Blah blah word vomit about animes

[kanna]

Alright guess I feel like starting internet fights today!!

So, it was just announced today (not even a few hours ago, I'd assume by the amount the story is exploding on Twitter) that Viz just had a MASSIVE layoff and restructuring. 40% of their staff (something like 60 people?), gone. This is super alarming to me, because Viz has always been the

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[yuushi]

I think fansubbers and scanslations along with the faltering economy has a big part of Viz' restructuring but they do have some blame themselves. Back when I used to collect their anime, they weren't exactly the best value on the block.

Back in the VHS days they were selling 2 episodes of dubbed Ranma 1/2 for $25. Even when they went DVD, it was 3 episodes for $30 (this when I was getting 5 or 6 episodes of Cowboy Bebop per $30 DVD.) I can only hope they changed this as time went on, but I can only hope they changed this as time went on, but I can't recall the last time I bought a Viz product (think it was the Please Save My Earth manga.)

Here's how stubborn they are: I remember reading early on in DVD's existence, there was a website called animeondvd.com which covered anime releases on the then fledgling format. The discussion of Viz' Maison Ikkoku came up since Viz discontinued releasing the series citing cost of production on VHS was exceeding the return (this after they already discontinued the dub of series because of less than expected sales.) Animeondvd.com suggested starting to release the series on DVD since the format was cheaper to produce than VHS. Viz' response was that they wouldn't start putting the series on DVD until the VHS sales picked up. Not the best means of handling their product.

I do hope they hang in there, but I also hope they also restructure their product line and release philosophies.