UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

I've really pulled back on the amount of stuff I've been buying over the past year or two. This year I've only bought 10 things off the AL shop (which they've recently butchered too) where I'd used to buy every release they'd put out.

This is partly for space reasons but also the CEs don't really stand up in terms of quality and value for money now. When you're paying so much extra for a little booklet and a fancy box is it really worth it? It also doesn't help that on-disc extras are pretty much non-existent now so you're getting basically the same thing that's on a streaming service. At least it's yours to own but just the overall quality of releases these days feels so bad, especially with all the errors we've seen industry wide over the last few years.

I tend to stick more just to series that I love or have been collecting for a while, and even then I'll sometimes just grab the JP release, especially if it has English subtitles on it.
 
I've bought nothing from the AtA webstore this year either. There's been a couple standards that I've picked up here and there (mainly from HMV), but I've just been filling in my backlog from CeX. Definitley running out of space on my end and what's the point in paying £50 for a release and waiting 6 (or more) months for discs that end up being faulty lol.

I still like what they do on the whole, but they're taking the piss as "Europe's Leading Botique Animation Distributor"
 
Similar story here really, I've not been deliberately trying to buy less since I didn't used to buy a lot anyway (just favourites) but the prices the last year have definitely been a big blocker.

There's a handful of things I'd have bought from AL had the prices been lower (and I appreciate that is not their fault, making these things is more expensive than it used to be!). I would have liked to continue with Re:Zero and potentially pick up Sacred Beasts, I skipped Kids on the Slope in last years Christmas sale for the exact reason Onosume mentions above re price vs what you're actually getting for it.

In fact looking back I've bought exactly 0 anime this year from anyone, whereas I'd normally be around 5~ sets. I did ask for Bungo Stray Dogs S4-5 for Christmas, so presumably will end up with one or both of those which I've desperately wanted but could not justify so much for standard editions but I don't think that really counts. 😅
 
Same story as everyone else really. General reduction in purchases overall made much easier by the declining quality of AL’s output.

Shame really because AL is what got me into building a physical collectors edition collection years ago but as pointed out above, so many releases are barebones these days in terms of contents, extras and quality that they just don’t appeal at all, even before you factor in the constant eff-ups and unwillingness to acknowledge or deal with them beyond offer empty promises.
 
Onosume said:
This is partly for space reasons but also the CEs don't really stand up in terms of quality and value for money now. When you're paying so much extra for a little booklet and a fancy box is it really worth it? It also doesn't help that on-disc extras are pretty much non-existent now so you're getting basically the same thing that's on a streaming service. At least it's yours to own but just the overall quality of releases these days feels so bad, especially with all the errors we've seen industry wide over the last few years.
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This is how I feel about the Gundam releases. Early 2000s style collector boxes and inconsistent guidebooks. The Wing set reusing wraparound art from a Japanese release was clearly a labour of love but with others it's random mismatched images. Similar problem with the books- sometimes we get character and mecha guides, other times it's just all the packaging assets they didn’t use.

And all this is exacerbated by how indifferent AL are towards criticism on this specific franchise. I could well understand if the Japanese rights holders are a nightmare to work with, being a headache even on redoes. But when ever people point out a problem with the Gundam releases from missing extras to technical/printing errors, AL always just basically say "...Deal with it." and take no further action. A ridiculous attitude to have on releases that average £60 RRP. Again, I'm open to the idea there are specifics they can't talk about making it a difficult license. But on a consumer level, I continuously feel like my purchase is being taken for granted.
 
What's the usual cutoff point for items being included in the Christmas sale? Six months? I ask because Amazon have additional 20% vouchers for some AL (and CR) releases I'm interested in but I wonder if I should hold out for CEs.

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^ This one for example. That came out in March I think.

Broadly speaking, I'm over wanting a CE for everything. Just my favourites will do, if one's available. This past year I've bought more Sentai and Discotek releases than anything else. In AL's case though, CEs do mean avoiding those awful SE spines. It's petty and the most first world of first world problems, but I want my collection to look nice on my shelves damn it.
 
Adding to the echo chamber here, but I was another day 1 supporter of AL and have spent a lot of money with them over the years, but between space concerns, an increasing backlong, increase of prices for fairly medium collectors editions, and the number of delays. Also having access to more seasonal shows on Crunchyroll, Netflix, D+ etc.

I think the 2 cases that really halted my ordering were the Blood-C situation, with an expensive Ultimate Edition followed so close by the much cheaper and convenient Complete Limited Edition. And then the fact that Ascendance of a Bookworm Seasons 1 & 2 took 11 months from Christmas pre-order to then ship.
 
Hunter_Killer said:
It's a shame that Anime Ltd doesn't use "Royal Mail" for larger packages during sales. For me, the collection fee for this method is usually £25-30 less than FedEX or UPS. I'd rather pay extra and have Royal Mail. It's 5-7 days slower, but I pay a lot less.
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Same. I paid €24 in admin fees for Macross Plus as they shipped it by UPS. The fees would have been €4.95 if sent by Royal Mail or about €7.50(calculated fee of 30% the vat charges, min fee of €5/max fee of €15) via FedEx.
 
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RB008 said:
Gaaaaahhhh it's here! Not sure if they'll announce anything new because MCM was not long ago but one can dream.
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I think I only have one thing I'm keeping an eye out for:
  • Black Lagoon + the OVAs (hopefully they'll go on B1G1F again as I missed out last Christmas)
Outside of that, there's not really much I'm after - unless they do those lightning deals again and something catches my eye; picking up Cardcaptors CE for £58 (discount code included) and Neon Genesis LE for £60 last year were very good deals considering the regular prices for those sets.
 
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For me it will probably be a case of looking at what deals they are doing, in terms of BOGOF (even though the impact of that offer might be affected by the postage charge as you can't link titles of similar prices together to maximise the saving (i.e. 2 titles at £15 in one order, followed by 2 titles at £25 in a second order).

Early birds don't interest me, I would rather keep my money until the product actually ships rather than it being held by AL for many many months when release dates get pushed back and back
 
Sounds like new things are added to the sale each day? That's new isn't it?

EDIT: Wow!
Ok so no new products this sale? Focus instead seems to be offering stuff that has been out of print/stock
 
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Alright. No new stuff as I thought, buuuut still looking forward to it incase they got some deals I'm interested in plus the mystery boxes.
 
A little summary of notes I made during the Christmas showcase video so people don't have to watch the whole thing if they missed it:
  • Sale begins at 17:00 UK time on December 1st and runs until 17:00 UK time on December 13th
  • No new product launches during the sale
  • Old stock of some out-of-print collector edition titles will be available to buy
  • Mystery boxes to return on December 1st: a higher number of mystery boxes will be available than in recent years
  • Stocking fillers: both DVD and Blu-ray and both TV series and film will be included
  • Collector edition deals: some will be available throughout the sale period, others will be a return to early bird prices available on a specific day
  • Bundle deals: select series that are separated into different sets can be combined for a discount - will be available on a specific day
  • FLASH sale: available on 3 different days, discounts on select products for 2 hours, different item revealed every few hours. Mentioned that the products would be towards the higher end of things
  • Vinyl deals available on two different days
  • MVM sale available on specific day; 20% off nearly all of their catalogue
 
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