UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Rui said:
I wouldn't personally re-buy Wolf's Rain as I already have the old UK LE and it already has the extras and presentation covered. I'd pick up a cheap BD set if a proper BD version from HD masters was available, but I'm done buying Wolf's Rain LEs for this lifetime. This is probably the kind of fatigue that Andrew is worried about with the Patlabor films with their exceptional old releases (though the WR set sold out quickly so the market might be far from saturated).

However, please do bring on The Tatami Galaxy. I'd be all over that.

R
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Yeah - the LE disappeared quickly in the UK as Beez were convinced there'd be no market and by the time they realised I was bang on that we could have done more we'd already done the print run alas.

That said - if we did a BD it definitely would be in the Ultimate -> Standard BD -> Standard DVD at same time affair in the UK.

Tatami Galaxy I love but subs for the DVDs drove many an authoring team crazy - so I'd have to think hard on that (I love the show though...)

AP
 
Lavigne said:
Lutga said:
The legal issues surrounding Macross continue to baffle me, not least because Macross Plus is available legally from Manga via iTunes, but is phsically OOP.
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I really wish Bandai would step up and take HG to the cleaners over their vice-like grip on the Macross franchise outside of Japan.

Yes you did Robotech back when I was in short pants. Thanks, but that's no excuse for the tenuous and greedy hold that is still maintained over everything that's come since.

Bandai should just make their domestic discs English friendly and region free. They'd cost a bomb but at least they'd be available.

ETA: really enjoyed the podcast - look forward to the next one :)
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The whole Macross thing is still a mystery to most of us even in the industry...as in why this isn't fixed yet but oh well. It's still the #1 if I could, would license.

Re podcast, glad you enjoyed :3. Recording another one tomorrow!

AP
 
Just got around to checking yesterdays Newswire. Very cool that you posted the Feb 2015 sales chart. Nice to see Blood Lad in number 2. Makes me wonder, but has there been a time when you guys have released something that was number 1? I'd imagine Bebop was pretty close. Unsurprising to see all those Ghibli titles.

Looking forward to the unboxing updates for Kill la Kill 2. :)

For anyone that's interested:
http://blog.alltheanime.com/sales-charts-february-2015/
 
Looking forward to the next podcast.

And totally agreed re. Macross - It seems ludicrous to me that one of the biggest properties out there remains OOP in the UK. Like I was saying in another thread, I genuinely believe the name 'Macross' caries more cache with Western fans than Robotech now as opposed to vice-versa.
 
Jatz said:
Just got around to checking yesterdays Newswire. Very cool that you posted the Feb 2015 sales chart. Nice to see Blood Lad in number 2. Makes me wonder, but has there been a time when you guys have released something that was number 1? I'd imagine Bebop was pretty close. Unsurprising to see all those Ghibli titles.

Looking forward to the unboxing updates for Kill la Kill 2. :)

For anyone that's interested:
http://blog.alltheanime.com/sales-charts-february-2015/
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It was a while back but I'm 95% positive Part 1 of the Bebop Collectors Edition topped the sales charts of it's said month.
 
Dear lawdy lawd, I haven't loved a conversation on the boards this much in a long while.

The further talk about Wolf's Rain is really interesting. Rui makes a great point about consumer fatigue with things like LE sets. I wonder though - is it considered viable to sell something like Wolf's Rain to new customers? I have the old Anime Legends collection, which for me was (and still is) pretty much perfect. But it's a rare example of a show I like so much I'd happily fork out for on blu ray. That said, were the presentation, soundtrack and art design not so appealing to me, a whizz-bang lookit-all-the-extras edition wouldn't appeal.


A for other titles mentioned in the last few posts, I see Diebuster gets a mention. I'd kill for a that, so long as it was accompanied or preceded by a decent release of Gunbuster. I agonised a little while ago over bying the old Kiseki DVD collection of that, but those discs sported really horrific tranfers. I would have thought, given the Hideaki Anno connection and the show's quality, it'd be a perfect fit for Anime Limited.

Also totally agree that the Macross mess is long past due for being sorted. Would something like the Gundam: The Origin import deal that Anime Limited are running be a viable method for bringing that to the UK, out of curiosity? I imagine it'd cost a bomb, but it'd be interesting to consider if it's workable.
 
Dannielle said:
It was a while back but I'm 95% positive Part 1 of the Bebop Collectors Edition topped the sales charts of it's said month.
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Yup
Code: 
[b]Sales for August 2013:[/b]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
#|	TITLE|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1|	COWBOY BEBOP – BOX 1
2|	MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO	
3|	POKEMON 4EVER
4|	AKIRA
5|	NARUTO SHIPPUDEN – THE WILL OF FIRE
6|	THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME
7|	SPIRITED AWAY
8|	SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO
9|	HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
10|	FAIRY TAIL – COLLECTION 1
[B]Top 10 New Releases (August):[/B]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
#|	TITLE|
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1|	COWBOY BEBOP – BOX 1
2|	NARUTO SHIPPUDEN – WILL OF FIRE
3|	SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO
4|	HORIZON ON THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE – S1
5|	HELLSING ULTIMATE PT 1-4 COLLECTION
6|	KENICHI – THE MIGHTIEST DISCIPLE – 2
7|	CLANNAD – COMPLETE SERIES COLLECTION
8|	INU X BOKU COLLECTION
9|	BAKEMONOGATARI PT 2
10|	HELLSING – THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES
  • To at the top of the top sellers and all titles list for the month, you had to sell just over 1,500 units.
  • To be at the bottom of the top sellers for the month, you had to sell just over 520 units.
  • To be at the bottom of the new titles list, you just had to sell over 135 units.
  • Between #1 and #2 of new titles for this month there’s over 500 units difference,
  • Meanwhile there’s only just over 200 units difference between #1 and #2 of all catalog titles.
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Apologies in advance but I thought that I'd repost something that I posted a month ago in the hopes that it could be seen by Andrew and co. as it's an interesting proposition and one I am really interested in. In any case, with Anime Limited licensing Short Peace and showing interest in other shorts, I have to ask if you know of any plans, or have an interest in releasing Memories or Robot Carnival and the likes? Memories is truly phenomenal and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible, preferably on Blu-ray since it's a visual tour de force, unfortunately the Japanese Blu-ray has no subtitles, and I ask about Robot Carnival due to it being licensed recently by Discotek.

There's a lot of meat there with things like Neo-Tokyo and such. I wonder if these types of releases are viable. Neo-Tokyo was released in the US on DVD back in 2004 by ADV, with Animax (?) releasing Memories.

I remember you mentioning the fact that you have plans for releasing another short, hinting at stuff like the Animator Expo stuff. I wonder if a Blu-ray release of something like Memories is possible, but I know things under the Otomo umbrella are hard to release, since he holds them close to his chest. Thanks in advance, and know that anime shorts are awesome, and everyone here should check them out!
 
Lutga said:
Looking forward to the next podcast.

And totally agreed re. Macross - It seems ludicrous to me that one of the biggest properties out there remains OOP in the UK. Like I was saying in another thread, I genuinely believe the name 'Macross' caries more cache with Western fans than Robotech now as opposed to vice-versa.
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I have a lot of time for Robotech. Essentially it was what introduced me to anime back in the 80s. Then later I discovered Macross and not surprisingly preferred it.

I applaud Carl Macek for creating something that no doubt brought anime to a wide audience, but I find it incredibly sad that the lasting legacy of that project/work is the deprivation of most of what followed to those very same people.

Harmony Gold's role in the ongoing situation sickens me. To keep this thread-relevant, HG come across as being the antithesis of Anime Limited - one cares about the product, the industry and the fans, the other.....well, doesn't appear to care less about anything other than lining it's own pockets.

I'd love to see AL do something with Macross. I know the chances of that are next to nil, but they're probably the UK label I'd trust most to actually do the show justice.
 
I said this in another thread, but I think HG see Robotech as a bigger property than it actually is - they probably think there's scope for a live action remake one of these days, hence holding onto the rights with an iron grip.

And that's coming from someone who enjoys Robotech as much as the next person - I think the whole project was actually done rather well. But for posterity's sake, Macross should be available in its original format too, otherwise you're just driving illegal consumption of it or pricey importing.
 
I think Lavigne is right and the only way people are going to get a decent supply of future Macross projects is if the Japanese side starts quietly making their domestic releases international-friendly. I mentioned this on every single one of the Japanese comment cards which came with Macross Frontier but I doubt it will happen. Perhaps they're even afraid of doing that much. I'm mostly amazed that they haven't just rebooted the series with a different name and other subtle tweaks (since it reimagines itself so much anyway between versions) and cut HG loose forever. While it would be a risk with the home audience, I think it would eventually pay off.

Good to know that there might be hope for a sexy-looking Wolf's Rain BD upgrade one day. Andrew's inside knowledge of the history of the UK scene is priceless :D

HdE, I agree that a Diebuster set would be another good one. A lot of those old Beez releases never got a fair chance to reach the whole of the local audience and polishing them up for BD or fixing some questionable QC niggles on a rerelease would be wonderful.

Even if redoing the subs for Tatami Galaxy would cause tears for many a person I think it would be worth it one day. Heck, just rerelease it on DVD with the funky audio issues fixed and I'd buy two copies - I'm pretty sure my dad would love it too.

R
 
Good points for sure.

There was talk of a Robotech movie for a while. Wasn't Tobey Maguire attached to it? Apparently he's a big Robotech fan.

If HG were operating under such illusions then surely that belief took a dent with the performance of Shadow Chronicles, and even more so with their recent aborted Kickstarter.

The problem that they have is that their window of opportunity for exploiting Robotech's cache is getting pretty small - it's still pretty reliant on the older fans of the original series, who've since been exposed to another three decades' worth of anime in the meantime.

The other problem, as a franchise, it's not actually that strong. Even the original series, by its very nature, was unbalanced. The Macross part of the story being the obvious highlight, with the Southern Cross element being poor and the Mospeada section being meh. Since then you've had The Sentinels which died a death, and probably thankfully so, and Shadow Chronicles, which barely registered on the radar.

The chances of HG ever being able to successfully exploit much are pretty remote. They'd be as well reaching some sort of agreement with Bandai.

Agree with Rui's comments above - I think that's exactly what the problem is, there's still too much fear to even do that much. Or at least a fear of jumping right in. I'm pretty sure the last Macross Frontier movie was English friendly, so perhaps they ARE dipping their toe in the water. We can only hope so.

I'm also amazed that they haven't gone down the 'change it just enough' route. I can't quite remember the wording from the fateful court rulings though. I know HG got more than just the name unfortunately.
 
Rui said:
HdE, I agree that a Diebuster set would be another good one. A lot of those old Beez releases never got a fair chance to reach the whole of the local audience and polishing them up for BD or fixing some questionable QC niggles on a rerelease would be wonderful.
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Definitely. I think there's quite a solid opportunity to do business there.

It really does seem like UK fans - or at least, the fans active in the online community - appreciate quality products. So repackaging something the market has already had but doing it in a more appealing fashion is something you'd expect would work.

I'd be curious to know how things like Anime Limited's release of Outlaw Star have performed in comparision to the Beez Anime Legends release. By all accounts, it's a superior edition of a beloved show. I wondr how many folks bought it for the first time, and how many fans double dipped?
 
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I believe that's for the Japan Foundation film tour (you have to get a certificate to screen stuff, I think?) but they did say a physical release would follow at some point.
 
Lutga said:
I believe that's for the Japan Foundation film tour (you have to get a certificate to screen stuff, I think?) but they did say a physical release would follow at some point.
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Actually nope - this is all for a Kid's Club run coming up - we'll announce details officially soon ;)!

Andrew
 
Enjoyed the podcast, and I look forward to the next, however I think it's been missing something and won't be complete until the final piece of the puzzle has been added...a theme song! :p
 
qaiz said:
Enjoyed the podcast, and I look forward to the next, however I think it's been missing something and won't be complete until the final piece of the puzzle has been added...a theme song! :p
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A parody version of the Space Dandy intro?
 
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