UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

I think it's like with anything, you're not going to be interested in every single annoucement I suppose. I know Gundam is incredibly popular but as soon as anyone mentions it I go to sleep.

But I do agree with the above points, there is something to be said for releasing the first season of something and never getting round to the other seasons.
 
That is a sh.t ton of Patlabor, excited to watch 2.

Started watching Great Pretender this week and it’s been fun, CE looks meaty too!

Also the return of digipaks, bless
 
ActionFaust said:
Taking a rare break from being a hater to say I'm on the side of AL on this issue. If the first season is a poor seller I too would be cautious of licensing another.
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It's a self fulfilling prophecy to some degree with AL though. With Kakegurui, for example, they announced season 1 over a year before Sentai did in the US, and kept telling us to wait. Sentai then announced season 1, got both it and season 2 out the door before we even got season 1, and AL have spent 2 years telling us to wait for season 2 while Sentai's have been on sale multiple times. There needs to be a solid plan for follow-up seasons.
 
Nice to see all the Patlabor movies getting a release. Can @anime_andrew or @Hanners please confirm if these releases are just replicating the Maiden Japan discs exactly or if the Manga UK dubs will be included? Similar question for Venus Wars: will it include the old dub or just the new Sentai one?
 
There were some nice announcements in my opinion, but many of these titles are a little late for me or ones that have already had nice releases in the US. I'm thinking about Venus Wars or Rent-a-Girlfriend S1 (the 2nd one still has a chance to achieve something if there are further seasons). I love Patlabor, but I already have it from Sentai. Should I buy again for the nice packaging and booklet? I'm a bit inclined to do so, but it's a pity there won't be UHD or soundtracks. A Place Further than the Universe or Eureka - finally, that's how I put it. Same with Castlevania. Every time I think that the previous season didn't sell well and they canceled it, they announce another one. Godzilla and Dorehedro on vinyl surprised me positively (although they could have been tempted to put them all in a box with three Godzilla parts, by the way), but I'm still waiting for the OST from Blame on vinyl, announced over a year ago. I hope that they will be tempted to release Godzilla of these films on Blu-ray, because nowhere else has it been released with ENG subtitles, which is a pity, because I really like this approach to this famous monster. Gundam The Origin Complete made me laugh a little because I expected it earlier (when Anime Ltd FR announced it) and I almost thought it wouldn't be released in the UK and it was announced.
 
Jaysgba said:
It's a self fulfilling prophecy to some degree with AL though. With Kakegurui, for example, they announced season 1 over a year before Sentai did in the US, and kept telling us to wait. Sentai then announced season 1, got both it and season 2 out the door before we even got season 1, and AL have spent 2 years telling us to wait for season 2 while Sentai's have been on sale multiple times. There needs to be a solid plan for follow-up seasons.
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This is exactly what I mean. I'd love to buy Kakegurui from AL and have it as part of my collection. However, knowing that they may not ever release season 2 kind of puts me off.

It's all well and good pumping out season 1s for a lot of series, but they seem to have developed a reputation for not providing subsequent seasons as much as they could. I can see why some people are hesistant to drop money on season 1s if they aren't sure they are going to get the next seasons... which then means the sales for season 1 may not be as high as they could be.
 
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Will definitely pick up A Place Futher Than the Universe and the 3rd Hi-Evo film, and while I own the US set there's still a high chance I'll pick up the first 2 Patlabor films, finally I'll maybe pick up the Great Pretender set, see how I feel at the time on that one.
 
ActionFaust said:
At least with Kakegurui they've actually confirmed they have it. I'm referring to stuff like March Comes in like a Lion and Sound! Euphonium where they haven't confirmed a release (that I know of).
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If I remember correctly, with Sound! Euphonium S2 said something like that it was difficult, and that was said sometime during this year. I took it as - we probably won't make it and I bought the US edition before it was gone, like s2 from March Comes in like a Lion.
 
I guess the current strategy is just to sub-license as much of Sentai's library as possible. It's a reasonable enough decision in the short-term, although given how Sentai has been nearly strangled out of the US licensing market, there probably won't be many recent acquisitions coming from that agreement.

There wasn't really anything I'm interested in outside of A Place Further Than the Universe, but it's nice that fairly niche shows like Granbelm & Somali are coming out, even if I have doubts they'll find much success. On the other hand, for whatever you can say about Rant A Girlfriend, it certainly seems to be a popular enough, even if I can't tell how much of the audience is hatewatching it at this point.

Well, I'll play the long-game & maybe a few of my more beloved Sentai releases will see a future release. Looking at you, Chihayafuru, Eizouken, Akiba Maid War etc etc.


Also, it was pretty funny watching the youtube comment feed during the Patlabor film announcements.

Commentor - "So do you have both Japanese & English audio
Andy - "Yep, we have both sub & dub!"
Another commentor - "Yes, but do you have both English dubs?"
Andy - ...

Well, if what I suspect will happen, happens, it is what it is. It's still kinda a wild decision to release fancy editions of beloved, but incredibly niche films, but not have the audio that cemented them as cult classics over here, particularly given their infamous nature as being pretty huge commercial duds. I still own those glorious Honneamise dvd sets than they couldn't give away and also bought the Sentai boxset that has the 47 ep tv show, 7 ep original ova, 16 ep New Files ova and all three movies for like £30-35 in a sale... and I still watch bootleg versions of the latter with the Manga dub added. That's enough editions without the OG dub. It's why I still own the original Manga dvd, despite it looking like a vhs tape.
 
Very excited about A Place Further Than The Universe, definitely a series deserving of a nice CE and it looks the part with a good old digipak no less.

Eureka I'm very happy about as well - I loved Anemone as well and will be good to finally watch the finale.

Patlabor I already got the american xxl pack but am yet to watch 🤦‍♂️. For Dorohedoro I wish it was the anime being released as a CE. Great Pretender been meaning to watch for ages and maybe will be pushed into it to see if it's worth the asking price.

Apart from that, I have to say I'm finding the AL CE spines a bit uninspiring - my shelves seem awash in AL White with the odd scatterings of colour with Don Glees and Millennium Actress...
 
Some interesting licenses here but nothing really for me. I am interested in Venus Wars but that has some issues concerning the dubs. I knew they would have Venus Wars after seeing them have it for SLA. Seeing as Sentai saw fit to redub it and then not included the original dub on their blu ray release I have little faith AL will for theirs. Especially since most of AL recent out put is Sentai sub licenses reusing their discs. I am pretty sure Discotek used the Manga UK dub for their release in 2015 but I don't own the disc so can't confirm.

I also didn't have high expectations for Patlabor 1 and 2 Manga UK dubs being included as from what @fathomlessblue said AL ignored the question about the dubs. Its kind of sad that Manga UK dubs are so often left off releases in favour of other. I wish more company's were like Discotek and actually cared about getting the all of the dubs if possible.
 
fathomlessblue said:
Also, what does this mean for the future of MVM? It seemed like 80% of their releases were Sentai sub-licenses, with the rest being Aniplex... and that ship seems to have sailed to the Sony/CR graveyard.
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Noone has Redo of Healer yet 😏

And yeah, I know, BBFC ✂️

Hopefully there are enough viable series from the back catalogue and newer releases (like Call of the Night/Akiba Maid War) to go around.

It is looking increasingly as though Crunchyroll have a death grip on the UK market, at least in terms of more recent, popular anime.
 
ActionFaust said:
Again I just don't see it being a good idea to license more than one season when it might not even be a good seller in the first place. The first season needs the support so they know it's worth licensing more.
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I have some sympathy for this idea - these are businesses not charities - but at the same time, it is, as has been mentioned, a self fulfilling prophecy. If customers have no confidence in the release of subsequent seasons, they'll be more hesitant in buying a first.

Nobody but AL knows whether Lion/Euphonium/Kakegurui lost them money or simply didn't generate enough revenue to make licensing further seasons worthwhile (and there'll always be a drop-off as not everyone who bought S1 will have liked it), but I wonder if sometimes it's worth taking a small hit to promote confidence in the consumer base.

No easy answer really.
 
Jaysgba said:
That seems like a lot of negativity, even for me, but Anime Limited's announcements no longer bring me any joy or excitement, just the lengthy wait for the dissapointment down the road. I really do miss the Anime Limited of old, and I know they can be better. 😢
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Welcome to the feelings of the UK Love Live fandom hope you enjoy your stay😹

tbh its not AL fault. They need releases to make money and if Sentai work with them thats at least something to keep the ball rolling.

This is the problem with Crunchyroll taking everything. Will be interesting when... i mean if Crunchyroll go under
 
Girls with Guns said:
So I placed an order of 5 in-stock items on the very 1st day of AlltheAnime's Christmas Sale on 1/12, and the order still has not shipped. I was hoping to receive the package here in the US before Christmas, but now it's looking like I it won't even arrive before the end of this year anymore... 🙁

Are they not shipping any orders yet from the Sale?
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4th December order to the Netherlands hasn't shipped either yet - from what I've seen UK (and Ireland?) orders were sent at a decent pace, but none of the international orders have shipped at all.
 
Just finished watching the Anime Limited December showcase.

Definitely happy to see Lonely Castle in the Mirror next year at the cinema and thrilled for the UK release of A Place Beyond the Universe.

Is it naive of me to have hoped for a UK cinema release of Digimon Adventure 02 or would Toei just release that themselves?
 
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