Ask John: Why Aren’t American Special Edition DVDs As Nice as Japanese Versions?

Question:
I’m looking at the Full Metal Alchemist movie import special edition set and I’m thinking, “Wwhy do American companies not release special editions like this?” It seems to me that domestic “special editions” of anything basically means it includes a special box, another disc, and a cheap t-shirt or trinket. Do they think that nicer special editions won’t sell well because of the price?

Answer:
Actually, I’ll argue that the American anime industry does release respectable special edition DVDs a fair amount of the time. Consider, for example, the Escaflowne movie release that included three individually packaged discs; FUNimation’s Samurai 7 limited editions and Bandai’s Scrapped Princess limited editions that are identical to the Japanese releases; and releases such as Bandai’s .hack//SIGN limited edition volume 1 and Synch Point’s Di-Gi-Charat TV series volume 1 that included mountains of premiums and special packaging. I own a copy of the Japanese limited edition Fullmetal Alchemist movie DVD. The package contains three DVD discs each in a separate case, a booklet, an envelope containing a set of postcards, and a slipcase box. It’s a nice release, but it’s also a single movie with a supplemental “making of” documentary and collection of trailers that retails in Japan for $75. As a general rule, there aren’t any single anime movies released in America that can support a $75 retail price regardless of the quality of their packaging. Bandai Visual’s pricey special edition Patlabor movie domestic releases are basically the Japanese special editions with added English subtitles. Following those initial two expensive releases, Bandai Visual has not announced any plans for future releases at a similar price point.

Relatively few American anime releases get extraordinary special edition packaging because the market for such extravagant sets is very small. Furthermore, these deluxe edition DVD releases are expensive to manufacture, and over the long term don’t consistently sell well. Professional studies of the Hollywood home entertainment business have ascertained that expensive multi-disc special edition releases typically sell very well during their initial release, but quickly become stagnant, and ultimately rarely sell as many units as cheaper, “standard edition” versions of the same release. I think that the same principle applies to America’s anime industry. I estimate that there are only a few thousand American consumers, perhaps 5,000 or 6,000 at the most, who typically, consistently collect expensive special edition anime DVD releases. For example, the Samurai 7 special edition DVD sets were limited to 10,000 copies each, yet they’re still commonly available on the retail market. Producing exceptional special edition DVD packaging is costly and time consuming, and generally there’s not enough demand in America’s consumer market to validate the effort.