UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

[anime_andrew]

I'm sure Andrew will clarify, but I thought the "all Gundam" comment was a while ago, and likely before it became apparent that any DVDs would be PAL DVDs, for which there isn't a great deal of appetite for.

Correct - sadly this and BBFC makes it impractical cost wise I'm sad to say .

 

[Buzz201]

1,000 copies do - if Gundam is selling more in the UK than that - it's a really cool thing ! That said it's still a feature and it's not a small quantity in the UK market all in all to clear so it's a statement of how loved Gundam is.

Would decrease the price after if I could, but alas I'm in a Catch-22 situation there!

I understand your reasoning behind the whole thing. I'm happy to wait for everything to be discounted now I missed out on the first box and artbook anyway.

However, Zavvi is still listing MSG Part 2 with an artbook, Did they not all sell out?

 

[anime_andrew]

The businessman in me completely understands why AL are doing this, sharing discs and reducing costs makes complete sense, and provides many benefits to them as a business and potentially, in some circumstances, us as consumers. However, I’m uncomfortable with some of things that are being said and implied to and about people that are upset by the delays. I have no stake in this, as the MSG sets are too expensive for me, but I tried to collect together some of my thoughts and the thoughts I’ve gleamed from conversation with other people.

I'll reply as well - don't worry - will keep in mind there's no set stake in it though .

I wonder whether promising day and date or a release date close to the US for things is a mistake on AL’s part. They haven’t been able to do it for Gundam or for Funimation titles, seemingly not even when they’re the ones taking the lead on disc authoring. I understand that there are a million and one things that can get in the way, but they’ve only managed to actually achieve this a couple of times, so continuing to promise it seems like a mistake to me. It’s easy enough for fans to complain that the BBFC is a terrible organisation that shouldn’t exist and that publishers and replicators shouldn’t favour larger companies, but neither of these things are likely to change, so getting fans amped up, when you know there’s a strong likelihood of external factors getting in the way seems like a mistake.

In honesty - it's not really a mistake, what's happened is a bit of time adapting and as always when we increase workload (like in 2014 and 2015) there are hiccups sadly. It's really not ideal and we're picking up on that now - so you'll see Q1 shift. We're always in a catch-22 in this kind of situation so again we're just finding our footing there - more practical dates from Q1 again and we've got some good support coming in around then too which will make the flow of things a lot easier .

However, I also get the impression that AL knows release delays are probably coming well before they tell us and there’s some choices being made to deliberately delay this information coming out. I think a more clear and obvious attempt to flag all the dates AL gives out as provisional wouldn’t go amiss, as there still seems to be a lack of certainty as to the provisional status of some dates, and some people get more and more disappointed seeing shows of significant personal value to them repeatedly delayed without much warning, when AL seemingly knew it was coming well before they told us and ignored or missed their questions asking about it.

We're working on that now and any date delays you get now are coming in-line with when we have it & when solutions have been found for the issue there more than anything . We don't ignore the questions either but it's one of those situations where you're faced with lots of detail at once and sometimes queries get missed, it isn't ideal but it's not deliberate ignorance. For example on my end - reading and replying to this eats up time so I normally zone out at that stage to get back on with work afterwards .

There does seem to be a feeling amongst certain fans that we should not complain about delays, and that it doesn’t really make a difference whether we get the product tomorrow or a year from now. I’d respectfully disagree. In this instance, Zeta is a sequel. MSG, Part 2 came out February 8th this year, so assuming it meets the January 30th date, people will have been waiting 357 days for it to come out. In that time, fans have watched as their American counterparts got After War X (Parts 1 & 2), Build Fighters, Build Fighters Try, Char’s Counterattack, Evolve, Victory (Part 1 is out now and 2 is scheduled before Zeta’s UK Part 1), ZZ (Parts 1 & 2), none of which are even scheduled in the UK. I know some people reading this will question why it matters whether the US have something and we don’t, and to an extent I guess they’re right, but the wait adds little tangible benefit to us as consumers. The primary difference between AL’s release and RightStuf’s are fancy packaging and French subs, and AL can’t even guarantee everyone that buys a copy will get the fancy packaging (but as I’ve said previously, even if you don’t, you can expect to pay the same price). So there isn’t really benefit to us as consumers for waiting. As Andrew has sort-of admitted, it’s not being done for our benefit, it’s being done for AL’s and to quieten French fans. The SRP will not reduce for us as a result, the stock cost probably won’t reduce, it probably won’t be discounted any sooner; the primary benefits of the delay aren’t being passed on to us as British & Irish consumers. I can’t speak for them, but I get the impression many Gundam fans were waiting to show their support for the franchise and for a UK distributor, to hopefully ensure its continued and prolonged success in the UK, but length delays like this for little tangible benefit when many of them just want to watch the show already, take the mick out of and erode that goodwill. Having your goodwill towards something be eroded is not a good feeling, so as much as these delays clearly upset AL, it would be wrong to deny that aren’t also eliciting a visceral and emotional impact in the fans also.

There's no admission or hiding to this - the world is a bigger place than just English speaking or the UK you know? French fans have as much right to Gundam as English ones do and it sucks that we are trapped in the situation where if you want to support Anime Limited (which I really really do appreciate from fans) - but it's a commercial reality we're trapped in. I'd like to think that fans here are not so insular to think that their fellow European anime fans are any less entitled and it benefits European fans as a whole this way.

It's super simple - we do not "benefit" from this, we either lose money releasing ASAP in the UK and then again in France, or we don't and we get to keep running our business. There's no two ways about it sadly and it really pains me that we could have a UK release sooner, but it just doesn't work that way.

Fans are totally entitled to an opinion and as much as it sucks for me to say, the option is there for the most hardcore to import Zeta sooner if they want to. It's sad to see but I totally understand and Sunrise still wins regardless from it so at least the original licensor's OK . Also again though I do appreciate the support fans have shown and it goes without saying fans are totally allowed a response too / be emotional. Just keep in mind we're human beings too with real feelings....;_;.

There are also pragmatic issues with products constantly getting delayed. How does one budget for something if they don’t know when it’s coming out? It’s easy to suggest that they just hold on to the money, but life gets in the way, things happen. A delay of 5 months, especially from before to just after Christmas, makes it especially likely things will get in the way, and even if you have the best intentions of keeping the money set aside, that might not be possible. This wouldn’t necessarily normally be an issue, but components of the release are probably limited, so if people wait to purchase the set they might have to do without the pre-order bonus, leading to the dreaded shelf-inconsistency.

We have the same issues on budget to be fair as a business so it's really not ideal there and we totally sympathise. We do want Zeta out sooner FYI, we've just learned to give the worst dates now rather than later on stuff.

This brings us on to a few last problems. I’m not convinced Zeta will even meet the January 30th date. France is the hold up and we’re supposedly sharing discs, so presumably the French date must be similar to ours. Zeta isn’t yet listed in France, and it’s a sequel, so presumably the MSG Film Trilogy will have to come out in France first. That release isn’t listed yet either, and I assume AL will want a gap between the two releases to make things easier on French consumers. So sometime before January 30th AL will have list, author and release the MSG Film Trilogy in France, and I can’t see that successfully happening.

Time will tell there - but we're working to the best of our abilities to deliver that for folks asap .

Finally, Andrew’s promise that several different Gundams are being worked on simultaneously and they’ll all be released in quick succession is little comfort to consumers. If they desperately attempt to catch up by releasing several Gundam series in a short period, and without much advance warning, fans are going to be forced to scrape together large amounts of money with little notice or miss out consistent sets and the nicer packaging/artbooks. This is a horrible position to put collector’s in, as some of them will likely be forced to prioritise and miss out on the series they don’t already know or at least have some inkling they’ll like. And then, if they do scrape all the money together, they’ll then probably struggle to find the money for the subsequent more regularly scheduled releases. For this to work, I think AL would need to commit to release dates and SRPs well in advance, but due to production difficulties that is both difficult for them to do, and dangerous, given fans may try and hold them to it and get upset if their plans go awry.

We'll keep it paced as best we can and keep people updated - wait and watch I guess. Things take time but we are working on improving them - as ever feedback is welcomed though.

To think, many moons ago folks would have said nobody cared about Gundam in the UK? I'm just overjoyed to see it brings out such passion from people invested or not in it! Thanks for taking the time to write all this and sorry if my replies are brief, crunch time for Scotland Loves Anime just now too here on top of everything else...

AP

 

[anime_andrew]

I understand your reasoning behind the whole thing. I'm happy to wait for everything to be discounted now I missed out on the first box and artbook anyway.

However, Zavvi is still listing MSG Part 2 with an artbook, Did they not all sell out?

Quite possibly not, stock hasn't been returned anyway but I can look into it! If you do order there and don't get one, message me and I'll sort you one out here as I have one or two kicking about in the office I believe...

AP

 

[Buzz201]

By the way, AL's newswire is now out.

29th August - Perfect Blue (Zavvi Exclusive Steelbook)
5th September – Samurai Flamenco Part 2
12th September – Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad
26th September – Assassination Classroom Season 1 Part 2, Free! -Eternal Summer-, Project Itoh: The Empire of Corpses

• Turn A and ZZ Gundam are now both BD-only instead of DVD-only.
• Lupin the 3rd, Part IV is delayed whilst the dub is produced. Unlikely to be mentioned until more info is available.
• Lucky Star has a bonus extras DVD and therefore a new date, they're hoping for before Christmas, but it's still TBC.
• Your Lie in April Part 1 is hoped for October, but more information will be available once approvals are complete. It has been given a BBFC 12. Part 2 has no date yet.
• Eden of the East CE is hoped for November, but still in approvals.
• Claymore is hoped to released by the end of the year, but still in approvals.
• Aldnoah. Zero is again hoped for Q4, but still in approvals.
• If they haven't mentioned a title, it generally means there isn't any update worthy information.

New images
Blood Blockade Battlefront

To give you the rundown, our release will come packed in a rigid case (top left), inside that a digpack (top right) to hold the two Blu-ray discs. Also inside the rigid cast will be a 120-page art book that will include character image boards, art settings and interviews with some of the staff who worked on the show. Specifically interviews with the original creator Yasuhiro Nightow and Character Designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, Art Director Shinji Kimura, Creature Designer Koji Sugiura, Taisei Iwasaki (who wrote the music for the series) and Effects Animation Director Takashi Hashimoto.

On disc content on the Blu-ray includes the entire series (12 episodes) with both the English dub and original Japanese audio with subtitles. Extras wise there will be Episode 10.5: Even These Are the Worst and the Best Days Ever, interviews with Aaron Dismuke & Ian Sinclair and Micha Solusod & Mike McFarland, Textless Opening and Closing title sequences, Promotional Videos & TV Spots and Blu-ray/DVD promos.

Check the link for a pre-order offer, valid until August 31st.

Tatami Galaxy

We’re bringing the series to the UK for the first-time on Blu-ray as a Limited Collector’s Edition set on 28th November. It will come packed in a rigid case, inside that a digipack to the hold the two Blu-ray discs, 4 art cards and a 60-page art booklet. The art booklet containing characters designs for main characters and other cast members, plus there are also background art settings for many of the locations in the series. You can see what our set will look like [above]
On-disc content wise, you’ll get the entire series (11 episodes) – a reminder that the series has no English dub so it a Japanese audio with English subtitles only release – plus a promo video, clean opening and clean endings and a nearly 20 minute Making of… featurette that follows some of the team involved in the series going to various locations used in the show.

You can get in early and pre-order your copy of The Tatami Galaxy today from the likes of Amazon and Anime on Line today. Listings on other retailers sites will be appearing soon.

.

 

[Buzz201]

Funimation Updates, also from Newswire:
26th September – Gonna Be The Twin-Tail!!
10th October – No-Rin
31st October – Yurikuma Arashi
14th November – Brothers Conflict

Overlord is coming. More details will be available soon.

 

[ThatguyfromNorway]

Looking forward to Brothers conflict

Not heard about Tatami's galaxy before, but might pick that up too, looks kinda weird.
And weird things is often my kinda things

 

[Buzz201]

I'm personally really liking the look of that Blood Blockade Battlefront set, and hoping I can scramble together the money for the pre-order deal.

 

[Rob F1UK]

Bit disappointed that two of the Sept titles I was planning to pick-up have been put back (again).

Shame that there's still no mention of Eureka 7 either - presume this is now not happening in 2016?

As you guys seem to have so much on now, have you considered resourcing up more, as you do seem a little stretched?

 

[black1blade]

Both tatami galaxy and blood blockade battlefront looks like really awesome sets.

 

[IncendiaryLemon]

Pre-ordered Blood Blockade Battlefront. Wasn't going to originally due to the higher than usual SRP, but that deal made it viable. Shame about the September delays, but it's saved me a lot of money this month

 

[HellCat]

If it's DVD only then we won't be doing it on BBFC grounds . So go ahead!

Exceptions do happen though - like the BD release of the Movie Trilogy .

AP

Does that mean Build Fighters is on the cards for UK?

 

[Buzzkillington]

Will be picking up both BBB & Tatami Galaxy for sure, pretty excited for both but especially the latter. I hope the spine of BBB looks a bit better in person though, looks off to me and I'm not sure why as it's technically what I ask for.....

Does that mean Build Fighters is on the cards for UK?

I'm sure Andrew already said work was underway for Build & Build Try, if I remember right he said they were waiting of packaging files.

 

[thedoctor2016]

Im waiting for Zavvi to list BBB.

 

[Demelza]

Loving the look of that Blood Blockade Battlefront set, it's certainly nicer than the Funimation release! I likely won't be picking it up due to October being quite expensive (FMA and the potential of YLiA...), but if it ever drops to £40 again after the early bird deal then I'll certainly grab myself a copy. Just bad timing for this deal and the £51 price-tag on Amazon is, sadly, just that bit too much for BBB.

 

[NormanicGrav]

Does that mean Build Fighters is on the cards for UK?

As I've said previously it's just these lot that the UK won't get:

• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: A New Translation

• Turn-A Gundam: Movie Collection

• Gundam Evolve [TRSI has Region 2 support]

• After War Gundam X [TRSI has Region 2 support]

• Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket

 

[elaniel]

Really worried there's no update on Yona 2 in the Newswire.

 

[IncendiaryLemon]

@anime_andrew Any update on Riddle Story of Devil? It's due in almost just over a month yet we still don't have art...

 

[TiggsPanther]

There does seem to be a feeling amongst certain fans that we should not complain about delays, and that it doesn’t really make a difference whether we get the product tomorrow or a year from now. I’d respectfully disagree. In this instance, Zeta is a sequel. MSG, Part 2 came out February 8th this year, so assuming it meets the January 30th date, people will have been waiting 357 days for it to come out. In that time, fans have watched as their American counterparts got After War X (Parts 1 & 2), Build Fighters, Build Fighters Try, Char’s Counterattack, Evolve, Victory (Part 1 is out now and 2 is scheduled before Zeta’s UK Part 1), ZZ (Parts 1 & 2), none of which are even scheduled in the UK. I know some people reading this will question why it matters whether the US have something and we don’t, and to an extent I guess they’re right, but the wait adds little tangible benefit to us as consumers. The primary difference between AL’s release and RightStuf’s are fancy packaging and French subs, and AL can’t even guarantee everyone that buys a copy will get the fancy packaging (but as I’ve said previously, even if you don’t, you can expect to pay the same price). So there isn’t really benefit to us as consumers for waiting. As Andrew has sort-of admitted, it’s not being done for our benefit, it’s being done for AL’s and to quieten French fans. The SRP will not reduce for us as a result, the stock cost probably won’t reduce, it probably won’t be discounted any sooner; the primary benefits of the delay aren’t being passed on to us as British & Irish consumers. I can’t speak for them, but I get the impression many Gundam fans were waiting to show their support for the franchise and for a UK distributor, to hopefully ensure its continued and prolonged success in the UK, but length delays like this for little tangible benefit when many of them just want to watch the show already, take the mick out of and erode that goodwill. Having your goodwill towards something be eroded is not a good feeling, so as much as these delays clearly upset AL, it would be wrong to deny that aren’t also eliciting a visceral and emotional impact in the fans also.

I think, going forward, this is going to increasingly be an issue for UK home releases. Especially for anime.

As streaming eats more and more into the "watch once" and "casual rewatch" crowds, people like myself who want a physical barebones release are going to become more and more the minority. So, to all intents and purposes, the "UK Home Video market" and the "UK Collector Market" are going to be pretty much one and the same.

And this is where it begins to get messy. Because as soon as you target the market who are willing to pay over the odds, the clock starts the moment another English-speaking territory gets its version out.
After all, someone who's willing to pay extra for a fancy set is somewhat more likely to be willing to pay extra to get it faster.

Andrew replied, quite rightly, that things are bigger than just the UK market. The problem is, as I mentioned above, as soon as an English-language release happens elsewhere, the clock starts.
Because the one advantage that a UK-serving distributor has over an American (or Australian or even Japanese) company is that they are dealing directly with the UK market. And that they're more convenient than importing. Either by being slightly cheaper or bypassing the hassle of import fees and region-free players. But to make this really work, they need to be able to get something out as close to the US release date as possible.

After all, if you're not in my demographic of "Budget Purchaser", factoring convenience and speed into the higher price just makes it easier to import.

There are three main options for UK fans.

1. Wait
2. Import
3. Pirate

And the longer a title gets delayed, the more you're likely to see people in category 1 reduce and people in the other two categories increase.
Because regardless of how much the rest of the European market matters, once something is out in your own language anywhere, that's pretty much when people want it. Sad reality.

And there's also an unfortunate option 4 which kind of leads into one of Buzz's other points.

• Lose interest

Maybe your interest in a show or film wanes. Maybe something else cool and shiny comes out. Either way, though, sometimes it's hard to maintain interest in a product when it keeps getting shoved back. And even if it still remains on your To Buy List, it might slip down few places. Which will impact those pre-orders and initial-month sales.

Which leads us into...

There are also pragmatic issues with products constantly getting delayed. How does one budget for something if they don’t know when it’s coming out? It’s easy to suggest that they just hold on to the money, but life gets in the way, things happen. A delay of 5 months, especially from before to just after Christmas, makes it especially likely things will get in the way, and even if you have the best intentions of keeping the money set aside, that might not be possible. This wouldn’t necessarily normally be an issue, but components of the release are probably limited, so if people wait to purchase the set they might have to do without the pre-order bonus, leading to the dreaded shelf-inconsistency.

Again, once you're into Collector Items and out of "Pile 'em high, Sell 'em Cheap" you're veering more towards the luxury/treat section of people's disposable income.
And that's the first thing to be sacrificed on the altar of "Oh Crap, I'm An Adult With Bills And Responsibilities".

Unexpected repairs and replacements can occur at any time. And any more in the Not Spent Yet pile will suddenly get reprioritised at a moment's notice.
And you can budget all you want, but if a title gets delayed and in the meantime your car decides that its Service and MOT are going to be a teensy bit higher than you'd hoped, chances are it's your anime purchases and not your grocery bills that get put aside.

Hell, my washing machine just keeled over recently. Buying a new one has only put a slight dent in my "Small Frivolous Purchase" (read: budget/sale videogames, standard edition videos) habits. But for the pricier items? The computer gadgetry I was hoping to replace/upgrade/augment, the cool import toys, the once-in-a-blue-moon Collector Edition video releases?
Those are seriously pushed back. Like 2017 pushed back.

If I were a heavy collector, you're looking at two or three purchases being dropped to cover the cost. And the stuff that gets dropped would likely be the things that aren't out yet.

TL;DR
The UK collector market is likely to continue to be at least somewhat time sensitive. It's those who are willing to pay extra but aren't so impatient to pre-order and import title.
But they are willing to cave and pay for the version that's already out in their language if the local one takes too long.

 

[Emulsion]

BBB looks good.

Would pre-order from AL to get the early bird deal if they took the money on or a few days prior dispatch like pratically every where else does rather than take the money straight away