Now, if only they could somehow work in a livestream of Anime broadcasts from Japan.

Brad, $750 sounds more than $1 Million because it has more numbers. Thats why stuff is $19.99, not flat out $20. End sarcasm.

Still waiting for K-On.....

@nortonantivirus

I am willing to bet they are charging an arm and a leg for K-on considering how popular it is.

"with a focus on the US and Canada."

O HAI! This is the Europes speakings. We likes the mangas too you knows?


Seriously. Beez are taking Europe seriously by licensing something here and not America (Beez are owned by Bandai who release USA stuff).

That being said, I wouldn't get ANYTHING from this venture. Unless I get a free iPad (or similar device) from somewhere, I won't be reading any manga on a computer screen. I'll stick to buying books kthx.

I'm somewhat confused as to why companies keep investing in CR. From what I have been able to understand on ANN about CR they are more often then not losing money on nearly every show they Stream. While the site will probably be a good idea for digital manga and whatnot it just confuses me why people keep throwing money at a service that seems to be losing money.

Well I at least like the idea of them trying to get into the whole online manga dilemma by offering their products legitimately than whining about the situation. It's been long overdue, and as long as they don't DRM the crap out of mangas and offer low quality then I'm all excited.

It would be cool if they were able to get a channel on Dish or Cable, but as far as Manga distribution goes, I'd just like to see stuff get translated and printed FASTER. Why do we have to wait 2 or 3 years to read something, and then wait a month for each book to get translated? Makes looking up online scans waaay more tempting. It would also be cool to see manga available on e-reader devices like the Kindle, since that wouldn't strain the eyes with prolonged use the way electronic screens can.

@Reibooi A tool is needed to draw in and make new fans as well as to keep old fans satisfied and serve as a means of advertisement. As things are now fansubbers are responsible for filling a large portion of that roll. Aside from fans dedicated enough to keep track of and buy everything they watch when its licensed and released in the states(such as yourself and many other Japanator readers) that means a loss of revenue and a lot of wasted potential with any given release as it cuts impulse buyers out of the equation.

Publishers do not need to make money through the Crunchyroll service itself to see a return on investment. If a certain % of people who watch through the service buy the physical(or digital as the case may be) copy later the investment would pay for itself indirectly.

I expect many of the people who watch Cruncyroll are kids who can't afford to buy anime themselves.(or can afford it only in very limited amounts) That may mean no money now but kids grow up and eventually get jobs in most cases. Some of them will become new customers who will spend money in the publishers direction.

Crunchyroll appears to me to be banked largely on Ad Revenue. They may not have the viewership needed now to support what they are doing and the direction they wish to go... but give them enough time and money to grow and they should become a strong source of money through advertisement.

Crunchyroll is far from a prefect solution but doing nothing must be far worse. And Crunchyroll is one of the only companies that looks like it is trying to adapt and sell anime (and now manga) to our American internet culture. This is all just my speculation but I can see plenty of reasons why Japanese companies would want to see them succeed.

i refuse to use CR ofr bleach, that is all.

@Lifesong

The only way I see CR being a viable money maker is via ad revenue as you mentioned. I don't however ever see people who got into anime by watching streams and what not going out and buying the DVD's or Blu-rays or downloading the episodes as a digital download.

The main reason I feel that way is you mentioned kids. Kids who grow up watching CR are going to more then likely feel entitled just as anime fans now do and will not want to pay for anything and will expect CR to have everything and anything they want to watch and if they don't have it well then back to fansubs.(of course there will always be exceptions to that rule but I don't see enough people buying stuff to help at all)

CR needs to grow a MASSIVE amount for ad revenue to be even close to viable. It needs to get to Hulu levels of massive and everything points to that literally being impossible. I mean the lack of ad revenue is the reason most of the shows on CR lose money. The ad revenue isn't even enough to pay for the shows sub which is very little money in the first place. It;s not like they need to get a million views or something. They need somewhere on the level of 50-100k depending on the show and they can't even get that.

CR as a concept is certainly a interesting one but due to the nature of the anime community and the internet culture as you mentioned is pretty much preventing it from getting to where it needs to be to becoming viable. I do think Manga has a slightly better chance of making this work but I still don't see it working for anime.

@Reibooi

I think you are not giving people enough credit. I for one came onto anime through that internet culture and I spend money on my hobby. Its true that there are people who watch fansubs and streams who feel "entitled" but I think they are a much smaller group then you may believe.

My experience has been that most people who watch anime online (through fansubs or streams) have a much simpler mentality that is closer to not caring at all then it is to feeling like they deserve anime for free. But that is not to say they will not loosen there wallets and spend money if a product they like is placed in front of them.

Fansubs don't often advertise the official release. Money generated through fansubs is going to come from people who are dedicated collectors setting aside money to buy what they want. In my experience this is not the way most fans (or people in general) spend money.

Of my friends and family who have purchased TV series anime or otherwise on DVD 90 % of it(if not 100%) can be attributed to impulse buying because an ad reminded them it was available and reminded them why the loved the show the first time around. CR has the unique opportunity of being able to reach and monetize people with that spend with that mentality.

CR certainly needs to grow (and improve) I hope for the sake of the industry they are able to succeed.

Crunchyroll are now showing Bleach, so I guess they're using that money for something.

So I guess they think that Crunchyroll will be some sort of solution to all of the industry's problems? I mean who hasn't invested money into crunchyroll? You know, maybe if they had some competition it would work out better.