UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

I got a response from Zavvi, and they cannot do anything... If I want to change this info I will have to cancel the order. I wonder if AL will allow me to move my order to them or something at the Early Bird price I've locked in with Zavvi
 
Just going back over the gundam talk from a few weeks back. A couple of people mentioned the movie version of the original series, and came across as if they believed AL were going to release it, have I missed this announcement?
 
britguy said:
Just going back over the gundam talk from a few weeks back. A couple of people mentioned the movie version of the original series, and came across as if they believed AL were going to release it, have I missed this announcement?
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Yes.

Andrew has specifically said AL will be releasing it in the UK & France.
 
I get that it's not AL's fault, but I really hope the SRP for Nourin won't be the same as other Funimation titles if it's going to be including a worse product than the rest of them.

On a related note, Funimation and Gundam are both distribution deals rather than licensing deals, so PAL DVDs being allowed for Funimation releases but not DVD-only Gundam titles is a bit insulting.

Is this literally because the PAL DVDs for Nourin are forced upon blu-ray customers so are thus guaranteed to sell?
 
Jaysgba said:
Thankfully, there's still plenty of time for that to manage a release date before Your Name hits cinemas.
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Definitely - it'll be out before then, packshots and art are just being finalised now post-approval and it's in print :). Currently playing safe and saying November 21st to make it a full week of Shinkai as well :)!

Best.

AP
 
Somebody should probably link to this week's newswire...

But to summarise
  • AL will be at MCM Scotland this weekend. Look out for their stall, their panel (Sunday 1.30pm in the MCM Theatre), the SLA panel (Saturday 1.30pm in the MCM Theatre) and Reo Kuruso's panel (Producer of Berserk/FMA: Sacred Star of Milos; Saturday 2pm in the MCM Theatre).
    • We have been promised news on the last podcast and the Newswire says "Be sure to keep an eye on us over the weekend for details on some exciting we’re excited to be sharing with you."
    • Reo Kuruso will also be doing free signings, with Berserk signing cards available. They are Saturday at 3.30pm and Sunday at 12.00pm, both at the MCM Guest Signing Area
    • MCM exclusive pre-sales of selected titles will be available. The full list and an explanation of why they aren't available elsewhere is in the newswire.
  • Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad and Samurai Flamenco, Part 2 are out now
  • Assassination Classroom: Season 1, Part 2's BD release will make next week. Stock has now been sent to retailers, but they're asking for patience amd flexibility from fans whilst they wait for orders to be fulfilled.
  • The Empire of Corpses now has an unboxing.
  • Eden of the East CE can still be pre-ordered at a special price from AL's webstore until 25/09/16.
  • Gonna Be The Twin Tail! is on track for 10th October. Photos can be found in the newswire.
  • The licensor has required PAL DVDs for the No-Rin combo pack, thus AL are having to reauthor them. Consequently that has been delayed, and they now expect November at the earliest.
  • News on High School DxD season 3 will come once that show has gone through the BBFC.
 
I have to admit, I can imagine the PAL stipulation and combo pack pricing potentially killing the Funimation releases in the UK - the PAL thing introducing delays and the pricing scaring off casuals (who are the prime target for Funi shows).

I kind of talked about this a bit before, but while I'm generally fine for delays of Anime Ltd's own titles as it means they're getting the quality right, the Funi delays bother me far more as there's such a significant backlog of titles now - especially ones that are arguably 'more important' titles (eg. Yuri Kuma Arashi and High School DxD)
 
I get the impression that Funimation's attitude to physical releases in the UK is the same as their attitude to streaming to the UK, i.e. not a priority. I wonder if they'll share the PAL authoring with Australia on No-Rin, as the costs would otherwise begin to make the whole project less attractive.
 
Just Passing Through said:
I get the impression that Funimation's attitude to physical releases in the UK is the same as their attitude to streaming to the UK, i.e. not a priority. I wonder if they'll share the PAL authoring with Australia on No-Rin, as the costs would otherwise begin to make the whole project less attractive.
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To be fair, they're also collaborating with another distributor for their releases in the US. It's just that AL seems to have a lot more power in the relationship than Universal does in the US.
 
The thing is though - and maybe this is just me worrying excessively (partly off the back of the Gundam situation) - but if sales are poor for the first few UK Funi titles, what does that reflect back to them in terms of releases going forward?

If they put out delayed, expensive titles (and arguably quite a few of the shows on the slate aren't exactly ones that are overly popular to begin with), then sales figures will be low - and if that keeps happening, then what incentive is there for them to stay in the market, and to keep paying BBFC fees / for Anime Ltd to spend man hours on the titles?

Funi titles worked in the past because they were cheap, and were for the most part mostly very popular shows - so people might take a punt on them regardless. But a £40 bare-bones combo pack for shows that arguably aren't AAA titles (I'm looking at the likes of Twintail and No-Rin) is a totally different proposition.
 
That's pretty crummy. I wasn't going to be in the target audience for Nourin either way, but I hope backwards PAL conversions don't start happening regularly; the similarity to the US release (in terms of specification as much as dates) is part of the appeal of the whole Funimation project for me. If it happens to any DVD-only titles I'll be back importing those.

R
 
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