Thanks for the tip! That does explain things.
Doesn't help AL because that form should just work.
Gonna email them later this week if they don't ship.
UK Anime Christmas Sales for 2025 [Anime Ltd's 12 Days of Xmas + More]
- Thread starter SkwigglesWorth
- Start date
Doesn't help AL because that form should just work.
Gonna email them later this week if they don't ship.
Jourmongand
Completely Average High School Student
So turns out my last order had already shipped on Friday with DHL now sitting some where in Southampton heading to Belfast. That email just arrived Monday morning.
My last wee rant earlier this morning for me still stands. And I'm even more so convinced now it's incompetence but who's the fulfilment partner or AL.
Where's the communication too the customers up-to-date a simple automated your orders ready and prepared for pick and we will inform you when it's dispatched nice and simple wee update like that at least keeps the cat away from the pigeons.
Anime fans like other niche fan groups are far more patient when it comes to delays and hiccups but getting what it would seem to anyone who didn't know about a forum like this would rightly leave them feeling forgotten about by the seller.
Am still firmly on the fence about ever ordering from AL again. That could have been easily averted by simply keep folk up-to-date and informed.
My last wee rant earlier this morning for me still stands. And I'm even more so convinced now it's incompetence but who's the fulfilment partner or AL.
Where's the communication too the customers up-to-date a simple automated your orders ready and prepared for pick and we will inform you when it's dispatched nice and simple wee update like that at least keeps the cat away from the pigeons.
Anime fans like other niche fan groups are far more patient when it comes to delays and hiccups but getting what it would seem to anyone who didn't know about a forum like this would rightly leave them feeling forgotten about by the seller.
Am still firmly on the fence about ever ordering from AL again. That could have been easily averted by simply keep folk up-to-date and informed.
Not to run defense for them or anything, but I have been ordering with them for years and most of the time they are fast and reliable.
That said, since their takeover by Embracer I have noticed:
- Shipping delays becoming more frequent. Not longer but more items shipped later.
- Quality of discs going down. What I mean by this is that production errors occur more often. Looking at my Nadia release as a prime example.
- Production time takes longer. I think at least four titles missed their release window last year.
- Prices have gone up.
I know not all these things are in AL's control, but I do notice them nonetheless.
So all in all: if it runs well it runs like clockwork, but screw-ups do happen and they can be big.
xp_version1
Adventurer
Long live the Toho era
I'll wait and see. I hope it leads to better service and more cool series/movies.Long live the Toho era
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
That's more of an industry wide issue that just so happened to affect AL after Plaion acquired them tbh
Fair enough, but like I said: I know not all these things are in AL's control, but I do notice them nonetheless.
And while it not be in their power to change it, when prices rise I at least expect service to say the same or improve. Which it has not.
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
Yeah but you're basically singling out a company despite many others having the same issue. When production costs rise so does the product. In the context of the cost of living crisis I think it's a bit silly to expect any kind of increase in price to be due to an improved product
No, I'm not singling them out. I'm not blaming them for higher prices. All I have said is what I noticed since they have been/were taken over by Embracer: rise in prices, longer production times, longer shipping times, more production errors.
I also added that I know that most of these things are probably not in their control, but they did happen.
That and it is kind of hard to ignore the price of an already expensive hobby, but even so: their service still went down in quality, release windows aren't met and the number of disc errors have increased.
In light of those things, they should at least try to ship discs right and on time. This isn't their first sale and high volumes were to be expected. A delay is fine. Two months is not. Especially if they were the ones that went: better be quick, or it's gone.
I also ordered at other anime stores during the sales and they managed. Yeah, smaller stores, but come on.
Okay, complaining over.
I have made lots of orders at AL and most of them were fine and sales make it very much worth it.
Would I recommend them or buy from them again? Probably yes (depending on how this is resolved).
Should they make sure this doesn't happen again? Definitely!
cfx
Student Council President
The fact this thread is now 33 pages and initial complaints started far earlier than now proves the bolded isn't really true at all.
As does this sentence.
I makes you think how big or small the demand really is. I have heard that the demand for physical media is on the decline and that the demand for anime on disc/vhs was never that big to begin with and yet here we are two months after the Christmas sale still waiting for orders to be shipped.
Either the industry for physical media has shrunk so much that the Christmas spike in orders is enough to clog up the whole thing or the demand is actually fairly large its just not a nonstop "I spend 500 pounds a month" kind of behemoth.
sirijo
Dandy Guy, in Space
I think there are a lot of misunderstandings in that line of thinking.
a) International share of anime revenue continues to grow YoY which will include home media sales
b) Anime fans are some of the nerdiest of the nerds and the majority of regulars here will attest, will happily buy home media they have little or no intention of watching soon
c) As some of the nerdiest of the nerds we can see the streaming service deletions as a threat to media security and will be more likely than the median home media enjoyer to buy now than regret later
d) Our fandom is one of the earliest at perpetuating the idea that we can support the creators (animators, or animation houses specifically) buy buying home media over other forms of available merch (the profits of which we know tend to funnel to production committees instead)
These factors coalesce into a strong group of media buyers. The fact HMV continue to have dedicated space for us in a market that over recent years has collapsed is evidence that specialty interest groups are the new lifeblood of home entertainment. What I think this years AL sale debacle has shown is that:
i) UK anime social media groups (including here) underestimate the size of the UK home media consumers. Early in this thread (or the AL one) someone pointed out surprise at how quickly the order numbers jumped up by a thousand. We should be glad we are the noisy minority and that the industry is bigger and better supported than we knew. This means a continued market for our niche (though less niche YoY) hobby
ii) AL also failed to read the tealeaves on how popular the sale could be and their distribution partner (who I believe also work with other labels) could not handle our volume (on top of their own, plus the other labels). AL have admitted this and will factor it into future sales
iii) AL should consider not timetabling new releases that will fall within 1 week either side of a sale event. This year was compounded by some previous new releases delaying due to production / delivery issues and even if they had an extra week gap I think we would have seen the same problems. We also cannot expect the publisher to avoid new product launches for weeks ahead of a sale event though.
Finally, we did not know about the TOHO stuff going on behind the scenes, how that impacted AL time, what decisions had to be delayed while that was clarified. In addition although the past year has had a number of misfortunes (some self inflicted like quality issues, others not such as final product delivered to them faulty / incorrect), AL on the whole have been a fantastic custodian of anime home media releases. They more than deserve the chance prove that they can turn the corner on this. We know the staff love anime and making our dreams come true, even if they are sometimes slower to execute than our excitement can always bear. Without them we would only have MVM who have shown they do not want to scale much beyond 15 releases a year, and Crunchyroll who produce low effort releases and more than ever want to focus in on a smaller catalogue with big volume sales (I've resisted moaning before but to me the CR releases feel cheap).
Thank you for attending my TED Talk.
a) International share of anime revenue continues to grow YoY which will include home media sales
b) Anime fans are some of the nerdiest of the nerds and the majority of regulars here will attest, will happily buy home media they have little or no intention of watching soon
c) As some of the nerdiest of the nerds we can see the streaming service deletions as a threat to media security and will be more likely than the median home media enjoyer to buy now than regret later
d) Our fandom is one of the earliest at perpetuating the idea that we can support the creators (animators, or animation houses specifically) buy buying home media over other forms of available merch (the profits of which we know tend to funnel to production committees instead)
These factors coalesce into a strong group of media buyers. The fact HMV continue to have dedicated space for us in a market that over recent years has collapsed is evidence that specialty interest groups are the new lifeblood of home entertainment. What I think this years AL sale debacle has shown is that:
i) UK anime social media groups (including here) underestimate the size of the UK home media consumers. Early in this thread (or the AL one) someone pointed out surprise at how quickly the order numbers jumped up by a thousand. We should be glad we are the noisy minority and that the industry is bigger and better supported than we knew. This means a continued market for our niche (though less niche YoY) hobby
ii) AL also failed to read the tealeaves on how popular the sale could be and their distribution partner (who I believe also work with other labels) could not handle our volume (on top of their own, plus the other labels). AL have admitted this and will factor it into future sales
iii) AL should consider not timetabling new releases that will fall within 1 week either side of a sale event. This year was compounded by some previous new releases delaying due to production / delivery issues and even if they had an extra week gap I think we would have seen the same problems. We also cannot expect the publisher to avoid new product launches for weeks ahead of a sale event though.
Finally, we did not know about the TOHO stuff going on behind the scenes, how that impacted AL time, what decisions had to be delayed while that was clarified. In addition although the past year has had a number of misfortunes (some self inflicted like quality issues, others not such as final product delivered to them faulty / incorrect), AL on the whole have been a fantastic custodian of anime home media releases. They more than deserve the chance prove that they can turn the corner on this. We know the staff love anime and making our dreams come true, even if they are sometimes slower to execute than our excitement can always bear. Without them we would only have MVM who have shown they do not want to scale much beyond 15 releases a year, and Crunchyroll who produce low effort releases and more than ever want to focus in on a smaller catalogue with big volume sales (I've resisted moaning before but to me the CR releases feel cheap).
Thank you for attending my TED Talk.
Last edited:
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
Singling out may have been poor phrasing I admit. That said I'm aware that you're acknowledging some factors may be out of their control. I'm just adding context as I think their rising prices really aren't that noteworthy in comparison to the other issues as they're a part of a bigger issue affecting many companies and would have happened with or without Plaion's ownership.
I have my issues with AL too (so much so that I've bought the Japanese Blu-rays for one of their franchises out of disappointment with how they've handled it) but I truly think this is one we can let slide given the wider context.
Last edited:
I thank you for your context. However, like you, I'm willing to let this one slide if they fix it (they haven't so far) and if it doesn't happen again anytime soon.
I wouldn't like it if next Christmas/other sale the same thing happened.
Would rather send pics of received orders that were on time.
That said, this is the first huge delay I've had from AL. So chances are this won't be a trend.
I'm not here to shame them or something like that, I would like them to do better in the future.
Hunter_Killer
Hunter
All the Anime sent me their penultimate package today, meaning they've shipped three of the four. I'm waiting for them to send another one. The largest and the first one I ordered during these sales. I don't know why they started shipping the last one.
ActionFaust
Mad Scientist
I think you misunderstand. I was still talking about raised prices, not the delays.
ID5
Dandy Guy, in Space
Well, yesterday I finally received a shipping update for my Christmas Sales order, of December 4, it should arrive on Wednesday
Getting to wait that long for any movement is still ridiculous, but this morning I was greeted with an UPS clearance fee of 20+ euro to pay VAT on my behalf.
When will IOSS be implemented, as this is really excessive...
Getting to wait that long for any movement is still ridiculous, but this morning I was greeted with an UPS clearance fee of 20+ euro to pay VAT on my behalf.
When will IOSS be implemented, as this is really excessive...
I would love it if more shops did this. It would save a lot of money. Those "administration costs" shipping companies ask are outrageous.
I am aware, just wanted to point out where I stand on the matter. I think it's mostly in line with your views.
BrokenPhoenix
Thousand Master
Really good points here; the growth of the UK and European manga and anime market is something I've followed over the last few years or so.
While sales of physical media are declining generally, physical anime merchandise (including anime-related home video) is actually increasing, and is predicted to grow in Europe to $9.05 billion by 2030, with an average increase of ~11% each year.
Hence Toho's move to gain various global distributors (they know that boutique physical media is an increasing market, so they want to be in prime position to take advantage). A major Japanese studio wouldn't be making such moves if they felt there wasn't significant money to be made.
It's the same kind of growth that we're seeing in the "boutique" Blu-ray renaissance more generally, so-to-speak (think labels like Arrow, Second Sight, Radiance, 88Films, Criterion, etc). All these distributors (Anime Limited included) have realised it's better (and easier) to sell 3,000 copies of a fancy collector's edition for ~£50 than to try and sell 15,000 copies of a standard edition for £15-£20 to a more casual consumer, for example. Not only this, but these labels have built up credible direct to consumer store fronts, so they no longer need to go through Amazon, HMV, or other retailers where their profits are eaten into.
Ever wondered why steel books have exploded in recent years? Well, that's because in 2025, steel books made up only 10% of all 4K Blu-ray titles, but made up 18% of the total revenue for 4K Blu-ray that year, with an average retail price of £32! Steel books, limited/collector editions, this is seemingly where the money is in the physical market now.
I think what is driving this growth is the volatility of streaming services; one month a film or show you want to watch is on one streaming service, the next it has moved to another or now entirely doesn't exist on any official platform, for example. Not only this, but I also believe the desire to permanently own almost an 'artefact' or museum piece of your favourite TV show or film (something that isn't at the whim of a streaming service) is also driving this market shift.
I think you're exactly right about people generally underestimating the size of the market and the number of interested customers. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking it's only the people on social media, Discord, and places like this who are potential customers. In reality there are thousands upon thousands of interested customers who simply aren't on social media or do not post online.
It's no coincidence that when you walk into a HMV nowadays there's a big anime section and also a large section for labels like Arrow and the like - it's simply where the market and the money is now. There are a lot of people willing to pay £30~ for a 20 year old film or series in pretty packaging, as opposed to a bog standard release of a disc in a simple amaray case for £10.
As for the logistics of Anime Limited's sale this year, it of course wasn't ideal. You would hope that a multi-billion pound company in Toho would be able to help upscale Anime Limited's capacity to pack and send orders in the future - especially since Toho now have a London headquarters.
AL are clearly growing as a business, but their delivery logistics is seemingly still at the level as if they were a small, niche independent company. Anime Limited has come a long way since being founded as a small, independent company; they're now part of a global distribution system and working with some of the biggest players in the game.
And with that, you would hope AL's infrastructure would develop with it. But I guess we'll see. I do think overall that Anime Limited do a better job than most labels (when there are significant disc errors we get replacement discs, we get emails if there are delays to pre-orders, bubble wrap as standard in packages!, etc).
Things aren't perfect, and of course there's always room for improvement, but as far as boutique labels go, I'd say AL is one of the better ones out there. You only have to look to the likes of customer complaints directed at companies like Arrow to realise that it could be a lot worse. However, I do hope the Toho backing allows AL to become more efficient and provide an even better service for everyone - and hopefully Suzume on 4K one day!
