Anime Limited Reveals More Cancelled Titles for Home Video Release

Death Parade and Genocidal Organ are definitely the biggest losses for me. I also regret not being able to see Genocidal Organ in cinemas now as I was interested after seeing the other two in the trilogy. I probably would have given Dimension W a punt given it has one of my favourite VAs in, too. ^^;

It's a shame to lose so many titles in general though, especially when they don't seem like big sellers so are unlikely to see the light of day in the UK now that the licenses have been lost. Like Sony are almost certainly not going to be releasing Buddy Complex or Chaos Dragon. A terrible situation all round for Funi titles. :/
 
I question is Sony's release strategy one of caution, or do they have all the data and just not think the UK is worth the additional hassle to produce packaging in the EU, get it BBFCed and then release it to sell sub-1000 copies.

I think it's more the latter that we just aren't worth the manpower, and time for the very little profits to be gained, and not just because they are still teething in a new territory.
 
I've got a horrible feeling this points the way towards what the UK anime industry will be like for the foreseeable.

It seems to me that we've got some major players dipping their toes in the market over here at the moment who are going to bring big corporation level thinking to what's always been a niche business. And no good will come of it.

Sad to see Dimension W and Buddy Complex evaporate from the release schedule. Both are interesting little shows that I'd have been happy to lay down my hard earned for.
 
Maybe if MHA/AoT continues to do well Sony might be open to taking more risks on other shows. MHA/AoT is a finite resource afterall since they're cour based as opposed to on going.
 
HdE said:
It seems to me that we've got some major players dipping their toes in the market over here at the moment who are going to bring big corporation level thinking to what's always been a niche business. And no good will come of it.
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I'm not particularly worried, because I think we know it won't work. Anime cannot and will not sell in the UK in the quantities the megacorps need to make it worth their while. But it is still worth the while of small, local distributors who don't expect so make fifty seven billion pounds out of every release. So I don't think anything will change in the long run.
 
Actually I think people are realizing how valued anime could be as it is cheap to produce and has a high markup I bet it’s a business mans dream
 
HdE said:
I've got a horrible feeling this points the way towards what the UK anime industry will be like for the foreseeable.

It seems to me that we've got some major players dipping their toes in the market over here at the moment who are going to bring big corporation level thinking to what's always been a niche business. And no good will come of it.

Sad to see Dimension W and Buddy Complex evaporate from the release schedule. Both are interesting little shows that I'd have been happy to lay down my hard earned for.
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there was like an anime crash in the mid 00's apparently, with virtually nothing new seemed original, I don't know much about it
but it's not a crash this time, I think because sony may finally want to do something about owning Funi it's moving all sorts of things around, particularly with who owns what license, that is leading to what I'd see as an anime drought as far as the UK is concerned. we'll eventually get the kind of service we've gotten used to when sony has worked things out, maybe
 
Lambadelta said:
I question is Sony's release strategy one of caution, or do they have all the data and just not think the UK is worth the additional hassle to produce packaging in the EU, get it BBFCed and then release it to sell sub-1000 copies.

I think it's more the latter that we just aren't worth the manpower, and time for the very little profits to be gained, and not just because they are still teething in a new territory.
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I feel like there's still a piece of the puzzle missing as far as Funi/Sony is concerned. Why would they pull these releases from the UK? Maybe they are planning on releasing (some) of these series over here themselves? Maybe they are sub-licensing them to another company? Or worst of all, maybe they don't sub-license as a point of principle and would rather sit on them? Time will tell, but right now I'm leaning towards @ayase's theory that things will 'self-right' after a year or two and they work out what's worth their time to sell over here.
 
Jaysgba said:
My money is on this option.
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To be fair, if there is no difference in getting only US rights and US+UK rights then Sony/Funimation could just see it as a /Why bother, we haven't actually spend any extra money on it, so we're not loosing anything by not releasing titles in the UK/

Actually, if their current plans of releasing titles (effectively) region free means they wont have to bother with the BBFC, they know a fair amount of people would just import if its not available in the UK, anyone else sticking with UK-only is a :shrug shoulder: to them.. its a win-win.... US sales are up without them having to do anything, they wouldn't need to sub-license. Money going directly their way

Then maybe its not that bad ;)
 
I've actually wondered that, like why do US companies even take the UK rights? Are they just that cheap to add or are they thrown together or what? Seems kinda silly that they would pay extra for them if they aren't gonna use em so I can't imagine they can be paying all that much extra for them.
 
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ayase said:
I'm not particularly worried, because I think we know it won't work. Anime cannot and will not sell in the UK in the quantities the megacorps need to make it worth their while. But it is still worth the while of small, local distributors who don't expect so make fifty seven billion pounds out of every release. So I don't think anything will change in the long run.
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This is how I'm expecting things to pan out as well. But in the meantime, what changes could be wrought on the landscape? These things don't remain static. So we might well be headed toard a drought of physical media releases or licenses, as CaptaaainUniverse says. Or, alternatively, we might see certain titles caught in licensing hell where the UK's concerned.

I can see that causing fans and local distros some grief. Especially if importing shows on disc is complicated by other distributors Stateside (or elsewhere) handling their releases as online store exclusives or refusing to ship internationally.
 
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thedoctor2016 said:
Actually I think people are realizing how valued anime could be as it is cheap to produce and has a high markup I bet it’s a business mans dream
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Quality joke there!

Globally in Japan: Alas anime may be cheap to produce vs say a US TV drama - but the high markup is to compensate the audience size being smaller so it's really tough to recoup the production cost. Japan is losing income from the biggest international licensees (in China) due to censorship and the west isn't filling the gap. So it's still a passion thing for the most part vs a business mans dream.

Locally for licensees: Homevideo market for standard versions shrinking year on year, Collector's Editions filling the gap somewhat. Meanwhile prices to acquire licenses are skyrocketing and we're all stuck contending with less rights for more cash often. It's also not any variety of a business dream...

Yet here we all are, still doing what we love xD.

Best,

AP
 
Buzzkillington said:
I've actually wondered that, like why do US companies even take the UK rights? Are they just that cheap to add or are they thrown together or what? Seems kinda silly that they would pay extra for them if they aren't gonna use em so I can't imagine they can be paying all that much extra for them.
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Usually it's to amortise the cost of creating an English dub and they do plan to use the rights usually in some format or another (even if just for global SVOD usage like Funimation Now or Hidive). This kind of situation as it is now is pretty unusual (up until now both Sentai and Funimation have licensed as much as they can to people, Sentai still do by the by).

Best,

AP
 
Disappointed by Death Parade and Genocidal Organ, I would have picked up those two. Oh well /shrug

Slightly off topic, but is anyone else waiting for the MVM release of Koyomimonogatari, Owarimonogatari 2 and Kizumonogatari? That seems to be stuck in some license hell maybe with Hanabee?

I wondering whether it's just time to pull the trigger and import the Aniplex versions, but wow that price :(
 
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