Forum:Cost and Availability

There are around 546 episodes as of writing this and I believe only the first 205 are available on DVD.

DVD collections are available in Ameriaca (NTSC) containing 26 episodes for $20. Thats 8 collections for a total of $160 when they are all released up to the 205th episode (Currently they have only released collections 1 to 6). DVD collections are available in Australia (PAL) containing 13 episodes for $50. Thats 16 collections for a total of $800.

So why is Australia being ripped off and in such an extreme manner? Why are they not releasing any more to DVD, having stopped at episode 205 for some time now? Any talk about Bluray? Any talk about a boxed set?

I just want to get into this series after seeing a few epsisodes on TV a while back, but the cost and availability seem very inconsistent.

Pirate it. SeaTerror 17:37, April 13, 2012 (UTC)

I'm sorry to butt in but pirating is not the best way to go. It is efficient but pirating actually hurts the industry of anime altogether in the US. Toei Animation has a staff that animates One Piece and that staff is paid for their job they put in to keep One Piece going in Japan. Now companies from various nations have to pay the royalties to Toei animation to get distributing rights as well as dubbing rights. FUNimation is a good company in the US. They release Uncut versions of all the animes they get including One Piece. Because One Piece is popular in Japan, it's not a cheap anime to get dubbing rights for. DVD sales are the only way FUNimation can keep giving us legal ways to watch One Piece and spread the fandom around. In fact pirating just recently caused Bandai to pull out of the anime market now because they felt that because people were pirating the anime anyways, it wasn't worthwhile.

DVDs are expensive, but it pays to help FUNimation continue to buy more episodes. They recently announced in October of 2011 that they are going to be dubbing what they called Season 4 which goes to the end of Water Seven in which the last episode ends when the Straw Hats reach Enies Lobby. FUNimation is going to be releasing the first DVD sales of Season 4 soon this summer. I just met Colleen Clinkinbeard at a convention and she said fUNimation is planning many summer releases for a lot of animes because they are listening to their fans.

So to encourage pirating is very immoral and there are legal ways to watch One Piece through Hulu which use American advertisements to help fund the industry as well. Pirating in put is no longer needed. If you guys want to see One Piece go to the end, you need to buy the DVDs no matter what country you are in. Your money helps buy more episodes. - Langland

I was thinking the same thing Langland when I originally posted, I didn't mention priacy myself. However, Hulu is not availablie in Australia and our dollar is worth more than the American dollar so my first question still stands;

Why is Australia being ripped off and in such an extreme manner for the exact same content?

Addmitedly though, its retorical. I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that they couldn't do much more to encourage priracy themselves. Madman are the distributers in Australia, so do they charge this because of the PAL conversion maybe, does it cost that much? Its only cause I like the series that I am upset that it is so expensive, I just cannot afford it at that price.

Australia = $800

America = $160

Time to correct you.

1) Pirating doesn't hurt the industry like they want you to think. If that was true then every single industry would have been shut down years ago. There are not as many lost sales as they want you to think. A person who downloaded a show but never intended on buying it in the first place is not a lost sale. A person who downloaded a show but intended on buying it in the first place is the only lost sale.

2) Pure BS. There's no evidence that is what happened to Bandai.

3) You're going to have to prove that encouraging piracy is immortal. There is nothing immoral about it.

4) Hulu is only available to people in the U.S. and Canada. Everybody else in the world is screwed.

5) Piracy is always needed.

6) You really don't know shit if you think that people can just buy the DVDs if they are in a different countries. Many countries have absolutely horrible exporting laws that cost them way more than it should. Not everybody can buy the DVDs. SeaTerror 01:36, April 16, 2012 (UTC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ueERG8ySo&feature=relmfu

I think I'll let Greg Ayre's, who does Cabaji and few other voices I think young Franky too, tell you why pirating, regardless of the country and its laws, is bad. I think that should make my case good enough. - Langland

I'm sorry but netheir of you have really answered my concerns, instead you have started your own argument about piracy.

How can they justify the descrepency in cost between Austrlia ($800) and America ($160) for the same content?

Why are they not releasing any more to DVD, having stopped at episode 205 for some time now? - OP

Price gouging isn't exactly new in Australia. Software, hardware, clothes, books, and pretty everything else imported is subject to massive markups, based only on the fact that overseas companies have gotten away with it all this time (they've attempted to justify it based on the cost of shipping and distribution to such a small market, but those arguments don't hold any water in the age of digital distribution).

As for why they stopped at episode 205, One Piece isn't exactly huge in Australia. The 4Kids dub was shown back when it first came out, but even that stopped fairly on - I don't remember seeing anything past Loguetown. I haven't seen One Piece marketed in any way since then. Langland's rants about the morality of piracy are of little weight considering that there's just no way to get the content here (this applies to all TV shows, not just One Piece, as Australia is completely ignored when it comes to content). Zodiaque 07:37, May 31, 2012 (UTC)

There is no justification for the difference in price, it's simply inflation that was born from (a now obsolete) scenario where the Australian dollar was much weaker then the American. The market has simply fallen behind (or refused to change) in the face of an ever changing currency exchange.

Oh and I read somewhere above about importing DVDs is difficult because of exporting laws, that issue is minuscule when you compare it to the problem of region locking. It's a simple fact, American DVDs and Blu-Ray operate on NTSC encoding and a Region 1 (DVD) or Region A (Blu-ray) lock. Even if we who live outside these regions buy the products, and can even receive them, we simply cannot use them. 07:51, May 31, 2012 (UTC)