Physical media might seem like it’s on its deathbed, but the anime DVD and Blu-ray industry couldn’t be more alive.
https://www.theverge.com/24062618/anime-dvd-bluray-discotek-physical-media
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Given the way that the pivot to streaming has decimated most brick-and-mortar retail and rental entertainment businesses, it has often felt like we’re hurtling toward a future where people simply won’t be able to physically own copies of their favorite mainstream hits.
Before Sevakis got into remastering anime professionally, he was a high schooler obsessed with Project A-ko and making VHS fan subs of series like Kodocha by hooking up a LaserDisc player to his Amiga in order to twitch-time subtitles in by hand.
After a chance encounter on a plane with the president of Central Park Media, Sevakis landed a gig producing subtitles for series like Project A-ko as well as “some of the most flesh-crawlingly awful hentai you’ve ever seen” at one of the biggest anime distributors in America.
Looking back at the menu-focused minigames that were included with the DVD releases of films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Shrek, it is somewhat hard to imagine people rushing to buy those movie discs just for their bonus features.
But as DVDs became the new standard, those types of features were the first things to be cut for production costs, and Sevakis points to that initial period of paring back as one of the reasons that mainstream Blu-ray releases today tend to feel pretty bare-bones.
But between Demon Slayer – Kimetsu No Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film in global box office history and moving record numbers of Blu-rays in the process, it’s obvious that audiences are still interested in the genre.
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PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Blu-Rays are great. Local play with a higher bitrate than any streaming allows (AFAIK). Only issues are price and equipment. DVD, not so much. I haven’t bought a DVD for a new movie in well over a decade