UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

thedoctor2016 said:
And as people have said here many times France is a much larger market.
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Wich is not quite the truth, France is a big market for very big titles like Your Name, SAO, or Ghibli movies, for the rest it's pretty terrible, even very big serie (like AoT for example) strugle to sell more than 1000 copies.
Also France is pretty lame in term of number of news physical release, we got waaaaaayyyyyyyy less homevideo releases per years than the UK market, like Half of it.

France is an enormous market for Mangas (2nd in the world after Japan) and alos probably a pretty big market for VOD service, but for Homevideo, no it's absolutly not.
 
In addendum to Illuvatar -
thedoctor2016 said:
And as people have said here many times France is a much larger market.
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Your Name. - Edition Collector Limitée et Numérotée Combo Blu-Ray/DVD/CD
"Edition limitée à 1 500 exemplaires"

I'm pretty sure the UK one had more than 500. And I distinctly remember that it was sold out real quick after it went online before the UK one. (I think even before it was open for preorder on the AL Store?) Seeing that sell out so quick was the main reason I went for the UK one when it was up, because I kind of thought it would sell out quick, even if it got more stock, because I knew a bunch of Germans who were all going for it as well. I guess I was wrong on that speculation...
But regardless, if the market were so much bigger in general it makes no sense to have lesser print runs than the one supposedly having the smaller market.
Also French Home Video releases have dwindled since (my impression) around late 2014. (I think around that was when Wakanim, Crunchyroll etc. went to be a thing?) 2013 saw the Edition Saphir, which I guess was a strategy that obviously must have failed. (I even triple dipped on Mushishi to support it, when I started, because I really like the Saphir packaging.) With 2014/2015 came those big digipacks collector's combos (which were at least still BD sized) and by now they are pumping out these A4 collector's regularly.
Kaze meanwhile has done all stuff with shared discs etc. and there is of course AL France.

I'm still looking at the French market, because I do enjoy the occasional French dub, but there really isn't all that much coming. Plus then it's either the same package of what I already have (if it's AL or occasionaly Kaze) or it comes with these totally bulky whatever editions. (I reeeeally miss the Saphir Edition.) And Blu-ray doesn't seem to be a big thing over there. It seems to mostly only come in combos, while the DVDs may get their single release (like with Steins;Gate.)
Also the only reason I can think of why the Post Nisemono Monogataris' combos ended up to be DVD sized instead of BD sized.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Day 6 shipped, that was quick!
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Just to put this out there, they haven't shipped yet. There was a small admin error that meant some people received dispatch notifications soon after ordering during the first hour or so of Day 6. Has been rectified now in the order history itself, but please disregard that email (and anyone else reading this who may have got one.) Hope that helps.
 
Jeremy Graves said:
Just to put this out there, they haven't shipped yet. There was a small admin error that meant some people received dispatch notifications soon after ordering during the first hour or so of Day 6. Has been rectified now in the order history itself, but please disregard that email (and anyone else reading this who may have got one.) Hope that helps.
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It came so soon after the notification for day 3, I thought you guys went "quick get that package back, we'll shove this in as well" 😜
 
Iluvatar said:
Wich is not quite the truth, France is a big market for very big titles like Your Name, SAO, or Ghibli movies, for the rest it's pretty terrible, even very big serie (like AoT for example) strugle to sell more than 1000 copies.
Also France is pretty lame in term of number of news physical release, we got waaaaaayyyyyyyy less homevideo releases per years than the UK market, like Half of it.
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I guess it maybe depends what interests you. I know I'm always in awe of how many older shows are available in France, things like the World Masterpiece Theatre titles, City Hunter, Space Adventure Cobra, Cat's Eye, Go Nagai and Leiji Matsumoto shows etc. (some of these titles even released by AL's French arm, but not here ;_; ) I presume this is because they were televised in France and weren't in the UK, therefore have a fan base which is just non-existent here, which also enabled penetration of anime into the market and the collective consciousness far earlier than in the UK. And then there's French-Japanese co-produced stuff like Clémentine as well. Personally, I'd trade a lot of the UK market's up to the minute stuff that doesn't remotely interest me for the French market's classics.

I see plenty of older stuff I've never even heard of when I look at anime on the shelves in France. Stuff I'd probably pick up as a blind buy on nothing but the strength of its art style if only it had English support. My French is a lot better than it's ever been, but listening to stuff in one foreign language while reading another is too much for my poor brain to handle.
 
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ayase said:
I presume this is because they were televised in France and weren't in the UK, therefore have a fan base which is just non-existent here.
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Definitely that. There are a lot of classics in Germany too, most of which are WMT-ish (and which aren't generally regarded as Anime). There is even a Risu no Banner, that didn't even get a DVD release in Japan! (Though the German version is dub only and has quite a bunch of localisations.)
 
Italy seems to get a lot of classic releases too for the same reason. It's kinda sad the UK was so late to the game with regards to airing anime. I mean we sort of did, but only co-produced kids' shows no-one had any idea at the time were anime - stuff like Moomins, Inspector Gadget, Willy Fog etc. and that didn't really seem to fuel interest in Japanese animation the same way in did in some European countries. We certainly never saw the stuff for older audiences until Manga's home video business took off in the '90s, and obviously having to buy VHS tapes to see anime created more of a niche market than TV airings.
 
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ayase said:
I mean we sort of did, but only co-produced kids' shows no-one had any idea at the time were anime - stuff like Moomins, Inspector Gadget, Willy Fog
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Ulysses 31, Dogtanian, Mysterious Cities of Gold! I can't remember when I found out that they were anime, but it was certainly years (and years) later!
 
ayase said:
Italy seems to get a lot of classic releases too for the same reason. It's kinda sad the UK was so late to the game with regards to airing anime. I mean we sort of did, but only co-produced kids' shows no-one had any idea at the time were anime - stuff like Moomins, Inspector Gadget, Willy Fog etc. and that didn't really seem to fuel interest in Japanese animation the same way in did in some European countries.
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Might be a cultural thing, too. Central Europe was war lavished. Mature stories were nice even for children to given them an idea of a life full of harships. That certainly didn't apply to America. Don't really now how bad it was for the UK, but I guess being on an Island may have made a difference, too.
Willy Fog was very much a thing here too, btw. But everything that came before the Sailor Moon/Pokemon/Dragonball Z era certainly doesn't really count as Anime in the general public's mind.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Ulysses 31, Dogtanian, Mysterious Cities of Gold! I can't remember when I found out that they were anime, but it was certainly years (and years) later!
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It's not often I get to say this, but those ones were a little before my time. Thanks for making me feel young for once D1tchd1gger. :p

Luna said:
Might be a cultural thing, too. Central Europe was war lavished. Mature stories were nice even for children to given them an idea of a life full of harships. That certainly didn't apply to America. Don't really now how bad it was for the UK, but I guess being on an Island may have made a difference, too.
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Certainly, I think the US and UK have in general terms traditionally had more of a culture of trying to shelter kids and not expose them to the harsh realities of life. That said, we did manage to produce Watership Down and The Animals of Farthing Wood. Maybe showing the harshness of the natural world is more acceptable to us than the harshness of the human world? I dunno. I did watch the Masterpiece Theatre production Alps Story: My Annette a little while ago (based on a book very much influenced by WWII) and if I think about it, even that might have been a bit controversial to show to kids in the UK in the '80s, with all its child suffering content.

Manga Ent. also capitalised quite shamelessly on advertising their shows as more adult in nature (and in many cases actually made them more adult in nature via their dubs) which, while it worked and I'll always be grateful to Manga for popularising anime in the UK, also led to anime having a somewhat unwarranted skeevy reputation here.

Luna said:
Willy Fog was very much a thing here too, btw. But everything that came before the Sailor Moon/Pokemon/Dragonball Z era certainly doesn't really count as Anime in the general public's mind.
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Pretty sure Willy Fog is recognised as a global cultural treasure protected by UNESCO and has been dubbed into every known language in the universe. I can still sing the theme tune today.

 
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Mysterious Cities of Gold was a classic - especially the theme tune. And bonus points to anyone who remembers Belle & Sebastian on ITV [or was it BBC?]
 
ayase said:
It's not often I get to say this, but those ones were a little before my time. Thanks for making me feel young for once D1tchd1gger. :p
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Can't have been that much before. Those 3 were '85 &' 86. Willy Fogg was '87 unless you saw re-runs as I was surprised to find Moomin was' 93 according to this website BBC Genome The actual show was made '69 via MAL.

The Schof was definitely pre-Crane though.
 
D1tchd1gger said:
Can't have been that much before. Those 3 were '85 &' 86. Willy Fogg was '87 unless you saw re-runs as I was surprised to find Moomin was' 93 according to this website BBC Genome The actual show was made '69 via MAL.
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That's a different, older Moomin show -The one Miyazaki was involved with and Jansson disowned because of how differently the characters were depicted. The one on TV in the '90s was produced in '90-'91. And yeah, it was only just before my time, I was but a wee babby when those shows aired.
 
The second season of Cities of Gold came in the post for Christmas the other day but it's gotta get wrapped up :eek:


Not anime exactly, but does anyone remember Star Fleet?

I think it was on after Jayce and The Wheeled Warriors....We had it so much better than kids these days :)
 
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