Here's a summary of AL podcast '11. It took forever to do as there's lot of information, and I'd strongly encourage everyone to have a listen. There are some parts where I have tried to quote directly, my transcription skills aren't brilliant, so if I screwed anything up, I apologise and I will try and edit it if necessary:
Jeremy says "Merry Christsmas! Happy Hollidays! or however you like to phrase it!"
Since the last podcast they have announced:
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Season 1 Blu-ray
- Tokyo ESP - DVD & Blu-ray
- Expelled from Paradise - DVD & Blu-ray
- Ninja Slayer from Animation - DVD & Blu-ray
- Tokyo Marble Chocolate - DVD & Blu-ray
- Anthem of the Heart - DVD & Blu-ray
- Prison School - DVD & Blu-ray
- Attack on Titan: Junior High - DVD & Blu-ray
- The (Murder) Case of Hana and Alice - DVD & Blu-ray
- Snow White with the Red Hair - DVD & Blu-ray
From now on unless otherwise noted, they're all DVD & Blu-ray (the crew's faces are dropping as they realise how many briefs they have lined up):
- Brother's Conflict
- Selected Infector Wixcross -- "Sounds like a beautiful STD" - Andrew Partridge
- Turn A Gundam - DVD only
- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam - DVD & Blu-ray
- Mobile Suit Gundam Double Zeta - DVD only
- Genius Party
- Genius Party: Beyond -- "Yaay" - Andrew Partridge
- Buddy Complex -- "Hooray" - Keith
- Kill la Kill - Standard Edition DVD & Blu-ray
- Eureka Seven -- "Yaay" - Andrew Partridge
- Fullmetal Alchemist -- "Yeesss (followed by weird chimpanzee noises)" - Everyone but Jeremy. "I'm really excited I've licenced it, it did cost me an arm and a leg" - Andrew Partridge
Everyone is excited about
Fullmetal Alchemist. There will be an ultimate edition.
Ultimate Editions due next year:
- Terror in Resonance
- Fullmetal Alchemist
- Eureka Seven
- Escaflowne
Eureka Seven and
Fullmetal Alchemist are not mastered in HD, there are no HD assets to use barring previous upscales, both of which look really good. They will be using the same assets as Japan, and they will match the versions using on both the US and JP versions.
Andrew spent his flight to Tokyo enjoying free wi-fi having a discussion with anime fans about the pricing of ultimate editions (that'll probably be us then...) Everyone work up to the fact Andrew had "not done a Manga UK bender on the forums and in fact had a reasonable discussion. I think it's reasonable to say that is something, which used to happen in the past." - AP "Couldn't possibly comment" - JG "Not anymore and I think it's reasonable to say (?), but it is a notorious saying. I felt some cringing here when I said it, it's like, it's not a dig at anything, it's just a descriptive of what used to happen, like basically, and stress Jeremy out on a day to day basis." - AP
People feel their CEs are so good that it's hard to distinguish between UEs and CEs. One of our users knocked it on the head, with a comment along the lines of "not all books are equal". A huge amount of SRP is taken by retail, and AL has to break even on the rest. On standard this figure is less than 50% of the SRP, which is the problem of dealing with third parties. They did find that they can open it up for a limited time on their shop, as the comission is a lot less and there's a higher margin per unit. They will keep this strategy in forward for UEs too, but they will still make them available widely too.
They can't lower SRPs as they'll lose money. They've made back replication costs and are on the way to covering over costs on all their other UEs (except for things like
Gurren Lagann and
Patema Inverted where they have already made all those back).
Andrew says
Full Metal Panic! is selling well and is close to covering costs. They appreciate it wasn't what everyone was hoping for design wise, but it balances out and it has done well sales wise.
Andrew says a standard edition "has to follow not super far afterwards" when releasing an ultimate edition as it's "not about forcing a consumer [choice]". They would never ask fans to pay that much more for simply the product. "We don't want to force people to buy something as soon as possible, which is why standard editions crop up as soon as possible, and sometimes as soon as we're allowed to" - Kerry
Jeremy wants to point out
TIR is both the shortest UE and the most recent by almost a decade. They love to see feedback "as long as you use polite words". Andrew says as long as you don't cross the line, they're not bothered, but he's not happy when it gets derogatory any particular creed, nationality, mental state. "You can be offensive without being... upsetting" Keith interjects simultaneously with "a horrible ****" and Andrew agrees.
Andrew reiterates his wish to release UEs of all Watanabe's works.
Andrew's making some steelbooks that even his team didn't know existed. "Think of April-time as a nice time."
Samurai Flamenco (subtitle only) was released on the 21st and everyone is really happy with how it's turned out. Blu-ray only, includes episodes 1-11, cleaning opening and closing and an art book
Andrew would like to thank Lace Digital Media Sales for the chocolate and wine
SAO II, Part 2 will release on 28th December, and is actually on time, there should already be an unboxing on their blog. Kerry says "there's a special feature in this latest collector's edition, in which we ****ed up the title on purpose, and it's called 'Sport Wart Online'". Andrew makes another joke, they all collectively decide almost immediately it should be bleeped out, but nobody else seems offended.
Keith is terrified as he's worked for AL long enough that he's now responsible for things that get released.
Kill la Kill will get a standard edition DVD and BD release over 3 parts, Parts 1 & 2 SRP £29.99 Part 3 SRP £24.99. AL are happy to be releasing the 3 standard parts, would have liked to release over 2 parts and pitched several options to the licensor knowing some would be more accepted than others. Part 1 CE on blu-ray is out of stock in their warehouse, and Part 3 CE on DVD is out of stock in their warehouse too. They will not be reissued, but there is plenty of Part 2 left.
Still more we don't know about for 2016 "so much more".
Mobile Suit Gundam part 2 scheduled for late January, the first 1000 units will come with an art booklet created with the involved of Keith, that is a nice booklet and has a good selection of material. It is not retailer exclusive, until they announce it is OOP you will definitely receive a copy. However
Mobile Suit Gundam part 1 left the warehouse quickly, so they'd encourage pre-ordering to avoid disappointment. No news on the rest of
Gundam yet, as soon as they know, we'll be told.
Jeremy's now doing a pub quiz. If anything interesting comes up I'll make a note of it, but I think that's the news done.
Andrew's really enjoyed releasing titles and talking to fans at conventions, on social media and on forums. He promises he'll make less typos this year
Kat tell us to keep liking magical girl animes, and Andrew says that as of the end of last week
Prisma Illya will have recouped it's replication costs, so they only have the rest of the hurdles to go. "Still good for you, proves there's a market for magical girls" - AP Andrew recommends
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, "it's not one of ours, but I was really enjoying it". Kat really likes
Great Teacher Onizuka "mostly for his expressions" - Kat.
Keith hopes we like his releases and "please be gentle".
Kerry's words of wisdom "bless you."... "Thank you very much and have an awesome Christmas and a happy new year" "Next year's going to be kind of nuts, but the good kind of nuts".
They will have simulcasts for next year, but no news yet and they are still looking into stuff. There may be news over the holiday, Jeremy will send it out by Facebook but not on Christmas day.
"If you cross your fingers really tightly, we might release the two titles we've not released since we licensed them". "No, both of them will be released next year".
Kat recommends
009 Re:Cyborg for the booklet, as it's really insightful and shed a lot of info on what's actually going on in the film.
Baccano! is Kat's favourite release of the year. Kerry says the
Baccano! booklet is great, Andrew says it reminds him of Mechano...
Kerry's favourite release of the year is
Space Dandy, part 2 (season 2 is "****ing solid man, it's great") and
Baccano! is her second favourite ("
Baccano! is really really great").
Jeremy likes the
Tokyo Ghoul LE and the
Prisma Illya LE, but will give an honourable shout to
Blood Lad.
Keith liked the
Full Metal Panic! UE, "it's a wonderful package".
Andrew's product of the year is
Kill la Kill Part 3, he really liked the fact they were able to do something cool that wasn't available elsewhere, but he also liked
Giovanni's Island Ultimate Edition,
Full Metal Panic! UE and
Prisma Illya CE. The title he didn't work on that he really loves is
Blood Blockade Battlefront, calling it the most promising show of next year. His favourite show of the year is
Death Parade but they don't have that "yet". "If it's still up on Viewster, just watch it" (For reference, it isn't up on Viewster any more.)
Jeremy says his favourite show of the year is
The Heroic Legend of Arslan (2015), and it was cool to see the manga animated. He also loves
One-Punch Man.
Kat says her favourite is
Blood Blockade Battlefront, she also enjoyed
Food Wars, but felt the ending was flat.
Kerry enjoyed
Miss Hokusai and
The Murder Case of Hana and Alice. She also enjoyed the
Japan Anima(tor) Expo screening at SLA.
It ends with a ukulele rendition of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, which also descends into random chimpanzee noises...