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Anime and the Reverse Importing Problem

Serdar Yegulalp writes: "The very definition of anime is a cultural product which is born in Japan and then exported to the rest of the world. But the reverse is also true: U.S. and other editions of anime titles also find their way back into Japan—a phenomenon known as "reverse importing."

Reverse imports have a big impact on anime. They make it that much more difficult and costly for titles to be licensed, force fans to wait that much longer for releases (yes, even in this day and age of simultaneous streaming), and cause the releases themselves to be crippled by omitting features (as was the case with the Ghost in the Shell BD, shown here; compare prices). Why this happens, though, is worth a detailed look."

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anime.about.com
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Simon_Brezhnev3871d ago

Well its the greedy Japanese companies fault reverse importing a problem. They over charge their consumers plain and simple.

Instigator3870d ago

My thoughts exactly. If consumers find the extra hassle and shipping costs of ordering from overseas reasonable then maybe, just maybe, you're charging too much. The price obviously has a higher priority than the slightly superior quality of the Japanese releases.

Companies should find a common price that's appealing to all consumers instead of devaluing every release in each region, because that's just hurting business overall.

Simon_Brezhnev3870d ago

Yeah you know they are now region locking PS3 games in Japan. A lot of them buy games from US now since they get ripped off so bad.

kingPoS3870d ago

Gundam Unicorn BD still go for at least $70. (Yikes!!!)