A few years back, I remember talking to a friend about some anime series and they mentioned that it was quite expensive to buy anime. I remember being surprised at this but I eventually came to understand what he meant. Compared to other forms of TV and movie content, anime is relatively niche and is often sold at higher prices than other physical media. However, the reason I was surprised by their statement was that I was comparing the price of buying anime on DVDs and Blu-rays to the days of VHS. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the history of how anime was sold back in the VHS era.
I should first explain what a VHS is since there may be people who are unfamiliar with this older format. VHS stands for Video Home System and was one of the earliest forms of home video which allowed people to buy a film or TV series that they could then watch whenever they wanted to on their VCR (Videocassette recorder). In contrast to the optical discs of today, VHS was an analog format where the film or TV series was recorded onto magnetic tape which would then be used to display footage.
One of the first companies to begin distributing anime on VHS in the US was U.S. Renditions. The company was a subsidiary of Books Nippan and began distributing anime in 1990. Notably, they have the distinction of being the first US distributor of anime to release a subtitled VHS. Over the course of their short lifespan, they released Gunbuster, Guyver, Appleseed and several others. They unfortunately were dissolved around the middle of the 1990s but their impact can still be felt today with many fans discovering anime through their releases. Other distributors such as Central Park Media, Streamline, AnimEigo and others were established in America to distribute anime while a company called Manga Entertainment was established in the UK and proved to be successful enough to break into the American market.
Now to take a look at the business model that these anime releases followed. A VHS typically contained 2-4 episodes of an anime or a single anime film and, if you observe the ads from the time that I’ve included in this article, you’ll notice that the price tag is shockingly high. Taking U.S. Rendition’s release of Gunbuster as an example, it would cost $104.85 to acquire the six episode series! As you can imagine, collecting anime during this time period proved to be a very expensive hobby.
It’s also worth noting that a VHS tape had only one audio track which meant that these releases had dubbed and subbed tapes released separately. As you can see from the ad pictured above, the average price of anime VHSs did eventually drop but it continued to be very expensive compared to the anime releases of today. I remember this style of release continued into the early DVD era with the only exception being that you got both audio tracks on the same disc.
I’m not sure exactly the moment when anime began to be released in 13 or 26 episode box sets that cost dramatically less to collect a whole series than on VHS but I’m certainly glad! While it would still be incorrect to say that collecting anime these days is cheap, it isn’t nearly as expensive as it was in the past. Let me know your thoughts on the interesting history of how anime was sold on VHS, whether you ever bought anime on VHS, what you thought about the format and the business model of anime VHSs and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!