A whole new era for the physical distribution of anime? Yes!

M

melonpan

Death Scythe
After months of hype from the North American anime distributor <a href="http://www.bandai-ent.com">Bandai Entertainment</a> boasting that a "new era" is coming as part of the <a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/news/1672/on-with-the-show-bandai-entertainments-project-unfolds">Nebula Project</a>, and our own representitive of our local Europe distributor <a href="http://www.beez-ent.com/">Beez Entertainment</a>&nbsp;talking about how <a href="http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic.php?p=181657#181657">"big things are coming soon"</a>&nbsp;- it has just been <a href="http://www.bandaivisual.co.jp/e/ir/press_2008/epr080707-e.pdf">announced</a> that the first two simultaneous worldwide anime releases are upon us!&nbsp;
In a bold statement - a&nbsp;massive step into what has been arguably the biggest talking point and problem in the distribution of anime around the world - Bandai Visual Strategy Group Director Masayuki Fujikawa&nbsp;announces&nbsp;"We plan to reduce the time-lag that exists between release in Japan and elsewhere. Starting with the releases in November and under our flagship brand HONNEAMISE,&nbsp;we&nbsp;are systematically planning and executing a&nbsp;worldwide, simultaneous release program for our premium Blu-ray titles, in order to get our products to international fans as quickly as possible."
Involving the entirety of the anime <em>Freedom</em> (never before released in the UK) and both the <em>Gunbuster</em> and <em>Diebuster</em> movies, this first&nbsp;endeavour into what is arguably one of the biggest developments in the anime industry in decades is not to be missed out on!
The shows will be released on the next generation HD format - Blu-ray Disc&nbsp;(BD) and will contain the Japanese, English and French dub, with English and French subtitles.&nbsp; This release will most certainly cater&nbsp;for the vast majority of anime fans worldwide who possess the ability to play Blu-ray discs; and with local distribution done by already established entities - Bandai Visual in Japan, Bandai Entertainment in North America and Beez Entertainment in the UK and France - the release should be executed just like any other release.
Could the Bandai Channel also be <a href="http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic.php?p=181657#181657">on the way</a>&nbsp;in the near future?
 
I'm getting it for the future, when I have access to Blu-ray. Gotta show support to simultaneous releases when it's there.

Japan only listen to sales figures. Money talks. So if we want this kind of deal to become the future, we have to put everything in to showing those snooty Japanese businessmen what the power of fandom really is! /cheesiness
 
I actually sent this round the UK webmasters and magazines today as well but thought you may like to see it in full too:

Beez Entertainment is pleased to announce the forthcoming release of the first wave of Blu-Ray DVDs in the UK. Coming as part of the simultaneous worldwide release from Bandai Visual to bring titles to international anime fans as quickly as possible.

Coming November 11th, 2008 to the UK - the limited edition release of the Freedom OAV series will contain content as of yet unseen by the world including the seventh Freedom OAV!

FREEDOM Blu-ray Disc Box (Limited Edition)

Street Date: November 17th, 2008
Pricing: 69.99 GBP (UK)
Product: Four (4) Blu-ray Disc Box Set/Color/approx. 280 min. / Japanese, English & French audio tracks / English & French subtitles
Technical: Dolby True HD (5.1ch), Linear PCM (Stereo) / AVC/BD50G x 4 discs / 16:9 (1080p High Definition)
Bonus Tracks: FREEDOM the Hope, Trailers, Prologue, Episode by Episode digest, Talking about FREEDOM, FREEDOM in the USA, etc.
Bonus Item: Booklet containing original FREEDOM manga episode

About FREEDOM

FREEDOM is a groundbreaking Sci-fi anime series in which a restless youth of a moon settlement Eden venture outside the rigorously controlled environment and head towards Earth, a world known to have been destroyed.

Coming November 24th, 2008 to the UK – Gunbuster vs Diebuster the movie boxset! Comes in boxset form with a bonus Blu-Ray DVD, the 2 movies are also available individually.

GUNBUSTER vs DIEBUSTER: Aim for the Top! The GATTAI!! Movie-Blu-ray Disc Box (Limited Edition)

Street Date: November 24th (UK)
Pricing: 49.99 GBP (UK)
Product: Three (3) Blu-ray Disc Box Set/COLOR（partly B/W）/approx. 280 min. / Japanese Language/English & French subtitles
Technical:
Disc 1 (GUNBUSTER The Movie): Dolby True HD 5.1ch (Linear PCM Stereo) / AVC / BD-50G /4:3 (1080p Hi-Def)
Disc 2 (DIEBUSTER The Movie): Dolby True HD 5.1ch (Linear PCM Stereo) / AVC / BD-50G /16:9 (1080p Hi-Def)
Disc 3 (Bonus Disc): Linear PCM Stereo / AVC / BD-50G /4:3 (1080p Hi-Def)
Bonus Items: Original Artbox Slipcase, Booklet

Also Available:

GUNBUSTER The Movie
Street Date: November 24th (UK)
Pricing: 24.99 GBP (UK)
Product: One (1) Blu-ray Disc / Japanese Language/English & French subtitles
Technical: Dolby True HD 5.1ch (Linear PCM Stereo) / AVC / BD-50G /4:3 (1080p
Hi-Def)

DIEBUSTER The Movie
Street Date: November 24th (UK)
Product: One (1) Blu-ray Disc / Japanese Language/English & French subtitles
Pricing: 24.99 GBP (UK)
Technical: Dolby True HD 5.1ch (Linear PCM Stereo) / AVC / BD-50G /16:9
(1080p Hi-Def)

About GUNBUSTER

The first commercial success of the fan turned pro studio Gainax and the directorial debut of acclaimed creator Hideaki Anno (Neon Genesis Evangelion), GUNBUSTER casts pretty girls and giant robots in a moving tale of interstellar naval war and is a story of a young girl’s struggle to pilot the ultimate weapon.

About GUNBUSTER 2 (a.k.a. DIEBUSTER)

The epic sequel directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki (FLCL) is set thousands of years after GUNBUSTER, and focuses on a space pilot wannabe named Nono from a lonely snowbound village. Her efforts lead her to join the elite teenage pilot group called Topless in order to defend the Sol System with their superpowers.

About Beez Entertainment SAS:

Beez Entertainment SAS belongs to one of the biggest Entertainment for the youth; Namco Bandai Group.

The only pan-European anime distributor (TV sales, video and music publisher, licensing), Beez Entertainment has a wholesalers network in France and in almost every European countries where anime flourishes. Popular titles in the ever-growing Beez catalogue include “Cowboy Bebopâ€
 
Certainly is interesting. I will probably plump for that Gunbuster set and will keep an eye on Freedom (all I know about it is from Utada Hikaru's music video tie in and Bandai press releases...).

R
 
As much as I love GunBuster/DieBuster I'm probably not going to buy them simply because they're just cut down to an hour and a half long movie, that's a whole hour of content taken out, important or not, it's like Rebuild minus the all new animation and crap.
 
The Gunbuster/Diebuster set is 3 discs though. Each movie is on a single disc, but if it's Gunbuster vs Diebuster movie (+ bonus disc), then shouldn't it be on 1 (+bonus disc)? o-O
 
Kireek said:
I know i should not be complaining but can they do this with DVDs as well?? :(
Click to expand...
According to the release at the AnimeExpo the DVD releases for these (at least in the case of Freedom) are coming at a later date (a couple of months down the line), with the initial release going to BD.
 
Gawyn said:
Kireek said:
I know i should not be complaining but can they do this with DVDs as well?? :(
Click to expand...
According to the release at the AnimeExpo the DVD releases for these (at least in the case of Freedom) are coming at a later date (a couple of months down the line), with the initial release going to BD.
Click to expand...

Oo only a few month thats ok then its better than a 2 year wait between japanese and uk realease this is sweet.
 
Gawyn said:
Kireek said:
I know i should not be complaining but can they do this with DVDs as well?? :(
Click to expand...
According to the release at the AnimeExpo the DVD releases for these (at least in the case of Freedom) are coming at a later date (a couple of months down the line), with the initial release going to BD.
Click to expand...

Only for North America at the moment, however.
 
@ Beez-Andrew
If your company can do this for Blu-ray, it can also do it just as fast for DVD. I always guessed that these delays were mostly artificial in pretense and market driven. I don't even own an HD receiver yet so a blu-ray player is even more further in the future, and with the credit crunch, rising fuel and food prices, and a recession tsunami rising up on the horizon, I doubt I will be replacing my existing system anytime soon. I appreciate the effort, but timing is everything, as they say. Add DVD to the bait and I'll bite, otherwise it's a non-starter.
 
Sounds like one fo the best ideas I have heard in a very long time, unfortunately, I am not really a fan of any of Bandai Entertainments bigger titles.
 
Hmm, I was wondering what they were going to try, and simultaneous distribution is certainly impressive - if it wasn't blu-ray I'd probably go for it. As things are, at the moment there's no way I can justify buying something capable of playing blu-ray.
 
Think i'll pass.

I have a BluRay player but neither of these releases 'do' it for me, im afraid.

If Gunbuster contained an English dub, then i'd consider it, but if i'm not buying the DVD because it doesn't, then why the hell would I buy the BlueRay?

Also, judging from the Beez series that I 'do' own, Beez can't even encode DVDs without cocking them up in some way, so what's going to make BluRay any different?
 
Tasker said:
Think i'll pass.
I have a BluRay player but neither of these releases 'do' it for me, im afraid.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear - on the upside it's just the first wave so you can rest assured that there is a longer list of titles over the months after those releases planned (I have it sitting here, just can't say what yet -_-)!

Tasker said:
If Gunbuster contained an English dub, then i'd consider it, but if i'm not buying the DVD because it doesn't, then why the hell would I buy the BlueRay?
Click to expand...

The press release from Bandai Visual also points out dubs are done on a case by case basis. For Gunbuster vs Diebuster I have no idea why none was included but the reason to buy it over DVD would be it was remastered from scratch in Japan for HD :). If the dub is a big issue then of course it's still an understandable sticking point!

On the other hand, it will not be the case with every release - Freedom for example will have a dub added for Blu-Ray :).

Tasker said:
Also, judging from the Beez series that I 'do' own, Beez can't even encode DVDs without cocking them up in some way, so what's going to make BluRay any different?
Click to expand...

You will be glad to hear I have been chasing the encoding issues up and it's unfortunate you've been stuck with bad experiences from previous series. From my experience the latest series (.hack//Roots) was clear of any problems as should future series though :).

You'll also be glad to hear it's not Beez encoding them, they're being produced + encoded by Bandai Visual because manufacturing them in one place is most efficient for a number of reasons at this stage in Blu-Ray's life so you can buy them without any worries on that front ^^.
 
melonpan said:
Gawyn said:
Kireek said:
I know i should not be complaining but can they do this with DVDs as well?? :(
Click to expand...
According to the release at the AnimeExpo the DVD releases for these (at least in the case of Freedom) are coming at a later date (a couple of months down the line), with the initial release going to BD.
Click to expand...

Only for North America at the moment, however.
Click to expand...

Watch this space, I should be able to talk more on this all at/by Amecon :).

- Andrew
 
Mohawk52 said:
@ Beez-Andrew
If your company can do this for Blu-ray, it can also do it just as fast for DVD. I always guessed that these delays were mostly artificial in pretense and market driven. I don't even own an HD receiver yet so a blu-ray player is even more further in the future, and with the credit crunch, rising fuel and food prices, and a recession tsunami rising up on the horizon, I doubt I will be replacing my existing system anytime soon. I appreciate the effort, but timing is everything, as they say. Add DVD to the bait and I'll bite, otherwise it's a non-starter.
Click to expand...

Actually the delays aren't artificial at all - or some grand conspiracy scheme. Here's the problem when it comes to DVD for most companies:

- You have your license agreement that needs thrashed out for every title, usually between two seperate companies (Manga and Gonzo for example in case of Hellsing Ultimate).

- The above step needs to be done before any exchange of materials can begin. When it is materials can be dispatched for series, from then it can take time to have a release that is approved of by the licensor for release.

- This can add to delays especially as for DVD you must encode the masters individually for R1 and R2. Making it difficult for a simultaneous release as the R1 masters are normally ready first and US companies tend not to wait.

In my opinion the above may well change for BV's plans based on our structure as-is though, that will all be confirmed soon.

In terms of Blu-Ray, it's the most effective way to stage a worldwide release at the same time just now however DVD is also being closely looked at as we understand the need for simultaneous release of that as well especially in current times. Watch this space for news on it is all I can say just now :).

We're making our way to it though and things are only getting warmed up just now!
 
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