UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

anime_andrew said:
Aw bless, I've seen loads of lovely theories like this today! Hate to break it to folks but the license for the UK lapsed from Funimation a while ago so we bought the rights directly from Aniplex Japan actually :).

So whatever we do is between Aniplex and us, not Funimation :).

AP
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I somehow knew you would get the rights from Aniplex, after all you guys get along pretty well. I also had the idea that you could eventually get Blu-ray rights to Darker Than Black as that's also an Aniplex title (despite Funimation & Manga releasing the series) but that of course depends on your mood and whether it's available of course.
 
ilmaestro said:
A generally very useful strategy - albeit one that is more often used for... starker differences in content, shall we say? ^^;
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I'd argue there's no more drastic difference between what we do now (which self-admittedly targets the Criterion-esque parts of anime) and targeting a more traditional "anime" audience too! It's not a bad thing but there is certainly a difference between titles that merit the treatment we give every release now and more general-consumption titles I guess :).

Something for us to mull over here anyway! Very open to thoughts on it :).

AP
 
DesuDayo said:
It's nice to see such a massive title get licensed by Anime Limited. Though I was secretly hoping that it would be a Spice and Wolf UE *winks*

However, since my interest lies in Brotherhood this likely won't be a pickup for me. I do wonder whether they'll create their own discs from the Japanese masters, or simply copy Funimation's. If i'm not mistaken they've done the latter before and it's not a practise that I can say that i'm all too positive about (￣_￣)...
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Man I am a huge fan of Spice and Wolf! Sadly it's really had its time in the UK really now I think - as much as I personally would love to do a UE and can think of all sorts of extras xD. One of those tough conundrums!

We do both often, for FMA the issue is that if you compare - there isn't much more you can do quality-wise than on the Funi discs so all you'd be doing is re-authoring for the sakes of it. If someone can demonstrably prove the difference is worth it vs the US and the JP editions and if we get the chance then I am willing to entertain it.

The cost difference is huge though so it's one of these points there has to be a strong case for in our heads if the two options are presented side-by-side if that makes sense :)?

AP
 
Didn't Jerome imply on Twitter that FUNimation have their own plans for the UK market? So if they're planning on entering by themselves, giving Anime Limited a portion of their catalogue before dropping them shortly after wouldn't make much sense to be honest.

In fact, while we're talking about Anime Limited and Aniplex...you know Andrew, I'd be really grateful if you could license and give a pretty premium release to Your Lie In April =3. Silver Spoon would go down an absolute treat with me too...*hint hint, nudge nudge* :p.
 
Joshawott said:
Didn't Jerome imply on Twitter that FUNimation have their own, other ideas for the UK market? So if they're planning on entering by themselves, giving Anime Limited a portion of their catalogue before dropping them shortly after wouldn't make much sense to be honest.
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I don't know about Jerome, but FUNimation said that they would announcing international expansion plans early next year on their recent ANNCast. We read between the lines and assumed that meant us.

However, that doesn't explain why certain titles have been licensed by Anime Limited and had streaming right sold to Viewster, only to appear on another service later on, courtesy of FUNimation. (Thinking about Gangsta., which had a Daisuki delaycast.)

Edit: BBB is no longer up on Animax, maybe that was a mistake.
 
anime_andrew said:
ilmaestro said:
A generally very useful strategy - albeit one that is more often used for... starker differences in content, shall we say? ^^;
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I'd argue there's no more drastic difference between what we do now (which self-admittedly targets the Criterion-esque parts of anime) and targeting a more traditional "anime" audience too! It's not a bad thing but there is certainly a difference between titles that merit the treatment we give every release now and more general-consumption titles I guess :).

Something for us to mull over here anyway! Very open to thoughts on it :)
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Oh, I agree on a philosophical level, I just think messaging could be a very delicate issue. This isn't as obvious as, say, Working Designs (a US video game company specializing in localizing RPGs and strategy games) releasing shooting and action games under their "Spaz" label. Or in the more wide-spread example, an otherwise mainstream focused company setting up a separate label to distance pornographic releases from the rest of their catalog.

I wouldn't want someone to think "oh, I only buy real Anime Limited releases - show X isn't for me since it's on [future label name]" when show X could range from Castle Town Dandelion to Selector Infected Wixoss to K: Return of Kings .
 
Yeah, that difference in branding could impact people's perceptions, especially for people like me who blind buy (admittedly, it won't stop me from buying, I'm hooked on the label now! )

"Oh, Anime Limited aren't giving it the collectors treatment, it must not be that good and not worth a purchase"

I hope AL can come up with a good line name and keep rrp around £30 (which means £20 or less for buyers) to combat this perception, as sub 20 is impulse buy/the sweet spot for many.
 
anime_andrew said:
mikezilla2 said:
how dos andrew feel about the older lupin the 3rd stuff ? ie season 1 ? ( which dos not have a blu ray release in the west) or a full dvd relase of season 2 ?
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I really love it and would love to do Season 1 on BD.

Who knows what the future holds, eh ;)?

AP
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heres hoping :)

in regards to terror in LE yea im not sure what to say there beisdes it being on the high side 50 pounds is probably were i set these thnigs given exchange rates

is there anything you can tell us about the upcoming bebop UT LE/collection ?
 
I'd love Lupin III, but I've read that the HD master is pretty bad with frozen grain and other things. Which is a shame - hopefully there's a good master locked away somewhere or in the process of being made.

Of course, there are other early Miyazaki/Takahata works that have gorgeous HD masters... :wink:
 
britguy said:
I hope AL can come up with a good line name and keep rrp around £30 (which means £20 or less for buyers) to combat this perception, as sub 20 is impulse buy/the sweet spot for many.
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This. So much this.
 
I've had my eyes on Discotek's releases for a while now, so I would definitely be in favour of seeing Anime Limited dip their toes into the Lupin III property; whether it's the older stuff or even newer stuff like the 2015 TV anime (that isn't being streamed to us T_T) and Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone. If they could somehow negotiate an Ultimate Edition crammed with the series' and TV specials, I might just have to sell both my kidneys and die of happiness overdose (or the lack of kidneys; but we'll see which catches up to me first :p).

In fact, I wonder if there might even be a possibility of the Lupin III vs Detective Conan TV special and movie? Although I could see why Anime Limited might shy away from the main Detective Conan series, considering FUNimation stopped dubbing and there would be over 800 episodes to BBFC.
 
NormanicGrav said:
anime_andrew said:
Aw bless, I've seen loads of lovely theories like this today! Hate to break it to folks but the license for the UK lapsed from Funimation a while ago so we bought the rights directly from Aniplex Japan actually :).

So whatever we do is between Aniplex and us, not Funimation :).

AP
Click to expand...

I somehow knew you would get the rights from Aniplex, after all you guys get along pretty well. I also had the idea that you could eventually get Blu-ray rights to Darker Than Black as that's also an Aniplex title (despite Funimation & Manga releasing the series) but that of course depends on your mood and whether it's available of course.
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Would love to see the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs re-done on Blu-ray too if we're talking Aniplex...

And if we're talking older Funimation titles - someone really needs to put Tsubasa and xxxHolic out again and actually finish them this time...
 
Lutga said:
And if we're talking older Funimation titles - someone really needs to put Tsubasa and xxxHolic out again and actually finish them this time...
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With regards to xxxHolic I think there was a legal embargo with Kei and the other seasons, same with D.Gray Man Season 2 (or Season 3 as Funi would call it ~ Episodes 51-103). No idea why though.
 
NormanicGrav said:
Lutga said:
And if we're talking older Funimation titles - someone really needs to put Tsubasa and xxxHolic out again and actually finish them this time...
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With regards to xxxHolic I think there was a legal embargo with Kei and the other seasons, same with D.Gray Man Season 2 (or Season 3 as Funi would call it ~ Episodes 51-103). No idea why though.
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I'm sure Andrew said not that long ago that there were legal problems with Eureka Seven (my memory's a little fuzzy, so maybe it was something else). So maybe it's no longer an issue...
 
Although D Gray Man never got the latter 50 eps dubbed/out in the US either? At least Tsubasa and xxxHolic came out in the US and are still in print there - whereas here, Tsubasa is OOP as with all the other Revelation titles, and xxxHolic must have expired for Manga.
 
Lutga said:
Although D Gray Man never got the latter 50 eps dubbed/out in the US either?
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I wonder why that was anyway? Was there some kind of legal reason, or did the first half simply not meet FUNimation's expectations?

That also reminded me that 4Kids didn't dub the last half of Tokyo Mew Mew because they apparently couldn't obtain merchandising rights for the series (or maybe they were shut down by the licensor? Who knows). Although I don't see Anime Limited rescuing that one :p
 
Another good piece on the Anime Limited blog by Andrew Osmond, Anime Studies: Ten Books You Must Own - especially good at this time of year!

I wonder if AL would ever consider getting into the publishing business? I don't know what the economics behind that would be, but one line in the aforementioned Osmond piece stood out for me: [regarding Jonathan Clements' Anime: A History] "The back pages contain a massive bibliography of source texts, including many primary ones by anime creators, nearly all in Japanese."

I'd love to see Isao Takahata's two Thoughts While Making Movies books translated, and Satoshi Kon's 'Kon's Tone'.
 
This is probably going to sound really weird, a bit off topic and its hard to articulate but just looking at the books above made me realize something, I just hate the idea of reading large amounts of text. It makes me feel...claustrophobic, I can't sit in one place and the words on the page just overwhelm me. I feel like I'm suffocating. I've always been good at English too which makes it weirder. The idea of reading any of these books sounds interesting but clicking on 'Look Inside' reminds me why I never will. I guess a lot of it has to also do with the fact that I find it difficult to absorb information so in the end the words mean nothing to me. It's a shame too because they seem interesting but luckily I feel clued up enough when it comes to anime and its history to a degree that I'm comfortable with. I like art-books I guess! ... :/
 
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