UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

I'd just like to put a question out there to Anime Limited. With you getting the license for Sword Art Online 2 away from Manga UK what are the chances of you doing a release of SAO: Extra Episode like you did in France? :)
 
Jon O Fun said:
I'd just like to put a question out there to Anime Limited. With you getting the license for Sword Art Online 2 away from Manga UK what are the chances of you doing a release of SAO: Extra Episode like you did in France? :)
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They don't have the rights to Extra Edition. I asked at MCM.
 
The essays sound really exciting. I haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast yet though.
It's a shame BBFC costs prevent some sort of analyzing commentaries to be created. (I think that would be great with some classic films)
 
The essays idea sounds great - I'd say among potential extras in a booklet, that's the kind of thing I'd look forward to most as it can genuinely add to and increase your engagement and enjoyment with a piece of work. The booklet with Honneamise definitely offered a taste of that, and I'm really looking forward to what you guys can rustle up.
 
Analysis and commentary is always valued by me, particularly anime - I was gutted when people chose against the Jonathan Clements commentary for Mai Mai Miracle :(
 
Mangaranga said:
Jon O Fun said:
I'd just like to put a question out there to Anime Limited. With you getting the license for Sword Art Online 2 away from Manga UK what are the chances of you doing a release of SAO: Extra Episode like you did in France? :)
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They don't have the rights to Extra Edition. I asked at MCM.
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Ah well that's a shame but the question still stands: is it available and would they consider it? :)
 
Lavigne said:
Analysis and commentary is always valued by me, particularly anime - I was gutted when people chose against the Jonathan Clements commentary for Mai Mai Miracle :(
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I like commentaries as long as they stick mostly to the show. It gets a little tiring when they are always veering off into how people got started in the industry. The best ones are the original Japanese ones ofc, but we so rarely get those.
 
I was almost in a fan commentary once, but it got shot down.
The worst ever commentary was a couple of ADV's male VAs shoved in a cupboard together for half an hour. Dragging out a director for the commentary of a re-re-re-release of something he did decades ago doesn't always work well either.
 
Definitely like the idea of original analytical style extras. Commentaries and documentaries are still the main extras I care about. Hong Kong Legends in particular were awesome at this, with the incredible Bey Logan audio commentaries on the likes of Project A and Police Story. I remember one of the first things I suggested to Anime Limited in the Gurren Lagann thread was a Jonathan Clements commentary, so I too was gutted when that got voted out of Mai Mai Miracle.

I definitely would love more of those, or more book based content like in the Patema Inverted and Giovanni's island UEs.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
The worst ever commentary was a couple of ADV's male VAs shoved in a cupboard together for half an hour.
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Voice actor commentaries can be pretty unpredictable. The most entertaining one I ever listened to was in the Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 box set. Very little actual information, but I came away from it thinking 'I bet those gals are loads of fun at parties!'

I've also sat through a few stinkers (although, usually while working at home) which amount to VAs doing little more than giggle, joke around, gush about how awesome everybody in the industry is and how great the 3D blends into the animation on this show, when it doesn't.

The potential in such an undertaking can be very easily lost.
 
HdE said:
Shiroi Hane said:
The worst ever commentary was a couple of ADV's male VAs shoved in a cupboard together for half an hour.
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Voice actor commentaries can be pretty unpredictable. The most entertaining one I ever listened to was in the Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 box set. Very little actual information, but I came away from it thinking 'I bet those gals are loads of fun at parties!'

I've also sat through a few stinkers (although, usually while working at home) which amount to VAs doing little more than giggle, joke around, gush about how awesome everybody in the industry is and how great the 3D blends into the animation on this show, when it doesn't.

The potential in such an undertaking can be very easily lost.
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In a way, I kind of prefer that though - as let's be honest, I can't really imagine many of these VAs fully engage with the ins and outs of the show itself beyond basics like 'Oh that looks cool/my hair looks nice there'.

Filthy jokes/nonsensical banter is at least humorous/entertaining/less awkward than a pretence at 'deep' discussion of the show and its themes.
 
I have to side with HdE on this one, the jokey voice actor commentaries are a complete waste of time and energy to me. There's a reason that they are dub actors and not comedians, and it's so bad that my other half and I use the commentaries as a cruel trick by switching them on when the other is too slow getting ready for a viewing to see how long we can endure the torture. There's very little less enjoyable to me than hearing a bunch of people with no emotional involvement in the show talking about how fantastic their friends are at doing mediocre impersonations while the visuals from a One Piece episode play in the background. Argh. The Hetalia ones also made me physically cringe.

Japanese seiyuu commentaries are much more interesting because the seiyuu tend to get heavily involved in the anime and become attached to it. They have a lot of advantages over their American counterparts though; they're privy to information straight from the production staff, their seiyuu work often includes participation in the relentless marketing for the show with all of the radio dramas, video appearances and such that entails, and in some cases the part is even written specifically for a particular actor. Compared to that, a bunch of people who can't pronounce their character's name and show up to one or two cons a year have very little to say other than self-congratulatory silliness and it's not interesting. A voice actor (or any other member of the US production team) who goes further and actually takes the time to analyse the show properly is a rare treasure, which means the hit/miss ratio of western commentaries is too poor for me to give any of them a chance any more.

I will come out and say that I was one of the evil people who voted against the previous JC commentary too. However, a few hand-picked insightful essays in a booklet would be something I would read, so long as they chose interesting topics relating to the show instead of the broader rambling many bloggers seem to fall back upon. The more trivia, the better.

R
 
Yeah I'm with you Rui, I only really want to hear insight from people actively involved in the production of the show, not US voice actors who I wouldn't even recognise as I don't listen to English dubs. That being said, a hypothetical one per series commentary with the Anime limited guys watching an episode (say their favourite episode of the series) and talking about the show would definitely be listened to (I enjoy their banter in the podcasts!)

I also voted against the JC commentary....
 
An in-house Anime Limited bonus feature could be good fun. The guys there are actually fans too so that already puts them above people who are just doing their job and horsing around with no real love of the individual show entering into the equation. Even better if they can share some behind-the-scenes knowledge about how the UK side of things works.

R
 
Got my Durarara!! Replacement discs today - big thank you to all at AL for going above and beyond with the replacement programme! :)
 
Rui said:
Japanese seiyuu commentaries are much more interesting because the seiyuu tend to get heavily involved in the anime and become attached to it. They have a lot of advantages over their American counterparts though; they're privy to information straight from the production staff, their seiyuu work often includes participation in the relentless marketing for the show with all of the radio dramas, video appearances and such that entails, and in some cases the part is even written specifically for a particular actor.
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Do they really have that close a relationship with the production staff other than the ADR director? Anyone other than Minoru Shiraishi that is? All I remember about the Uta Kata seiyuu commentaries (bearing in mine my poor grasp of Japanese) was a lot of giggling and eating snacks.
 
I'll pop in and say that I vastly prefer commentary from seiyuu and production staff, I don't watch commentaries/interviews from US voice actors. And I did vote against the JC commentary as well, as I will almost always choose extras from Japan as oppossed to extras created in-house.

If you could get them both that's great, but if it's a choice of one or the other i'm set on what I want (^ω^).
 
Shiroi Hane said:
Rui said:
Japanese seiyuu commentaries are much more interesting because the seiyuu tend to get heavily involved in the anime and become attached to it. They have a lot of advantages over their American counterparts though; they're privy to information straight from the production staff, their seiyuu work often includes participation in the relentless marketing for the show with all of the radio dramas, video appearances and such that entails, and in some cases the part is even written specifically for a particular actor.
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Do they really have that close a relationship with the production staff other than the ADR director? Anyone other than Minoru Shiraishi that is? All I remember about the Uta Kata seiyuu commentaries (bearing in mine my poor grasp of Japanese) was a lot of giggling and eating snacks.
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Well, it's going to heavily depend on the title and people involved, but a number of the seiyuu I follow seem to get deeply involved in each title they do. They know as much about the material as the most hardcore fans and appear in interviews/articles/clips/radio shows week after week doing nothing but talk about the title, often with staff members present, even when all they really need to do to get by is feign interest and be capable of answering simple questions about who their favourite character is etc. I've also seen cases where the seiyuu are allowed to ad-lib, review the script to ensure they're happy with it and given special consideration with scenes tailored to their unique skills; then there are many cases where references in the script will be based on a particular actor's famous roles which fall flat in subsequent dubs (e.g. Ikeda Shuuichi in pretty much every post-Gundam role he has done).

If you keep tabs on a particular seiyuu and the amount of work they're doing for a particular show, it's not always just a case of auditioning (or not) then going in and recording their lines and leaving; it's an ongoing commitment which can last for years (or decades) if the anime is successful enough to grow a fanbase. The anecdotes about Jessica Calvello putting so much energy into the Excel Saga dub that she physically injured herself are well known, and that kind of story isn't uncommon in the seiyuu world too; even some of the big names (who most certainly don't have to strain themselves to keep getting jobs) are infamous for getting overly passionate about some of their favourite roles. Again this is entirely from my experience and I'm sure that plenty of shows are put together exactly like the voice acting discussion episode of Shirobako(one of the greatest episodes of the show IMO). But seeing how much raw energy these men and women put into events and lengthy interviews makes the self-congratulatory nonsense of those FUNimation commentaries which include so little content grate so much. I guess the more serious dub actors aren't as peppy so they don't get invited to do as many commentaries ^^;

R
 
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Rui said:
There's very little less enjoyable to me than hearing a bunch of people with no emotional involvement in the show talking about how fantastic their friends are at doing mediocre impersonations while the visuals from a One Piece episode play in the background. Argh.
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I think it's okay if those voice actors have something interesting to say about the show or their involvement in it.

It's always bugged me that the voice actors I'm actually interested in hearing talk about their work don't often get to do so in commentaries. I don't think I've ever heard an on-disc discussion with Steve Blum, Richard Epcar, Mary McGlynn or a handful of others who I think do great work. I think I may have seen them crop up in DVD special features in short segments, but never commentaries. Given the length of time they've been active in the industry and their own involvements beyong voice acting, they strike me as interesting people (and I know first hand that Steve has LOADS of great industry insights and anecdotes.)

But the love-fests are excruciating. And I've heard a few commentary tracks that devolve within the space of a show's opening titles into 'Oh my GOD! You GUYS! We're doing a DVD commentary! How WILD AND CRAZY IS THAT?!!' and never really recover.


The contrast to this is something like a Jonathan Clements track. I never tire of listening to the guy, and you're usually guaranteed to learn something during one of his commentaries that broadens your understanding of anime. That's value for money.
 
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