UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

sniper_samurai said:
Doubt it, as mentioned before due to the nature of the agreement with Sunrise you won't see these at a sale price.
Click to expand...
If they're sold elsewhere and they don't shift all the stock then they'll come down. It's not one of the more popular gundam series and I am only looking at it because its the only gundam I vaguely remember watching but I'll see how my money goes this week.

That srp is painful though and I've noticed an increase in shows being released 12 episodes at a time again (I know this isn't a 12 episode but priced equivalently).
After having to re-evaluate my finances I've looked more critically at how the anime industry is going and it slowly seems to be creeping back to how it was in the 90s/early 2000s when I couldn't afford to keep buying UK releases (student) & ended up with a lot of full season bootlegs that were the same (better than the bootleg rubbish now).

The main difference now is that it's so much easier and quicker to get hold of rips with negligible differences to the retail releases, especially when so many people seem content with streaming quality nowadays anyway.

I enjoy buying physical releases and put no value in owning digital. I like supporting the UK industry but the higher the price the less likely I am to bother especially when I'm not going to be missing out on all that much nowadays.

Why do I even matter? Alone I don't but I doubt I'm alone and the higher the pricing the less overall spending so whilst short term profits might look better, long term they will begin to decline and collapse and new customers will be put off. I'm not blaming uk distributors but it'd be a shame to give it up again and I've seen others selling off their collections lately.
 
Girls wIth Guns said:
I generally dislike oversized anime sets, so I bought the big box US Gundam IBO set only for the chipboard box and amarays inside - I proceeded to give away the Gundam model for free to another forum member and tossed the big box, clear plastic slipcover, and the rest of the insides into the trash.
Click to expand...
The big outer box was basically a cereal box (and I can't imagine it'll ever command much more value than one) so yeah, mine went the same way.

serpantino said:
Why do I even matter? Alone I don't but I doubt I'm alone and the higher the pricing the less overall spending so whilst short term profits might look better, long term they will begin to decline and collapse and new customers will be put off. I'm not blaming uk distributors but it'd be a shame to give it up again and I've seen others selling off their collections lately.
Click to expand...
We've talked about this before I'm sure, but I think it just comes down to a changing market. You might not like digital, but a lot of the market for anime clearly does - Streaming gets anime to people quickly and cheaply, they can consume as much as they like for a monthly cost that would barely purchase a single blu-ray. As a result, that's where the consumers of anime with less disposable income are going. The market for physical releases is shrinking and re-orienting towards collectors. People like Manga and Funi used to get their income from cheap releases of popular shows geared towards a younger and more casual market. That section of the market is now fully invested in streaming, and they ain't coming back to physical releases (save a hardcore few, and that's who those releases need to be aimed at now).
 
ayase said:
We've talked about this before I'm sure, but I think it just comes down to a changing market. You might not like digital, but a lot of the market for anime clearly does - Streaming gets anime to people quickly and cheaply, they can consume as much as they like for a monthly cost that would barely purchase a single blu-ray. As a result, that's where the consumers of anime with less disposable income are going. The market for physical releases is shrinking and re-orienting towards collectors. People like Manga and Funi used to get their income from cheap releases of popular shows geared towards a younger and more casual market. That section of the market is now fully invested in streaming, and they ain't coming back to physical releases (save a hardcore few, and that's who those releases need to be aimed at now).
Click to expand...

Actual digital purchases aren't cheap though nor are they reliable unless you back them up physically yourself and even then they won't have the same longevity as a mastered disk. Quality is also an issue as is the time taken to download. Collectors are a niche within a niche and it seems a stupidly narrow point of focus and hardly sustainable compared to trying to bring in new blood. These forums do seem to be getting quieter lately

I don't have any interest in watching things I can't potentially own if I want to and I've purposefully stopped watching anything from studios that command greedier prices (such as sword art online.)
 
serpantino said:
Actual digital purchases aren't cheap though nor are they reliable unless you back them up physically yourself and even then they won't have the same longevity as a mastered disk. Quality is also an issue as is the time taken to download. Collectors are a niche within a niche and it seems a stupidly narrow point of focus and hardly sustainable compared to trying to bring in new blood. These forums do seem to be getting quieter lately

I don't have any interest in watching things I can't potentially own if I want to and I've purposefully stopped watching anything from studios that command greedier prices (such as sword art online.)
Click to expand...
Which is totally your right to do. But also your choice. I think anime distributors probably know their market, if cheaper physical releases would earn them more money through higher sales numbers I think they’d probably be doing that.

Similarly, I think all forums are getting quieter because the way people communicate online has fundamentally changed in the last few years as well (I don’t think that correlates with a decline in legal anime viewers, if anything I think a lot of people who once would have pirated now stream, because it’s so cheap and accessible). Me, I’m still here because I prefer public conversation open to anyone with people I can get to know vs. instant gratification attention from randos on social media, or private messaging groups. The younglings seem to prefer the latter. Things change, ultimately, whether we like it or not. I can’t really see anything to do but be a bit mono no aware about it all.
 
Last edited:
Denny Fisher said:
Never streamed in my life and I'll never will.
I fell if you don't have a physical copy your paying for something that has nothing to show for afterwards.
Click to expand...
Like I say, people are free to make their own decisions about what to do with their money. But you could also make that exact argument against visiting the cinema. You’re paying for the experience of viewing the thing, and in the case of streaming you’re paying very little.

I like collecting physical releases but don’t have particularly large disposable income. So I pick and choose what I buy, I’m not in a position to influence or decide what it costs (or what it needs to cost to keep a business afloat). I’d rather buy physical than stream, but sometimes streaming is the best way for me to view things (LotGH for example, which I’m glad I didn’t spend $700 or whatever on because I didn’t even like it that much). I can‘t afford to buy every physical release, not by a long shot. And there are plenty of people with less money than me for whom streaming is the only way they can afford to consume anime.
 
Last edited:
ayase said:
Like I say, people are free to make their own decisions about what to do with their money. But you could also make that exact argument against visiting the cinema. You’re paying for the experience of viewing the thing, and in the case of streaming you’re paying very little.
Click to expand...
I knew this example was going to be made when I wrote this and I agree with you.
As for steaming it may be cheap now but who knows in the future.
 
I'm old fashioned. Not that I have the time to stream these days, but I use it like TV, a chance to try before I buy. That way I avoid paying for the useless shows that I'll only watch once, and instead buy the shows that I'm determined to keep and rewatch. I only saw one episode of Chihayafuru on Crunchyroll before I imported the AU DVDs, and I've already watched it twice.

What worries me is that people are beginning to look at the digital realm, streaming and digital copies as their media library. Already this year, a wodge load of digital copy sites like Ultraviolet have shut down, leaving people complaining about their suddenly shrinking iphone movie libraries.

EDIT. The point of this is that I won't pay to stream. I'll pay for my broadband contract, just like I pay for a TV license, but I don't get subscription TV, and I don't get Amazon Prime or Netflix. With more and more new content debuting behind paywalls, I do feel like I'm being frozen out of some entertainment. I only watched Star Trek Discovery and the Orville Seasons 1 when the discs were in a bargain bucket, cheap enough for me to take a chance on.
 
The only movies I've gone to see in a commercial theater in the last 5 years have been special showings of anime movies - maybe a half dozen or so total. The last live-action movie I went out to see in a commercial theater was the final Hobbit movie, way back in 2014.

I really despise streaming. The only time I do it is on the Roku on my living room TV, while I'm eating at the dinner table - and seldom do I ever finish a series that way. I usually end up starting something else and never get back to finish anything. If the show was of decent interest to me, I'll buy it on Blu-ray when it releases, and finish watching the series that way. The only subscription I have for anime streaming is Crunchyroll; I also subscribe to Netflix but that is mainly for my two daughters to use since I have no TV service in my house. Netflix has some anime on it, but not very much. I'd much rather download fansubs than have to deal with streaming - either legal or illegal - and all of it's issues, inconveniences, and frustrations. To me streaming in it's current iteration is a joke, laughable at best. For serious anime viewing, especially for all my anime guests I host in my basement theater, it's Blu-ray or the highway. And especially with AL's wonderful CE box sets with digipaks!
 
with Dagashi Kashi being BBFC rated would funimation be able to release it over here since the AL version got cancelled or would they have to get it re-rated again under a new publisher?

Just Passing Through said:
I'm old fashioned. Not that I have the time to stream these days, but I use it like TV, a chance to try before I buy. That way I avoid paying for the useless shows that I'll only watch once, and instead buy the shows that I'm determined to keep and rewatch. I only saw one episode of Chihayafuru on Crunchyroll before I imported the AU DVDs, and I've already watched it twice.

What worries me is that people are beginning to look at the digital realm, streaming and digital copies as their media library. Already this year, a wodge load of digital copy sites like Ultraviolet have shut down, leaving people complaining about their suddenly shrinking iphone movie libraries.

EDIT. The point of this is that I won't pay to stream. I'll pay for my broadband contract, just like I pay for a TV license, but I don't get subscription TV, and I don't get Amazon Prime or Netflix. With more and more new content debuting behind paywalls, I do feel like I'm being frozen out of some entertainment. I only watched Star Trek Discovery and the Orville Seasons 1 when the discs were in a bargain bucket, cheap enough for me to take a chance on.
Click to expand...

as much as i hate streaming and the whole "give us your money so you can be lent this thing until we take it away without any notice" system, it's sadly here to stay and honestly as an anime viewer i kinda feel forced to view series via these streaming services because of online communities that will spoil them as they go along or for most of the time that it'll be the only way to watch the series here without importing the US blu-ray releases

also i don't wanna be that guy but most of the UV stuff is exportable to googleplay
 
It’s like we have a choice there is a reason I buy every Netflix show I reasonably like that’s a get a BD release but I still use Netflix because of kind of have to watch a lot stuff same with Amazon it is good for backlog stuff, stuff you medium like so not enough for the BD or it’s OOP. I’m not going to be one or the other I will both stream and buy because you don’t have a choice this days. Cost wise yes it’s expensive but thankfully I don’t care about sports and Sky offers streaming themselves that allows me HBO stuff as I know when I move out I will pay for a TV License for BBC and freeview and streaming for everything else as I want most of my money to go on the best internet as yes that is the most thing.
 
I very rarely go back to watch stuff I've already seen, so most of the physical stuff I've brought has been stuff not streaming (some of which then showed up on various sites 😐) or that I really liked. I've not brought anything from the last 2 years of watching seasonal stuff (the few shows I would buy haven't been released, A Place Further Than the Universe and Yuru Camp when Crunchyroll!?).

I've also been pretty bad with money in the past and really have to be picky and/or patient nowadays. For example buying the X-Files DVDs as soon as they released cost me c.£300 and I've watched it all just the once (plus another watch through with just the overarching conspiracy episodes), now it costs about £50 for all the Blu-rays!

I see the amount some of the people here buy and think to myself "you must rob banks for a living!" 😜
 
I don't do cinemas. I can get a much better experience at home and sites that offer monthly subscriptions aren't letting you keep the copies so for me it's just an alternative to paying for a TV licence (I use netflix & amazon prime.) as for pirate downloads back in the early 2000s, they were rare even with emule, napster etc because most people were still on 56kbps modems and video compression was awful (mainly mpeg2) 1 song took nearly an hour and even with a 128kbps modem it was still horrendously slow.

I don't relish pirating anything because I don't consider it owned and I do like to try and support businesses but being priced out of a hobby is like saying I'm not worthy and my money is no good anymore. Anime is becoming middle class.
 
Oldmario said:
with Dagashi Kashi being BBFC rated would funimation be able to release it over here since the AL version got cancelled or would they have to get it re-rated again under a new publisher?
Click to expand...
Wait, Dagashi Kashi was rated? I checked the BBFC database and there was no sign of any.

Anywho, as long as the content is identical there shouldn't be any need to re-rate the series. The only exception would be new extras, longer/shorter versions of the episodes, new dubs, or if the original was cut by the BBFC.
 
NormanicGrav said:
Wait, Dagashi Kashi was rated? I checked the BBFC database and there was no sign of any.

Anywho, as long as the content is identical there shouldn't be any need to re-rate the series. The only exception would be new extras, longer/shorter versions of the episodes, new dubs, or if the original was cut by the BBFC.
Click to expand...
i remember seeing BBFC ratings on the packaging so i assumed it was already rated before release
 
serpantino said:
I do like to try and support businesses but being priced out of a hobby is like saying I'm not worthy and my money is no good anymore. Anime is becoming middle class.
Click to expand...
I can't agree with that. If you don't want to do streaming (as several others have also stated they don't) that's your choice, but it is still enabling far more people to watch anime legally and support the creators than ever before. Under a tenner a month for an all-you-can-watch subscription service is far cheaper than buying physical releases - Even when they were at their cheapest you'd barely get a half-season set for that. Which surely makes anime more available to people with less disposable income.

It's unfortunate that your preferred way of consuming anime through cheap physical media releases is disappearing, but I can't imagine that's for any other reason than physical media sales are declining, and to sell them cheap they would no longer sell in the quantities to make it profitable. I don't think it's about gouging, simply about how physical media for a niche market has to be priced in the age of streaming in order to make it worth producing at all. As far as consumer products go, the market is going to decide what's available and what it costs at any given time. I don't think any amount of commentary on said market from you, me or anybody else is likely to change that.
 
Last edited:
I think physical media has aways been like oh I’ll treat myself to that release even in DVD era the series’ of shows I wanted was always around £30 and that’s not much changed TV show sets have got cheaper but the length of them has also changed.
 
Back
Top