thedoctor2016
Mushi-shi
Not currently.
UK Anime Distributor Crunchyroll/Funimation/Manga UK Discussion Thread
- Thread starter AbZeroNow
- Start date
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
If you know Jerome isn't responsible. Why don't you just ask the person who is?
This seems like a silly way of doing things...
thedoctor2016
Mushi-shi
CEO is in charge of the whole company so he oversees all he should know the production side or be very close contact with the person who does.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
At the very least, he should ask one of the marketing people to get on it, given the clear level of interest...
From the way he voluntarily worded it "I wasn't planning on using US GITSAC BD edition, but if no other alternative can be found I will." it sounds very much as though he has input and that they were hoping to team up with someone else for production. I'm only going on what he literally said here ;p
R
R
What was the anomaly, dude? (I have this but have never watched the DVD.)
I hate when DVDs are included in double-plays purely for the sake of having an extra disc (or three) in the box just to pad out the contents. I know that this is the wrong thread again for this, but has anyone tried AL's DVD included in their CE of The Case of Hana & Alice? Holy heck. Those jaggies.
What a waste of time and aluminium.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
There's one moment during a final battle where a robot hits a building and the video appears to jump slightly. I wasn't sure if it was an issue or just something about how they animated the movement. I checked it against the DVD copy included, and as far as I can tell, it's something to do with the animation rather than anything Anime Ltd. did.
Another snippet:
He was (I think) talking about Bleach in that particular statement but it doesn't sound like fantastic news if Death Note didn't sell well enough to justify the costs of local BD authoring; GitS is a huge deal in the UK but Death Note is no slouch in popularity either. Might be a good idea for people to make some noise over in the US too in the hope that a fixed master will be available for other companies to access.
I would hope that if the only option is the US version and it's not acceptable in quality, our UK companies would have some leverage to demand a redone version as their complaints are worth a lot more than those of a few individual buyers on Twitter. I was pleasantly surprised when Kids On The Slope was faulty in the US and it had a fix, and MVM were both aware of the issue and able to ensure we got the fixed version in the UK. Whether it was going to get the fix or not without our help, the local distributor weighing in and helping us get the best edition is a big deal.
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Jerome said:
He was (I think) talking about Bleach in that particular statement but it doesn't sound like fantastic news if Death Note didn't sell well enough to justify the costs of local BD authoring; GitS is a huge deal in the UK but Death Note is no slouch in popularity either. Might be a good idea for people to make some noise over in the US too in the hope that a fixed master will be available for other companies to access.
I would hope that if the only option is the US version and it's not acceptable in quality, our UK companies would have some leverage to demand a redone version as their complaints are worth a lot more than those of a few individual buyers on Twitter. I was pleasantly surprised when Kids On The Slope was faulty in the US and it had a fix, and MVM were both aware of the issue and able to ensure we got the fixed version in the UK. Whether it was going to get the fix or not without our help, the local distributor weighing in and helping us get the best edition is a big deal.
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Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I'm going to be kinda presumptuous here, and assume the kind of people Manga UK target are the types of people in my anime society.
If Death Note couldn't justify even it's authoring costs (it had no BBFC costs), GITS SAC would die on it's arse. They all really liked Death Note, the only time GITS, or anything related, has come up is in the context of the Scarlett Johansson-starring adaptation. In this case, I think a Collector's Edition would make the most sense, rather than getting it out as cheaply and carelessly as possible...
Just Passing Through
The Wildcard
GITSAC needs a threeway split. Manga, Anime Limited, and Madman Ent go thirds on it, getting Justin Sevakis to author the discs. That'd make the most sense. Manga would make the same money on a well made release split three ways, as they would on a home authored release that would die on its arse. They might even make a little more.
EDIT: And stripping the extras and the usual Manga subtitling mess on Death Note did that no favours.
EDIT: And stripping the extras and the usual Manga subtitling mess on Death Note did that no favours.
I think you have pretty much hit the nail on the head in terms of the innate issues with the UK industry there. Manganimatsu specifically target men in their mid teens to early 20s (source: every Jerome interview ever where he mentions demographics). They are traditionally regarded as the most lucrative audience for this stuff, even though it seems like faulty logic to me and surely anyone else who has been watching the evolution of sales over the last decade or so (even casually). Literally every time Jerome opens his mouth, he's solely addressing these guys at the exclusion of anyone else. It's clear from the language he uses.
GitS SAC was at the absolute pinnacle of edgy coolness back when it was new and now it's graduated to being a fairly respectable classic in its genre that most anime fans have at least heard about in some way. It's due for a timely return to centre stage thanks to Hollywood's latest effort and they won't want to miss the opportunity for picking up casual viewers there. But are the kind of fans who want a BD release of GitS SAC also the same fans in Manganimatsu's target demographic? Do they want a cheap standard edition with grotty subs and technical issues, or do the GitS buyers want something a little special to justify the upgrade (for existing fans) or blind buy (for new ones)?
Surely most young, new casual viewers who get curious about the new film will be turning to Netflix or CEX first of all, not splurging on a BD set right away?
And does the current generation of 'people in that university anime club' even want stuff like GitS now there's so much shiny new shounen action which can be watched without having to engage the brain or deal with a mildly dated aesthetic? Do they want physical releases in any way, shape or form? How long is Manganimatsu's key demographic going to keep refreshing itself with each new generation of anime society members before it dies out entirely? I'm seriously doubting that the cash-poor university crowd are actually the driving force in UK anime sales these days. At the very least, they won't be in a few more years.
A well made CE to cover the costs of fixing the trainwreck of the US edition plus a cheap standard with the same discs could work. Shared production using all of the combined forces of the non-US companies would be great, so long as the right people got their say with all of the important decisions and we didn't end up with a delayed release with dubtitles and no chapter stops or something. That's what ticks me off the most with non-US authoring; when we report the same problems year after year and nobody seems to take them back to the source on our behalf to get the systemic failures corrected.
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Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I think you have most of this right. CEX or that dreaded site which shall not be named would probably be the first port of call for Manga's audience. They do probably want standard editions, but they're more likely to buy DVDs than BDs.
But I think the comments about people liking stupid things are off. I don't think it's the level of intelligence or involvedness, otherwise things like Mr. Robot or Psycho-Pass wouldn't be successful. To begin with, I don't think films get as much play as series, so most people won't have seen the 'original', and starting a franchise half-way through probably won't cut it. But the other thing is that the first film is from before most of them were born (or in their year of birth), and I don't think there are any entries in the franchise that don't look dated now.
Age is not necessarily a problem, but when I think about the successful series from years ago that they talk about, most of them haven't really aged that much. Things like Fate/Stay Night (2006), Digimon Adventure (1999) and Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2000) which do get brought up haven't aged design-wise. You could feasibly take any of the character designs from those shows, bung them in a modern show and it wouldn't look at all out of place. Whereas if you took a character from GITS, even recent entries like ARISE or The New Movie and were to place them in any other modern show, it would just look weird.*
*Should probably qualify that all of this discussion is based on key art, because I haven't seen half of them, and I'm very judgy.
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Mm, I don't think that all of those club members are dumb. I don't think they sound like terrifically analytical people with a great deal of personal integrity, since they seem to just mindlessly steal everything without a second thought from all of the stories I hear, but I'm sure they can enjoy a good sci-fi thriller as much as the next person. Is GitS SAC still 'cool' today? You're completely right that Shirow's designs are quite dated with their grizzled men and voluptuous big-haired female lead. Dated designs don't mean things can't be popular (let's bring up Osomatsu-san again just because I can) but they do change the audience, and when Manganimatsu's bread and butter has become a parade of shows about weak-willed guys falling in love with saucer-eyed super-powered schoolgirls I'm not sure that a GitS SAC BD set would stand out in their release lineup for any of the right reasons. It's sort of like when I'm skimming a list of releases and get to one of those dodgy 3D CG anime (Appleseed/Vexille) and quickly skip over it in favour of more appealing fare.
They really need to drop their strict demographic tunnel vision if they want to keep selling this classic stuff.
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Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I think the thing to note is that I am the only person in the society who has seen Mr. Osomatsu. It may be a hit in Japan, it was (sadly?) not a hit in Cheltenham. Even if we take the wider forum, I don't think many watched Mr. Osomatsu. I don't think the not liking older designs thing is exclusive to younger people, though probably more prevalent amongst them.
Yes, I think a more nuanced approach to releases would make more sense. Some stuff deserves, and will sell better as a collector's edition. Some stuff probably won't. That said, focusing on the younger demographic when you're so opposed to streaming, just seems stupid.
It was reasonably popular online in my circles of English-speakers, though not here (outside of that moment where a bunch of us suddenly mentioned it all in one thread). Maybe British people don't tend to like Osomatsu-san or something
With old designs, I think having 'context' helps. DBZ has dated designs too but it has some social currency since a load of young adults grew up with it, so it can still pass muster today. Back in ancient times when Takahashi Rumiko was the coolest creator in fandom for a while, I remember that the Ranma 1/2 designs were a bit of a hurdle for me - which is silly because I liked Urusei Yatsura, but I'm not pretending I was ever all that sensible as a teenager. I persisted because I knew how much of a big deal Ranma 1/2 was in Animerica (a completely unbiased publication...) and online, and ended up loving it. Sadly none of those shows made a really big splash in the UK so new fans probably view them as rather quaint today. Shirow's GitS designs have a bit more cultural relevance in the UK than Osomatsu-san's so I think they could get away with targeting at the older crowd and just letting the hype bleed across to their usual older teen market if the release is sexy enough and they decide to engage. If they don't, then that's their choice.
Unfortunately, older fans also tend to be pickier since they resent wasting money on a bad release.
(Even I don't like the Arise designs though. I can't make myself like them, sorry.)
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IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
@Rui Personally, I don't think SAC would be as off putting to a casual (or, keeping in line with what you said, dumber) crowd as you think it is. Like, as much as I hate to admit it, I think I do fall into the group that you mentioned, I am an (almost) early 20s anime watcher, so whilst I'm not in an Anime Society by virtue of not being a student, I still fit into that demographic, and I found the original film to be coma-inducing levels of boring, and all the philosophy went straight over my head. That being said though, I found SAC to be much more accessible. I think the Complex episodes are a bit more inline with the original, but the Stand Alone episodes that take up the majority of the show aren't really that complicated or hard to follow, at least most of them anyway, no more so than something like the popular Psycho Pass.
I would like to set the record straight in that I don't think everyone younger than me and/or at university is dumb! I think a lot of shounen action shows are dumb, but that's also what makes them great. Shows where I don't have to engage my brain are pretty much distilled entertainment in its purest form. I do look down on the members of Buzz's local anime society, but it's for their lack of moral scruples rather than the fact that we don't share the same highbrow appreciation of lewd Japanese situational comedy.
With that said, you're far from casual in your appreciation of anime, Lemon, and you're much more likely to be able to see past SAC's trappings and get to the meat of it all than an average viewer. It's good to hear that you were able to connect with the material without the substantial background hype the series enjoyed in times past. How do you think Manganimatsu could promote the show to ensure that a casual young person used to modern anime would look past their first impressions? I think a major push across several streaming channels would be an important step to connect with the geekier members of the younger audience. It's just hard to imagine that the audience would materialise to mass-preorder a (potentially flawed...) rerelease with the usual Manganimatsu strategy.
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With that said, you're far from casual in your appreciation of anime, Lemon, and you're much more likely to be able to see past SAC's trappings and get to the meat of it all than an average viewer. It's good to hear that you were able to connect with the material without the substantial background hype the series enjoyed in times past. How do you think Manganimatsu could promote the show to ensure that a casual young person used to modern anime would look past their first impressions? I think a major push across several streaming channels would be an important step to connect with the geekier members of the younger audience. It's just hard to imagine that the audience would materialise to mass-preorder a (potentially flawed...) rerelease with the usual Manganimatsu strategy.
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ayase
State Alchemist
Do people really think the GitS:SAC character designs look dated? I feel like anything by Production IG tends to look particularly timeless thanks to the designs being less stylised.
I'm just looking at my original DVD releases of SAC on my shelf, every volume of which came with a slipcover and a poster and the last volume came with a big metal box to store them all in. In fact, you got the show twice because there are two discs in each box, one with DTS sound and one with Dolby Digital.
The Blu-ray has a lot to live up to.
I'm just looking at my original DVD releases of SAC on my shelf, every volume of which came with a slipcover and a poster and the last volume came with a big metal box to store them all in. In fact, you got the show twice because there are two discs in each box, one with DTS sound and one with Dolby Digital.
The Blu-ray has a lot to live up to.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
You can look down on them for their choice of anime too. I do... A fortnight ago we were treated to Team America: World Police and this week we were treated to various dumb YouTube re-edits of shonen stuff. The DVD selection brought in was bizarre as it contained a whopping zero anime series or films...
I do. They look dated and unappealing in comparison to modern/more mainstream character designs... *runs*