UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Just on a side note I want to thank the guys at All the Anime. I didn't get the email about the Zeta delay yesterday, and noticed there was a problem with my order, so I sent an email off and got a response (on a sunday of all days!) and everything is now fixed and I've got that £5 code. Were all customer service so good the world would be a better place :).
 
Apparently they're treating A Silent Voice like crap and not giving it as good a theatrical run as it deserves.

What on earth makes you think that we're not doing right by the film in that podcast xD? Asides from the casual conversation in the podcast, we're investing real money in distributing it this year and in promoting it so I'm not actually sure what you expect from me here...?

We've also licensed and are planning a release for it before the USA even has it's shoes on to talk about the film let alone acquire it! More people in the UK have already been able to see it than any other country outside of Japan and we're going to push on with it hard this year.

Soooooo, what do you expect here :)?

Andrew
 
Always one for tempting fate ;)! When we move it from January 30th, we'll have it put significantly later then when the date is likely set so we can pull it forwards as required. This is also why we've not listed the Gundam Original Film Trilogy for now in the UK - because until I have print discs in my hands or on way to replication, I don't want anyone's chains being yanked :).
I think going forward this would be a better idea. If originally you'd have said US getting Z Gundam March 2016, UK getting it March 2017 people would've said 'Oh no 12 month wait' but they'd know where they stood.
Saying you're getting it 6 months after US... sorry 7 months.... sorry 8 months.... sorry 9 months... sorry 10 months.... is like constantly dangling a carrot then pulling it away :')
I'm gonna throw it out there now, Gundam ZZ release set for December 2019. If it comes out before then everyone's happy :D
 
I think going forward this would be a better idea. If originally you'd have said US getting Z Gundam March 2016, UK getting it March 2017 people would've said 'Oh no 12 month wait' but they'd know where they stood.
Saying you're getting it 6 months after US... sorry 7 months.... sorry 8 months.... sorry 9 months... sorry 10 months.... is like constantly dangling a carrot then pulling it away :')
I'm gonna throw it out there now, Gundam ZZ release set for December 2019. If it comes out before then everyone's happy :D

ZZ shouldn't be like that and we're looking at what the next steps are but either way definitely no more listing then that kind of required re-schedules for Gundam though!

Best,

AP
 
What on earth makes you think that we're not doing right by the film in that podcast xD? Asides from the casual conversation in the podcast, we're investing real money in distributing it this year and in promoting it so I'm not actually sure what you expect from me here...?

We've also licensed and are planning a release for it before the USA even has it's shoes on to talk about the film let alone acquire it! More people in the UK have already been able to see it than any other country outside of Japan and we're going to push on with it hard this year.

Soooooo, what do you expect here :)?

Andrew

I expect four or five screenings minimum at my local Picture House cinema that are at a time I can attend. More would be better, of course.
 
I expect four or five screenings minimum at my local Picture House cinema that are at a time I can attend. More would be better, of course.
Oh no. How can you survive without repeatedly shitposting on Twitter about how you've seen it 200 times, knowing there's still entire reasonably populated counties that haven't had any screenings?

Please just bore off and attetion seek about something else instead...
 
Andrew I was wondering if you did get my generation rights for the cinema release. And hope there is a lots of screenings near Cardiff and Newport xD. Same for SAO
 
I expect four or five screenings minimum at my local Picture House cinema that are at a time I can attend. More would be better, of course.

Cool, so nothing unreasonable then - glad to see such a solid grip on cinema economics there :D!

In all seriousness, ultimately depends on attendance and demand more than anything. A Silent Voice ranks highly for me in 2016's anime films - right up there alongside Your Name for me but ultimately it is completely down to the cinema chains and we have to work in there carefully.

We're looking to invest real money in promotion of this film to build attention with a push towards shorter windows to make it accessible as quickly as we can to the widest population we can which means:
  • Theatrical: As wide as we can get but, like Buzz points out basically, there are a lot of places we simply can't hit. Whether we manage a 30 - 50 screen push of 100 screens - there's no guarantee we'll get everyone. The goal here is to go out in February though and we'll see how much staying power it has - honestly though while it is one of my favourite films of the year along with Your Name, it's a different kind of film. It's on a sensitive and touching subject we want to share - but there's no guarantee it'll hold out beyond a one day / one week release. If there's somewhere you can see it on the first screening - I would do so as unlike Your Name, second screenings will very likely and sadly be fewer on the ground if any. Will it be the venue of preference? We can never guarantee I am afraid but we always try our best, especially following where the highest demand for Your Name was.
  • EST aka iTunes, Amazon Prime Now, etc (Not long away after - couple of months after theatrical max): While not day and date, this will come only a few months later. The reason is simple - we want to hold until Japanese versions start there to protect against piracy as almost certainly the minute an EST copy goes up with subs - it's going to be halfway round the internet on pirate sites making money off other market's lack of reactivity (and simply the fact places like America are really huge, so coverage even on the level of the UK is simply not possible unless you're a Hollywood studio). We'd rather offer folks a chance to support the film legally at that stage than to resort to piracy if they weren't able to see it on the big screen (it is totally worth seeing it on the big screen if you can though).
  • Homevideo (tentatively Summer depending on if any surprise holdbacks pop up): I said we're aiming for Summer 2017 and pending any surprise holdbacks, that's where we intend to go out with. Hinges on materials though beyond the video data.
Ultimately though we really do care about this film and we again are going above and beyond where any other original film has gone in the UK for anime outside of Ghibli and Your Name in terms of spend and spread of anime. We want to make this more of a thing and to show people what we love about film as it was intended to be (aka on the big screen) but we can only do so much :).

Interesting fact for folks to digest - When Marnie Was There which came out in 2016, it screened in 53 venues - whereas Your Name in the same year ran in over 106 different venues meaning we've pushed really hard to expand the reach of original anime films in the UK this year.

Will we ever be able to do as well as Japan does? We can dream - but for now, we're on the starting track and intend to continue pushing the boundaries to make sure films we all love get the best chance to be seen by as many people as we can.

Hope this helps and shows just how seriously we're taking it (and all the films we're committing to do on the big screen),

Andrew
 
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Will it be the venue of preference? We can never guarantee I am afraid but we always try our best, especially following where the highest demand for Your Name was.

My venue of preference are usually really good when it comes to anime. Weirdly, Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F and Boruto are the only ones I can think of that didn't make the cut.

I know you're trying to make A Silent Voice accessible, and my desire to see it theatrically ad infinitum is potentially unreasonable, but SLA was months ago and the wait to rewatch it is killing me.
 
Some of us haven't even seen it once I had to relinquish my "KyoAni biggest fan" on the discord as I couldn't see ASV. Though as I know own High speed I may bring that back!
 
Some of us haven't even seen it once I had to relinquish my "KyoAni biggest fan" on the discord as I couldn't see ASV. Though as I know own High speed I may bring that back!

Quite frankly, not being able to make it to a couple of festival screenings that were all in the Northern half of the country isn't really a crime. I'd ignore what people on the Discord say, 90% of it is crap anyway.
 
Looking forward to seeing both ASV and SAO Ordinal Scale. people need to chill on theatrical expectations, anime is a cottage industry over here. I hope I get a screening near me but I wont take it personally if not. We have to remember AL are a company and they can't pander to individual preferences and opinions.

Would have liked some more info on Overlord but I'll wait and see what comes out. Good news about the CE of Re:Zero :)
 
Yeah, anime in cinema has really only become a thing over the past few years. It's great to see it expanded as much as it has. Back when I first got into anime, 12-13 years ago there were virtually no screenings outside London for anything not Ghibli and even they were limited. Now, we have Scotland Loves Anime up here, and a lot more films will get at least limited runs in most parts of the country. It can only get better.
 
I've cancelled the Zeta set and will now go for the Nozomi releases. I've been thinking about doing it for awhile as the AL Sets have been too slow in coming out and are (while nice) alot bigger on the shelf. This delay only cemented the decision for sure (I actually cancelled two days ago but wasn't sure whether to stick).
 
I've cancelled the Zeta set and will now go for the Nozomi releases. I've been thinking about doing it for awhile as the AL Sets have been too slow in coming out and are (while nice) alot bigger on the shelf. This delay only cemented the decision for sure (I actually cancelled two days ago but wasn't sure whether to stick).
If I could justify the cost of a multi-region blu-ray player, I'd switch to the Nozomi releases as well.
 
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