UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Aion (Retired) said:
'Tis a self-fulfilling prophecy for AL, a lot of the time: they lag behind US releases so much that by the time we get them, it's old hat only alluring to collectors that want to double dip at heavily discounted prices. As was the case with me Chaika/Kaiji.

Regarding those two, also worse value unless you wanted split season CEs. Chaika had a prev cheapo Manga UK release iirc;
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To clarify: Manga UK only released the first season of Chaika, never S2

Also I agreem that I'm also struggling weather I should double dip on some former Sentai titles (especially as their shipping fees + missing IOSS cost me about £25-30 extra so it's only worth if I decide to buy multiple titles)
 
If they're going to do flash sales during a sale I wish there was an option to "bank" purchases and then combine shipping for them at the end of the sale.
As it is you either risk missing out on something you want because it goes out of stock while you're waiting to see what the daily sales are, or you get stung by shipping multiple times if you're buying things on multiple days (unless you happen to spend £50 on each day).
 
BrokenPhoenix said:
I don't know if there's any deep dives into the technical differences, someone more in the know may be able to comment on that.

However, one of the easiest to spot differences is with the subtitling font style.

Also, the openings and endings are seemingly not subtitled on the Anime Limited releases for Shippuden, whereas they are on the VIZ releases - if that's something that's important to you.

It is the same subtitle font/size as on the original Naruto sets:



I too was collecting the VIZ sets, but decided to go with the Anime Limited ones as the packaging/covers are much better in my opinion. Also, there has been a lot said about some of the issues with the VIZ Shippuden sets (for example).
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@Shadow I've just been flicking between the AL and VIZ sets on my TV as you peaked my curiosity (AL set playing on my PlayStation and VIZ on my Panasonic Blu-ray player and have been flicking between certain frames.

Yeah, definitely go for the Anime Limited sets, especially post 4:3 SD era if video quality is your priority. The VIZ sets are actually horrible, lol. I'm not a super technical person when it comes to video, but even I can see the jaggy lines and interlacing issues on the VIZ sets at first glance.

To my naked eye, AL's encode just looks sharper, clearer, and freer from the jaggies.
 
I mean the chaika sets both standard and ce sold out fast so it does not seem they had much left in stock so i would say they were a modest success. as for kaiji i dont know.
 
Relaxo said:
To clarify: Manga UK only released the first season of Chaika, never S2

Also I agreem that I'm also struggling weather I should double dip on some former Sentai titles (especially as their shipping fees + missing IOSS cost me about £25-30 extra so it's only worth if I decide to buy multiple titles)
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Ah, so that would be why I imported Sentai's Chaika (Oui!) release: for S2. Manga were likely trying to spare us all, knowing S2 a rushed/messy conclusion~
Had the Manga release 2015. Upgraded to Sentai's 2022 complete set for £38. Then came AL in 2024 with their RRP £69.99/£39.99 early bird x2 for S1/2. And now here we be in 2026 with no-one wanting besides double dippers.

'Tis the problem we've always had in the UK: we get anime last, when everyone either has or only wants on the cheap. It's somewhat unavoidable as first the US gets to dub, then we sub-license... unless that is an anime has enough surrounding it to warrant an insync worldwide release. Were a few of those last Christmas, such as today's non-sparkling flasher that even then AL were unable to shift all stock of apparently. But 99/100, at best, we get it months after others, and as we know with Anime Limited that turns into years. Always. With vague (tho appreciated) non-updates.

It's likely worsened nowadays by stores around the globe having timed release exclusivity for random physical media. Take Angel's Egg for example: saw that was getting released only by Umbrella in Austraila last year. Imported it. Next, Gkids in the US are doing the same the end of this month. Will we get it Christmas, or Christmas 2027? Will anyone still care by then?

I have come to understand why in the past those that understood Japanese went direct; pricing be damned. Even I'm doing that for films with old dubs included, as bugger knows when for example the UK will get VHD: B. It's worth paying a lot if timely. Or if it's the only store the product is available. Nice and all we got CEs for Chaika/Kaiji but they were never going to appeal when a) old, b) available elsewhere eons ago & c) split releases.

The only real value AL hold right now beyond cheap & cheerful box sets outside shounen-Viz is their Gundam releases due to TRS' demise. That and other anime OOP in America. But maybe even then the profits or logistics simply aren't worth it for them. It also seems daft to sell Japanese releases of Gundam they might, y'know, one day release their own version of. Maybe that's a sign they'll likely never get around to some...
 
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@Aion (Retired):

I don't think it's completely fair to say that's all they're good for. The releases I like most of all from them are the ones that aren't available from the US at all, like Calamity of a Zombie Girl, Sakamoto Days, I'm Standing on a Million Lives season 2, Gunbuster 2 bluray, and the upcoming Blood+ bluray set. I wish we saw more releases like that, honestly.
 
I mean AL sold us the imported Gundam NT and still did their own release later. It's one of the worst Gundam releases they've done but...

Sunrise is weird about the franchise and I have to assume offering the import editions is brownie points for AL if nothing else.
 
Aion (Retired) said:
Ah, so that would be why I imported Sentai's Chaika (Oui!) release: for S2. Manga were likely trying to spare us all, knowing S2 a rushed/messy conclusion~
Had the Manga release 2015. Upgraded to Sentai's 2022 complete set for £38. Then came AL in 2024 with their RRP £69.99/£39.99 early bird x2 for S1/2. And now here we be in 2026 with no-one wanting besides double dippers.

'Tis the problem we've always had in the UK: we get anime last, when everyone either has or only wants on the cheap. It's somewhat unavoidable as first the US gets to dub, then we sub-license... unless that is an anime has enough surrounding it to warrant an insync worldwide release. Were a few of those last Christmas, such as today's non-sparkling flasher that even then AL were unable to shift all stock of apparently. But 99/100, at best, we get it months after others, and as we know with Anime Limited that turns into years. Always. With vague (tho appreciated) non-updates.

It's likely worsened nowadays by random stores around the globe having timed release exclusivity for random physical stuff. Take Angel's Egg for example: saw that was getting released only by Umbrella in Austraila last year. Imported it. Next, Gkids in the US are doing the same the end of this month. Will we get it Christmas, or Christmas 2027? Will anyone still care by then?

I have come to understand why in the past those that understood Japanese went direct; pricing be damned. Even I'm doing that for films with old dubs included, as bugger knows when for example the UK will get 4k VHD: B. It's worth paying a lot if timely. Or if it's the only store the product is available. Nice and all we got CEs for Chaika/Kaiji but they were never going to appeal when a) old, b) available elsewhere eons ago & c) split releases.

The only real value AL hold right now beyond cheap & cheerful box sets outside shounen-Viz is their Gundam releases due to TRS' demise. That and other anime OOP in America. But maybe even then the profits or logistics simply aren't worth it for them. It also seems daft to sell Japanese releases of Gundam they might, y'know, one day release their own version of. Maybe that's a sign they'll likely never get around to some...
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To be fair

Crunchyroll after absorbing Funimation has not realeased much of their catalouge in physical format as there has been a huge amount of complaints from the american market of not releasing so many titles they already licensed to stream and own.

It has gotten worse now by making their physical releases to buy only for the ultra premium to access their stores.

In fact there has been a drastic shift these last few years were the uk market both from AL and Manga are getting physical versions of select titles released first before them and sometimes only them.
 
I am one of those who is unlikely to buy AL's current releases of Kaiji because of the lack of the English dub on their release, especially given that the dub was at least being produced at the time AL licensed the title (or at least when they announced the license) so I'm miffed that they didn't include it. Granted, it is possible I wouldn't care for the dub anyway, hence why I have said unlikely - I will prob sample the dub soon and if I don't like it I'm more likely to go for AL's release, but compared with some other titles that I didn't mind that they released sub-only because the dub wasn't produced til years later (such as Miss Hokusai for example, and tbf they did another release for that with the dub included that I did purchase) it's pretty frustrating for me. It's not like I'd outright refuse to watch a longer series that is sub-only but it does make them easier to get through if I can put them on dubbed in the background while I do other stuff like arts/crafts or housework. If I like the dub for Kaiji I will try to import Sentai's newer release that has the dub on it at some point even if it is more expensive. Not that I'm always the most frugal (in the sense of preferring to buy something less times) in this regard tbf - I might buy the Golden Time CE if it's not sold out yet just cuz I love the show and it's very cheap (I already own the dub and sub Sentai release). I appreciate Aion's point about release lag causing anticipation to fizzle somewhat for many titles by the time they reach the UK, and Grimraven's point that at least AL are doing physical releases of many titles as contrasted with Crunchyroll who are heavily prioritising a "you will own nothing and be happy" (streaming) model, for me, without meaning to bash isekai fans I wish they would release more of the non-modern-isekai titles in their catalogue on Blu-ray (as in, let everyone have what they want, not saying they should release less of the popular isekai). I haven't placed a sale order yet this time around but I will almost certainly do so in a couple of days when I have more money :)
 
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