Death Note - Are you buying the individual volumes or not?

Aion

Aion

Time-Traveller
At first I was cursing Manga (well, I was calling them Mangle anyway...) for getting their hands on Death Note. I didn't want to see one of my favourite series ruined by poor video quality and dubtitles. However, it seems Manga managed to avoid running into the holes they were famous for falling into and did nothing as a stupid as releasing Naruto with dubtitles in order to not upset fans with delays. They proved me wrong.

But despite the fact Manga have released high quality DVDs AND even gone as far as selling the series in very reasonably priced double disc sets, I wasn't too tempted until the first volume dropped to the alarmingly low price of £4.99. Collecting individual volumes is not something I like to do, with box sets being my preference, and Manga have been known to stop releasing single volumes before finishing releasing series in full. I thought it best to wait.

Even now that I own the first volume I still find myself a little indecisive. The main cause of this is Manga reverting back to single disc releases from volume 4 onwards, which will make the series more expensive to buy and less tidy to display. I'm hoping Manga are going to go back to releasing double disc sets but, since Manga decided to put a single release in the middle and not at the end, I'm expecting the last 3 releases to all be singles. But, even if Manga hadn't started to create problems, I'd still want to own the box set and not collect the series the hard way... It's too bad anime companies don't just release boxed sets in the first place and stop making people wait until 2011.

Right now, I find myself with the first volume and not wanting to unseal it because I might change my mind. If Manga were more vocal and revealed how they're going to release the last part of the series, as well as when/if there's ever going to be a box set released, then it'd be far easier to decide what to do, but...

I blame that ******* Jerome. He came, he said he'd answer questions and then buggered off before answering my question about the Death Note box set. I was even polite to the ******* *****. Some people just have no respect for others.
 
I current have the first 3 Death Note volumes, as I thought i'd support Manga for doing double disc releases, as it is better value for money. I am pretty upset that the next volume is a single disc, and plan to wait to find out what vol 5 is like before purchasing #4.
 
Yeah, I've been buying them as they come out, as I do most series I want that weren't already collected in a boxed set when I became interested in them.

However, if they are reverting to single discs and V4 isn't just the odd one to make the numbers add up, it would make me think again about collecting single volumes from Manga. It would be misleading and unfair to start a series in double packs and then revert to singles half way through. Frankly I'm unsure about collecting single volumes from anyone anymore. There really doesn't seem much in it for me - I spend more but get nothing extra for that money.

...and if it goes the way of Hellsing Ultimate with the next volume and screws with the packaging by way of that goddamn Irish rating sticker I'll sell them all and download the sodding fansubs (and then attempt to redirect traffic to the websites of both ratings boards to streaming pornographic videos).

And Aion, my advice would be unseal the DVD and enjoy it. If you bought it new for £5 how much value is it likely to lose?
 
ayase said:
And Aion, my advice would be unseal the DVD and enjoy it. If you bought it new for £5 how much value is it likely to lose?
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- Play have raised the price back up to £11.99. It's also gone back to 1-2 week postage.
-- Amazon.co.uk have removed Vol. 1 from their site. You can no longer buy it.
--- There's no box set in sight.

If you put all those together, if a box set were to be released then I could sell the sealed copy I got for £5 and, with any luck, double my money. It'll bug me later if I unseal it, watch it once and find myself wanting to sell a used copy when the box set comes out.

I think I'm going to wait until I own Vol. 2-3 before doing anything. I'm tempted to order both now but I'd rather wait until Vol. 3 drops to the price Vol. 2 is at (£8.99) since I'm a cheap bastard.
 
I'm buying the individual volumes. At 8 episodes a release it's not a bad deal at all. As nice as boxset may be I'm not really fussed, it's already better than average value.
 
Aion said:
- Play have raised the price back up to £11.99. It's also gone back to 1-2 week postage.
-- Amazon.co.uk have removed Vol. 1 from their site. You can no longer buy it.
--- There's no box set in sight.

If you put all those together, if a box set were to be released then I could sell the sealed copy I got for £5 and, with any luck, double my money. It'll bug me later if I unseal it, watch it once and find myself wanting to sell a used copy when the box set comes out.
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Or you could always, y'know, remove the seal but then... resist the temptation to kick the case around the room and scour the discs with brillo pads, then still sell it on as new. I doubt anyone would complain. What matters to most is the condition, not the shrinkwrap - I get new unsealed discs from Amazon pretty regularly.
 
I'll most likely buy the inevitable box set after it's been out a couple of months and been reduced to half its original price by all and sundry, as per every Manga release ever.
 
I'm buying the "singles" to support Manga's double disc releases, hence my ire when they switched to actual singles suddenly like that. I may as well finish, but it's slipped way down my priority list.

I haven't seen the anime before but have read the manga and seen the movies. If I hadn't I'd just swallow my pride and keep buying the singles at full preorder price nobly to keep the momentum going - but this way I can afford to wait for price drops :)

R
 
I have the first two volumes because 8 episodes for £11.99 was one of the few things that the UK industry impressed me with. However I too am a cheap bastard, and having seen the prices volumes 1 & 2 dropped to, I'm playing the waiting game with volume 3.

I also wish to see what they plan on doing with the last few episodes....then again £8.99 for 4 episodes is a lot better then the £20 I've seen HMV charging for single anime DVDs with 4 episodes :|
 
Off topic but for the people who have the 3rd volume have a inside sleve detailing the episodes on the volume? I have with the first two releases but not with the third.
 
ChalkyWhite said:
Off topic but for the people who have the 3rd volume have a inside sleve detailing the episodes on the volume? I have with the first two releases but not with the third.
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No insert in my volume three either.

R
 
To be honest, I was only really motivated to buy the rest because of the Zavvi-exclusive figures.

Without them, I don't see the DVDs as a priority anymore.
 
Rui said:
ChalkyWhite said:
Off topic but for the people who have the 3rd volume have a inside sleve detailing the episodes on the volume? I have with the first two releases but not with the third.
Click to expand...
No insert in my volume three either.

R
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Mine neither. Guess it's another one of those prohibitavely expensive things that have had to be thrown out like printing on both sides of the cover and printing seperate covers for the UK and Ireland...



This post isn't meant to be entirely serious, but nor is a wink appropriate as it diminishes the point I was making. The only thing I can think to do is...
The seriousness level of this post is GUARDED: General amount of seriousness.
 
I too have been buying the individual volumes. It is a shame that volume 4 is a single disc release. What do people reckon the cause is?

I'm hoping that it is just so the final volume is a double disc, although I guess I won't hold my breath. I hope it doesn't take too long for all the series to be completed either.

Dave~
 
The cause of volume 4 being a single disc release is Manga catching up with the R1 releases. By the time volume 4 was ready for release I don't think volume 8 had been released in America. Instead of waiting like UK fans would've rather had them do, Manga switched to single releases. Unless Viz rush to release volume 9 in America, it isn't likely that Manga will switch back to a double disc release to comclude the series.


I finished watching volume 1 an hour or so ago. I was very impressed with everything, from the video quality to the extras. Incredible value for £5. If only the other two double disc releases had dropped to £4.99... I think volume 1 is only being priced cheap in the hope of drawing in more fans who will pay double the price for the other volumes.

It's annoying if Manga stopped putting in inlays from volume 3 onwards. I find it messy to own a series of DVDs and not have inlays for all of them. It isn't shocking since Manga have done things like stopping releasing DVDs in slipcovers in the past, making series look untidy, but it's still an annoyance that could've been avoided.
 
Can I throw some cold water on this speculation?

I e-mailed Manga to find out what was happening with Zavvi SE figurines, and this is the press release I got back...

"The Zavvi closure has thrown a spanner in the works on the Death Note Volume 4 and 5 Collector's Editions we had planned. Unfortunately, we will no longer be releasing a "collector's edition" with figurine for the last two Death Note DVD releases. However, Manga is working very closely with Viz Media Europe to see if we may be able to do something about this situation."
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Now note, Volume 4 and 5, no Volume 6. 'last two Death Note releases' as they say.
 
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