UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Buzz201 said:
This doesn't really account for the price of the show literally more than doubling over the past three months? It was £15.49 on Zavvi for Manga's "Definitive Collection" on 3rd July. They aren't selling your CE at the moment, but the cheapest price anybody (except yourselves) had was £42 from AOL. You have a limited run £30 webstore offer for a week. So people are paying £14 extra for a 40p booklet and nicer packaging (and no movies/OVAs).
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I totally agree - £15.49 to our price doesn't explain it - but what does is that by that time Manga were into what they call a sell-off period in the industry. So any stock left goes out at lower rates (in this case Manga were good about it and didn't go sub £10 actually) but it can get very very nasty depending on what stock is left.

So to compare a new product (even a standard) for a product on sell-off is always going to come off unfavourably. Example - if we did, it'd need to be closer to £39.99 to cover all costs and access, especially if the films are included. In that light it may go to £25 on discount but not a million miles further (if even that). So ultimately, whatever we did we'd be pissing people off - so what I went for was the path that made the most sense overall for the show and made something not yet done :).

Buzz201 said:
Based on AL's behaviour non-UE shows have to sell out (or be expected to sell out quickly) for you to consider a standard edition release. That's a perfectly reasonable business practice to employ, but I don't think it's at all melodramatic to assume Eden of the East may not sell 1000 units.
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You're assuming that's based on unit sales not design time, approval time and marketing time vs the pipeline we have for new product as well as we have limited slots per month to work with as well for sales :). We do try our best to get regular editions out the door quickly but to guess the rationale will always be tricky there is what I'm saying and of course a standard is on the roadmap but we may as well wait until we have the films for sure and can find a way to offer them to buyers of the Collector's Edition too :). Otherwise we get the same complaint, at a lower price point too...

Buzz201 said:
A quick look at blu-ray.com suggests Anime Ltd. has only released BD standards for Tokyo Ghoul Root A, Terror in Resonance and Kill la Kill this year. As well as the "standard edition with pre-order bonuses" Mobile Suit Gundam, Part 2. So my general optimism with regards to their release is low anyway.
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There will be others too - really though as I get the feeling I have somehow personally caused grief here - what titles outside AoA titles (for obvious reasons) are missing that we could look to fix as standard editions in Q1 2017 for you :)? As long as they make commercial sense, happy to look into adding them to the workflow and all ^^.

Buzz201 said:
None of this really answers my primary concern (although I wasn't really clear about it in the other post), which is that AL is going to regain a bunch of licenses back from Manga's Funimation deals and then take the cheaper versions off the market. I mean, if Eden of the East succeeds, why wouldn't you do it for other titles?
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We can't / won't take cheaper versions off the market - but in the clearance period it makes more sense to do a collector's edition and restart somewhat as you're otherwise managing the death knell of a bunch of titles that deserve an extra bit of life. Will we do a Collector's expecting to issue a standard a quarter or two later when the market is clear at medium price range? Unlike some new releases, almost certainly yes - and in the meantime the show will be available digitally too at least on Funimationnow.co.uk :). It won't be as long off though anyway or as unpredictable - mark my words.

That said there has to be a gap otherwise you're just hurting the market by keeping the price on a declining spiral with no added value for people who may have wanted a collector's version (disclaimer - there are some titles I may want one for that nobody else will, will never know until we try though!)

Best and sorry for any temporary anguish caused!

AP
 
Jaysgba said:
This isn't necessarily an entirely bad thing though; there are still plenty of titles that could do with a UK release that isn't an PAL DVD.
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We don't think it's a bad thing entirely anyway or we'd not do it too :)!

That said, I think it's very fair though to point out that up until now - especially with sell-offs factored in - that the prices for many of the titles we're working with are dirt cheap right now. We'll never win on that frontier (or make much more than peanuts on first release if we do it that way) so it's about balance. Offer something new first then introduce something more standard on a proper timed cycle after I'd say.

We're aware of the Catch-22 situation and are doing our best to listen while staying true to our own beliefs there.

Best,

AP
 
Buzzkillington said:
Oh right, that makes a lot more sense (My opinion of AL was about to take a nosedive had that been the case lol).

While I understand the frustration I don't think releasing both at the same time would make much sense here seeing as a standard has been available for such a long time (plus you can still buy the movies and the series separately on BD) and only recently went out of print, but then again I'm not sure this release makes much sense anyway.

If they can include the movies without increasing the price by too much I could be convinced to double dip, but it's not exactly an exciting release for me.
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It probably isn't for many, it's just one as a team we really loved so valued a second chance to do something with really :)! Hoping we can slot those movies in even with a slight slip on release again so watch this space :).

Either way - pretty much this sums up our feelings, we totally do understand the frustration but a different direction at least for a quarter makes sense too in order to offer the market something else for now. We'd not have "won" either way on this one, so figured best stay true to what we'd not regret later.

Best,

AP
 
Jaysgba said:
I think Buzz's primary concern is that Anime Limited have still to make good on the promises of a fair few earlier standard editions that have yet to materialise. I can, therefore, understand his worry that a standard edition may not be on the cards.
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In fairness it's more a pipeline / timing issue. Always happy to hear the list of standard editions that are awol that people would actually buy though as we can leap back within Q1 to a good bunch!

Best,

AP
 
thedoctor2016 said:
Maybe you could work on the CE and SE at the same time, it would probably delay the CE a little but I think people would appreciate a joint release?
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I don't think even a simultaneous release is actually needed. Just throwing the standard edition up for preorder alongside the CE, even with a later release date, would be ideal as it shows that the standard edition is at least on the release slate.
But, then, they did that with Tokyo Ghoul Root A and that CE has remained in stock seemingly longer than the first season —did the speedy SE release contribute to that, or is it just because Root A isn't as good as the first season?
 
@anime_andrew, I would like to apologise as I do not think the tone of my previous posts were appropriate or fair to you and I would like to apologise for any upset or offence I may have caused.

anime_andrew said:
I totally agree - £15.49 to our price doesn't explain it - but what does is that by that time Manga were into what they call a sell-off period in the industry. So any stock left goes out at lower rates (in this case Manga were good about it and didn't go sub £10 actually) but it can get very very nasty depending on what stock is left.

So to compare a new product (even a standard) for a product on sell-off is always going to come off unfavourably. Example - if we did, it'd need to be closer to £39.99 to cover all costs and access, especially if the films are included. In that light it may go to £25 on discount but not a million miles further (if even that). So ultimately, whatever we did we'd be pissing people off - so what I went for was the path that made the most sense overall for the show and made something not yet done :).

...

We can't / won't take cheaper versions off the market - but in the clearance period it makes more sense to do a collector's edition and restart somewhat as you're otherwise managing the death knell of a bunch of titles that deserve an extra bit of life. Will we do a Collector's expecting to issue a standard a quarter or two later when the market is clear at medium price range? Unlike some new releases, almost certainly yes - and in the meantime the show will be available digitally too at least on Funimationnow.co.uk :). It won't be as long off though anyway or as unpredictable - mark my words.

That said there has to be a gap otherwise you're just hurting the market by keeping the price on a declining spiral with no added value for people who may have wanted a collector's version (disclaimer - there are some titles I may want one for that nobody else will, will never know until we try though!)
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That makes sense, you don't want to devalue the title any further or do anything that might cause problems in the future. And if the price is going up, it makes sense to try and do something nice with it.

anime_andrew said:
There will be others too - really though as I get the feeling I have somehow personally caused grief here - what titles outside AoA titles (for obvious reasons) are missing that we could look to fix as standard editions in Q1 2017 for you :)? As long as they make commercial sense, happy to look into adding them to the workflow and all ^^.
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I don't think it would be appropriate for me to suggest any titles, as I already have my spending for the rest of the year and some of Q1 planned out. Several considerable day one bonuses from Square Enix forced me to plan ahead. (Whoever made the JP VO for World of Final Fantasy a day one bonus is very mean.) Fortunately I was able to find the funds for pre-orders of Assassination Classroom and Blood Blockade Battlefront to tide me over. :)
 
HellCat said:
I really hope IBO is one of the Gundam series lined up. Feels like it would speak to young audiences given recent events.
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It would make sense for currently airing/just recently aired series to "jump the queue" to capitalise of word of mouth from the streaming airing. Given Rec. in G getting a release in the middle of the original two series, that does seem to be the case. (although word of mouth for that series doesn't work in its favour :))
 
anime_andrew said:
There will be others too - really though as I get the feeling I have somehow personally caused grief here - what titles outside AoA titles (for obvious reasons) are missing that we could look to fix as standard editions in Q1 2017 for you :)? As long as they make commercial sense, happy to look into adding them to the workflow and all ^^.



AP
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Space Dandy Part 2 has been mentioned in this thread once or twice...
 
Jaysgba said:
I don't think even a simultaneous release is actually needed. Just throwing the standard edition up for preorder alongside the CE, even with a later release date, would be ideal as it shows that the standard edition is at least on the release slate.
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This is definitely my biggest issue with AL (as I've previously mentioned.) I don't care if the standard release is kept around 6-8 months down the line to appease the anime gods. Tell us, make a date for a standard release in parallel and stick to it. It should be easier to maintain a release date than the first release and even if it does have to slip a little at least we have a rough date.

Looking at entries on this forum in the past it seems that people who want CE's with extra bits & bobs will always gravitate towards them anyway (importing if no UK CE), so I don't see any negatives in announcing standard editions properly instead of the standard AL approach of: "We'll release a standard edition sometime later". It rarely pushes those of us who aren't interested in them to buy the CE's and even if we do give in it's at the cost of our opinion of AL.


Make it so master Andrew!
 
Also, to be fair - I'm pretty sure every Collector's Edition has ended up being on sale at a price equivalent to what a standard edition would probably retail for at some point or other?

The thing I'm kind of speculating more on is just the sheer number of licenses Anime Ltd has now. Obviously, on one level this is fantastic - it means we're getting loads of stuff! But on the other hand, I think as we've all seen, there have been a lot of delays / stuff getting pushed back. And while I imagine a lot of this is unrelated / stuff that's completely out of Anime Ltd's control, it's hard not to feel at times that there's too many titles to fit into the schedule at this point - both from a man hours / production standpoint and a fear of flooding the market standpoint.

I'm happy to wait for titles, especially if it means the quality will be high - but sometimes it feels like every time new titles are announced (while they're hot and new) they end up inevitably pushing something else back which has been on the schedule for ages.

I suppose the main area of concern for me is around the big wave of Funimation titles - which were a) announced ages ago and b) been on Amazon as pre-orders for ages now - and the only one that has come out is Yona of the Dawn Part 1 (which seems to have a weird price on Amazon currently - £42??)

Obviously the focus should be on the real prestige stuff like FMA and Escaflowne - but as has been discussed earlier in this thread, there's definitely still that market for the bread and butter titles (ie. Funimation stuff) there too.
 
Jaysgba said:
I'm not sure what is "weird" about that price—it's around a 5% discount from the SRP.
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It just seems high to me for a 13 ep basic edition Blu-Ray - if it was a normal Anime Ltd collectors edition then fair enough, but from what I gather it's just a standard plastic Blu-Ray case? Of that kind I'd normally expect it to be going for £20 - £29 on Amazon.
 
Lutga said:
It just seems high to me for a 13 ep basic edition Blu-Ray - if it was a normal Anime Ltd collectors edition then fair enough, but from what I gather it's just a standard plastic Blu-Ray case? Of that kind I'd normally expect it to be going for £20 - £29 on Amazon.
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It's a combo pack, not just a barebones blu-ray, so the price has to reflect that. At least it has price parity with the US release though.*

*This post may or may not contain a healthy dose of sarcasm.
 
Just Passing Through said:
Space Dandy Part 2 has been mentioned in this thread once or twice...
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Well I'm going to be buying the collectors edition now XD. The box set for part 2 is soo damn good. It's so awesome how it's original artwork for the release. I know it's a shame how part 1 and 2 don't match up but part 2 is so good in comparison to part 1 that I don't think I'll mind. Guess it is kinda bad that I kept nagging about the standard being out and eventually brought the CE but whatever.
 
Wish I could move my FMA:UE order from Zavvi to AL without losing the Early Bird discount.

I want to change zavvi order to my term time address, and update the payment method, but there doesn't seem to be anything to allow me to do that.
 
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