UK Anime Distributor Animatsu Discussion Thread

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SnowWolf said:
It could just be me, but Animatsu's response seems to show comtempt for it's audience. This sort of thing wouldn't fly on a live action series or big budget movie so what akes the authoring house think it's ok with anime. Labeling those that complain as "QC Fanboys" seems a bit disrespetful as these people are often complaining because they genuinely want Manga to improve so they can continue to buy their releases. Others would just strug their shoulders and import.
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It's not you, your bang on the mark. Expecting chapter marks at the start/end of the title, one in the middle, one at the start/end of credits is disc authoring 101 and nowhere near QC fanboyism.

Having a single chapter mark in the middle strikes me as an automated authoring process, feed the master footage in, compress it down with a standard algorithm and spit it out.
 
Rosencrantz said:
Having a single chapter mark in the middle strikes me as an automated authoring process, feed the master footage in, compress it down with a standard algorithm and spit it out.
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Apart from doing a chapter every 5, 10 minutes etc, I'm not sure you could do an automated chapter mark for the middle chapter. The middle chapter is normally where the add break would be on TV and it's not always at the same time stamp. Same the with openings and closing.
 
These kind of comments are why i hate jerome. He seems like a bit of a bastard. He won't be getting any of my money. MVM and anime anime ltd will through. I bet the same problems happen with their stuff as happens with Manga's.
 
All this still strengthens my suspicion that he played a part in manga UK's downfall and that animatsu is just a rebrand to try and escape manga UK's poor reputation.

What a disgusting attitude to have towards a niche market where customer relations can make or break you.
 
It's just Jerome being Jerome. Don't take it personally. It's the foot in mouth syndrome that got him removed from Twitter and Jeremy hired as social media liasion at Manga. Now that Jerome is the boss at Animatsu, it's not like he can fire himself, so you can expect a whole lot of Jerome Jems in the future.

Just take them in the spirit they're delivered, traditional and stereotypical Aussie lack of tact...

EDIT: Take the fanboys comment. It is exactly right. Fairy Tail not withstanding, Manga's in house discs are authored to general UK DVD standards (and not a lot of anime distros these days offer animated menus to the degree that Manga do), the discs would be acceptable to anyone not at all well-versed with anime. When I first got into anime on DVD, I was happy with discs that I would never accept today, simply because I didn't know any better. It is the target customer base for anime that will notice the issues that would pass general muster. We want chapter listings just right on our TV shows. But if you take any other TV genre on DVD, if I stick in an X-Files disc, or Star Trek disc, or LA Law or whatever DVD, they're never chaptered at previews, credits, commercial break points, they're just split into random chapters, just like Manga's in house anime. Similarly subtitling for a foreign language is usually just dialogue. No-one subtitles screen text, you rarely get text translations on Third Window Films discs, or Jackie Chan movies, or on Amelie and the like. That level of translation is unique to anime, and UK authoring houses aren't used to that.

Jerome states the obvious, maybe without the diplomacy and the context required to avoid riling fans, but it is stating the obvious.
 
Jerome can be quite ..brass, very quick to rile up and speak his mind. It's unfortunate as it can rub people up the wrong way, it even makes me ..a naturally nervous person a little anxious about asking questions (Silly right?! Its the bloody internet) cause I'm not sure what his reaction will be.

He obviously means well and I can appreciate how difficult his work must be, he puts lots of energy & time into his role and to see people complain profusely over what maybe to most, the smallest matter that 99% of other Anime buyers don't care about is no doubt, annoying and upsetting. Not that this is an excuse for some of the comments he's made in the past (for example, one he made very recently on FB that was quickly removed, if anyone else saw it) he does lack ..tact if you know what I mean but I can get his frustration.

In regards to the interview, great to see them team up with other companies & I really, truly hope the best for the company. If Gatchaman & Chaika are decent BD releases, I'll put some dolla in their pockets.
 
I don't take it personally, I just find it to be very bad business practice in a consumer driven business to insult your core customer group, especially when they are only expecting the release quality of their chosen medium to be up to a standard followed by other companies.

Good will goes a long way with customers. I've had a couple of anime limited releases with poor chapter markings but I still have some pre-orders with them and wouldn't think twice about purchasing future releases, simply because of the way Andrew continues to engage with the community and his willingness to fix the more distracting problems.

Looking at my anime collection I think Manga UK releases make up the majority of my 2nd hand purchases, bought when cheap (averaging 1/3rd off original price) simply because they don't hold as much value for me with their errors and issues. I am all for supporting the industry by buying new & preordering but if a release has significant issues (including poor chapter markings) then it drops lower on my purchase scale and if I see it significantly cheaper 2nd hand then I won't think twice about purchasing it.

If Animatsu can do a decent quality bluray release with correct chapter markings & no significant glitches/errors, that I am interested in, then I will buy it close to release; but unless they build up a reputation for consistent quality releases and treat their fans better then I won't preorder anything unless there are good pre-release reviews.
 
I don't like it because 'fanboys' is a pejorative (and technically, exclusionary) term to begin with. There are ways to say things which aren't simultaneously insulting your potential customer base and Jerome has yet to show any willingness to try; I think he actually does it on purpose, because he's profiled his buyers a certain way thinks they all want to hear his laddish humour. I'm not in that demographic so it always rubs me up the wrong way, but every time he 'Jeromes' and insults people there's always a crowd cheering him on. I wonder how many copies of Fairy Tail on BD they bought.

I understand that someone who only watches dubs might not notice broken subtitles, but even before I was a dyed-in-the-wool nerd I would only watch foreign films in the original language and the number of times UK anime subtitles have been screwed up in the last ten years is beyond ridiculous. Sweeping it under the rug as something which only affects geeks is insulting and dismisses fans who have practical needs for working subtitles on the disc. And unlike chapter markers (or video quality, sadly), subtitles are a specific selling point which get listed on shop websites, so if they don't work then the product is clearly defective. The fact that DVD companies don't check this is regrettable to learn, but in that case the anime companies should definitely be checking it themselves once they know there's a risk it won't be caught in QC. It's not acceptable to release defective products then sidestep the responsibility. Doing that kind of thing and then throwing in a cheap insult aimed at the people who just wasted twenty quid on a defective product is not very respectable.

R
 
Some very interesting points and more elaboration here: http://otakunews.com/article.php?story=2276

Speaking on content, will you be doing separate Blu-ray and DVD releases exclusively or will you be doing combo releases at some point?

Andrew: No more combo packs, they didn’t seem to work for us at Manga. That strategy works extremely well for Funimation in the US but unfortunately didn’t here. If we decide to bring out a title on both DVD and Blu-ray then they will be out separately.

Jerome: Which is a shame as I’m a big fan of combo packs. But like Andrew said, we tried some at Manga and they performed poorly. I’m not interested in releasing on Blu-ray if only a handful of vocal fans on social media request it. Manga gets a lot of stick for cancelling Blu-ray lines for shows like Fairy Tail, but the sad fact of the matter is that Shonen series like this, Naruto and Bleach have sold poorly on Blu-ray. Releasing anime on Blu-ray, particularly long running shows like Fairy Tail is essentially an excuse to dig your own grave as far as fandom is concerned. Because if you choose to cancel it in the future you will have those fans who have continued to support the series on that format becoming very, very annoyed with you. I actually have no interest in releasing any series longer than 24 episodes on Blu-ray unless there is a good reason to do it. The episode count should be a good clue as to what titles will and won’t get an Animatsu Blu-ray release.
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I’m not interested in releasing on Blu-ray if only a handful of vocal fans on social media request it.
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If they're not interested in releasing certain titles on Blu-Ray then I will not be interested in their releases. (Only select shows I'll buy on DVD still - particularly older titles)

Strange with their logic on Blu-Ray. It seemed to work for Funimation when Blu-Ray was growing as they printed the same amount of DVD and Blu-Ray and combined in one package, so it kept pressing prices down.
 
The thing is that DVD is a very outdated format now, designed for standard definition CRT screens. The war for succession is over and Blu-ray is the only format still standing, it's been out a few years and I'll warrant the majority of anime fans own a HD tv now. Dvds are really stretched on a 1080p screen and even with a good upscaler it's still not comparable (without an upscaler it can be pretty horrendous).

For anime not done in HD fair enough, though they still benefit in a lot of cases simply because a lot of HD tv's don't do 4:3 properly and native subtitles are much cleaner. The vast majority though are done in HD now and are readily available in other countries and it's frustrating missing out when you want to try and keep to your own region or simply can't afford a multi-region blu-ray player, especially when a company like Manga is taking a native HD broadcast, downscaling it to an SD format then cramming as many episodes as possible onto a dvd to save costs (as seen with the latest fairy tail release).
 
serpantino said:
...especially when a company like Manga is taking a native HD broadcast, downscaling it to an SD format then cramming as many episodes as possible onto a dvd to save costs (as seen with the latest fairy tail release).
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Well technically Fairy Tail isn't native HD. I'm not sure if any of the First series is even HD at all to be honest. The currently airing 2014 version is HD native though.
You do get a noticable quality boost between the BD and DVD though which in itself warrants the upgrade.

Andrew: No more combo packs, they didn’t seem to work for us at Manga.
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Lies already! Halo Nightfall is a BD/DVD combo.

I’m not interested in releasing on Blu-ray if only a handful of vocal fans on social media request it.
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So, where else are you going to go to find out who wants your shows and on what format then? I thought that this was one factor which could make or break a show being on BD or not. If they're going to ignore that going forward then it's a loss for everyone.

I actually have no interest in releasing any series longer than 24 episodes on Blu-ray unless there is a good reason to do it.
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Good thing Jerome didn't get the rights to shows like Durarara, Gurren Lagann or Cowboy Bebop then.

If I'm honest I think Jerome has come out with some sense, and a load of nonsense in this interview. I'm still reserving Judgement when it comes to Animatsu, but let's just say what I've been reading isn't exactly giving me any reason whatsoever to be excited or even have any faith in them as a new distributor.
 
There's really no point in a company releasing products which aren't going to make (or even lose) them money. That would just send them out of business, and from the figures it seems hard enough to make money out of anime in the UK as it is. It's not like you can't import BDs of the long running shonen shows (which is the shows he's talking about) from the US market, which is big enough to allow them to make a profit.

And frankly, as long as Animatsu brings out products I want to buy Jerome is welcome to call me an alcoholic sex paedophile.
 
I actually thought they came off better in that second interview (though the interviewer snubbed MVM - presumably by accident ;_; ). It may have been the lack of condescending insults.

So long as they don't snap up licenses they're unable to properly support here, and stick to things within their reach, I think their proposed solution for BD is sensible enough.

R
 
Mangaranga said:
serpantino said:
...especially when a company like Manga is taking a native HD broadcast, downscaling it to an SD format then cramming as many episodes as possible onto a dvd to save costs (as seen with the latest fairy tail release).
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Well technically Fairy Tail isn't native HD. I'm not sure if any of the First series is even HD at all to be honest. The currently airing 2014 version is HD native though.
You do get a noticable quality boost between the BD and DVD though which in itself warrants the upgrade.
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*raises hand* Sorry that's my lack of personal knowledge on this particular series as my personal preference is shorter length series. I thought Fairy Tail was native hd starting with the last release but wherever I read that I must've been wrong. They still crammed too many episodes onto each dvd though from the issues I've seen.


I do personally prefer shorter shows as they're less time and money to invest, (usually) less full of filler and less likely to get this kind of thing pulled where the company decides not to release the entire series on Blu-ray though I have still been stung twice by Manga UK on this with XamD and Casshern Sins.


It's things like that, dropping to an inferior format halfway through, long delays with no updates and consistently poor quality releases, that make me go elsewhere and I'm sure a lot of other customers are the same. The company is at fault and need to accept some responsibility instead of repeatedly blaming the customers and hitting out at them.
 
Maybe you guys are spitting a bit too much milk on this interview? As Just Passing Through said, it's Jerome, the answers are a bit crude but nothing to make a fuss about him using X word.

Mangaranga said:
Lies already! Halo Nightfall is a BD/DVD combo.
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I believe this set is designed/manufactured by Kazé, may be the reason why it's special.

Didn't catch the "if i'm honest", err
Mangaranga said:
Good thing Jerome didn't get the rights to shows like Durarara, Gurren Lagann or Cowboy Bebop then
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He obviously meant shows not longer than 2-cour.These series would fit.
 
SpaceDandy - I think Mangaranga was being sarcastic :p

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One matter I pick up from that interview with Otaku news that amuses me is this:

"I know it’s hard to pick favourites but what titles are you looking forward to getting out to the public?

Andrew: Akame ga Kill! has become quite a surprise hit in Japan and we’re hoping that it will translate just as well with fans in the UK. It is a bad-ass show!"

Where did they get that Akame was a surprise hit? Looking at both the Japanese Anime & Manga charts, it's quite the opposite, lots of hype that failed to excite Japan, as DVD/BD sales are poor (not sure about the "other merchandise" side, Esdeath was the shows most popular character so she may have shifted some bits and bobs) and I've seen no increase to the Manga in the charts either :S It's considered to be a complete & utter flop..

Now in the western community, it was definitely a hit. A very good license for them to get hold of, should shift a good amount of copies.
 
Akame definitely felt like a big hit in the west - though definitely not as big as it could have been. The k it was slightly hamstrung by the first volume of the manga only just becoming available in the west last month.

Another interview here: http://www.geeknative.com/51412/anime-w ... +Native%29

How different are anime tastes in the UK from elsewhere in the world?

Jerome: Every territory is different, but I wouldn’t say British fans are that different from those in other English speaking territories like the US, Canada and Australia. There is a bit of a herd mentality amongst the younger fans. So if a show like Attack On Titan or Love Live are THE shows of the season, everyone pretty much follows and gets into it. The most popular genres are action and fantasy as well as Shonen shows like Naruto, Bleach etc.
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Would love to take that as a subtle hint Animatsu might bring the Love Live anime to the UK.
 
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