Fans Are Outraged Over This Anime Blu-ray's Insane Price Tag
Anime merchandise can be some of the most expensive merchandise in the market as dedicated fans [...]
Anime merchandise can be some of the most expensive merchandise in the market as dedicated fans are often met with higher prices due to a lack of availability for some series in the United States.
But while some prices can be a bit high, the Blu-ray box set of the classic anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes is having fans fuming over its hefty price tag.
Sentai Filmworks announced at Anime Boston 2018 (via Anime News Network) that they plan to release a limited-edition box set that will include every original video anime episode, all three anime films, collectible metal coins, a 200-page art book, and two 3D art cards. This box set is slated to release July 24, and limited to 1000 copies, but the price of the set? $800 USD.
Sentai Filmworks is currently taking pre-orders for the set (which you can find here), but fans are livid at the high price tag for the set. What makes matter even worse is that according to Twitter user @DubTalkPodcast, Sentai Filmworks confirmed that this limited edition box-set is going to be the only way to purchase the series as they will not offer a standard edition release:
Q: Standard Edition release for LoGH?
— Dub Talk (@DubTalkPodcast) March 30, 2018
A: There are no plans for a Standard Edition. #AnimeBoston2018 #SentaiPanel @SentaiFilmworks
Although they obtained the license to the series in 2015, Sentai Filmworks had not made the series available for streaming until 2017 on the HIDIVE streaming service. The fact that the series is only available in such a limtied, expensive form also hurts fans given that the revival of the series, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis, is set to air as part of the Spring 2018 anime season.
Dedicated anime fans deal with harder to swallow pricing all the time when it comes to supporting their fandom, but they are finding this particular pill hard to swallow given the prolific nature of the series the price tag is attached to. Fans are hopeful, however, that they will be able to purchase the series at a lesser price, at a later date.
For those unfamiliar with The Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the series was first created by Yoshiki Tanaka in 1982. Starting life as a series of science-fiction novels that follow Reinhard von Lohengramm and Yang Wen-li, two rivals rising in power on the opposite sides of an interstellar conflict far in the future. Most fans of the series will recognize it for its first anime series, which ran from 1988 to 1997, and for its many video game, manga, and OVA adaptations.
The novel series was licensed for an English language release by VIZ Media in 2015, and Sentai Filmworks released the anime series in the West in 2017. A new anime series, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes The New Thesis: Star-Crossed, will release in April 2018, followed by a trilogy of films titled The Legend of the Galactic Heroes The New Thesis: Stellar War in 2019.
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