Death Note (UK release)

Rui

Rui

Karamatsu Boy
Administrator
I've been collecting Manga's UK Death Note "singles" to support the release and I just checked Amazon and Play for volume 4 - both imply that it will only be a single disc and only contain 4 episodes. Does anyone who has been following this release slightly less lazily than me know if this is true?

It seems a bit odd to release the half people generally regard as less exciting in a more expensive, bloaty way than the first. If it's true I might switch to imports for the rest just to show my withdrawal of support in the hope they will avoid such strange decisions in future.

I had been looking forward to getting the whole series in 5 volumes and saving a lot of shelf space whilst supporting the releases as they came out.

R
 
There was going to be one single disc release regardless. It was just a question of where. Death Note is a 37 episode series, which in terms of two disc release of 8 episodes each leaves five left over.

They picked the right point for it, where the first arc ends and the second begins, so if anyone doesn't want the second arc, they don't have to shell out for a two disc set.

Wait to see if volume 5 is a two disc set before getting too annoyed.
 
Given that the RRP of the fourth volume has been reduced to £15, it's highly likely that the running time is correct. They'll probably release three single-disc versions to finish the series (8/8/8/4/4/5). It's not ideal, I suppose, but it's still on three fewer discs than Viz's US release.
 
Thanks - I had assumed it had dropped to 7 episodes on the double discs a while ago as that would at least be a little more even and match Bleach's wonky episode counts (the discs are on my shelf but still in backlog...oops). I'll hold on vol 4 until I see what happens with the rest and let it drop in price a little. I hate singles in principle and it seems weird to suddenly change to them at a point in the series where many people might find their interest waning...

I do like the second "half" of the story personally but having the manga already makes me less hasty to support this kind of thing. Will grab xxxHolic 1:2 instead for now.

Sorry Near :(

R
 
If DN gets finished with three single discs then Manga are not going to hold on to the positive vibe from the community that built up around their double disc sets. I'm seriously hoping It will be one single and one double, if only to avoid the bitching it will generate otherwise.
 
I noticed it when I added Vol. 4 to my Find-DVD watchlist. I don't think it's a mistake - there needs to be one single volume release (as pointed out already) and every store must've been informed since all of them have had to list it as a single DVD release after the other three were double volume releases.

It's a bit dumb sticking the single volume release in the middle of the series. It'd be much more logical to leave the single volume release until last because A) people would buy it just to complete their collections and B) the last few episodes are far more exciting than the start of the part 2 story. I hope its just bad judgement and doesn't mean the series will be finished with single releases.

I just want a box set. I like the Manga slipcover + thinpack cases sets because I'm a thinpack lover and, if Manga release the same sort of set as their Bleach set, it'll mean that each DVD will get its own case, complete with all the original R1 covers. It's too bad my 2010 release estimate isn't very funny right now...
 
The reason that it has gone to a single disk release is becuase they've basically caught up to America's release now.

They want to release the DVDs on a regular basis, without having to wait for another American DVD to be released and then other two months or so before they are allowed to release it.
 
It seems you're correct since Vol. 9 isn't out, but they still could've released Vol. 7-8 together.

Although you could argue they've had no choice, a lot of their new releases (Claymore, DtB and Hellsing: Ultimate) have taken Manga backwards. It looked like Manga were going to be the one company to beat others in terms of value, stopping what others should've stopped doing a long time ago and only releasing multiple disc sets. It'll be bad if Manga are going to go down a more 'normal' anime sales path with all of their top series.

I fear that there won't be one Death Note box set because the ********s in America have released two. It'll be needlessly more expensive and won't look as nice as having one complete set. I hate it when companies milk anime for as much as possible by releasing 2-4 sets when only 1-2 are needed.
 
The US vol 8 has only recently been released and vol 9 is end of Feb so it may be as has been said that to keep a regular release in stead of waiting ages the UK will get the last discs as singles. Though I suppose fans probably would have preferred to possibly wait and have a matching set of double discs with maybe the last having a whole load of extras on the second disc not available elsewhere.
 
Given that Manga announced right from the start that Death Note would be split over six parts I don't see why they didn't release them as one 7 and five 6 episode volumes.

Hey things used to be much worse, I remember when Evangelion was split over eight volumes at twenty quid each.
(And lest we forget the money and shelf-space people had to part with to buy series on VHS.)
 
LeeDless said:
Hey things used to be much worse, I remember when Evangelion was split over eight volumes at twenty quid each.
(And lest we forget the money and shelf-space people had to part with to buy series on VHS.)
Click to expand...

I was sorting my old cheque stubs the other day and found that I paid £28 for two episodes of Fushigi Yuugi on VHS. Multiple times. What a tragedy :(

R
 
Rui said:
I was sorting my old cheque stubs the other day and found that I paid £28 for two episodes of Fushigi Yuugi on VHS. Multiple times. What a tragedy :(
Click to expand...
I paid about that much for each of the two volumes I bought from Otaku waaaay back in the late 1990s. Oh dear. But there was actually four episodes on the first tape and three on the second. Not that it made the pain any less intense.

But the most expensive cost/running time ratio must be the original VHS release of Bubblegum Crisis. £21.99 per tape, and some of the episodes are as short as 25 minutes :eek:
 
People are talking about the reason being the US release... do we know if Manga is contractually obliged to wait for the US volumes to be released? And if so... WHY?

Anime is more expensive in the UK, so it's not likely US fans will import it if it's released here first. Indeed, this whole staggering of releases Japan>USA>UK seems to be entirely negative for UK based companies (which makes me wonder why they would agree to such conditions) given that the cheaper US release comes first and is a massive temptation for UK anime buyers.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I paid about that much for each of the two volumes I bought from Otaku waaaay back in the late 1990s. Oh dear. But there was actually four episodes on the first tape and three on the second. Not that it made the pain any less intense.

But the most expensive cost/running time ratio must be the original VHS release of Bubblegum Crisis. £21.99 per tape, and some of the episodes are as short as 25 minutes :eek:
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I'm mixing it up with my other £28 VHS misery purchases. I thought it was a fair price once though :)

I think my personal most expensive would be a DVD purchase. Not sure which without checking but my guess is one of those out of print R2Js with one episode on like those old BGC tapes.

R
 
Rui said:
LeeDless said:
Hey things used to be much worse, I remember when Evangelion was split over eight volumes at twenty quid each.
(And lest we forget the money and shelf-space people had to part with to buy series on VHS.)
Click to expand...

I was sorting my old cheque stubs the other day and found that I paid £28 for two episodes of Fushigi Yuugi on VHS. Multiple times. What a tragedy :(

R
Click to expand...
A true tragedy, considering how bad Fushigi yugi is.. ;D I've seen the anime on TV and collected the manga and back then it was amazing. Then, 12 kingdoms appeared in my life. It's basically fushigi yugi without the romantic settings.
 
chaos said:
A true tragedy, considering how bad Fushigi yugi is.. ;D I've seen the anime on TV and collected the manga and back then it was amazing. Then, 12 kingdoms appeared in my life. It's basically fushigi yugi without the romantic settings.
Click to expand...

At least it had nice eyecandy and good music :) then I bought it again as the overpriced original Geneon sets in a store at full RRP. And now I'm bored of it. Sob.

R
 
Rui said:
I think my personal most expensive would be a DVD purchase. Not sure which without checking but my guess is one of those out of print R2Js with one episode on like those old BGC tapes.
Click to expand...
I once considered buying some R2J discs, but decided to just burn the money instead. Seriously, though, I might have indulged if I was more proficient in Japanese... it's just as well that I never took the time to learn, really :p
 
ayase said:
Japan>USA>UK seems to be entirely negative for UK based companies (which makes me wonder why they would agree to such conditions) given that the cheaper US release comes first and is a massive temptation for UK anime buyers.
Click to expand...

Asked and answered it seems,

The US companies must love the extra income that imports generate for them, and it's probably that which keeps those ridiculous contracts going. We also have to wait for the Australians to create an NTSC-PAL transfer for most of the titles as well, and Madman must look forward to a small chunk of the import pie as well.
 
Just Passing Through said:
ayase said:
Japan>USA>UK seems to be entirely negative for UK based companies (which makes me wonder why they would agree to such conditions) given that the cheaper US release comes first and is a massive temptation for UK anime buyers.
Click to expand...

Asked and answered it seems,

The US companies must love the extra income that imports generate for them, and it's probably that which keeps those ridiculous contracts going. We also have to wait for the Australians to create an NTSC-PAL transfer for most of the titles as well, and Madman must look forward to a small chunk of the import pie as well.
Click to expand...

I would have also thought that doing it this way most of the expense of doing English translations/dubs is also absorbed by the larger US market. Whilst the UK companies will still need to license these the overall cost would be lower allowing a UK release to be made at a price that is not prohibitive.
 
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