This is something every anime fan of a certain age knows, but official anime releases used to be SO. DAMN. EXPENSIVE. When the 1st subtitled Ranma 1/2 VHS release came out, it was about $40 for ONE VHS. According to the inflation calculator, that'd be like paying $85.15 in 2024 for only 3 EPISODES.
Reposted from
Kenny Lauderdale
There was a time where Suncoast Video was selling the Trigun DVD box set for $280+tax. This may seem insane, or like I'm misremembering things, but I swear to you this is what anime use to cost. You have no idea how good you have it.
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Blue Seed and Evangelion were the same way.
The new anime fans have no idea how easy they have it now.
...Not anymore.
And yeah, there was plenty of folks downloading anime in the early 00s because we still weren't getting releases of everything coming out, & streaming wasn't a thing yet. But that's not what I was talking about?
My first anime VHS I purchased was Cat Girl NukuNuku from Media Play, $30 for two subtitled episodes.
Nostalgia
(Worth it bc of coupons included for a lottery to attend a fan event with the voice actors, but still an unbelievable amount.)
I was at the met of other friends who did this.
Like, forget the PRICE, importing was a whol other layer of barrier to access.
And then we walked uphill in the snow both ways to school.
(I always joke about it, but it’s honestly a treasured memory)
("Little Date" is still the best OP song)
turns out, that huge Evangelion BD set with two different dubs and includes the whole series and the original movies is--counting inflation--cheaper than buying it all on VHS or any of the old DVD sets
Lotta library trips and fansubs of series no one brought over. Bless Discotek for changing that, never thought I would actually own Mahoraba.
Fucking Gunsmith Cats VHS, man…