Claymore: Vol. 1 - 1 or 3 DVDs?

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
I remember reading a story in the news section about both Claymore and DtB getting released 1 DVD at a time. Yet, every retailer has it listed as a 3 DVD set, which is confusing me when, unlike with the Hellsing Ultimate mess, it seemed like Manga were clear from the start that they planned on releasing the DVDs the same as in America. Going on the current price (£8.99), I'm guessing it's a case of Manga once again messing up and giving retailers incorrect information.

See for yourself: http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/MANG3013.htm

Edit: And it's exactly the same with their DtB release: http://www.find-dvd.co.uk/MANG3011.htm
 
That's the retailers getting ahead of themselves. This isn't a Hellsing jobbie where the contracts aren't being read. Manga were clear about the single volume releases when they announced the licences. It's retailers creating placeholders ahead of time, and probably cutting and pasting and editing from the last Manga Ent release, which was probably Naruto 5:1 or Buso Renkin Part II, or Mar part III, or what ever multi-disc release it was. The only single disc releases from Manga of late have been the Hellsings and TGWLTT.


What I do find extremely interesting is that the single volume RRP for Manga has come down another pound to £14.99. It isn't just Hellsing. It will be interesting to see if this is actually so, and not just a placeholder price typed in by the retailers. If so, I wonder if MVM et al will follow suit.
 
Retailers really seem to be screwing up with the listings at the moment. The new Gundam Wing collection was down as a Blu-ray at Amazon, I bet that lost them a few sales.
 
Now now, it would cost six times that in Japan and require you to buy three boxes. I'd rather see a nicely presented full series box for a little more than the very basic, but overpriced two-volume boxes they used to do. Beez are moving in the right direction.
 
I'm sorry but no-one in their right mind is going to pay £70 for a DVD box set of a series that aired in 1995. I think they're a bit hopeful.

It's different in Japan because anime is far more normal and more people are willing to pay the stupid prices they're forced to pay to buy anime over there.
 
To me it doesn't matter how old a series is. I'd be willing to pay more for some old series than most new ones because I like them more.

It works out at £7 a disc and that seems fair to me. It's cheaper than it would have been to collect the individual volumes. Buying the US plastic brick sets would save you about £20, but they aren't remastered and the packaging is shite.

Remaster + Nice Packaging = worth £20 in my wrong mind.
 
I don't know about the Beserk set, I'll be interested in that. I presume it'll be R1 will it? The US do get things cheaper, but their releases do feel cheap as well.

My major problem with Beez before was one of value for money, I bought this up with Andrew in the thread a while back. I bought the R1 Planetes set because not only was it a third of the price of ours, but there was nothing special about the UK edition that made me want to buy it. The Wolf's Rain & Gundam Wing sets however are the same price as the old 2 box sets but much nicer, so I'd rather have them than the cheap US sets.

I imagine that's the outcome they were hoping for. Well it worked with me anyway... ;)

I understand that for some people it's all about the content, in which case the US sets are still there to import (it all goes to Bandai at the end of the day) but even if I didn't care for nice packaging I'd still rather have a nice new remaster to watch.
 
Good God, my typing is horrid. I really need to force myself to learn to touch type in order to stop myself typing the wrong word every sentence.


When I first started buying anime, the Cowboy Bebop box sets were two of my first purchases (£30 each). Ever since then I've hated them: plain and uninteresting looking boxes, no extras on the DVDs, no extras (such as booklets) were included and the video quality was poor. Getting so little for so much made me want to avoid paying a lot for anime after that.

I'm happy to pay £4-5 per manga volume (which is near the RRP) because, like I've said in other threads, you get more for your money than with DVDs...or, at the very least, you feel like you get more. But with anime I always feel like I'm cheating myself out of money by paying the silly prices others do. That's why I've built a fairly large collection by getting second-hand DVDs from eBay.

Anyway, you're right that these newer Beez sets are better value for money, but most people just want to get the DVDs for a reasonable amount and not be forced to pay £70 for a few extras and a nice looking box. Not everyone has enough cash to spend just to make stuff look better on their shelves.
 
Spot on about the Bebop boxes Aion. That's exactly what I mean, and you can actually get a better version from the US for a lot less.

I imagine they'll tackle Bebop at some point soon - it remains to be seen wheather they go for a cheaper box or something more along the lines of Wing or Wolf's Rain. I imagine it would be a mistake to go down this road with Bebop since it's such a good vehicle for getting people into anime. New viewers aren't going to pay over the odds. Get people to bite first, then reel them in, that makes the best business sense.

You're right about cheaper DVD's appealing to the majority, but Wing and Wolf's Rain aren't going to be massive sellers in the UK anyway. When you look at what does sell, it's all the stuff Manga have managed to secure with their purchasing power. Naruto, Bleach, S.A.C, etc. and all of those shows are competetively priced compared to the US.

With the UK being small, Beez seem to be moving more towards the fan / collector's market than the casual buyer - but given that few of their shows would be picked up by casual buyers anyway, can you blame them? You don't necessarily sell more copies by making something cheaper if there's no more demand for it than before. Better marketing is the way to solve that problem, but entering a recession isn't the best time for a big marketing drive.
 
Aion said:
I'm sorry but no-one in their right mind is going to pay £70 for a DVD box set of a series that aired in 1995. I think they're a bit hopeful.

It's different in Japan because anime is far more normal and more people are willing to pay the stupid prices they're forced to pay to buy anime over there.
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I have lol, and I am very careful on how I much I pay for release, you could also got it cheaper than £70 with vouchers and cashback as well. For your money you are getting 49 Episodes with a better Video transfer than the USA releases, nicer packaging plus Extras. Also with how the pound plummeted against the dollar you would not be able to buy Gundam Wing from the USA with out being sure of not being stung by customs.

For its money its not that bad value, you would pay £40 to get similar MVM boxset of Gantz or Gungrave with has not far off half the episodes of gundam wing.

Anime dvd in japan are more of limited edition affair for hardcore fans than really good sellers. Here a list of the top 25 selling Japanese anime series per dvd of all time to demonstrated this:

#25 Gitsac 2nd Gig 19641 units
#24 Card Captor Sakura 20192 units
#23 Azumanga Daioh 23725 units
#22 Air 23905 units
#21 Love Hina 24013 units
#20 Gundam ZZ 26028 units
#19 Fate/Stay Night 26047 units
#18 Gundam Wing 28469 units
#17 Patlabor 28514 units
#16 Initial D Fourth State 29508 units
#15 Future Boy Conan 31158 units
#14 Dragon Ball GT 31696 units
#13 Lupin The Third 1st Series 35331 units
#12 Fullmetal Alchemist 36519 units
#11 Nadia The Secret Of Blue Water 36821 units
#10 Martian Successor Nadesico 37897 units (
#9 Dragon Ball Z 40065 units
#8 Cowboy Bebop 40212 units
#7 Suzumiya Haruhi 41307 units
#6 Code Geass 44657 units
#5 Zeta Gundam 54994 units
#4 Gundam Seed 58563 units
#3 Gundam Seed Destiny 69247 units
#2 Mobile Suit Gundam 80928 units
#1 Neon Genesis Evangelion 173458

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread. ... 985&page=3
 
By the time Beez get around to fixing the Cowboy Bebop problems it'll be too late: by then everyone who wants it would've paid £60 for low quality goods. I'm not going to pay another £60 to Beez when I already have the series on DVD.

Beez try to sell like the Japanese do in Japan, just with a more normal amount of volumes. I can't say I get how they're staying afloat when they can't be selling a great amount when most anime fans stick their nose up over spending a few quid on anime... Maybe more diehard otaku exist in the UK than I think?

From my point of view (someone cheap), I'd rather the current Manga Ent. that releases high quality DVDs and releases nearly everything in cheap box sets take over all Beez's licenses. The Beez way of selling just slows down the progression of anime, restricting the people who buy their goods to the sort of people who already have a silly amount of anime. The only way to get new anime fans buying DVDs is to price animated TV series closer to the price of live-action TV series.


Dizzae said:
Aion said:
Isn't the remastered Berserk set that's coming out going to sell for cheap? I'd rather spend my money on that. :)

Remastered, classic and cheap? Do want.

£5 per DVD tends to be by limit even with recent shows. What can I say, I'm a tight bastard who feels ripped off when buying DVDs.
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Oh shi! If that was region 2 I'd be all over that like branston pickle
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Why not cum over it anyway? It ain't hard to get a player you can handset hack and make region free...

If we still lived in a time where £1 = $2 then I'd be ordering it from DVD Pacific since it'd only be around £14 before postage (they never add postage to the value declared). As it is now, I can't order from them because customs would probably grab me by the balls.

PlayUSA have it for £17.99, but with the customs limit being £18 I can't order from them either... :/
 
Aion said:
PlayUSA have it for £17.99, but with the customs limit being £18 I can't order from them either... :/
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But £17.99 is, unless I'm very much mistaken, under £18 :p

As for Gundam Wing, I'd be reluctant to fork out £70 on what would be a blind buy, although I surmise that Beez are target existing fans and collectors with this kind of limited edition release. They've done a tremendous job with the Wolf's Rain set but, even though it has nice packaging and plenty of extras, I can't justify spending almost £70 on a show I haven't seen when I can pick up the US release for a third of that price.
 
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