Re getting Battle Royale, this was shown on TV where I am so I just taped it off air!
This brings me to the main issue I have with the cost of anime: basically we're mostly watching TV series, and when you work it out from your monthy subscription or TV licence (or whatever the costs of wathcing TV are where you live), the normal cost of watching a TV programme is just pennies per episode.
So it's a real pain to have to shell out pounds or dollars per episode with DVDs, you literally end up paying 100 times more to watch anime than regular TV shows. Unless they stick a whole series on a single DVD in Xvid format and sell it for £1.99 then watching anime is always going to be an expensive hobby compared to normal TV viewing.
The real anwser is that western broadcasters need to stick their hands in their pockets and shell out for more foreign language stuff like anime, it's not like there isn't plenty of room in the tv schedules when you look at the endless repeats being shown.
In the absence of a good selection of anime being broadcast so it's accessible at regular TV viewing prices, it's inevitable that most people will go for free downloads and only shell out for DVDs for things that are really special, just like with regular TV series, some people will still buy the DVDs despite seeing it on TV, because they want to own that series, or want the superior quality or extras, but most people will simply tape it off TV for free if they want a copy to keep.
This brings me to the main issue I have with the cost of anime: basically we're mostly watching TV series, and when you work it out from your monthy subscription or TV licence (or whatever the costs of wathcing TV are where you live), the normal cost of watching a TV programme is just pennies per episode.
So it's a real pain to have to shell out pounds or dollars per episode with DVDs, you literally end up paying 100 times more to watch anime than regular TV shows. Unless they stick a whole series on a single DVD in Xvid format and sell it for £1.99 then watching anime is always going to be an expensive hobby compared to normal TV viewing.
The real anwser is that western broadcasters need to stick their hands in their pockets and shell out for more foreign language stuff like anime, it's not like there isn't plenty of room in the tv schedules when you look at the endless repeats being shown.
In the absence of a good selection of anime being broadcast so it's accessible at regular TV viewing prices, it's inevitable that most people will go for free downloads and only shell out for DVDs for things that are really special, just like with regular TV series, some people will still buy the DVDs despite seeing it on TV, because they want to own that series, or want the superior quality or extras, but most people will simply tape it off TV for free if they want a copy to keep.