UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Big thing you are missing to consider is the cost of the license.

The licensing costs are going to vary massively and for some of these shows, selling the standard 1000 sets at 40-50 a unit won't be enough and they have to makeup the larger "ultimate editions" to justify raising it to the price they need to to recoup the licensing fee.

It's not a case of - they sold this 26 episode series X with a CE and artbook at £50 so series Y will also be profitable if they do the same.
 
Even so, it still leaves a sour taste in your mouth as the consumer is left paying exorbitant prices for not very much in the grand scheme of things, in some cases.

I understand they have to make a profit on their releases, but there comes a price point when sticking an artbook and and some art cards in a chipboard box just looks silly.

But what do I know? I'm no business person and AL are clearly managing just fine if they've been around so long now. I guess the advantage anime distributors have is that for the duration of their licence, they have zero competition in their region - if you want a particular series, then there's only one place you can get it.
 
Wicker said:
Big thing you are missing to consider is the cost of the license.

The licensing costs are going to vary massively and for some of these shows, selling the standard 1000 sets at 40-50 a unit won't be enough and they have to makeup the larger "ultimate editions" to justify raising it to the price they need to to recoup the licensing fee.

It's not a case of - they sold this 26 episode series X with a CE and artbook at £50 so series Y will also be profitable if they do the same.
Click to expand...

You're right I did miss the licensing in my calculation, though I also went high end of the scale for the production. There's also staff & design to take into account but some of that is offset by them selling their designs & operating out of multiple countries.
The way I see it is that they're clearly making profit on standard editions, even movies, which are generally cheaper despite the production costs of 2 disks (50 & 25) working out similar whether the latter is an extras disk or the last few episodes of a season release.

Macross Plus is one of my favourites & one of the few I'd buy an ultimate for but £150 is painful because it's clearly whale bait & sets a dangerous precedent.
If the set does well then that tells AL they can get away with charging £150 for what's essentially a movie & we can then expect that to gradually become the standard.

I do own 1 AL ultimate release but it's not without flaws (Evangelion) with silly inserts & unwieldy size.
It was the whole OG dub being exclusive claims that suckered me until they changed that to include the limited; luckily I sold my platinum copies for £85 in preparation to offset the cost.
 
Obviosly, MAL scores aren't everything, but I do think they're useful for getting a general idea of how well received a show is. For me personally, I feel like when a show scores in the 6s or lower is when you can start to fairly confidently say "this show is bad".

Gibiate has a score of 3.81.
 
sniper_samurai said:
The EB for this week is Gibiate. I don't know what they're thinking with this one as it's considered to be one of the worst shows of recent years and doesn't have a home video release in the US. The only good thing about it is the Amano artwork. This is the second worst rated full length anime series on MAL, eclipsed only by EX-ARM.
Click to expand...
Technically it is getting a US release by none other than Anime Limited themselves. A few users found out about this a few days ago on Crunchyroll Store. So it's another one of those AB titles like To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. There is another title that was leaked which also screams 'why'.

Anywho the fact that they had to release this Crunchyroll Original show is funny. I ain't pre-ordering this since I know the show is bad.
 
Joe said:
Obviosly, MAL scores aren't everything, but I do think they're useful for getting a general idea of how well received a show is. For me personally, I feel like when a show scores in the 6s or lower is when you can start to fairly confidently say "this show is bad".

Gibiate has a score of 3.81.
Click to expand...
Says something that it rated lower than the rubbish Go Hands puts out except Ex Arm.
 
NormanicGrav said:
Technically it is getting a US release by none other than Anime Limited themselves. A few users found out about this a few days ago on Crunchyroll Store. So it's another one of those AB titles like To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts. There is another title that was leaked which also screams 'why'.

Anywho the fact that they had to release this Crunchyroll Original show is funny. I ain't pre-ordering this since I know the show is bad.
Click to expand...
Good luck trying to find it on the likes of Amazon as well. Amazon auto corrects the search term to Gigabyte.

Like they still have much better stuff they've announced for release last year that hasn't come out yet. Where the hell is Re: Zero season 2, it's coming on a year since its US release and ALs announcement at MCM last October.
 
Last edited:
sniper_samurai said:
Good luck trying to find it on the likes of Amazon as well. Amazon auto corrects the search term to Gigabyte.

Like they still have much better stuff they've announced for release last year that hasn't come out yet. Where the hell is Re: Zero season 2, it's coming on a year since its US release and ALs announcement at MCM last October.
Click to expand...
I'm still annoyed by the fact that they didn't announce the title until after people, like myself, bought the US version to avoid losing out on the LE.
 
I feel with this that even the selling point of the Amano art on the box is almost deceptive, as the designs are much more simple when adapted to the anime, by one of the JoJo anime character designers. I'm sure they'll get another shot at that soon enough.

1 step closer to Ex-Arm getting a local blu-ray release
 
At least Ex-Arm has enough name recognition that some people will buy it because it's terrible. Gibiate, on the other hand, will probably sell so badly that it'll be less than half of its EB price in every sale from next year until the license expires.
 
Erufailon4 said:
At least Ex-Arm has enough name recognition that some people will buy it because it's terrible. Gibiate, on the other hand, will probably sell so badly that it'll be less than half of its EB price in every sale from next year until the license expires.
Click to expand...
They're still trying to get rid of copies of the 009 Re: Cyborg 9 LE 9 years after release.
 
Despite the lovely art work, that can't even save me from wanting to get it, I remember hearing a lot of negativity about it when it originally aired... though I haven't seen it myself so I shouldn't fully judge but regardless, there's been enough that it's probably warranted.
 
Girls with Guns said:
Hey now, I actually liked 009, lol - I even own a copy of the JP 3D release I can watch in my 3D-capable projection theater at home. 😎
Click to expand...
Same, even used the 3D disc on my old 600hz 3D Plasma.

A bit of a hard sell in the UK though being a movie based on a franchise that has never seen a prior UK release. Surprisingly the mid 2000s version was broadcast on Irish childrens tv.
 
Girls with Guns said:
Hey now, I actually liked 009, lol - I even own a copy of the JP 3D release I can watch in my 3D-capable projection theater at home. 😎
Click to expand...
sniper_samurai said:
Same, even used the 3D disc on my old 600hz 3D Plasma.

A bit of a hard sell in the UK though being a movie based on a franchise that has never seen a prior UK release. Surprisingly the mid 2000s version was broadcast on Irish childrens tv.
Click to expand...

Didn't mind the movie myself either, nothing crazy but an alright time.

Was my first exposure to the series, since then I've only watched the Devilman crossover which was fun though I've wanted to pick up Discotek's release of one of the series.

Pretty sure Netflix had another entry in the series which was a sequel or prequel to Re:Cyborg? not sure if it's still on there though as I'm pretty sure the Devilman crossover isn't on there anymore.

I don't have Netflix currently so can't check.
 
sniper_samurai said:
The EB for this week is Gibiate. I don't know what they're thinking with this one as it's considered to be one of the worst shows of recent years and doesn't have a home video release in the US. The only good thing about it is the Amano artwork. This is the second worst rated full length anime series on MAL, eclipsed only by EX-ARM.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1829112042713657761
Click to expand...
It's probably part of a package that a licensor forced on them when they bidded for a more popular show, and now they're stuck trying to recoup their losses. It's hardly a good look for their image as a boutique label though.

Meanwhile Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and Dance Dance Danseur remain unreleased in the west. There is no justice.
 
Back
Top