Invisible Crane
Adventurer
Really, despite the fact anyone can watch RWBY for free at anytime?
Everybody Loves Jerome
- Thread starter thedoctor2016
- Start date
Really, despite the fact anyone can watch RWBY for free at anytime?
Surely that indicates that allowing viewers to get hooked on titles via online distribution helps physical media sales rather than the opposite...
I mean, I'm not sure it exactly 'proves' anything either way, really, but it's at least as strong an indication that Jerome's theory is completely backwards as the logic he's been using with us in the past.
R
I mean, I'm not sure it exactly 'proves' anything either way, really, but it's at least as strong an indication that Jerome's theory is completely backwards as the logic he's been using with us in the past.
R
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I'm not going to even try and defend Jerome. Clearly he has done both good and bad things for the anime community in the past, and there are things that I would agree with him on and things that I wouldn't agree with him on.
I do however feel there is a tendency to ignore or discount any points he makes, regardless of their validity. I would note that similar points to his were made by other figures within the anime community this evening, however these posts were either private to begin with or subsequently deleted, so it would not be appropriate for me to repost. However people seem to have decided they hate Jerome, so he can't possibly be correct and are working backwards from that point.
serpantino
Thousand Master
I think the big problem with Jerome is how hot headed & unprofessional he is, actively ignoring and even rebuking the community whenever he doesn't agree.
I agree that people are likely to discount what he's said or even oppose it ,regardless of whether it makes sense or not, but this is the role that he has carved out for himself amongst the community & he has nobody to blame but himself.
I don't preorder any titles released under one of his companies. It's not because I don't like Jerome but because of his unwillingness to fix issues with releases and their attitude towards things like chapter markers.
I agree that people are likely to discount what he's said or even oppose it ,regardless of whether it makes sense or not, but this is the role that he has carved out for himself amongst the community & he has nobody to blame but himself.
I don't preorder any titles released under one of his companies. It's not because I don't like Jerome but because of his unwillingness to fix issues with releases and their attitude towards things like chapter markers.
The hot-headedness is a bit confusing too even if you are trying to take him seriously, which I did for several years before openly giving up.
Jerome, 2011-2014: People who buy CEs are idiots who don't know the value of money and I'm going to personally and directly insult any of them who ask questions about CEs.
Rui, 2014: Ok then, I'll buy my CEs elsewhere.
Jerome, 2015: We have changed our minds. Buy our CEs!
Rui, 2015: No?
Jerome, 2016: We have discovered that nobody makes any money on CEs and nobody buys them.
Rui, 2016: How come I've spent so much money on CEs from other companies this year?
Jerome: Students are the only people we want as customers, everyone else is stupid and should **** my ****.
Rui: Well I'm not a student so I guess I'll buy elsewhere then?
Jerome: Why are fans so unreasonable?!
Jerome: I see that the scum at Crunchyroll, FORMER PIRACY SITE, are now doing stuff legally, it's a disgrace. They should be banned from the industry forever, not allowed to spearhead a new movement in distribution nobody else bothered with.
Crunchyroll: We're proud to announce a fantastic new partnership with our former archenemies at Funimation!
Jerome: Hey guys, why won't Crunchyroll answer my emails?!
Jerome: Our top seller is also available as a free-to-watch simulcast.
Jerome: Making anime available as free-to-watch simulcasts will stop it selling even though we're the only company with this opinion.
Jerome: WHY IS IT STILL NOT SELLING?
Jerome at cons: Hey everyone
which series are you enjoying? I'm loving HSOTD and Girls und Panzer at the moment!
Fans: Yay! We love those shows!
Jerome on Twitter: Fans who buy shows about high school girls and fan service are pervs who are destroying anime.
Fans: ?!?
I can't deal with the inconsistency. His passion is a good thing but he needs to say what he actually thinks and be rational about it instead of slagging huge groups of people off at every opportunity and then wondering why they don't want to give him money any more when he abruptly does a 180 a few months later with no explanation.
R
Jerome, 2011-2014: People who buy CEs are idiots who don't know the value of money and I'm going to personally and directly insult any of them who ask questions about CEs.
Rui, 2014: Ok then, I'll buy my CEs elsewhere.
Jerome, 2015: We have changed our minds. Buy our CEs!
Rui, 2015: No?
Jerome, 2016: We have discovered that nobody makes any money on CEs and nobody buys them.
Rui, 2016: How come I've spent so much money on CEs from other companies this year?
Jerome: Students are the only people we want as customers, everyone else is stupid and should **** my ****.
Rui: Well I'm not a student so I guess I'll buy elsewhere then?
Jerome: Why are fans so unreasonable?!
Jerome: I see that the scum at Crunchyroll, FORMER PIRACY SITE, are now doing stuff legally, it's a disgrace. They should be banned from the industry forever, not allowed to spearhead a new movement in distribution nobody else bothered with.
Crunchyroll: We're proud to announce a fantastic new partnership with our former archenemies at Funimation!
Jerome: Hey guys, why won't Crunchyroll answer my emails?!
Jerome: Our top seller is also available as a free-to-watch simulcast.
Jerome: Making anime available as free-to-watch simulcasts will stop it selling even though we're the only company with this opinion.
Jerome: WHY IS IT STILL NOT SELLING?
Jerome at cons: Hey everyone
which series are you enjoying? I'm loving HSOTD and Girls und Panzer at the moment!Fans: Yay! We love those shows!
Jerome on Twitter: Fans who buy shows about high school girls and fan service are pervs who are destroying anime.
Fans: ?!?
I can't deal with the inconsistency. His passion is a good thing but he needs to say what he actually thinks and be rational about it instead of slagging huge groups of people off at every opportunity and then wondering why they don't want to give him money any more when he abruptly does a 180 a few months later with no explanation.
R
ayase
State Alchemist
That's possibly the most depressing thing in this entire thread.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
They were dirt cheap and loaded with extras. I believe it's also a re-edit of the entire series, rather than the versions you can stream on YouTube or RT's site.
The fact nobody saw this coming is surprising...
Let's not forget that every dub should be filtered through 4KIDs as well before being put on BD!
Although, if that was a pot shot at poor old us there, then that's a bit of a shame! Do keep in mind we do release standard editions after the Collector's (or at the same time when possible) so you've never got to worry on that frontier
.Best,
AP
Jaysgba
Combat Butler
Let's not forget that every dub should be filtered through 4KIDs as well before being put on BD!
Although, if that was a pot shot at poor old us there, then that's a bit of a shame! Do keep in mind we do release standard editions after the Collector's (or at the same time when possible) so you've never got to worry on that frontier
Best,
AP
It was primarily a pot shot at the type of fan that seriously spouts those kind of statements making out that if you can't afford AOA releases, streaming is all you deserve, rather than at AL.
Though, to be fair, the delay on some standard editions for AL releases can be excessive. Especially when compared to titles like Tokyo Ghoul that had its standard edition BDs so soon after the CEs.
Hodor, sorry there - I'm being over-sensitive sorry! Sometimes we're at the mercy of licensors on that frontier, I'd like to get that gap down to ideally basically nothing eventually though (defining eventually as over the next year or so).
Sorry again!
AP
TiggsPanther
Completely Average High School Student
I've noticed this a lot, too. Especially when people will sometimes exclusively focus on how he puts something across rather than what he's actually saying.
Some people are just a bit abrasive. (I should know, quite often I'm one of them.)
But "abrasive" does not automatically mean "wrong". Yes too many people seem willing to ignore or outright disagree with an opinion simply because they dislike how it was stated.
The amusing thing is that, for me, it's some of Jerome's "unprofessional" outbursts that have actually kept me giving a damn about the UK anime industry. he says it how he sees it. No filters, no spin. And in a world where everything is usually given a gloss of professionalism that tries to make a bad thing seem like a positive, I find this incredibly refreshing.
And there have been a couple of times where I was ready to give up on a product or locally-distributed anime in general, and it was Jerome who reminded me that it's not just the fans/customers who feel like they're getting jerked around at times. That sometimes the UK companies might feel similarly.
Now I will grant that having this balanced out by more professional statements of the same facts helps. Andrew Partridge will talk about AL's holdups in somewhat more diplomatic language most of the time. But when you put the two opinions together, you can start to read between the lines.
Andrew and Jerome two very different human faces on the difficulties involved in getting product out to market. But I find both equally valid, complementary and, to be honest, essential.
This is another thing that confuses me. Nonstandard chapter markering is frustrating but, to me anyway, hardly a dealbreaker. As long as the disc will pick up from where I left off waiting it, I can put up with the (to me) relatively minor inconvenience of having to manually skip pasts OP and ED themes.
Don't get me wrong, decent chapter markers is definitely on my list of things that makes a good release great, but it's also quite a bit further down than things like "Blu-ray version" (MVM), "Affordable and timely standard release" (AL) or "Accurate and well-timed subtitles".
Yes, Manga are very guilty of that last one. It's why I was disappointed when Jerome asked about how many people would be interested in a re-released of GiTS:SAC and nothing ever came of it. A couple of episodes on the DVDs are shockingly timed and I'd gladly double-dip to get a fixed version. (That, and I don't really watch DVDs for subtitled content these days)
But they're hardly alone in this. MVM, as they don't author their own discs, aren't in a position to fix things that haven't been fixed upstream. Even if it's a known issue. So it's not just Manga who let things like this slip through.
It does only seem to be Anime Limited who will fix issues and that is probably because pretty much every title they release has a higher-end edition. And people are probable more likely to let a smaller flaw pass by at £20 or less than they would at £50, however nice the box or artbook is.
Whereas MVM and Manga probably make more on volume or sales than per-unit. And the amount of sales lost to anything short of "disc won't play" may not be guaranteed to be worth a potentially costly, or time-consuming, reauthor or sleeve reprint.
ConanThe3rd
Railgun
If the cost of some (and let's be honest, we're talking par rather than Hole in One) quality is suffering Jerome's precence then, frankly, give me costers.
I have to honestly disagree, the man's been making an arse of himself shy of ten years now and just can not stop himself from running his mouth and he earned his crown of thorns from that. Any Fan who has run into him has every right to dismiss everything he says off hand and is right to feel as it it's a slight against them.
If he was working for me he would have been on his arse the first time it came out in the wash that he was watching shows region locked from UK fans because that's admitting to basically theft (or at the very least TOS violations that could endanger future releases) and that's alienating fans who play by the rules and are left wanting.
The time has come, he needs to go or at the very least not exist in the sociosphere and just get down to the business of actively sabotaging UK Anime fandom from the shadows like some sort of Missery Illuminati.
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The hot-headedness is a bit confusing too even if you are trying to take him seriously, which I did for several years before openly giving up.
Jerome, 2011-2014: People who buy CEs are idiots who don't know the value of money and I'm going to personally and directly insult any of them who ask questions about CEs.
Rui, 2014: Ok then, I'll buy my CEs elsewhere.
Jerome, 2015: We have changed our minds. Buy our CEs!
Rui, 2015: No?
Jerome, 2016: We have discovered that nobody makes any money on CEs and nobody buys them.
Rui, 2016: How come I've spent so much money on CEs from other companies this year?
Jerome: Students are the only people we want as customers, everyone else is stupid and should **** my ****.
Rui: Well I'm not a student so I guess I'll buy elsewhere then?
Jerome: Why are fans so unreasonable?!
Jerome: I see that the scum at Crunchyroll, FORMER PIRACY SITE, are now doing stuff legally, it's a disgrace. They should be banned from the industry forever, not allowed to spearhead a new movement in distribution nobody else bothered with.
Crunchyroll: We're proud to announce a fantastic new partnership with our former archenemies at Funimation!
Jerome: Hey guys, why won't Crunchyroll answer my emails?!
Jerome: Our top seller is also available as a free-to-watch simulcast.
Jerome: Making anime available as free-to-watch simulcasts will stop it selling even though we're the only company with this opinion.
Jerome: WHY IS IT STILL NOT SELLING?
Jerome at cons: Hey everyone
Fans: Yay! We love those shows!
Jerome on Twitter: Fans who buy shows about high school girls and fan service are pervs who are destroying anime.
Fans: ?!?
I can't deal with the inconsistency. His passion is a good thing but he needs to say what he actually thinks and be rational about it instead of slagging huge groups of people off at every opportunity and then wondering why they don't want to give him money any more when he abruptly does a 180 a few months later with no explanation.
R
Here's another one.
Jerome: Hey guys we have Sakamoto!
Fans: Oh cool, but we can't stream it on legal sites.
Jerome: Not to worry, I've been watching it as it's being simulcast! Anyone seen it?
Fans: ?!?
*not long after*
Jerome: Hey everyone we're not putting Sakamoto on Crunchyroll so you'll have to wait for our release!
Fans: ?!?!?!?
(yes I'm aware of the whole 'CR apparently offered $150 per episode' reason).
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
He doesn't handle Manga's social media, people are now just complaining about his personal feed.
I personally think his problem is that he says what he thinks, often before he has time to fully think it through. I'd rather deal with that, than with the smug, PR statements verging on outright lies from other distributors. Though people seem to forgive other distributors for their Jerome-esque comments, so who knows?
Smeelia
Thousand Master
To be fair, if an insult is the first thing you see when reading a statement then it's understandable that people might not want to read the whole thing. All of the anger and insults are just noise that can hide whatever point is being made so it's not necessarily the fault of the reader if they can't or don't want to cut through that to get to the point.
I don't think too many people would completely change their own view simply because they don't like how someone else is presenting their opinion. They might be more inclined to speak up in disagreement with an opinion that is stated as a fact, especially if it's stated along with an implication that anyone who disagrees must have something wrong with them. They might also simply want to take issue with the way the person is presenting their point and may well have valid grounds for doing so.
I do think there's value in trying to see the point a person is trying to make past the way they're making it but communication is a two way process. Constantly burying your points under insults and hyperbolic statements just makes it more difficult for people to understand you and it's not unreasonable that people might give up.
I suspect the real problem is the larger issue that the company is showing a lack of interest in maintaining a high standard of quality. If people constantly accept minor problems as standard then the company might feel they can put even less effort into quality control and more serious issues may start to slip through.
There's also an aspect of showing respect for the customers and product, allowing minor issues to persist when they should really be dealt with isn't a great way to encourage customer loyalty. It may well be that some of these issues are actually caused by external companies/contractors but in that case those people should be chased up to maintain a high standard of quality for their customers too.
mrclt1994
Hunter
Yeah i mean he needs to not tweet at all, even from his own account. Regardless of him not tweeting for Manga, people take what he says personally to be what Manga's position is. Hence I'm saying either he gets someone to tweet for him or shut up for a while. He needs people back on his side and I think taking a break from twitter would do him good.
TiggsPanther
Completely Average High School Student
I think the problem here is that what classes as a fault, what classes as a quality issue and what classes as acceptable (if not preferable) are very subjective opinions.
The intro | op | pt1 | pt2 | ed | next split for chapter markers for some people is "the right way" and to not do it that way is a flaw.
But not everyone's going to see it that way. For me it's certainly my ideal preference, but I can can manage without it. It's a "must try harder" mark against a company for me, not a "lost sale". But if you don't offer song-subs, no sale! (Having Japanese audio rendered into English text is what I'm primarily paying for. Convenient chapters is just a bonus, albeit an extremely nice and almost-standard one.)
For others, DVD-only is acceptable if less than ideal. For me, not so much.
A very small amount of typos in the subtitles, a slight error in the sleeve printing or a misaligned BBFC logo can go anything from "Who cares" to "Won't buy" depending on the person.
(I know that for me, subtitle issues can be a showstopper. My brain runs into typos or sloppy timing like it's hitting a brick wall. Some people don't seem to get thrown out of the moment anywhere near as much.)
And each company, for each release has to figure out where to draw the line depending on the size and demographic of their expected audience. Also remember, we don't hear quite as much from MVM and even less from Manga about what issues push back release dates, compared to Anime Limited. So we don't really know how frequently, or even if at all, things are delayed because something is caught in QC and deemed worth going back to.
And especially when you're then looking into the costs of fixing something and the delay in release that it incurs, you have to look at how much of your customers are going to lose interest due to the delay compared to how many you'd lose if you don't fix it against how much it'll cost to fix.
Because one person's "Thank God they fixed that!
" could easily be "This is what they delayed the release for? " for someone else.
Smeelia
Thousand Master
That's true but it's reasonable enough for people to judge a company based on how well it's serving their preferences and be hesitant when certain releases might have issues that'd put them off of buying the product. Understanding the reasons behind the output of the company might make it easier to put things into perspective but, at the end of the day, people still need to consider what they want from the product (and company) when making their decisions.