When Anime Came in the Mail: The Forgotten Era of Promo DVDs

Back in the early 2000s, before the advent of streaming and fully Digital media, watching anime was very different. If you wanted to watch something on TV, you had to sit down at a set time every week and tune in. Streaming wasn’t an option. There were, on demand channels like the Anime channel, but generally if you wanted to watch something that wasn't on TV, you had to pick up the DVDs for that show. As a rule, most shows had four episodes per disk, so if you were watching a show with 24 episodes, that meant the show's content would be spread out over six discs. The advent of DVDs also created an opportunity for promoting anime that wouldn't ever premiere on television. For the first time ever there was a compact physical video format that could be easily distributed. Enter anime magazines like the now-defunct NewType USA. These Magazines would pack a promotional DVD with every issue, featuring full-length episodes and teasers for various shows.

While the NewType USA are now the most well remembered, a lot of different magazines, companies and conventions handed out these discs. promotional discs were an invitation for fans to watch shows they wouldn't usually watch. In a way that made it possible to be an anime fan without spending a ton of money on random shows you might not like. These promo Discs were possible because the format of DVDs was significantly more compact than bulky VHS tapes, which fallowed them to be sold inside Magazines and passed out as part of convention swag bags. While DVDs were initially more expensive to produce than VHS tapes, over time, the format's popularity shifted, thanks in part to the PlayStation 2's widespread adoption, which could play DVDs as well as games. You can still find many of them secondhand on sites like eBay for relatively affordable prices. Now it's rare to encounter New Promotional DVDs since the cost of doing that kind of marketing stunt can be way higher than just doing something digitally, but if you're interested, you can still collect them as long as you still have a way to play them.