UK Anime Distributor Crunchyroll/Funimation/Manga UK Discussion Thread

While I think the Starz situation was far from ideal, I think there were at least a couple of positives they brought: ie. more financial clout, and a better spread of coverage on VOD services (something I believe Manga are now looking to rectify again after most of their titles lapsed off these services)

On the topic of Toei, it seems like they're about as old school as they come. I mean, you only need to look at how cheaply they animate most of their shows to see that. It's like they're still living in the 90s - as their whole 'it must air on TV before we will allow a DVD release' thing goes...
 
While I think the Starz situation was far from ideal, I think there were at least a couple of positives they brought: ie. more financial clout, and a better spread of coverage on VOD services (something I believe Manga are now looking to rectify again after most of their titles lapsed off these services)

On the topic of Toei, it seems like they're about as old school as they come. I mean, you only need to look at how cheaply they animate most of their shows to see that. It's like they're still living in the 90s - as their whole 'it must air on TV before we will allow a DVD release' thing goes...

It's interesting that you've heard that, Jerome has very much been a grump towards new media, so it would be interesting to see if their VOD spread, eventually transfers to SVOD.

Toei Europe seems to have two-tiers of title, the top-tier (the Digimons, the Dragon Balls, the One Pieces) that they favour television and specific deals for, and the lower-tier (things like Kyousougiga, World Trigger, parts of Saint Seiya) where they will find streaming deals for them. The trouble is, the way we see it, the top-tier are the titles we really want streaming, whilst most of us could live without the lower-tier titles, so it looks like they're completely opposed to streaming.

I'm curious about what happened to make Toei Europe think putting DBS on Daisuki was a good idea. Maybe they saw the advantages of streaming and we'll get more of it from now on. However, there was talk of Japanese companies beefing up Daisuki to try and increase competition after the Crunchy/Funi hook-up, I wonder if Toei took the hit there. It would be nice to be able to watch Tiger Mask W without using questionable means, so let's hope it's the former.
 
A going theory is that as Toei are one of ACJ's shareholders, the streaming comes courtesy of "Toei Prime".

Plus, apparently Daisuki shows are meant to have no regional restrictions unless one company has a regional exclusive.
So if Daisuki get a show that no one has any UK right for, we automatically get access to it.

So, basically, it looks like Toei Europe wouldn't really get a say in it.
 
A going theory is that as Toei are one of ACJ's shareholders, the streaming comes courtesy of "Toei Prime".

Plus, apparently Daisuki shows are meant to have no regional restrictions unless one company has a regional exclusive.
So if Daisuki get a show that no one has any UK right for, we automatically get access to it.

So, basically, it looks like Toei Europe wouldn't really get a say in it.

Daisuki has pre-sold English-language rights to other companies before (resulting in a week-long delay for Concrete Revolutio, even though nobody else had UK streaming rights), so I'm not sure they subscribe to the "no region locking unless absolutely necessary" line of thinking.
 
AL aren't the king of fixers his response to the escaflowne spelling mistakes was it doesnt effect your experience. ( It may do for all he knows)
I'm not sure that's exactly what was said, I think it was more that they couldn't justify the cost and that they didn't personally feel the mistakes spoiled their experience. Well, more specifically, I think they only said the other errors (which they are fixing) did feel like something that would spoil their experience, so it's more that the implication was that the other subtitle errors weren't enough to spoil their experience (I don't think it was outright stated).

Anyway, the point is that the errors might well affect your experience but their reason for not fixing them is that they couldn't justify the cost of fixing both and decided the other error was likely to have a bigger impact on more people.

I feel like I've made that needlessly complicated, oh well.

Back to the original topic, I thought the Sailor Moon connection had something to do with comments that Manga had decided they didn't want to pick the show up because they didn't expect it to sell.

Given Sailor Moon was never as big here as it was in America anyway, I don't think it can count on the nostalgia pull as heavily as Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh - and I certainly can't see it selling as well as One Piece or DBZ either.
Drifting off-topic again, I seem to recall comments that Gundam shows (and perhaps Mecha shows in general) weren't too popular in the UK in the past but Anime Limited seem to have done reasonably well with their recent releases. It's possible that Sailor Moon could be marketed in a similar way, I expect at least some people picked up the Gundam releases because they're well known anime and something that fans may have "missed out on" in the past.
 
I'm not sure that's exactly what was said, I think it was more that they couldn't justify the cost and that they didn't personally feel the mistakes spoiled their experience. Well, more specifically, I think they only said the other errors (which they are fixing) did feel like something that would spoil their experience, so it's more that the implication was that the other subtitle errors weren't enough to spoil their experience (I don't think it was outright stated).

Anyway, the point is that the errors might well affect your experience but their reason for not fixing them is that they couldn't justify the cost of fixing both and decided the other error was likely to have a bigger impact on more people.

I feel like I've made that needlessly complicated, oh well.

No you're right - I definitely didn't say that. What I said was that it does not significantly impact your experience enough to merit spending £££ on changing it AND THEN sending replacement discs to everyone over so far two reported instances of double words. Annoying? Yes especially if you double-read. Does it inhibit your ability to watch a show? Not really, but it is annoying and I get it shouldn't be there but are if genuinely asked to fix that I'd have a hard time justifying due to the amount lost vs people's lives irreparably made better by the fix.

I'm actually going to run a completely fresh QC over the final discs to be sure as so far I have had two instances reported and someone reporting a Gaiian time measurement as a typo (not too unreasonably, Keith had to remind me it was that too!)

Are we the king of fixing? No, because if we were, we'd fix it before it hit people's hands. I'd argue we do however go above and beyond any other company in the UK to fix our mistakes and to own up to them though / explain directly when a fix isn't possible though.

On topic too - Expelled from Paradise isn't streaming because we don't have any streaming rights :).

AP
 
On topic too - Expelled from Paradise isn't streaming because we don't have any streaming rights :).

AP

I should clarify (as I tried and failed to do in the original post), I wasn't suggesting that it should be streaming or you were at fault for anything. It just seemed weird to me that we would expect Toei to breach standard practice or that we would hold the distributors of their films to differing standards, purely because it's Digimon or perhaps because it's Manga.

My brain tends to go to weird places, I should have probably explained that better to begin with.
 
Do you have streaming rights ti any of your films? As I dont think i know if any are online

Yes. But films are a different animal to TV series though and the timeline for those going to streaming varies as well :). Some are up on Animax on and off and some will appear on other platforms in the near future though :).
 
I should clarify (as I tried and failed to do in the original post), I wasn't suggesting that it should be streaming or you were at fault for anything. It just seemed weird to me that we would expect Toei to breach standard practice or that we would hold the distributors of their films to differing standards, purely because it's Digimon or perhaps because it's Manga.

My brain tends to go to weird places, I should have probably explained that better to begin with.

That's cool, was just clarifying as I realise it'd never come up!
 
As mentioned in the appropriate threads, Manga have a Facebook Post detailing a Yu-Gi-Oh recall, and a Chunibyo delay.

Announcement:
Due to a manufacturing issue, Yu-Gi-Oh GX Season 1 has been recalled. You can return your copy for a full refund and fixed stock will be available in a few weeks’ time. We sincerely apologise for the frustration & inconvenience caused.

We also regret to inform you that Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Heart Throb will now be released on 27/02/17 due to manufacturing delays.
 
ISTR there was some confusion around whether to give it a special edition or not and Jerome was looking into what was available in the US. Of course the US version has been out a while now so maybe it's worth giving him a prod if you're friends with him on Twitter.

R
 
ISTR there was some confusion around whether to give it a special edition or not and Jerome was looking into what was available in the US. Of course the US version has been out a while now so maybe it's worth giving him a prod if you're friends with him on Twitter.

R

Didn't Sentai announce something Collector's for the series then pull it, or delayed it to make a complete collection, which sort of confused everyone?
 
Didn't Sentai announce something Collector's for the series then pull it, or delayed it to make a complete collection, which sort of confused everyone?

Yeah. I'm still confused about it all, and probably will be until I finally get a copy. I think the all-in-one complete set is the only version available so it's unlikely that Manganimatsu would be doing a CE at this point, and maybe Jerome's still bewildered too. It's probably a hard one because a pricier set for a shoujo romance is a hard sell in this country yet splitting it in two is probably also tough when second parts don't do so well. I strongly doubt they're going to go this way since no ready-made assets exist for them to use, but I think an argument could be made that it could be a candidate for a CE release alongside a cheaper one to try to milk the hardcore fans a bit more and support the weak overall sales it will likely attract.

I just want it to do well because it's awesome. The live action film was pretty cool too.

R
 
Didn't Sentai announce something Collector's for the series then pull it, or delayed it to make a complete collection, which sort of confused everyone?

Sentai's Collector's Edition is currently due for April 2017, though I'm curious to know what sort of contents it'll have. While I enjoyed the series, I don't think it had that big amount of demand for such treatment - an English dub yes, but a CE? I'm not too sure.
 
Thanks Grav; I missed the memo on that. Releasing a CE after the (quite expensive) standard without reminding everyone that the CE is coming is a surefire way to sell very few CEs. I get the annoyance when standards are delayed but at least that makes some kind of logical sense; intentionally delaying the premium version is crazy.

(Topical examples: Manganimatsu's rereleases of classic films as special editions are fine as they're yonks after the originals and trying to find a completely new audience. The rerelease of Attack On Titan with upgrades to the 'CE' extras a short time after the CEs was not ok; the later complete collection was a better CE than the actual CEs in some respects. Backstabbing early adopters on content is a terrible way to encourage the early adoption we're always being told is necessary for distributors to function.)

So I guess here, Manganimatsu are having to sit on their hands and wait for Sentai before they can reveal their plans. It must be frustrating.

R
 
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