UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread
- Thread starter jonno394
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jonno394
Za Warudo
Money isn't the problem for me, it's the justification of spending £38-£43 on a single film :/
Jon O Fun
Combat Butler
Ah that makes a lot of sense. As I said not for me, I hate digibooks with a passion, but i wish you all the best with the Kickstarter
Ps. A nice little article on Screen Anarchy Crowdfund This: Yuasa Masaaki's MIND GAME On Blu-ray
Yami
Thousand Master
I've backed it; Mind Game is a masterpiece, and if this is the only way of owning it then so be it. That being said, I find this Kickstarter very very odd. I take it that Studio 4C set all the parameters but:
- Why Kickstarter? Anime Limited has already licensed Genius Party, Genius Party Beyond and Princess Arete - titles in less demand and with less commercial potential - so why is Studio 4C both keeping Mind Game to themselves and then having to crowdfund it?
- £38 on a single film? It feels strange to complain and then back it anyway, but it would be fine if it was a straight Blu-Ray upgrade of the old Japanese Perfect Collector's Box (images below via Google) - in fact you could probably charge £50-60 for that. But stickers? I'm backing a Blu-Ray release of one of the most original animated films of the 00s, not visiting the dentist.
- Stretch goals - don't seem to be of any real benefit to the people who backed it in the first place, so...they're not really stretch goals are they? In my mind, they should have just factored in the cost of French/Spanish/German/etc. subtitles in the initial goal. Made the stretch goals what's included with the aforementioned DVD release.
- It's not clear at the moment - will the extras that were on the original DVD release be included on this Blu-Ray? I think they were on Madman's Australian DVD release as well - "Animatic Storyboard, Special Interview, Final Sequence Director Commentary, Events and Talks, CG Works, Production Art Gallery, Mindgame Theme Live Performance, Mindgame Music Video"
So, am going to try and tackle each point individually for you.
We’ve made no secret about this, but this is a Studio 4C project. We (Anime Limited/AllTheAnime) don’t hold the license to this - though it’s fair to say it’s something we’d love to have in our catalogue if it were at all possible.
Our role in all of this is to run the Kickstarter part of their campaign for MIND GAME, but this is their product, not ours. But that being said, it’s something we jumped at the chance to want to make happen for international fans.
The pricing is based on the price in Japan - in case you weren’t aware, there is a Japanese equivalent crowdfunding campaign, but Kickstarter is being used to facilitate international fans who want to back it.
Again, we are only here to help get this Kickstarter going and support Studio4C's work on MIND GAME.
It’s also worth pointing out, that given recent events yesterday we saw an impact in terms of exchange rates. We had to adjust the tier to cover the fact that yesterday the exchange rate was a bit weaker than today (and today is certainly weaker than it was a couple weeks ago) - and it was adjusted to cover any potential further changes throughout the 30 days of the Kickstarter campaign.
Totally valid point. But another way to think of this is that this is benefiting anime fans on a global scale as a whole; it’s purpose wasn’t just to cater to English speaking. But producing subtitles in different languages costs money. Look at other Kickstarter campaigns that have included other languages; it really isn’t a cheap thing to do. And it also adds to the overall authoring cost and time involved in producing the product as a whole.
In terms of factoring in the cost, it was. And this is why the decision was made to have them be stretch goals. At the end of the day, there’s no way to tell if any project on Kickstarter will be funded. If all of these costs had been factored in and made (for want of a better phrasing) as part of the target goal from the outset, it may have been too much.
But today has shown there is definitely demand for this and I’m sure our partners in Japan have taken notice of that.
The primary target goal has been met and now the stretch goal of French has been reached as well! That is already a massive step in the overall process and we’re only on day 1 of 30 when it comes the backing period.
While I can’t speak for what else may be in the pipeline (if anything - again, this is dependent on what Studio 4C can access for this release) for backers depending on what may/may not be reached in terms of how much is raised, I’m sure other considerations are being factored in and if anything additional is possible they will see it can be possible.
We’ll obviously continue to post updates and such, but I ask to allow some breathing room on this. We’ve a long way to go and have had a great result on day 1.
Appreciate I have waffled on a bit here, but I hope this helps
We’ve made no secret about this, but this is a Studio 4C project. We (Anime Limited/AllTheAnime) don’t hold the license to this - though it’s fair to say it’s something we’d love to have in our catalogue if it were at all possible.
Our role in all of this is to run the Kickstarter part of their campaign for MIND GAME, but this is their product, not ours. But that being said, it’s something we jumped at the chance to want to make happen for international fans.
The pricing is based on the price in Japan - in case you weren’t aware, there is a Japanese equivalent crowdfunding campaign, but Kickstarter is being used to facilitate international fans who want to back it.
Again, we are only here to help get this Kickstarter going and support Studio4C's work on MIND GAME.
It’s also worth pointing out, that given recent events yesterday we saw an impact in terms of exchange rates. We had to adjust the tier to cover the fact that yesterday the exchange rate was a bit weaker than today (and today is certainly weaker than it was a couple weeks ago) - and it was adjusted to cover any potential further changes throughout the 30 days of the Kickstarter campaign.
Totally valid point. But another way to think of this is that this is benefiting anime fans on a global scale as a whole; it’s purpose wasn’t just to cater to English speaking. But producing subtitles in different languages costs money. Look at other Kickstarter campaigns that have included other languages; it really isn’t a cheap thing to do. And it also adds to the overall authoring cost and time involved in producing the product as a whole.
In terms of factoring in the cost, it was. And this is why the decision was made to have them be stretch goals. At the end of the day, there’s no way to tell if any project on Kickstarter will be funded. If all of these costs had been factored in and made (for want of a better phrasing) as part of the target goal from the outset, it may have been too much.
But today has shown there is definitely demand for this and I’m sure our partners in Japan have taken notice of that.
The primary target goal has been met and now the stretch goal of French has been reached as well! That is already a massive step in the overall process and we’re only on day 1 of 30 when it comes the backing period.
While I can’t speak for what else may be in the pipeline (if anything - again, this is dependent on what Studio 4C can access for this release) for backers depending on what may/may not be reached in terms of how much is raised, I’m sure other considerations are being factored in and if anything additional is possible they will see it can be possible.
We’ll obviously continue to post updates and such, but I ask to allow some breathing room on this. We’ve a long way to go and have had a great result on day 1.
Appreciate I have waffled on a bit here, but I hope this helps
Yami
Thousand Master
Cheers for your response, Jeremy! Regardless of my scepticism, I am looking forward to having Mind Game on Blu-Ray in my hands! And the AL release of Genius Party!
I do hope that you will consider Yuasa's Kemonozume to add to the AL collection as well. How that's gone unlicensed for 10 years...
I do hope that you will consider Yuasa's Kemonozume to add to the AL collection as well. How that's gone unlicensed for 10 years...
Lord Bacchus
Student Council President
It definitely looks like my type of film, and supporting 4c directly is mighty tempting. I am a little hesitant on the price though since it would be a blind punt for me (haven't seen the film), and for £38 I can't help feeling I could get an entire series of something for that price. Then again I did back a similar amount for Mai Mai Miracle and wasn't hesitant then.
I'll have to wait and see how I feel nearer to the end of the kickstarter. A standard might be added or I might find I am willing to part with the money.
Yeah, I dislike digibooks too, and the concept picture is not aleviating that dislike. I'll probably only end up backing if there is a standard amaray added, since for that kinda money I'd want it to look really nice. Don't really care about stickers and art cards, I personally think they're something which is often thrown in to add perceived value without actually being very pleasing at all. I'd prefer a barebones amaray to a digipack with cards and stickers.
I'll have to wait and see how I feel nearer to the end of the kickstarter. A standard might be added or I might find I am willing to part with the money.
Was interested in the Kickstarter then saw it was a digibook.... no thanks.
Best of luck though and if you add another tier with one of your regular collectors editions I'm all over it
Yeah, I dislike digibooks too, and the concept picture is not aleviating that dislike. I'll probably only end up backing if there is a standard amaray added, since for that kinda money I'd want it to look really nice. Don't really care about stickers and art cards, I personally think they're something which is often thrown in to add perceived value without actually being very pleasing at all. I'd prefer a barebones amaray to a digipack with cards and stickers.
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serpantino
Thousand Master
Wow that kickstarter price o_o. That's exactly the kind of thing that pushes me towards burying my head in the sand and giving up on buying anime. I know it'll make its goal but in a way I kinda wish it didn't in the vain hope that the Japanese might actually wake up and see that their exorbitant prices don't work globally.
Have no fear, Shimoneta will be available to order from our site soon; likely within the next week I'd say
And yeah, there will be a Zeta Part 2 early-bird offer, don't worry
That'll likely happen within in the next few weeks.Also worth pointing out that I've literally just got word that Zeta Part 2 will be going back by a few weeks to 8th May. (BBFC delays are a wonderful thing...) At this stage it is only the BBFC certification that's holding this up now, so unless something catastrophic happens it will hit the new date
But the shift is only by a few weeks though. (Have updated our listing/schedule at our site, and you can expect the date shift to appear on retailers listings soon.)
Hope that helps.
thedoctor2016
Mushi-shi
Are you still planning to release Eva 2..22 and 3.33 and will these have a faster turn around?
I couldn't possibly consider this when I still haven't received my numbered art card for the Patema Inverted Kickstarter from 2014.
@sniper_samurai: Any luck with yours yet, dude? I couldn't help but notice that you even referred to it in the past tense as if you'd given up on it!
Lord Bacchus
Student Council President
I'd regretfully second that my experience with Anime Ltd kickstarters hasn't been the best, but for the Mai Mai Miracle one instead (everyone who backed it knows what I'm talking about). They got to the stretch goal for a dub (which I didn't care about and didn't actually watch, though I know a lot do), and then the release subsequently took over two years after the initial date it was slated to be delivered. I get that dubs take a while but dear lord. I wouldn't have minded as much if it were a relatively unknown company behind it, but I did feel a little salty on occasion when so many other things were released by them in that two year period, including Patema Inverted, which they kickstarted just after Mai Mai Miracle, and managed to deliver on super quickly. After a certain point I had given up on it and it had almost slipped my mind, then the backer survey came through. I enjoyed the film and the collector box is nice, but most of the enthusiasm I had had for the release had completely dissipated by then.
I can't help feeling that if Anime Limited are just a third party in this particular kickstarter, then it becomes more likely that something might go wrong.
sniper_samurai
Mad Scientist
I pretty much have given up on it, its nearly 3 years since I received the bluray set.
I'm glad I didn't back that, because I know exactly what you're talking about. You only have to take a glance at the Mai Mai Miracle Kickstarter comments page to see how much bad blood and negativity it generated. Likewise with the Patema comments page.
What I continue to resent about it is the fact that AL abandoned the Patema KS page before even fulfilling the full campaign. And don't even get me started on the handling of the damage to the Ultimate Edition o-card. We (the backers) received an email in mid-December 2014 requesting photos of the damage to put into a report. After that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It wasn't until I discovered this forum towards the end of last year and read some of @anime_andrew's posts that I learnt that the issue had been looked into in great detail and hadn't just been swept under the rug after all:
Wouldn't it have been far better (and, dare I even suggest, common sense) to actually communicate this directly to the KS backers themselves rather than limit the discussion to a forum that some (myself included) may not even have been aware of? (Especially given the amount of effort AL were clearly expending on the issue.) But none of this was actually communicated, and negative opinion was the result.
There. Rant over. That's been over two years in the making.
I refuse to accept non-delivery of the art card that was promised, not without a proper explanation. I'm too stubborn.
thedoctor2016
Mushi-shi
FUNi have got black butler book of the Atlantic and are bringing to US cinemas I was wondering if AL will be doing the same?
Ferensviel
Dandy Guy, in Space
Admittedly it was in a changeover period and if that had all happened today it would have been handled differently but at the end of the day it is what it is now.
Honestly speaking - I added the comments on the forum as a passing discussion at the time as people were asking or complaining. I'm certain we should have added it at the time and contacted everyone but as is with a still fledgling company things got lost in the mix and apologies for that. At this point an update on it via that channel feels too little, too late to make any meaningful difference to anyone. Best we can do is learn as we move on from it and take it on the chin.
What folks feel about us matters of course and it's clear you still hold the whole thing close to your heart so again apologies for any upset caused.
As I say above, it is what it is now. Can't go back and change it - but can move forwards
. Side note but you'd be amazed how many people don't read Kickstarter emails too though or emails out - in short we'd always have a percentage of the population on it who missed the news. There were definitely ways to reduce that number as I mention above but it'd never have covered 100% of people sadly.
Will look into that - each one was hand-numbered which was why it took so long to organise though, which is obviously time consuming as you can guess.
Anyhow, back to cherry blossoms for me! Will be around more from mid next week when I'm back in the UK
.AP