Reddit reviews Animation - Kill La Kill 1 (BD+CD) [Japan LTD BD] ANZX-9281

Wait, so this is the pricing for the Japanese release? Cause I was looking all over Aniplex of America's site and I couldn't find it.

You guys do know that anime is more expensive in Japan than here, right? These two things aren't even comparable - this is the US release of Attack on Titan, and this is the Japanese release of Kill la Kill that you're talking about. When Aniplex makes a US release (whether it's dubbed or subbed) it'll likely be more episodes, for a lower price, than this.

EDIT: For an example, this is a Japanese Blu-Ray only release of Attack on Titan, with no bonus materials (unless you got the first printing) and only two episodes. It's about $60.

In this case, you're technically not giving money to the industry because that DVD is out of print. Also he's referring to Japanese BD costs, which, while expensive, do directly support the industry.

That's over 54USD for two 22-minute episodes, out of a series of 24 episodes, for those who don't know moonrunes. It's actually a reasonable price relative to some other releases.

Japanese prices are atrocious. For example, Kill la Kill was released in Japan as 9 volumes, you can see Vol 1 on Amazon Japan here. 5500 yen is approx £38, and that set only includes 2 episodes. so for the whole series you're running over £300 new. In the UK, the series is 3 sets at £40 each, so £120 approx for the whole thing.

That small episode count set isn't an uncommon price in Japan, Macross Delta Vol 1 costs 6000 yen (£40) for 3 episodes.

For late night anime (most of the shows this subreddit concerns itself with.) shows are produced by a committee of investors. You can usually spot them in the OP credits, for example, the Psycho-Pass Committee or Madoka Partners. The committee members provide the funding, and in return control the rights to exploit various aspects of the shows.

The production committee will usually include a record company and some kind of merchandising company for example. So the committee isn't aiming to make back all the money on discs, they want to make the show exploitable through a lot of different avenues, such as discs and figurines. A show can be profitable to the investors overall, even if it doesn't make back all the money on home video sales, if the fans who are interested buy extra merchandise of various kinds. Anime funding in japan is all about milking the small hardcore audience for as much money as you can, hence the low episode count volumes and the ridiculous amount of character CDs and figures they pump out. Of course, you also make some money by flogging the show to overseas distributors as well, that's easy money.

Edit: Wrote Japanese KLK V1 had 9 eps, should have been 2.