu Senkan Yamato television series will premiere as a 50 minute movie edit of its first two episodes on April 7.

I’m disappointed to see that the visual design of this new series may be better than the 2009 Yamato Resurrection movie but still isn’t as nice looking as the original ’74 anime, and the animation quality between the ’74 series and this new series look about the same.

Source: Anime News Network

To little surprise, the Love Live! School Idol Project anime idol singer group/multimedia franchise created by Sunrise, Lantis, and ASCII Media Works has announced that it will expand into a full length anime series in 2013. The fictional idol singer group has released four singles with accompanying anime music videos.

Source: Anime News Network

Answer:
Practical necessity is requiring an unprecedented migration from physical video distribution to digital distribution. While consumers may appreciate the convenience of streaming anime delivery, increasingly an even larger number of American consumers are simply unwilling or unable to purchase anime on physical media. With DVD sales shrinking and Blu-ray sales failing to compensate, distributors are finding that they need to utilize streaming distribution to supplement their distribution and generate consumer awareness and brand loyalty. However, digital distribution has its own disadvantages and shortcomings which will probably prevent it from ever entirely supplanting physical media distribution.

Despite tremendous increases in global anime digital distribution, streaming anime still doesn’t generate tremendous profit. For example, according to industry whispers, Crunchyroll has not seen its user base grow significantly while operation costs have increased. American consumers presently pay an average of a few dollars per episode to own anime on physical media. Japanese consumers pay exponentially more, and increasingly American consumers can expect to pay Japanese prices for select titles like Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/zero. On the other hand, patrons of streaming sites pay a single, small flat fee to watch as much anime as they choose. While physical disc distribution entails a variety of production and distribution costs, physical media sales also generate revenue. Streaming distribution may have lower costs, but it still does have expenses while it doesn’t generate significant revenue. Online advertising pays very little because web advertising has yet to definitively create consistent sales increases. While anime producers and distributors can rely on physical disc sales revenue to recover costs, they can’t rely on the minimal income from streaming distribution to pay for new anime licenses, production, and development.

Japanese distributors may continue to encourage limited online distribution in order to cultivate an international market and create brand name recognition. FUNimation, Sentai, and Viz, in particular, utilize streaming distribution to attract traffic, generate brand loyalty, and advertise physical media releases. American online exclusive anime distributors including Crunchyroll and NicoNico don’t appear to be steadily growing. Rather, they’re simply maintaining. If the domestic market for physical discs entirely vanished, I envision that we’d see a majority of domestic anime streaming also evaporate rather than increase to fill the void. Streaming simply doesn’t pay the bills, but distributors have to increasingly rely on streaming anyway because the alternative appears to be ceasing distribution entirely. The Japanese market continues to be supported by a very devoted following of hardcore otaku collectors that appreciate physical disc releases and continue to be willing to purchase physical disc releases. So in both America and Japan, physical disc sales continue to generate much of the revenue that supports anime production and distribution while streaming is largely just a supplemental advertising method that sustains itself but doesn’t generate profit.