Bakemonogatari has been at the top of many licensing wish lists from the moment it began airing three years ago. The clever wordplay, sharp dialogue and intriguing setting make the series a compelling watch. Unfortunately, some of those elements also make it difficult to localize, and hope for a release outside of Japan has dwindled as time has gone by.

So it was a little surprising then to hear the show was finally coming to North American shores courtesy of Aniplex. Reactions to the announcement were mixed. On one hand, YAY we were finally getting Bakemonogatari. On the other, Aniplex would be handling the task which historically has meant prices outside the range most fans are willing to pay. The final details of the release were revealed yesterday, and I’m not sure our fears have been relieved.

My initial reaction to the set was positive. It seems to compare favorably to Aniplex’s pricey Madoka Magica release, which cost about the same per episode for the bare bones standard version. If you factor in this set has some nice extras like the art book and the in-character audio commentary from the Japanese release, it does seem like an improvement.

But then you also have to consider they are not doing a dub, which is presumably a bigger cost than printing some booklets and some nice reversible covers. It makes the comparison to the Madoka release, which does have an English dub, less favorable. Personally I’m OK with Bakemonogatari not having a dub as it would be extremely difficult to pull off, but it would have been nice to see that reflected in the price.

Maybe I’m asking too much and should accept this as a compromise. While the final pricing for Bakemonogatari may be high, it’s far better than the bank account breaking investment that was Aniplex’s Fate/Zero import release experiment. I’ve also said I’d be willing to pay slightly higher prices for anime if it meant balancing out the absurd Japanese market and getting us more licenses in general. So maybe it’s time to put my money where my mouth is. But so long as other companies like Funimation, Sentai and NISA are shaping the market with much more affordable, appealing releases, it’s hard to make that leap.

To their credit Aniplex will be making the series available on Crunchyroll and Hulu, and there is always hope of a standard edition release in the future. So at least there will be other means available for legally watching the show. For now though I’m stuck mulling over whether this will be the day I finally give in and shell out the cash for one of their releases. Considering Bakemonogatari is one of my favorite anime series, the decision shouldn’t be this hard.