Reddit reviews Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Anime Legends)

I think the heart of the matter is, in the words of Gabe Newell (Blessed be His name);

"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

I used to pirate video games all the time, but since I stated using Steam I've almost completely stopped it. I already have more games in my library than I could possibly finish playing for the foreseeable future, and it's provided by an affordable and reliable service. There's just no reason for me to look elsewhere.

The Anime industry needs to emulate this. Today I can legally download a huge selection of video games but for most anime shows legal streams are simply not available. There needs to be a reliable service which doesn't block out big parts of the world. Not to justify my piracy but I do think producers share some of the blame for why piracy is as widespread as it is. Why is it completely impossible for me to legally watch their show even if I'm willing to pay for it?

It's also the fact that often buying these shows is outrageously expensive. I mean, just compare:

The first 7 Episodes of Sword Art online on DVD cost about as much as the full second season of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray

The limited edition Blu-ray release of the 11 episode run of Nisemonogatari costs about the same as Pre-ordering the entire 62 episode run of Breaking bad on blu-ray

The first season of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD costs more than All 8 Harry Potter movies on Blu-ray

It may look like I'm cherrypicking but I'm really not. When you buy anime the amount of content you get for your money is far less than if you spend that same amount of money on western shows. This is one of the reasons I own relatively few anime series. I can only accept these kinds of prices if I absolutely must own the show. I do hope you take the price factor into consideration, I feel it's often overlooked and I do think it's one of the things that keeps sales so low. I mean, Haruhi came out 7 years ago. Western shows that old can usually be found for peanuts. One Anime I genuinely wanted to buy was Shinsekai Yori but the series was split in 9 Volumes each costing about 50-80$. Even as a huge fan of the series I just don't have that kind of money.

I don't understand at all. Amazon has season 1 for $35, season 2 for $45, the two webisode series for $20 each for two volumes, and the movie for $30. That's a total of about $150, which I don't think is that bad for what's essentially three seasons and a movie.

What aren't I getting? Is this about a foreign market, where they can't buy this from the US Amazon store? Is there an anti-Amazon movement that I don't know about?

Anime is cheaper than it's ever been. I won't presume to tell people they should or shouldn't be buying DVDs or Blu-rays, but $35 for 13 episodes is a fraction of how much anime on VHS used to cost.

I don't know if they sell that in a bundle. Amazone is probably your safest bet.

Try amazone.co.uk if you are in europe.