UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

The general rule of thumb that holds true 99% of the time - if it hasn't come out in America yet/is scheduled for release in America and/or Australia then the chances of the UK getting it are basically zero.
 
Buzz201 said:
I know you weren't necessarily serious, I just cringe whenever I see people randomly requesting titles. I imagine people that own or are in charge of distributors must be fed up of people asking them to buy reasonably obscure titles, as they probably get it all the time...

Also, nobody's buying a title because somebody on a forum asked them to. (Apparently ADV tried it once, it didn't sell very well for them.)
Click to expand...
I dunno, while I can understand that seeing the same requests over and over might feel pointless I think it'd be worse if people were just quiet and hoped for the best. I may go on about Nichijou way too much but I think it'd be worse to simply pretend that I don't care and just hope that someone at Anime Limited (or wherever) is reading my mind. I'd rather take the long shot that someone happens to be in a position to make a release happen and remembers hearing that people might be interested in a particular show so they look into it. That 0.0001% chance is better than nothing.

I don't really see the harm, if the distributors do get frustrated with seeing it they probably need to take a step back and think about why people are asking. I'd like to think that most people aren't doing it just to be annoying, I know I don't. Sure, it might be frustrating to be asked the same questions and either have no answers or only the same answers but at the end of the day fans ask because they do care. I'd say it should be taken as a positive sign that people genuinely want releases from you. I think it's relevant that I'm far more likely to bring up Nichijou when we're talking about Anime Limited than any of the other distributors, I do think they'd be the best for providing the quality release that I'd like.

I guess there's also a difference between demonstrating your interest and complaining about a lack of releases. I wouldn't say "Why hasn't Nichijou been released on Blu-ray by Anime Limited yet? Grr!" (well, I might, but in the hopes that it's not taken as a serious literal complaint) but I would express a genuine interest in seeing a release if Anime Limited were able to manage it. If any of my posts do come across as complaining, then I'd rather know about it so I can correct that by explaining. I know that reading people's intentions can be the toughest job (especially in text) but I think it's better to keep in mind giving people the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they mean things in the nicest way.

I'm probably going on more than I need to here but just to clarify, I think that distributors do often buy titles based on what people on forums and such are saying. Sure, it's not going to be "hey, that was a good point randomly bringing up Nichijou when we were talking about something completely different" but distributors are going to be paying attention to try and get an idea of what titles people might be interested in. I'm sure they look at a lot of sources of information including discussions on forums, viewing figures and anything else they can get their hands on.

At the end of the day, I can only decide what titles I'm going to talk about and request. I'd like to hope that the titles I want are popular enough to justify a nice release. I don't think I have enough information to know what titles should be released by a particular company and I expect the professionals who deal with this sort of thing routinely have a much better idea. Even so, I still think it's best to have my voice out there even if it's just one in a crowd that may never be heard. At the very least, by yammering on about a show I might get more people watching it and that might ultimately lead to there being enough demand.
 
I'd agree with that sentiment. I don't think anyone thinks they can convince a company to license a show because they alone asked but I think if there are enough people on enough forums across the internet it can certainly be enough to make an impact, even if it's just a little, on what shows a company might choose to pick up.
 
At the very least, it gives a snapshot of what has people interested. It's up to the distributors to judge if it is viable or not, but they can't make that judgement if no one says anything at all. Incidentally, Blu-ray Nichijou, Gosick, and Silver Spoon please?
 
Smeelia said:
I guess there's also a difference between demonstrating your interest and complaining about a lack of releases. I wouldn't say "Why hasn't Nichijou been released on Blu-ray by Anime Limited yet? Grr!" (well, I might, but in the hopes that it's not taken as a serious literal complaint) but I would express a genuine interest in seeing a release if Anime Limited were able to manage it. If any of my posts do come across as complaining, then I'd rather know about it so I can correct that by explaining. I know that reading people's intentions can be the toughest job (especially in text) but I think it's better to keep in mind giving people the benefit of the doubt and hoping that they mean things in the nicest way.

At the end of the day, I can only decide what titles I'm going to talk about and request. I'd like to hope that the titles I want are popular enough to justify a nice release. I don't think I have enough information to know what titles should be released by a particular company and I expect the professionals who deal with this sort of thing routinely have a much better idea. Even so, I still think it's best to have my voice out there even if it's just one in a crowd that may never be heard. At the very least, by yammering on about a show I might get more people watching it and that might ultimately lead to there being enough demand.
Click to expand...

I should clarify, it wasn't your post specifically, I just don't like the idea of it. And Nichijou is one of the less obscure titles people have picked, but people tend to request titles that probably wouldn't be commercially viable in a big country like the US, and definitely not the UK. I mean there's a reason nobody's picked 1999's Shiranpuri up...

I'd imagine, even the information you do have access to isn't brilliant, I suppose the biggest sources are MAL and Crunchyroll's most popular list, but I certainly wouldn't trust the later. Rokka -Braves of the Six Flowers- has always been at the top end of Crunchyroll's most popular list, and yet Crunchyroll are really really insistent on ramming it down everyone's throats, I'm wondering if it's not doing too well. Sane with World Trigger, which has no free viewing option in the EMEA territories, yet still always ranks towards the top end of the popular chart. It wouldn't surprise me if it turns out Crunchyroll are manipulating the page to show certain titles at the top...

Also, I wasn't bothered by the request thread somebody set up a month or so ago (I think it might have been Rui or Lutga, but don't quote me on that). I guess it's just doing it mid-thread that annoys me.
 
Buzz201 said:
I know you weren't necessarily serious, I just cringe whenever I see people randomly requesting titles. I imagine people that own or are in charge of distributors must be fed up of people asking them to buy reasonably obscure titles, as they probably get it all the time...

Also, nobody's buying a title because somebody on a forum asked them to. (Apparently ADV tried it once, it didn't sell very well for them.)
Click to expand...

On the contrary, I recall AL actively encouraging suggestions on a previous podcast and I know that other labels are also receptive. Arrow respond to the majority of requests on their Facebook/Twitter page, as well as having a dedicated e-mail address set up (suggestions@arrowfilms.co.uk). Criterion also have an e-mail address for requests, though they have almost no dialogue with their fans.

I'm sure it's not a case of "x has the most requests on forum y, let's buy it" but, rather, "x has come up a few times, what do we think about it?".
 
Buzz201 said:
I should clarify, it wasn't your post specifically, I just don't like the idea of it.
Click to expand...
I got that you were talking more generally, I wasn't so much defending myself as explaining why I feel it's worthwhile (and thus why I do posts like that, I guess). I can't really tell people what they should think (as much as I might like to) but I can talk about what I think and hope they understand (even if they still don't agree).

I don't think we're really in a position to judge the "commercial viability" or "popularity" of a show. As you say, the information we have could easily mean something different than it might first appear. Still, just because a show doesn't seem to us like it would do well doesn't mean there's no value in it. There are plenty of shows that make plenty of people ask "why did this get a release?" and there'll always be a reason, even if it's just that the show was cheap and the distributor figures there'll be enough sales to make a small profit or that they had to release it as part of an agreement to get a bigger show. I guess there's also that possibility of a show that is actually very popular and in demand but the fans just don't talk about it much so it's harder for people on forums and such to get a feel for how popular it really is.

I guess I can understand why it could be annoying when someone brings up a show seemingly at random, although to be fair I think that mentioning things you'd like to see from a distributor in the discussion thread about that distributor doesn't seem so bad. At the end of the day, we're mostly anime fans talking about anime so I guess randomly bringing up shows we liked is probably a natural hazard.

It's probably not important but is the thread you're talking about the one HdE did a little while ago:
http://forums.animeuknews.net/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19662
 
Lutga said:
The general rule of thumb that holds true 99% of the time - if it hasn't come out in America yet/is scheduled for release in America and/or Australia then the chances of the UK getting it are basically zero.
Click to expand...

I'm the unusual factor as I don't tend to wait for the USA if it's a show I'm keen on releasing :D.

AP
 
Dannielle said:
Ah, I really want to lock in an order for FMP but finances are so tight the last three months of the year that I can't really afford to. Hope you guys leave one set for me to purchase Q1 ;)
Click to expand...

Will be for sure - it's selling well but I'd expect it to not go out of stock in the first quarter of sales!

AP
 
thedoctor2016 said:
I want Free! but I doubt it ever will as it won't sell due to it being aimed at a female audience even though me a man wants it
Click to expand...
I think Free! has a pretty big crossover appeal, it's maybe more likely to suffer due to being seen as a "Sports" show though. I guess if something like Kamisama Kiss can do well then Free! could do at least as well (would be interesting to know if Kamisama Kiss has done well here).

I guess the licensing issues could be a bigger problem, with a bit of a mix up between seasons since Crunchyroll got the rights to the first season and Funimation have the second (I think). In some ways, that might be less of an issue for a UK distributor. It could even be a nice opportunity, if Anime Limited did manage to get the rights to both seasons and get Blu-rays out at a decent pace they could make some extra money on people importing to America and such.
 
anime_andrew said:
Lutga said:
The general rule of thumb that holds true 99% of the time - if it hasn't come out in America yet/is scheduled for release in America and/or Australia then the chances of the UK getting it are basically zero.
Click to expand...

I'm the unusual factor as I don't tend to wait for the USA if it's a show I'm keen on releasing :D.

AP
Click to expand...

And that's why we love Anime Ltd! I was thinking earlier it'd be a major coup if you guys managed to get Escaflowne out before the U.S.
 
Smeelia said:
I don't think we're really in a position to judge the "commercial viability" or "popularity" of a show. As you say, the information we have could easily mean something different than it might first appear. Still, just because a show doesn't seem to us like it would do well doesn't mean there's no value in it. There are plenty of shows that make plenty of people ask "why did this get a release?" and there'll always be a reason, even if it's just that the show was cheap and the distributor figures there'll be enough sales to make a small profit or that they had to release it as part of an agreement to get a bigger show. I guess there's also that possibility of a show that is actually very popular and in demand but the fans just don't talk about it much so it's harder for people on forums and such to get a feel for how popular it really is.
Click to expand...
There's not a lot of shows that are surprisingly popular, but you never hear anything positive about, I can think of maybe two or three from recent years (Sword Art Online being the big example). Most of the time it seems to be off-screen factors anyway, like the fact nobody has any goodwill towards Aniplex and A-1 or Toei, so anything either of them touches is immediately tainted.

Smeelia said:
I guess the licensing issues could be a bigger problem, with a bit of a mix up between seasons since Crunchyroll got the rights to the first season and Funimation have the second (I think). In some ways, that might be less of an issue for a UK distributor. It could even be a nice opportunity, if Anime Limited did manage to get the rights to both seasons and get Blu-rays out at a decent pace they could make some extra money on people importing to America and such.
Click to expand...

I believe at one point UK Anime Network were reporting somebody was interested (presumably Animatsu), but Crunchyroll might be a stumbling block. On the basis that nothing happened on that front, I guess CR was a problem. AL has sold titles to CR before (in French-speaking regions), so maybe it would be less of a stumbling block for them.

Yami said:
On the contrary, I recall AL actively encouraging suggestions on a previous podcast and I know that other labels are also receptive. Arrow respond to the majority of requests on their Facebook/Twitter page, as well as having a dedicated e-mail address set up (suggestions@arrowfilms.co.uk). Criterion also have an e-mail address for requests, though they have almost no dialogue with their fans.

I'm sure it's not a case of "x has the most requests on forum y, let's buy it" but, rather, "x has come up a few times, what do we think about it?".
Click to expand...

There's a difference between suggesting stuff when they ask for it, and doing it in basically every thread Andrew enters.

Arrow are also clearer on what they can't have (apparently Sony UK don't sub-licence films so anything Sony is out for any other UK distributor), so there is a degree of filtering going on with what they receive as well.
 
MY SAO set came, really nice, great work :)

Spotted a very small issue in the booklet. The description of the young Shino in the pages detailing the main characters is actually a duplicate description of Asuna calling her Kiritos wife etc, I found it quite amusing!
 
britguy said:
MY SAO set came, really nice, great work :)

Spotted a very small issue in the booklet. The description of the young Shino in the pages detailing the main characters is actually a duplicate description of Asuna calling her Kiritos wife etc, I found it quite amusing!
Click to expand...

What if..

His harem are all waifus.

Then again..

QDbM98o.png
 
Yeah, I have to admit, aside from the mistake leaving out episode six from the episode listing on the digipack, the quality on this release is stunning. I love the foil finish - really gives it an extra premium feel.
 
It (GOD EATER)'s a non-canonical spin-off to a video game, made on a tight production schedule, there's probably not a lot of materials available for the show.

I believe it has been licensed by Aniplex of America for the UK (Aniplex sold delaycast rights to Crunchyroll, but the show is repped by Bandai Visual internationally), so I'd imagine Anime Ltd. will end up with it.
 
Back
Top