UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Criterion also puts out "populist" movies if they deem them (or their director) to be influential enough. Their remit is not limited to old movies, or even overlooked movies.
 
qaiz said:
I'm really not too in the clue about how much of an impact BBFC has
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Here's a quick summary of the BBFC situation. Even worse for foriegn language productions with subtitles that aren't dubtitles, because if the English subs are diffferent to the English audio they have to be rated on a seperate watch through, incurring another set of charges.

Unlike the author of that article however, I would advocate that classification isn't useful in Britain, and that the BBFC doesn't do a decent job.
 
I've put my planned importing of Turn-A on hold until I know what the Gundam announcement will be. Unless its a re-release of one of the shows already released (admittedly it's hard to have a re-release of something that hasn't been released yet...) I won't be disappointed either way.
 
I think it's an interesting situation with the releases that Anime Limited are doing. I do like getting older and/or more niche shows and the more recent acquisitions aren't doing as much for me. That said, if it helps Anime Limited grow as a company and be able to make more releases in the long run then I guess it'll be worth it. I suppose the challenge is in keeping a balance and I think Anime Limited can manage it.

Having said that, I guess personal taste is the biggest factor (at least for me). I'm not sure if Shirobako would count as niche since it seems to have picked up a decent following (though still maybe not as much as I'd like) and I'd be pretty happy if Anime Limited were doing a fancy release of it.

I'm interested to see if there are more plans for Kickstarters and other "non-standard" releases (like the Gundam import) from Anime Limited, I don't think we've really heard anything new about them. I don't know exactly how these things work but I could see Kickstarter being a good option for the sort of shows/movies Qaiz was talking about that might be too risky for a standard release.

I can't recall if there's been any mention of whether the Patema Inverted Kickstarter was considered a success or not. I guess it might be good for getting shows out but not so efficient in time and profit, it'd be neat if Anime Limited could build up a dedicated team for those kinds of releases (so that they're not all stuck stuffing envelopes again, which seems to be their primary workload with all the replacements and such). Like I say though, I don't know much about it so I've no idea if it'd be viable and I guess Kickstarters are quite tough to begin with since you need to time them well and make sure they get the right attention.

I think it's tough to fight against the BBFC, I wouldn't say that most people like them but I think most people believe there should be some sort of rating system. I'm still not convinced we need a rating system but I think people prefer that to a system that puts the burden of research on the parents/viewers. Sadly we seem to have the common problem that people don't like to take personal responsibility if they can avoid it.

I think it's in the publishers' interests to have good information on their products that is easily accessible so I don't see why we need a fee based and legally enforced system. My cynical side would suggest that there are probably plenty of people quite happy with the routing of money through the BBFC that have no interest in a better system and that many of those would also be the ones in a good position to improve things. Still, it would be nice if there was at least a "not rated" alternative that would allow publishers to avoid fees by including a warning that viewers should do their research before deciding if they want the show. I think it'd work fine for niche titles as long as retailers are cooperative (which is maybe optimistic).

Anyway, I could complain about censorship and ratings for eternity. What I really want to know is when is that Nichijou Blu-ray release/Kickstarter being announced?
 
qaiz said:
The acquisitions so far have been pretty good to say the least, but it seems to have fizzled out a bit for me, with MCM doing nothing for me at all. They sarted off with a bang with Cowboy Bebop and legendary films such as Perfect Blue which is one of the greatest animated films of all time bar none, and hot new releases such as KLK and Space Dandy which aren't the best series to say the least, but very popular and hot topics, which helps make them a good source of revenue and allows Anime Limited to stay in the public discussion and not just be the company that releases the old stuff, which although I'd rather they did, the UK market clearly doesn't care for that stuff outside of tent-pole titles like Bebop and Eva etc and isn't sustainable.

Having said that, things like Blood Lad were strange, and things like SAO and FMP are not titles that I'd have envisioned would come out of the company that claimed to be the criterion of anime. In the end, it is what it is, and the market will decide, but I really wished at first that this wold be the place we'd see things like Gunbuster, Angel's Egg, Robot Carnival etc. Classics that nobody else in the UK cares to release, a place where anime fans released things that they were proud to be a part of with a catalog which shows the best of anime. Escaflowne seems to be a good one I'm excited for, as is Baccano, and with Royal Space Force being a recent release, I'm hopeful that we'll see more actual good titles and not just hot properties that won't stand the test of time at all, and although I know why they're released, I hope that they don't take precedent, time and budget away from the things that deserve a new home, in my opinion of course. Its a pipe dream in the end, they need to make money.
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I couldn't agree more - that's also the impression I initially had of Anime Limited, but I now believe they were probably making that in reference to the overall package and design of release. I would love a higher classic:new ratio, though, as you said, we seem to be in a minority of people clamoring for classic anime - but I do think that classic anime (particularly films like Angel's Egg) might play better to the arthouse/cinephile market (it's quite hard not to come up with a pretentious name for that!) than the usual market that buys anime. I posted on a previous page about Anime Limited's French branch having an 'HD Anime Classics' range and I wonder if something similar would work here - perhaps limited to a certain number copies, with spine numbers. We can dream!

I'll certainly be supporting Escaflowne and pre-ordering it on principle (though I don't remember liking it too much when I watched it).

ilmaestro said:
Criterion also puts out "populist" movies if they deem them (or their director) to be influential enough. Their remit is not limited to old movies, or even overlooked movies.
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True, but it's undeniable that they make up the majority of their releases.

Smeelia said:
I think it's an interesting situation with the releases that Anime Limited are doing. I do like getting older and/or more niche shows so the more recent acquisitions aren't doing as much for me. That said, if it helps Anime Limited grow as a company and be able to make more releases in the long run then I guess it'll be worth it. I suppose the challenge is in keeping a balance and I think Anime Limited can manage it.

I'm interested to see if there are more plans for Kickstarters and other "non-standard" releases (like the Gundam import) from Anime Limited, I don't think we've really heard anything new about them. I don't know exactly how these things work but I could see Kickstarter being a good option for the sort of shows/movies Qaiz was talking about that might be too risky for a standard release.
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Yeah, I'd love Kickstarter to be used to fund some classic releases. I think the problem is that you have to licence the title before the Kickstarter - so Kickstarter can only really be used to improve a release that you were going to do anyway. Or that's what I've read anyway.
 
I think they have to work very much with what's available though - so far they've been picking up big cornerstone titles like FMP and Escaflowne that need to be back in print.

When it comes to older titles - I'm not sure what assets there might be, but also there might be the whole aspect of - there's probably a reason why these haven't come out before, and if they came out now, would they actually sell?

What 'big' older titles that haven't seen a release yet in the UK could they focus on? Obviously older TV shows add in the extra element of potentially prohibitive BBFC fees.
 
ColdCobra said:
I've put my planned importing of Turn-A on hold until I know what the Gundam announcement will be. Unless its a re-release of one of the shows already released (admittedly it's hard to have a re-release of something that hasn't been released yet...) I won't be disappointed either way.
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Yeah, I've cancelled my order for now as well.

If AL have got Turn A then I'd rather support them than import. I can wait a while for this one. :)
 
Now that Viewster is both working with Anime Limited and separately (I presume) licensing a whole bunch of overlooked titles like Hataraki Man and Hikaru No Go - which would be impractical on DVD here, but let's ignore that for now - there's the possibility that some forgotten shows might attract an audience online and become big enough to make a physical release worthwhile. I live in hope.

I'd love some of those classic French releases over here, though. If only...

(If Anime Limited could somehow arrange for English subtitles to sneak onto some of @Anime's French releases, I'm sure we could cover the extra costs by making our own arrangements to obtain them.)

R
 
Rui said:
I'd love some of those classic French releases over here, though. If only...

(If Anime Limited could somehow arrange for English subtitles to sneak onto some of @Anime's French releases, I'm sure we could cover the extra costs by making our own arrangements to obtain them.)

R
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Definitely!

Lutga said:
I think they have to work very much with what's available though - so far they've been picking up big cornerstone titles like FMP and Escaflowne that need to be back in print.

When it comes to older titles - I'm not sure what assets there might be, but also there might be the whole aspect of - there's probably a reason why these haven't come out before, and if they came out now, would they actually sell?

What 'big' older titles that haven't seen a release yet in the UK could they focus on? Obviously older TV shows add in the extra element of potentially prohibitive BBFC fees.
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Well, there's the unreleased Miyazaki and Takahatas. Future Boy Conan is the big one, as it has the chance of being the best seller - but Takahata's Anne of Green Gables and Heidi series are pretty big deals as well. Also his 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, which is just as good but less well known. There are also a couple of Takahatas films that haven't had a UK release - Gauche the Cellist and Chie the Brat - the former will soon be out on Blu-Ray in Japan with English subtitles but the latter is still without an English subtitled release.

There's also some Mamoru Oshii - Angel's Egg is more niche, but the second Urusei Yatsura film is a masterpiece and more accessible.

While their marketability and, frankly, enjoyability are questionable, Momataro's Divine Sea Warriors and Hakujaden are inarguably landmark films in the history of anime and I don't think they've ever been available with English subtitles. When it comes to the Toei Doga films, my personal favourite would be the stunning The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. You can see its influence on The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and the animation of Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack, Clone Wars) - and Tomm Moore through him. It's also a cracking film with my favourite Akira Ifukube score.

Those are just what first popped into my head.
 
Not exactly related but speaking of Isao Takahata, I wonder if Anime Limited could manage to release the Only Yesterday Blu-ray that Studio Canal haven't. I'd imagine there'd be no chance at all but it'd be interesting, I think there are at least a few others that might end up in a similar situation as well (Ocean Waves maybe, I can't think of others off the top of my head).
 
Interesting - I mean, those are definitely titles that seem like they'd be worth putting out from an artistic/historical sense, but equally, I'm not convinced I can see them doing overly well.

The reality is that outside the big shonen titles, the big sellers in UK anime fandom are the proper 'otaku' stuff; if you look on Amazon's pre-orders right now, the big sellers are stuff like Chunibyo and Elfen Lied. People want nudity, and violence and self-indulgent 'fandom' stuff.

There's still loads of more recent stuff that could be capitalised on and would probably sell reasonably well - Oreimo, a re-release of Haruhi, Fist of the North Star etc.
 
ayase said:
Here's a quick summary of the BBFC situation. Even worse for foriegn language productions with subtitles that aren't dubtitles, because if the English subs are diffferent to the English audio they have to be rated on a seperate watch through, incurring another set of charges.
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Thanks for the link, much appreciated!

Yami said:
I couldn't agree more - that's also the impression I initially had of Anime Limited, but I now believe they were probably making that in reference to the overall package and design of release. I would love a higher classic:new ratio, though, as you said, we seem to be in a minority of people clamoring for classic anime - but I do think that classic anime (particularly films like Angel's Egg) might play better to the arthouse/cinephile market (it's quite hard not to come up with a pretentious name for that!) than the usual market that buys anime. I posted on a previous page about Anime Limited's French branch having an 'HD Anime Classics' range and I wonder if something similar would work here - perhaps limited to a certain number copies, with spine numbers. We can dream!
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I'm glad that you agree, I'm really excited for the Belladonna of Sadness Blu-ray from Cinelicious for example, which seems to be a absolutely stunning release from the restoration and effort being put into it being astounding. You don't see that amount of care and attention to detail anywhere these days, and that's ultimately where my money will go. I think that it hopefully sets a precedence for titles like Angel's Egg. The 'HD Anime Classics' lineup certainly would be something I'm 100% interested in and would reinvigorate and rekindle my love for anime. Indeed we can dream, but that dream is becoming a reality at times with the Australian release of Memories on BD, US release Robot Carnival on DVD etc coming to fruition. I just hope that there's was more of a push for this stuff.

Well, there's the unreleased Miyazaki and Takahatas. Future Boy Conan is the big one, as it has the chance of being the best seller - but Takahata's Anne of Green Gables and Heidi series are pretty big deals as well. Also his 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, which is just as good but less well known. There are also a couple of Takahatas films that haven't had a UK release - Gauche the Cellist and Chie the Brat - the former will soon be out on Blu-Ray in Japan with English subtitles but the latter is still without an English subtitled release.

There's also some Mamoru Oshii - Angel's Egg is more niche, but the second Urusei Yatsura film is a masterpiece and more accessible.
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Agreed on all fronts. I currently watching Romeo's Blue Skies Link and I'm absolutely loving it and would love to see these types of releases. The World Masterpiece Theatre is home to some of the greatest pieces of animation of all time and its such a shame that like you said, that these pivotal, landmark titles are just not getting the attention that they deserve, its downright shameful and upsetting. I do think that the unmarketable nature of these are greatly over exaggerated, there's potential here for a nice line-up of titles and having them available in English friendly formats would spur a lot of excitement one would think and would add a much needed diversity to the home video anime market.
 
Lutga said:
Interesting - I mean, those are definitely titles that seem like they'd be worth putting out from an artistic/historical sense, but equally, I'm not convinced I can see them doing overly well.

The reality is that outside the big shonen titles, the big sellers in UK anime fandom are the proper 'otaku' stuff; if you look on Amazon's pre-orders right now, the big sellers are stuff like Chunibyo and Elfen Lied. People want nudity, and violence and self-indulgent 'fandom' stuff.

There's still loads of more recent stuff that could be capitalised on and would probably sell reasonably well - Oreimo, a re-release of Haruhi, Fist of the North Star etc.
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I recognise that Anime Limited - and other distributors - are ultimately businesses at the end of the day and don't have a public service responsibility to make important works available for the sake of it. But the most common defence of Criterion (since they've already been mentioned here) when they release something commercial/populist like Armageddon or a Wes Anderson is that the profits from them make up for any losses that may occur from the more obscure works. Not that I'm asking AL to take a hit in their finances to effectively do charitable work; as qaiz says, I think that you might be underestimating how they'd sell because they would have a reach outwith the usual anime/'otaku' market.

Of course, this is speaking theoretically. There are complexities that I'm simply not privy to - common sense would dictate that an older title that has never been released with English subtitles would be significantly cheaper than a new hot property, as the licensor would reduce the price due to lack of interest over the years, but anime licensors have never seemed to subscribe to common sense and I have heard rumours that Nippon are charging over the odds for their World Masterpiece Theatre titles. Ergo, this lower licencing price would translate to an overall lower production cost and less units needed to sell to break even. But who knows? AL themselves I suppose!

qaiz said:
Agreed on all fronts. I currently watching Romeo's Blue Skies Link and I'm absolutely loving it and would love to see these types of releases. The World Masterpiece Theatre is home to some of the greatest pieces of animation of all time and its such a shame that like you said, that these pivotal, landmark titles are just not getting the attention that they deserve, its downright shameful and upsetting. I do think that the unmarketable nature of these are greatly over exaggerated, there's potential here for a nice line-up of titles and having them available in English friendly formats would spur a lot of excitement one would think and would add a much needed diversity to the home video anime market.
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Thanks for that, I'll take a look at it! And Belladonna of Sadness is one of the most exciting releases of the year - it's particularly exciting since Cinelicious are going to the lengths of restoring it in 4K.
 
Thanks Jeremy, good to know that the Arslan delay is being seen to as I need my weekly dose of Daryun :)

R
 
Yami said:
ilmaestro said:
Criterion also puts out "populist" movies if they deem them (or their director) to be influential enough. Their remit is not limited to old movies, or even overlooked movies.
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True, but it's undeniable that they make up the majority of their releases.
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They also make up the majority of movies overall though, which is the opposite of anime. AL right now is more like if Criterion had been founded in the 60s rather than the 80s.
 
Once again, Anime Limited's commitment to looking after their customers shines through. Impressive stuff, guys!
 
What exactly was wrong with the box? Was it, for want of a better way of putting it, too tight for the contents, or had something become glued together by accident?
 
In my case it was simply too tight for the contents. The contents (just) fit into it, but getting them out was pretty difficult or risked damaging it. It was the box for part 3 that was too tight, not the big box for the 3 parts. Of course, I'd expect the booklet to increase in thickness slightly each time it is browsed, so the problem could have gotten worse as the sets aged.

I got confirmation that my replacement request was logged from Jeremy this morning, got to say extremely please with the turn around time on this.
 
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