UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

[Yami]

I'll be buying next year no matter when. I don't buy that "people losing interest" is a genuine concern tbh.

Perhaps not amongst the limited number of people who would usually buy anime, but among the wider audience who usually only go to see anime if its Miyazaki and want to see this one thanks to the glowing reviews in The Observer/Telegraph/Empire/Total Film/BBC? They won't remember this by next October.

Speaking of Your Name, there's just a week left to confirm further screenings via ourscreen

 

[jonno394]

Perhaps not amongst the limited number of people who would usually buy anime, but among the wider audience who usually only go to see anime if its Miyazaki and want to see this one thanks to the glowing reviews in The Observer/Telegraph/Empire/Total Film/BBC? They won't remember this by next October.

Speaking of Your Name, there's just a week left to confirm further screenings via ourscreen

So your real concern is it not selling as well as it should and not as many people seeing it as you think should?

 

[Yami]

Yes, of course

 

[anime_andrew]

@anime_andrew RE: The mystery box; Will the titles be handpicked by staff members? If so, would it be possible to tell you what we already have to avoid getting doubles. I'd rather not spend £40 only to find out I have 4/5 of the shows in there.

Also, I sent an email regarding the tight YLIA box that you mentioned on Twitter a couple of days back and still haven't got a response. I just sent it via the AL contact form on the site, did I send it to the wrong place?

When we say hand picked - we mean we've each picked a favourite title we have worked on to put into that set. Each one won't be different just because the number of recommendations we'd need to potentially do would be insane then (and cripple our poor fulfilment partners). The risk is there you may get something you already own - but our tastes here are pretty eclectic so there's every chance you won't end up with something you already own.

The value though will be high of the box - you're saving 75-80% give or take on the SRPs so worst case you can likely make the remainder up by selling on bits you didn't want .

AP

 

[anime_andrew]

"All offers will be for UK & Ireland residents only. No exceptions."

@anime_andrew Could you tell me the reason for this exclusion? I live in the Netherlands and since we don't have any publishers here anymore we have to import everything. You do ship abroad, so why not during the 12 Days of Christmas?

For territories we do have the license we can look at exceptions (Netherlands falls into some crossover for titles) but it's more to stop anyone from the USA say ordering an AoA title if we have a flash sale for example .

AP

 

[Buzz201]

When we say hand picked - we mean we've each picked a favourite title we have worked on to put into that set. Each one won't be different just because the number of recommendations we'd need to potentially do would be insane then (and cripple our poor fulfilment partners). The risk is there you may get something you already own - but our tastes here are pretty eclectic so there's every chance you won't end up with something you already own.

The value though will be high of the box - you're saving 75-80% give or take on the SRPs so worst case you can likely make the remainder up by selling on bits you didn't want .

AP

This sounds fantastic, I'm assuming that numbers are highly limited, due to the exceptional value, so hopefully I get one.

Could I also assume there are no Part 2s in the set? Or are we leaving that open?

 

[anime_andrew]

Will you have a set time for putting up the 12 Days Of Christmas deals each day? I'll be working crappy hours and would hate to miss them.

Boo to crappy hours ! We'll be launching them at a set time every day, will confirm with Jeremy when. We should have enough stock for demand on each one though so watch this space. Watch this space for more details before December 1st .

 

[Joshawott]

Speaking of Your Name, there's just a week left to confirm further screenings via ourscreen

It's a shame that the proposed screening at my local would mean an end-time of about 11pm on a school night; hardly best circumstances to take my brother to.

 

[anime_andrew]

This sounds fantastic, I'm assuming that numbers are highly limited, due to the exceptional value, so hopefully I get one.

Could I also assume there are no Part 2s in the set? Or are we leaving that open?

There'll be no part 2s - that'd be a nasty trick. These are genuinely picks based on what we're proud of here at Anime Ltd or have a deep love for as a show or the projects we've worked on - which was a real challenge to fit in so none of the other sale days were repeats xD.

AP

 

[Buzz201]

There'll be no part 2s - that'd be a nasty trick. These are genuinely picks based on what we're proud of here at Anime Ltd or have a deep love for as a show or the projects we've worked on - which was a real challenge to fit in so none of the other sale days were repeats xD.

AP

Nice

Once the mystery box is in people's hands, will we be told who picked each show, so we can judge/congratulate them accordingly?

 

[anime_andrew]

I must confess to knowing absolutely nothing about the processes or particulars involved, so please forgive me if I've shot so far off the track that the train is now a submarine, but I've been doing some thing about the Your Name. In the past, Andrew has alluded to lengthy hold-backs resulting in an October 2017 estimate for home video/VOD, which I think is fair to say, isn't ideal for everyone (even Anime Limited). If that's what it ends up being, then no biggy - it is what it is.

Due to the film's huge success, it's understandable that the Japanese licensors will be more wary of reverse importation than usual, but I was wondering if there could perhaps be leg-room to negotiate say, a dub-only VOD earlier release? I imagine there'd be reduced interest from Japanese buyers if a release didn't have their native language, while pressing dub-only discs to only release dual-language would be a waste. Also, with digital-only early releases becoming more common with mainstream audiences, audiences may bat less eyelids about it.

Of course, there's also the argument of wanting to wait and launch everything together for more consolidated promotion, messaging and of course, to avoid potentially ruffling feathers with the sub-only crowd (although the dub is great; more people need to give it a chance).

The issue is just what are the holdbacks - if I am going to negotiate earlier release, it'll be for the whole product not just one aspect of it and we're working on it as always as it's ESPECIALLY not ideal for us (piracy does not wait for holdbacks from Japanese homevideo for example) so really it's the worst position for us to be in as every day after Japanese homevideo is a cruel punishment for us. However in a world where importation is a pretty rough thing (or was til the world's economy went down) - them's the brake.s

We will try to do what we can as always as we want to do the release sooner too as you can imagine!

Watch this space...

AP

 

[anime_andrew]

I'd love to give the dub a try now I've watched it subbed (twice). I think it was incredibly unfair of AL to announce a release date and then schedule a week of dub and sub screenings in the week leading up to the date people have already booked. If the dub/sub Showcase Cinema screenings were the week after te November 24th release, I could've given the dub a try as well. But I wasn't booking a dub screening that was before the sub screening I'd already booked.

We can only work with what is available at the time - these things happen and it was a necessity as part of the strategy for release to secure that in the end. There will be dubbed screenings in limited venues on December 4th too so worth checking if a venue near you will be running it .

At the end of the day - we weren't trying to be unfair, just do what is right for the film and we're sure you'll agree that securing the most people to watch this film is totally worth it right ? Sorry that the screenings ahead of the 24th came too late for you though too!

Andrew

 

[anime_andrew]

MSG Origin IV when?

SOOON. Just getting ready to pack 'em up as they came in late on Friday.

 

[anime_andrew]

This is actually something that bothers me. I actually wanted to go see it, bought tickets and everything but was unable to go, now I'm worried about how long the home release will take and if I'll even give a crap by the time it turns up. It's strange because if it hadn't had such a huge push in the UK for cinema I probably would have been fine waiting, but I'm conscious of it at this point so my interest can now fade from where it's at....I guess my brain is just wired weird lol kinda hope the Japanese release has English subs tbh.

If people go off and buy that version instead, they're just hurting our revenue long term then and in turn less motivation to do this kind of hard work in future so it's a nasty cycle. Given the licensor managing it - I'm relatively sure it won't have English subtitles (I could be wrong though!)

Tbh - we want it out sooner too but we have the usual fun rules to play by. We're trying our best to mitigate this however we can though and are sorry for anyone who's inconvenienced as we sure are too .

AP

 

[anime_andrew]

That's a crap argument. If I was a terrible person, I could watch a fansub of it now. The reason I'm so disappointed is because I want to support it legally, and I want to give ATA my money. Unfortunately due to production committee decisions they're not allowed to take it


Nope, neither you or @TiggsPanther is weird. I was thinking the exact same thing.

Damned if we work hard to build a profile for a director here, damned if we don't and cruise along really - there is no winning across the board so we're just doing our best to raise the profile of talent from Japan in the UK in the (sort of) post-Miyazaki era here at Anime Ltd . Not every one will have a crazy holdback either!

AP

 

[thedoctor2016]

We can only work with what is available at the time - these things happen and it was a necessity as part of the strategy for release to secure that in the end. There will be dubbed screenings in limited venues on December 4th too so worth checking if a venue near you will be running it .

At the end of the day - we weren't trying to be unfair, just do what is right for the film and we're sure you'll agree that securing the most people to watch this film is totally worth it right ? Sorry that the screenings ahead of the 24th came too late for you though too!

Andrew

My ciineworld has told me mine of Sunday is subbed but I prepare for both

 

[Buzz201]

Damned if we work hard to build a profile for a director here, damned if we don't and cruise along really - there is no winning across the board so we're just doing our best to raise the profile of talent from Japan in the UK in the (sort of) post-Miyazaki era here at Anime Ltd . Not every one will have a crazy holdback either!

AP

I would just like to clarify, my statement could perhaps be read as suggesting I pirated it. I didn't, haven't and won't.

I will wait for an official release (and probably then get bored waiting, move on and not buy it, sadly...)

 

[anime_andrew]

I suspect it's more a thing for the people who haven't seen it and don't know how good the film is. Will we still care about that film everybody went on about when it was a little under a year ago?

Also, I'm not sure, but if I understood the coverage correctly, the Thursday expansion was large enough for it to be considered a "wide" release by the industry. It just wasn't wide enough that every single county of the UK was covered...

The volume of screens we covered is big, you're never going to cover every county (In Scotland for example Ayrshire in Scotland for example is predominantly Hollywood film and you have limited screen capacity to programme independent film full stop, most of Dumfries and Galloway is the same minus the RBCFT too and most of the Highland areas). So in short covering every single county simply isn't always possible alas both due to demand and programming capacity as much as we'd love that !

Re will you still care about a film a year down the line- every film faces that and who knows? We certainly hope so and given we're dealing with 5 figure numbers of people who saw the film - chances are not terrible on it at least . Those who couldn't see the film are the area where it's tougher to say and we hope folk will support it legally when we can instead of punishing us on top of a very difficult set of holdbacks for us of course, but we can only do so much alas.

AP

 

[anime_andrew]

Going back too Nerima Daikon. The AL site lists it with two different SRP's £29.99 and £39.99. I'm guessing the real one is the latter, why so much for a 12 cour DVD? especially as Beck which is over twice the size only had a £29.99 SRP.
Not having a go (I've had it preordered for over 2 years!) I was just curious

Ps. when this is released I will stop asking where's Nerima Daikon every few months and switch too where's Excel Saga!!! :') sorry Andrew!

For Nerima - for DVD will check (can't remember off top of head), think it's £29.99 though.

PS - At least we haven't licensed Excel Saga of yet so I'm safe to reply we have no plan there yet !

Best,

AP

 

[Jaysgba]

Damned if we work hard to build a profile for a director here, damned if we don't and cruise along really - there is no winning across the board so we're just doing our best to raise the profile of talent from Japan in the UK in the (sort of) post-Miyazaki era here at Anime Ltd . Not every one will have a crazy holdback either!

AP

I hope the gap between A Silent Voice's theatrical release and home video release is a hell of a lot shorter; Your Name is perfect, but I still maintain that A Silent Voice is even better.