from the talking-to-your-fans,-what-a-concept dept
You may recall that we recently had a post about executives in the anime industry
blaming fansubs for ruining the business (even as we'd also heard others report that it was the interest from fansubs that had
created the US market in the first place. The post was based on an editorial piece written by someone within the fansubber community, basically saying that the blame was misplaced and the real problem was that the anime industry wasn't giving fans what they wanted. This is a familiar refrain, of course, heard from fans and customers across the entertainment industry. However, normally, the big copyright firms respond either by ignoring the complaints of fans, or brushing them all off as "pirates." Apparently, that's not true with everyone in the anime industry.
Petréa Mitchell writes in to point out that the president of one US anime distributor, Bandai Visual USA, has
responded to the complaints on his own blog. He basically says that the company recognizes the complaints and has been thinking about solutions (including simultaneous release of titles in both the US and Japan, rather than waiting a while for the US release). He also notes that they're trying to decrease their prices, but Mitchell notes that Bandai's prices seem quite high, even compared to it competitors. Still, considering that most industry execs seem to completely ignore fan complaints, it's nice to see one (even if in a much smaller industry) take notice and respond.
Filed Under: anime, economics
Companies: bandai
