Brexit and the UK Anime Industry!

Just Passing Through

Just Passing Through

The Wildcard
Well it happened, despite Jerome's dire warnings of catastrophe, and we're on the way out. If you were thinking about importing some anime, you might be pausing right now, given that the pound plummeted last night. That might be good for the UK anime companies in the short term, the aggrieved but tight of wallet might reconsider some Manganimatsu clones...

But what about long term? Two years after the Article 50 exit clause button is pushed, that's it, we're out, and the trading landscape might look a whole lot different, with tariffs applied. A couple of UK distros use a European replicator for their discs, while Anime Limited have a significant French presence (although I don't know how intertwined the two labels are), and I wonder how Japan and the US will look at little ol' UK by itself instead of as part of the European bloc. I wonder if we'll become even more of an afterthought when it comes to anime licencing.

Any thoughts?
 
This whole thing is a disaster and I can't believe most of England and Wales actually wanted out.

In terms of long term it's possible that this could affect Anime Limited a lot especially with the potential of a second Scottish Independence and their French branch. In terms of importing I just went 'Screw it' and ordered Haruhi from Rightstuf before the pound would get much worse as the days go. I have put my plans on Aniplex on-hold until this slows down and made some decisions to proceed with UK versions for certain sets (like Studio Ghibli for example). I just hope that the pound manages to recover at least around the $1 = 70p zone. Thinking about it, if those investors who placed a bet on Remain (that's how it went down to 67-68p) didn't help make the pound stronger, we could have seen it go upwards to 80p.

I guess on the plus side we don't see Jerome's domination for Europe.

Another thing to bring up is what about the licensing and streams? Would the UK now be its own package or still be part of Europe? And what about Kaze UK - would they be forced to not bother as a result of Brexit?
 
I'm amazed Jerome has been as restrained as he has. I mean, Andrew Partridge has probably tweeted more opinions on it. Maybe we'll hear more from them both soon.

I was hoping Jerome would unleash some fire on twitter, to at least cheer me up...
 
I believe most license agreements are by country or (arbitrary) region rather than EU or non-EU, so I don't think it will affect anything in place already. Any license agreement worth its salt will specifically list the countries involves anyway and define vague ideas like 'English-speaking countries' in solid legalese. Supporting those sweet 'worldwide excluding Japan' streaming licensing bundles just became even more important, however.

I agree that it's likely the UK+Europe organisation model for companies like Kaze, Manga (at some point) and AL is looking a bit wobbly. And grey importing French releases from distributors who make those versions UK-friendly might become a lot less appealing. We might well find ourselves passed over entirely in some cases.

Personally I think domestic releases of anime are going to become more expensive to buy locally (the impact on importing is more obvious) and we will look back on the last few years as a wonderful golden age and wonder why we argued through it; £40 for a CE is nothing when prices might have to rise sharply to accommodate increases in the cost of production and supply.

I'll continue to import. If I have to cut anything out it will be B-rank shows; I'd rather own the very best versions of the titles I love than have a wider library of less impressive shows, which has been a model I have been able to support under the more favourable economic conditions of the past. I'm not going to buy locally just because it's cheaper, especially since most of the shows I buy never get a UK release no matter how long I wait.

Whatever their reasons (bloody-mindedness, hardship, or simply being quietly priced out when production costs rise), customers buying even less than the volumes they're currently purchasing is glum news for all of our beloved UK anime companies.

R
 
Rui said:
I believe most license agreements are by country or (arbitrary) region rather than EU or non-EU, so I don't think it will affect anything in place already. Any license agreement worth its salt will specifically list the countries involves anyway and define vague ideas like 'English-speaking countries' in solid legalese. Supporting those sweet 'worldwide excluding Japan' streaming licensing bundles just became even more important, however.

I agree that it's likely the UK+Europe organisation model for companies like Kaze, Manga (at some point) and AL is looking a bit wobbly. And grey importing French releases from distributors who make those versions UK-friendly might become a lot less appealing. We might well find ourselves passed over entirely in some cases.

Personally I think domestic releases of anime are going to become more expensive to buy locally (the impact on importing is more obvious) and we will look back on the last few years as a wonderful golden age and wonder why we argued through it; £40 for a CE is nothing when prices might have to rise sharply to accommodate increases in the cost of production and supply.

I'll continue to import. If I have to cut anything out it will be B-rank shows; I'd rather own the very best versions of the titles I love than have a wider library of less impressive shows, which has been a model I have been able to support under the more favourable economic conditions of the past. I'm not going to buy locally just because it's cheaper, especially since most of the shows I buy never get a UK release no matter how long I wait.

Whatever their reasons (bloody-mindedness, hardship, or simply being quietly priced out when production costs rise), customers buying even less than the volumes they're currently purchasing is glum news for all of our beloved UK anime companies.

R
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There was talk of the EU attempting to force internet streaming companies to make all of their content available EU-wide. It sounds good on paper, but it'd probably cause problems and block Funimation shows from streaming in all of the EU (as they would need to licence European rights too or not show their content in the UK & Ireland). So we might have dodge a bullet re:simulcasts...

(I know, I'm clutching at straws, forgive me.)
 
I guess there are other potential benefits if we're looking at it that way (i.e. desperately):

  • There's massive interest in this topic in Japan at the moment which means we might be given a bump in how important we seem until people remember that our market isn't actually very lucrative.
  • Awesome potential for topical Hetalia strips about how tsundere we are.
  • The UK will be too busy sorting out the EU departure decisions to ever get around to restricting streaming to BBFC-approved titles in my lifetime.
  • Rui and Jerome actually agree on something for once, meaning less walls of ranting to skip past.

I'm struggling to believe in it too.

R
 
Rui said:
I guess there are other potential benefits if we're looking at it that way (i.e. desperately):

  • There's massive interest in this topic in Japan at the moment which means we might be given a bump in how important we seem until people remember that our market isn't actually very lucrative.
  • Awesome potential for topical Hetalia strips about how tsundere we are.
  • The UK will be too busy sorting out the EU departure decisions to ever get around to restricting streaming to BBFC-approved titles in my lifetime.
  • Rui and Jerome actually agree on something for once, meaning less walls of ranting to skip past.

I'm struggling to believe in it too.

R
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I guess Japan will co-operate with Code Geass promotions, or Karen promotions.. :lol:
 
NormanicGrav said:
Rui said:
I guess there are other potential benefits if we're looking at it that way (i.e. desperately):

  • There's massive interest in this topic in Japan at the moment which means we might be given a bump in how important we seem until people remember that our market isn't actually very lucrative.
  • Awesome potential for topical Hetalia strips about how tsundere we are.
  • The UK will be too busy sorting out the EU departure decisions to ever get around to restricting streaming to BBFC-approved titles in my lifetime.
  • Rui and Jerome actually agree on something for once, meaning less walls of ranting to skip past.

I'm struggling to believe in it too.

R
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I guess Japan will co-operate with Code Geass promotions, or Karen promotions.. :lol:
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Well if they are going to co-operate with a Britain that seems to be shifting to the right, you might as well do it with a series where the antagonists come from a dictatorial land called the Britannina Empire.
 
it's worrying, it's situations like these that encourage piracy (i.e. when prices of niche media blows up, people will start looking to other sources for their fix)
 
ConanThe3rd said:
So I just had a thoguht (and got around to redoing my account);

Wouldn't this threaten to torpedo any Kaze related releases?
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I'm sure they'll continue picking up UK rights even if they decide not to release them :(

R
 
ConanThe3rd said:
So I just had a thoguht (and got around to redoing my account);

Wouldn't this threaten to torpedo any Kaze related releases?
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It wouldn't torpedo anything really. It will likely just make their releases go up in price!
 
It's not like they're exactly talkative, but it's been a while since any new titles came from Kaze, and the Death Note BDs is even coming out under Manga.

So... the latest title I think was One Punch Man, about which we've heard nothing since it was announced in October.

Other than that, there's:
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - which is indefinitely delayed.
Terraformars - which is probably cancelled but definitely indefinitely delayed.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
It's not like they're exactly talkative, but it's been a while since any new titles came from Kaze, and the Death Note BDs is even coming out under Manga.

So... the latest title I think was One Punch Man, about which we've heard nothing since it was announced in October.

Other than that, there's:
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - which is indefinitely delayed.
Terraformars - which is probably cancelled but definitely indefinitely delayed.
Click to expand...

Re:Terraformars, I wonder if Kaze got word Viz were planning to licence it, and delayed their release to wait for the dub, rather than anything nefarious on the part of Warner.
 
Shiroi Hane said:
It's not like they're exactly talkative, but it's been a while since any new titles came from Kaze, and the Death Note BDs is even coming out under Manga.

So... the latest title I think was One Punch Man, about which we've heard nothing since it was announced in October.

Other than that, there's:
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - which is indefinitely delayed.
Terraformars - which is probably cancelled but definitely indefinitely delayed.
Click to expand...

There's also Nisekoi Season 2 which honestly could be released at any time.
 
NormanicGrav said:
Shiroi Hane said:
It's not like they're exactly talkative, but it's been a while since any new titles came from Kaze, and the Death Note BDs is even coming out under Manga.

So... the latest title I think was One Punch Man, about which we've heard nothing since it was announced in October.

Other than that, there's:
Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - which is indefinitely delayed.
Terraformars - which is probably cancelled but definitely indefinitely delayed.
Click to expand...

There's also Nisekoi Season 2 which honestly could be released at any time.
Click to expand...

Yeah, If I recall, the french discs are exactly the same as the English discs would be, with English subs and menus there already, so it's just a matter of making and producing English cover art really. It wouldn't surprise me if this was out very soon.
 
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