Anime Blu-rays and DVDs are more popular than ever

At the time of writing this anime film Dragon Ball Super: Superhero sits above the blockbuster Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, Shazam! wrath of the godsand the hit Top Gun: Maverick for the most popular Blu-ray Releases on Amazon. Everything points to a larger phenomenon: In 2023, with so many studios and companies migrating to streaming services, home video releases of anime, namely DVD, Blu-ray, and box sets, are thriving.

It’s not hard to see why so many companies have switched to the streaming model. Streaming service subscriptions for the past decade have seen massive growth. Meanwhile, home video sales have steadily declined – DVD and Blu-ray purchases decreased by almost 20% from 2020 to 2021. Even shows with huge followings that seem ripe for collectors, such as The Mandalorian, remain diskless in the United States. But anime home videos appear to be bucking this trend, as fans and avid collectors still seem anxious to take home printed copies of their favorites.

Calculating anime home video sales is complicated. The market for it in Japan has declined almost annually over the past decade – coinciding with the world’s shift to digital platforms – but certain releases, like the first Demon Hunter Movie, may arouse greater interest. This film has both the highest box office in Japanese history as well Sold over a million copies on Blu-ray and DVD within the first three days after publication. To put this success in perspective, only three American blockbuster films

2022 sold more than a million copies throughout the year.

But the hunger for anime in the US has only grown to the extent that in August 2022, Sony acquired Right Stuf Anime, a distributor established in 1987 that expanded into selling anime, live-action releases, toys, manga and all sorts of things collectibles. (Sony also owns Crunchyroll, an anime streaming service.) At a time when anime home videos were far from ubiquitous — you could find an ad in the back of a magazine here, a contributor there with a massive collection at a convention and a Scattered Opportunity on the Message Boards – Right Stuf’s mission was to give the anime consumer “everything in one place” and a trusted system to deliver it to them. It was a fruitful operation. At this point, Right Stuff says it is largest online seller of Anime in North America.

Over the years, Shawne Kleckner, co-founder of Right Stuf, has seen anime home video grow in popularity: “It started out as more of an enthusiast, tape-trading, underground thing in the ’80s and is now a full-fledged industry. ” As anime became more available overseas, so did interest in home video. “It wasn’t difficult to find passion for the product,” says Kleckner. “It was more about making sure that passion was being served.” And while other companies have scaled back their home video capacity, Right Stuf has done the opposite. “Many companies do not invest in their infrastructure,” says Kleckner. “I made sure that we invest in our infrastructure every year.”

Fans have a “pent-up demand for these products,” said Kleckner. They are a group that “covers home video products[s] as a collector’s item, not as a consumable item.” Streaming services enable consumption but make collecting impossible. And fans of physical anime media want the highest quality picture and sound possible, along with a range of special features and solid packaging that makes it look just as good on the shelf as it does in the Blu-ray player.

But how do you get there? American home anime videos have often been bemoaned for their tendency towards sparse and bare-bones releases that aimed to cash in on a series’ popularity and not do much else. Companies like Discotek and Anime Limited want to change that. The latter, who works in Glasgow, Scotland, recently published three separate editions of Neon Genesis Evangelion

a series that along with Cowboy Bebop, is considered one of the great pillars of the medium. And yet, licensing rights issues had prevented it from being released on Blu-ray outside of Japan.

With Standard, Collector’s and Ultimate Editions to choose from – each with progressively more elaborate packaging and a wider range of special features – the sets brought evangelion back in style. Even the expensive Ultimate Edition sold out in twelve hours. Demand was just as great in the US – when distributor GKids released a limited edition ultimate set evangelion in North America, pre-orders were sold out on the first day.

Discotek, on the other hand, hasn’t been working on releasing anything this high-profile evangelion in the US, but its catalog and success have proven that anime is anything but a niche experience. Discotek’s line of anime and live-action titles, often “rescued” from expired licensing deals or appearing too obscure for a larger company to risk, has endeared the company to home video enthusiasts. Discotek occupies five of the top 10 spots in the current list of Top 10 Best Selling Anime Blu-rays on Right Stuf.

“Sometimes we can do more and make it look nicer, sound better, stuff it with extras,” says Marc Levy, quality control manager and producer who has worked with Discotek. “But at least people know we’re going to do our best, and they’re going to get something that they maybe didn’t see coming or didn’t know existed.”

It is particularly evident in the recent release of the first season of Digimon: Digital Monsters

, a cornerstone of the millennial Saturday morning experience and yet one that, according to Levy, was often “thrown on discs and that’s about it.” With a digital remaster and visual upscaling, Discotek’s version is the best the show has ever seen in the United States. “It was important to me that there was thought and effort put into places that people would notice and even places that people might not notice,” says Levy.

For many of the people involved in this work, this diligence isn’t just mandated by the job, it’s the pinnacle of their lives to be anime fans themselves. Justin Sevakis is the owner of MediaOCD, a company that has provided its post-production services to both Discotek and Anime Limited and has grown from an intense hobby to a full-time career. As a young adult dissatisfied with American anime releases, he spliced ​​together his own from different countries and combined the features he wanted most, finally assembling Frankenstein’s ultimate disc.

“I think nowadays it makes sense for people to just buy their favourites,” says Sevakis, “but what’s unique about anime is that fans have a lot of favourites. They’re very passionate and know it won’t be like this forever.” Streaming services tend to play hot potatoes with shows, and licensing takeovers can happen in ways fans didn’t expect. bleaching, the mega-popular series, was on Crunchyroll’s platform for years before Disney bought the rights to it and began airing its long-awaited sequel on Hulu. Fans had to choose between buying a whole new subscription, missing out on the show, or downloading it illegally.

With home video, anime fans don’t have to worry about their favorites going out of reach due to licensing deals beyond their control. “What we’re releasing should be the last time you ever have to buy anime,” says Sevakis. “If the disc itself is capable of handling the best quality that a show could ever be presented in, then we should do that.” It’s a dedication like this that drives anime home videos, and particularly boutique publishers like Discotek and allows Anime Limited to thrive in a world that envisions physical media as an ancient practice.

“If we can help dust off this stuff and turn it into something that people will enjoy watching and sharing with their friends,” Sevakis muses, “then what could be better than that?”