UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Sure do, but I'm certain we're talking about way less money than paying for a dub (FMP TSR has never been dubbed in french) + authoring 7 blu-rays.
 
britguy said:
No I'm not implying that, I'm merely stating that AL have to deal with yet another licensor and pay for additional rights.

Nope. The copyright in almost all dubs and subtitle tracks is held by the original licensor to prevent there from being major issues later on. It's possible AL had to pay more for the dub to be included in their licence, but I doubt it. I'd also be surprised if they had to go to FUNimation for dub materials, although Japanese companies aren't known for their archiving, so it's possible.
 
Emo185 said:
Sorry to bring-up an old post but haven't had much time recently to go exploring all the comments :D

My reasoning for disliking FMP UE was a multitude things and of course price was a factor. I have no issues about spending a high price to receive a premium product but with FMP UE i just didnt feel satisfied with what i had got for the money (all of which is laid out in the article i wrote on AnimeBlurayUK).

To clarify I wasn't looking for the 'perfect product' i just didn't like the product as i had expected (and im not referring to the episode content itself) and i don't believe it warrants the high price point of the £150 RRP. At £90 i paid at MCM Comic Con i am contempt with it; but considering i like the packaging and presentation style of the american releases - and the fact it uses the exact same disc masters as those used in america - i can't help but feel disatisfied; heck someone recently showed me the French Ultimate Edition (half the cost) and it looks amazing!

Like i said; just speaking out my thoughts about the set :D

I've dealt with this mostly elsewhere so don't see a need to go into again but there are a few point worth mentioning too :). Namely:

1. Price: I'm guessing you meant "content" instead of "contempt" re price - if you did then it's a good thing as the price is circling £90 - £109.99 at any given time just now with retailers in general anyway and will likely stay there :)! £149.99 RRP is exactly that - recommended and rarely stuck to - but we have to cover costs and regardless of if this were the product for you, it costs a lot to produce a Collector's edition.

2. Disc masters: We never really made a big deal either way on these, it's worth noting that if we had re-authored it you can rest assured we'd have either said immediately or been shouting re the differences. As a side point too, in this case it's not like I actually had much choice in the end as the Japanese master (and all packaging materials used on the latest release) were deemed as unavailable.

Sucks but it happens so gotta make do sometimes alas. It's a shame you feel dissatisfied by that too and I get why that would be but in this case it was unavoidable (we do enjoy mastering our own discs for what it's worth too!)

3. French "Ultimate": It's interesting this one comes up, because long before I started working on our one I bought a copy to analyse and critically speaking it's one of the weakest collector's edition products that the French company in question has ever done (they have made a tonne of really awe-inspiring releases too, so that one was a disappointment to me vs packshot).

It's true the price is half the UK one - but presuming you don't own it, I'll break down a few reasons why this was possible:

- For one the box is cardboard, not chipboard so it bends like no tomorrow when emptied.

- Digipacks are cheap in quality at best and it shows / feels.

- Artbook is small and certainly not one I would go back to - but also repeats assets because they were pushed to break it down by season, not by type of topic (Mecha, Characters, Setting).

- Scale - sell them high, sell them cheap has been a policy in France sometime due to several distributors and so I'd be surprised if you ever see it run out of stock anytime soon...

Authoring discs is expensive (as is dubbing as TSR to my knowledge never came to France before) so a lot of money had to go towards that part I would very much suspect.

EDIT: I get that folks like the French artwork though too and that's cool too - but it's a Catch-22 if the build quality doesn't match up at least in my opinion! I also get that the design choices I personally went for may not be everyone's taste too, but they were choices on my part too so at least you can grill me personally for them ;).

Hopefully the above is interesting anyway for folks :)!

AP
 
SpaceDandy said:
Sure do, but I'm certain we're talking about way less money than paying for a dub (FMP TSR has never been dubbed in french) + authoring 7 blu-rays.

Which as I pointed out, explains the difference in quality of packaging used too (it really does show on the actual product...).

AP
 
Buzzkillington said:
I was also somewhat surprised when I saw just how much better the £35 French version was than ours (of course this is the price now, I assume it was more when it came out), particularly in the art work used department. I've been pretty disappointed with the Ultimate Editions in general and Full Metal Panic was the last chance to win me over but at this point I'm not even sure that I want it (how much nicer the French version is isn't the reason though), I understand you can only work with what you're given, but I'm pretty close to canceling my order and just getting the US sets.

The artwork used one is an interesting point - I can tell you now some of the elements used there in terms of actual artwork was not provided to us and on the contrary was told to be unavailable actually - which may be a shift in policy as there was a decent gap between their release and ours for example.

As for the rest, sorry if the Ultimate's haven't sold you over there but as with the others, standards will follow where possible not so long afterwards too if that helps :). Will look into pushing double-sided sleeves at that point too for the standards given feedback and if successful can also supply them to anyone wanting one for the Ultimate (big if there really!)

Best,

AP
 
thedoctor2016 said:
anime_andrew said:
- Digipacks are cheap in quality at best and it shows / feels.


Id prefer a cheap digioack for £40 than Amarays for £90 that look cheaper imo even if there in a "nice box"

I meant in this case they feel especially cheap due to print type and material. It's not uncommon when doing huge numbers to bring the cost down further but in this case it shows.

Sorry for the ambiguous line as where possible, I prefer digipacks too!

AP
 
SpaceDandy said:
French boxset SRP is 48£.
So our sets SRP is over 3 times as much....

anime_andrew said:
The artwork used one is an interesting point - I can tell you now some of the elements used there in terms of actual artwork was not provided to us and on the contrary was told to be unavailable actually - which may be a shift in policy as there was a decent gap between their release and ours for example.
It's funny as this was a question I was gonna ask next time Jeremy was looking for podcast questions, like why is some artwork available to some countries and not others, what factors determine who can use what. This was mainly something I was wondering after seeing the Italian Gundam sets, which have much nicer artwork in my opinion, (in fact, they're just nicer all round) but I guess that's all subjective really. It's a shame you didn't have access to the art used on the French digipacks though, it's just so much nicer in my opinion, our FMP looks pretty bland in comparison.

thedoctor2016 said:
Id prefer a cheap digipack for £40, than Amarays for £90 that look cheaper imo even if there in a "nice box"
Urgh, no....
 
Buzzkillington said:
SpaceDandy said:
French boxset SRP is 48£.
So our sets SRP is over 3 times as much....

I see where you're coming from but that isn't the case in all fairness - the SRP in France is €79.95. What has been done above is convert the price to GBP at today's rate then compare to our UK priced product. Even if you assume a basic same salary rate and cost of living in Europe - printing in Europe costs about the same in EUR to what you get billed for in the UK interestingly too so comparatively for the country it's sold in you are spending give or take the same as a £69.99-£79.99 set in the UK.

So in fact about half the price of our SRP, which given the cost of dubbing and authoring as well as the trade offs in final build quality it makes sense actually :).

What it means that often across the years counter importation of US product has been way more appealing while the dollar was weak (I remember times when it was over $2 to every £1 for example!) It didn't mean that the SRP was meant to be 50% less for comparatively priced products, just that conversion rates were favourable - making for a good deal as a consumer in the English territories :).

TL;DR - It's impossible to really fairly compare to other rates in two different currencies as you're not taking into account the price vs the people domestically who buy it in that territory. Even if you assume a basic same set of salary rates to UK & FR and costs of living remaining the same - that set isn't the equivalent of £48 SRP to those buying it in their territory and all prices are relative.

Hope that makes sense!

Buzzkillington said:
anime_andrew said:
The artwork used one is an interesting point - I can tell you now some of the elements used there in terms of actual artwork was not provided to us and on the contrary was told to be unavailable actually - which may be a shift in policy as there was a decent gap between their release and ours for example.
It's funny as this was a question I was gonna ask next time Jeremy was looking for podcast questions, like why is some artwork available to some countries and not others, what factors determine who can use what. This was mainly something I was wondering after seeing the Italian Gundam sets, which have much nicer artwork in my opinion, (in fact, they're just nicer all round) but I guess that's all subjective really. It's a shame you didn't have access to the art used on the French digipacks though, it's just so much nicer in my opinion, our FMP looks pretty bland in comparison.[quote}

Good question and definitely bring it up! Will be happy to cover it as have loads to say :D.

AP
 
This reminds me of comments on Amazon.fr about AoT from ATA where, people were complaining that €40 was too much for 12 episodes they should come to the UK then. As I thought for the set and it being BD and DVD it was worth it, I'm still planning to get it thats why I hope AL get AOT season 2 here.
 
thedoctor2016 said:
This reminds me of comments on Amazon.fr about AoT from ATA where, people were complaining that €40 was too much for 12 episodes they should come to the UK then. As I thought for the set and it being BD and DVD it was worth it, I'm still planning to get it thats why I hope AL get AOT season 2 here.

I don't know where you've been shopping, but I've picked up standard edition 13 episode shows for £23 in the past month (Danganronpa: The Animation was going for £23 on Zavvi on the day of release). So UK prices can be cheaper than that...



Speaking of Danganronpa, do AL have any idea if Assassination Classroom will begin streaming in the UK before the second season starts in January?
 
Tind said:
Hey!
What happened to SAO 2 part 2 LE? Has it been delayed?

I don't know if it was delayed, but I believe 16th December is the currently scheduled date. (Edit: or not, 16th is a Wednesday)

It's just been put through the BBFC, 15 for "strong violence, threat" if anybody's interested.
 
thedoctor2016 said:
This reminds me of comments on Amazon.fr about AoT from ATA where, people were complaining that €40 was too much for 12 episodes they should come to the UK then. As I thought for the set and it being BD and DVD it was worth it, I'm still planning to get it thats why I hope AL get AOT season 2 here.

It was 60€ and everything was terrible. No chapters, atrocious packaging (quality & artwork), etc. No wonder why people suggested to go for the UK release instead. The UK release may be bad, it's still better & cheaper than the local one.
 
But our chapters skip past the start of the Ep, past the next episode preview. The chapter are the worst part of my least fav product of anime I own as I love AoT it deserved better.
 
thedoctor2016 said:
But our chapters skip past the start of the Ep, past the next episode preview. The chapter are the worst part of my least fav product of anime I own as I love AoT it deserved better.
Don't complain, at least you guys had chapters.

In France they thought Blu-ray was a video tape.

andrew said:
3. French "Ultimate": It's interesting this one comes up, because long before I started working on our one I bought a copy to analyse and critically speaking it's one of the weakest collector's edition products that the French company in question has ever done (they have made a tonne of really awe-inspiring releases too, so that one was a disappointment to me vs packshot).

I can understand you want to support your release but I think you're forcing way too much there. The french release is perfectly fine. It may not be chipboard and others but that certainly doesn't mean it's weak or whatever. SAO S1 french release had two REALLY similar boxsets (same specs) and overall people prefer that format than what you guys are doing for S2 there.
 
Back
Top