UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

I'm not sure it's fair to compare the excessively overhyped Your Name with more standard anime fare. In fact comparing the types of theatrical releases Manga and AL are doing in general seems like a bad idea, as they seem to be aiming for different audiences.
What about when Manga release In this Corner of The World?
 
What about when Manga release In this Corner of The World?
That would be fair. Maybe comparing SAO would be fine. But comparing indie critical darling Your Name to nostalgia card game based Yu-Gi-Oh! just seems silly. Clearly the YGO audience will be made up differently, so the selection of cinemas that book it will also be made up differently...
 
Not to be rude but none of the anime films get screenings locally. So if people have been able to see ones that have come here multiple times and are now complaining about a slight delay for one, maybe it just means be appreciative for what you have and not weighed down by what you don't?
 
I would like to see space adventure cobra with the manga entertainment dub on blue ray. If it's possible.

If we're talking about the TV series then it won't happen since there isn't a BD of it made (from what I can see from my quick google) meaning no materials to make a BD release.
 
Hopefully Vue and Odeon show it as they are the only cinemas near me.
From someone who worked for Odeon for a long time, they are very bad at advertising none mainstream films. Even within the company. I didn't know we were showing 'your name' until 5 days before. I'd say keep checking the website!
 
We wouldn't want it competing with those Yu-Gi-Oh! screenings that are over, or that one day of A Silent Voice on general release. It's got to be in its own month out of the way, heaven forbid people see two whole films in the same month. You must be some sort of madman wanting it in February after we had Yu-Gi-Oh!

I love the sarcasm as always - but actually there's a reason as always too. Here are some thoughts to consider as it's easy to make assumptions based on snippets we've said before, but here's a more detailed perspective to mull:

A) Listings from different venues go up on different days - As speculated the whole list is not online yet and as you'll have seen with Your Name along with other anime films, listings come up in their own time. Sometimes one chain is ahead of the others (last time for us it was Vue by the by). There'll be a good selection more venues opening up in the next week and a hub website to guide people around it. We'll fill folks in next week as and when those are good to go more globally.

B) That "one" day of general theatrical release - The widest point will be one day but the goal is to have at least a weeks run in a selection of venues too as part of our attempt to expand theatrical for original anime. This isn't cheap to do or easy but if you're going to put that amount of effort in then you don't want to cannibalise it due to another anime film in the same month. For that matter you don't want to push from the other film's appeal in that month - there's plenty of space and this way folks get more chances to see the film. That's another reason we shuffled the dates but one I didn't want to go into much detail on until I know how that has paid off (still waiting so take with a pinch of salt for now, either way we'd not have had a chance of pulling it off in February for reason below.)

Of course if we released it on one day only, how could you score another few screenings if we didn't push for more to be added :D? In fairness, we'd be criticised for something, whatever we do xD. Part of the job at the end of the day!

C) February is a busy month for theatrical - If you want longer than a day and to do justice to the film with people seeing advertising for it then you need to shuffle out for a film of our size. Keep in mind every film nominated for an Oscar pushes round this time for screenings and additional advertising spend goes on it. With one anime film out in February already that space was harder to move into (and they were there first so why push in) and that takes us to point (D).

D) Rate of diminishing returns -
When you're building a theatrical slate for original anime film - you have to account for the wider market. Honestly speaking - most people in the wider audience who may consider anime will go and see something every month or two and realistically a lot of them won't have gone to see YGO but will consider something original like A Silent Voice possibly. If we put SAO in the same month too - just because you and a selection of the hardcore fans would see both in the same month, doesn't mean everyone would and you then are depriving some people the chance to see both. It's all about balance at the end of the day as dull as it sounds.

I thought I'd read they didn't want to steal away from other anime's theatrical spotlight as it were.

Covered above but it's a combination effect - extended releases cost a lot more money than one days often and a lot more focus. For example we work hard to bring talent over for all our original films to help make sure they succeed in the future. So not only do we try to do right by the film, we try to do right by the director and bring them into the media's eye. It's never easy and until Your Name we never nailed it but we make a great deal of effort to try nonetheless.

Either way - the UK has a great track record of getting films theatrically now compared to other territories. Sword Art Online isn't day & date with the USA and Australia, but you're still getting it remarkably quickly after Japanese release and you get A Silent Voice before it's even been licensed in America! You also got Your Name and continue to have chances to see it over a quarter of a year before America. So all in all our batting average so far for the last 12 months hasn't been terrible...

Hope this helps illuminate :).

Best,

Andrew
 
As discussed in the cinema thread, I don't expect to see any anime in a cinema without it being a major inconvenience (and this is as someone who spends most of his free time driving to and from the cinema and spending whole days there), but I thought SAO being a pretty major name for casual anime fans would cause them to at least match Manga's DBZ push. Really shouldn't have got my hopes up.

As mentioned before, may want to hold your fire on being disappointed. Only a few venues are listing now - the rest will be coming in the next two weeks for SAO Ordinal Scale. Fear not - everyone is clear on the scale of that film's possibility and if course it fits between Boruto and DBZ Resurrection F there so you can be assured a lot more venues will pop up!

Well, it just seems Manga in general are better at marketing and getting anime in the cinemas. Even Cineworld had some screenings of Ghost in the Shell (not a huge amount, but at least some).

Manga are definitely no slouches there and they've done some cool stuff but once again - you may want to wait before you make that comparisson ;). Also, by the by, we've had exactly one film on the big screen recently which was Your Name - and it's still on the big screen with 26 more screenings so far in 23 different venues (making it Week 12 of being in cinemas consistently by the way) and over £480,000 at the box office as of last week, so it's not like that was terrible :).

Not all of our films will be like that (most anime won't be like that although we can dream), but you can rest assured we'll be pushing our hardest to get them as widely available and seen as we can :).

Best,

Andrew
 
at least a weeks run in a selection of venues too
Please don't just be Showcase. Showcase is impossible for me to get home from after an evening screening, which meant a whole week of Your Name screenings were impossible for me as I have to see anime at Picturehouse FACT if I fancy going home after the movie.

You also got Your Name and continue to have chances to see it over a quarter of a year before America.
This is true, I'll be seeing it for the 6th time on Tuesday, should be dubbed so it's my first time trying that version. No more screenings seem to be scheduled near me after that though. How are those IMAX screenings coming along?

exactly one film on the big screen recently which was Your Name
To be fair, it took years for AL to make good on theatrical anime outside of festival screenings, despite your website constantly bragging about it, so people have reason to see Manga as the bigger players in theatrical anime. By the end of this year, you'll have a few more "proper" theatrical releases under your belt.


I'm a big fan of theatrical anime, and I'm happy to go out of my way to enjoy it, so the two month delay for our "simultaneous" release of SAO is a little annoying when you could "easily" just set up a one-off screening up in Glasgow before April.
 
Has anyone else noticed that the anime limited logo on the lord marksman collectors edition is red I thought the red logo was for films and blue is for tv series
 
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