Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo

Another, lame, reason that gets bandied about is that people want to try out new series before buying them. There are plenty of trailers, reviews and interviews about any given series knocking about on the internet.

I've only ever downloaded about 4 or 5 series online, and not one of them has been available to me on DVD. And I intend to buy each of them when ever, or if ever, I can. I wish others would follow suit.
 
Going on your television size, you're also a fairly rich guy. I shouldn't imagine money is too much of an issue for you if you can afford/have space for a 70" TV. You fall into the 'respectable few' category.

The majority of anime fans are students, most not over 20. Simply put, they can't afford to buy as much anime as they want, no matter how much they like it. They can save money and spend it on anime, yes, but the student age group doesn't have the cash to just buy every anime they see and hope for the best - Food, clothes, bills, women, etc tend to come first.

Over an NarutoFAN, a HUGE anime forum, there's a thread titled 'Do you buy DVD's?' that may show just how many people don't buy anime in a land where it's far cheaper.

I DO buy anime: I paid around £45 for a R1 Gungrave set when I was younger, getting stung for £20+ by customs. I have both £30 Cowboy Bebop R2 sets. I have both Get Backers sets (£21-22 each). I have the Chrno Crusade Slimpak set (around £35). I have the .hack//SIGN and Scrapped Princess Anime Legends (around £16 each)............ You get the point.

As for commenting on the production values, it's natural for people to comment on what they watch. You wouldn't get much discussion on anime forums if you didn't get people commenting on fansubs - There wouldn't be enough people to keep the forum alive. Like them or hate them, fansubs have introduced many (myself including) to anime and makes the DVD releases of anime anticipated by fans who've watched it long before its release.
 
Aion said:
Going on your television size, you're also a fairly rich guy. I shouldn't imagine money is too much of an issue for you if you can afford/have space for a 70" TV. You fall into the 'respectable few' category.
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Nope not that well off I make sacrifices for my hobbies and some of my hobbies overlap, a half decent projector only costs about as much as a reasonable 40" LCD TV. Also I am a fan of anime and want to see it continue to be released I don't want it down to half a dozen series a year making it to the west because nobody buys it even though they all purport to be fans.

I understand that many on here are probably half my age and some young enough to be my kids so money is not freely available to everybody, there are ways around things rent (I know this won't get you the uber status of watching the most up to date series) or do what me and my friends did each chose a series to buy then watch them together. Also pick your series carefully don't just grab everything because it is throw away because it can be downloaded, that way leads boredom.

At the end of the day though I am up for a bargain us much as the next person, so you will probably see me moaning about price from time to time.

When I say you I generally mean the multiple not you specifically, but you (Aion) and others like you can't just hit out at people because you don't like being called up on something like this.
 
Aion, you can't justify stealing anime (and that's what it is, stealing; regardless of how easy it is or how lacklustre the industry's attempts to stop it are). I'm sure most students can't afford luxury foods, either, does that mean it's ok for them to steal it from the aisles of Tesco when no one's looking and there's no CCTV camera? Of course not.

Aion said:
Like them or hate them, fansubs have introduced many (myself including) to anime and makes the DVD releases of anime anticipated by fans who've watched it long before its release.
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Another lame excuse. "fansubs CREATED most anime fans, so there!". Eh, there were anime fans before fansubs were widespread. There's anime on TV, manga and anime are available on the high street - people would discover anime even if it wasn't available for free on the internet. I discovered anime through an interest in JRPGs, then I picked up some of the classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. And now my collection has well over 80 anime DVDs. People that discover anime through fansubs usually continue to use fansubs, and not buy anime except when it's discounted so they don't help the industry at all. This notion that fansubs help the anime industry is ill-conceived, I'm afraid.
 
I must admit that I started on fansubs (way back when) but now I will pretty much only only buy series even if it means importing. I'm a student and have to pay bills so I manage to buy anime by getting some great deals like the budget Anime Legends sets which are perfect for me. One advantage I guess on saving money on DVD's is that I don't have much time to watch though series so it takes me months to get through just one series. I still get a few series on fansub, mainly Lupin III, but as soon as they are available in English I'll be sure to snap them up as soon as possible.
 
Arguing with a child is a pointless thing. No matter what you say they believe themselves to be in the right, not seeing any flaws in what they do, even when it's obvious. Children will continuously look for a reaction from people in order to get attention, making the adults grow tired as they refuse to learn from their mistakes, and the best method of dealing with an attention seeking child is to ignore them until they grow up.

Dracos said:
At the end of the day though I am up for a bargain us much as the next person, so you will probably see me moaning about price from time to time.

When I say you I generally mean the multiple not you specifically, but you (Aion) and others like you can't just hit out at people because you don't like being called up on something like this.
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Well then, you should follow my anime bargain thread on AV forums. I post most on here anyway but the AVforums thread is usually the first to have bargains posted about. :) It's just a shame there hasn't been much in the way of bargains recently...

Anyway, as I said, I do indeed buy anime - I buy the series I rate highly.

- I'm waiting for FMA to be released over in a complete box set.
- My plan is the same with Death Note. It might change depending on if Mangle license it over here, though.
- Gankutsuou is both rare and expensive. I'm going to try to get the Vol. 1 art box.
- Now and Then, Here and There seems to be impossible to get now. :(
- I'm collecting the Berserk DVD's. I'm going to get the remaining 5 volumes when they drop to £4.99 due to me buying the first volume... I probably should've waited for the MVM box set.

...Get what I'm trying to say? I DO plan to buy all my favourite series. I'm not an evil person who downloads, burns to DVD and never buys. I view downloading as a free rental service of sorts.
 
Aion said:
Arguing with a child is a pointless thing. No matter what you say they believe themselves to be in the right, not seeing any flaws in what they do, even when it's obvious. Children will continuously look for a reaction from people in order to get attention, making the adults grow tired as they refuse to learn from their mistakes, and the best method of dealing with an attention seeking child is to ignore them until they grow up.

Dracos said:
At the end of the day though I am up for a bargain us much as the next person, so you will probably see me moaning about price from time to time.

When I say you I generally mean the multiple not you specifically, but you (Aion) and others like you can't just hit out at people because you don't like being called up on something like this.
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Well then, you should follow my anime bargain thread on AV forums. I post most on here anyway but the AVforums thread is usually the first to have bargains posted about. :) It's just a shame there hasn't been much in the way of bargains recently...

Anyway, as I said, I do indeed buy anime - I buy the series I rate highly.

- I'm waiting for FMA to be released over in a complete box set.
- My plan is the same with Death Note. It might change depending on if Mangle license it over here, though.
- Gankutsuou is both rare and expensive. I'm going to try to get the Vol. 1 art box.
- Now and Then, Here and There seems to be impossible to get now. :(
- I'm collecting the Berserk DVD's. I'm going to get the remaining 5 volumes when they drop to £4.99 due to me buying the first volume... I probably should've waited for the MVM box set.

...Get what I'm trying to say? I DO plan to buy all my favourite series. I'm not an evil person who downloads, burns to DVD and never buys. I view downloading as a free rental service of sorts.
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I have been watching the ADV sale thread, so if it sounded like I accused you directly of never buying anything I appologise.

Also CG get off your high horse as I assume some form of copyright probably still covers the fansubs you watch.

I am probably a bit more like Sy buying budget boxsets along with say about half a dozen or so of the latest R1 single disc releases each month.

Although I am ranting here I can understand the draw of stuff for free. If the internet had been as big 20 years ago when I was a teen I probably would have been the biggest downloader going, but as I have got older I have started to realise the value of things and the consequences of actions.
 
Aion said:
Arguing with a child is a pointless thing. No matter what you say they believe themselves to be in the right, not seeing any flaws in what they do, even when it's obvious. Children will continuously look for a reaction from people in order to get attention, making the adults grow tired as they refuse to learn from their mistakes, and the best method of dealing with an attention seeking child is to ignore them until they grow up.

Dracos said:
At the end of the day though I am up for a bargain us much as the next person, so you will probably see me moaning about price from time to time.

When I say you I generally mean the multiple not you specifically, but you (Aion) and others like you can't just hit out at people because you don't like being called up on something like this.
Click to expand...

Well then, you should follow my anime bargain thread on AV forums. I post most on here anyway but the AVforums thread is usually the first to have bargains posted about. :) It's just a shame there hasn't been much in the way of bargains recently...

Anyway, as I said, I do indeed buy anime - I buy the series I rate highly.

- I'm waiting for FMA to be released over in a complete box set.
- My plan is the same with Death Note. It might change depending on if Mangle license it over here, though.
- Gankutsuou is both rare and expensive. I'm going to try to get the Vol. 1 art box.
- Now and Then, Here and There seems to be impossible to get now. :(
- I'm collecting the Berserk DVD's. I'm going to get the remaining 5 volumes when they drop to £4.99 due to me buying the first volume... I probably should've waited for the MVM box set.

...Get what I'm trying to say? I DO plan to buy all my favourite series. I'm not an evil person who downloads, burns to DVD and never buys. I view downloading as a free rental service of sorts.
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Well we can see that you buy DVDs but to seem less cold-hearted towards the anime DVD industry maybe less of the comments like:

"I'm not going to stop myself getting anime for free simply because a section of the anime fanbase think it's wrong to do so. That's the way I am, right or wrong."

It seems you do have ethics but then why say something like this?

What I'm trying to get across is that I can see now that you buy DVDs but when questioned about downloading fansubs your response is very "in your face".
 
CitizenGeek said:
Another lame excuse. "fansubs CREATED most anime fans, so there!". Eh, there were anime fans before fansubs were widespread. There's anime on TV, manga and anime are available on the high street - people would discover anime even if it wasn't available for free on the internet. I discovered anime through an interest in JRPGs, then I picked up some of the classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. And now my collection has well over 80 anime DVDs. People that discover anime through fansubs usually continue to use fansubs, and not buy anime except when it's discounted so they don't help the industry at all. This notion that fansubs help the anime industry is ill-conceived, I'm afraid.
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Just to point out, I wouldn't be spending any money on anime and manga if it weren't for fansubs; I never would've dreamt of picking up an anime dvd if it weren't for a few AMVs on youtube, which led me to start downloading Naruto.

Luckily now, I'm at the age where i have my first job and i'm able to spend all my money on anime and manga; and that's what I do. Admittedly, I used to download...ALOT. But now I'm still trying to change that and i spend most/all of my money on the medium. I still do download; no where near as much as i used to, and it's something I am doing less and less, but I'm still investing in series I've seen, and new series aswell.

And for all the people that hate the idea of downloading anime; I totally agree [if that's possible after the previous paragraph]~ it is wrong, and I believe it should only be allowed when the series, episode, whatever; isn't available in the UK. I'm still a bit reluctant about imports, primarily because I have so many series left to watch in R2.

That may have sounded disjointed and contridicting but I thought I'd offer my little opinion before I went off to watch some LEGALLY BOURGHT Ghost in the Shell DVDs.

~Maltos
 
I know this topic has already been ruined by childish arguing (which I admit to starting), but would it be possible to try to turn it back on topic?

I finished the series the other day. It's now my favourite anime series (topping Death Note). I recommend that Dracos and others break their anti-download stance to watch, it's worth going against your morals to see.

I reviewed the series here, so I won't go into great detail.

It's a shame what happened to Geneon resulted in a series as amazing as Gankutsuou near enough vanishing. I'm going to see if I can get Vol. 1 and go from there.

Zen 2nd said:
Well we can see that you buy DVDs but to seem less cold-hearted towards the anime DVD industry maybe less of the comments like:

"I'm not going to stop myself getting anime for free simply because a section of the anime fanbase think it's wrong to do so. That's the way I am, right or wrong."

It seems you do have ethics but then why say something like this?

What I'm trying to get across is that I can see now that you buy DVDs but when questioned about downloading fansubs your response is very "in your face".
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I'm not very good at arguing; I lose my temper/patience quickly.

Fansubs do both good and evil, creating both a large amount of new anime fans and people who don't buy anime.

It's undeniable that fansubs have played a major role in getting people with internet access into anime, allowing them to sample the goods and start to love it for free. I'm sure this point could be backed up with a poll asking how many of the people on here started anime by watching a fansub.

Sadly, it's also undeniable that fansubs have done damage to the anime industry. With anime being over-priced here (even Americans seem to think anime is over-priced!) and most people who download fansubs being teenagers, a large amount of people simply refuse to pay money when they can get it for free.

I do think it's wrong for people to download anime. However, I don't think downloading anime is a terrible thing if you do plan to buy anime; you're simply using downloading as a free rental service if you think like that.
 
Aion said:
...you're simply using downloading as a free rental service...
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That's a fair evaluation of the situation. Even though I download, I'd never keep it on discs or my HDD; I always buy [and am buying] series that i previously downloaded.
Like if you rented a film and really liked it, you'd buy it. But with anime, if you've downloaded it, no money has gone to the creators, so buying it is always important.
 
Aion said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220202136375

I SO want that set, it looks bloody stunning. I would pay at least £60 if it was on eBay.co.uk without any hesitation.

... *sigh* With Int. shipping, customs/Royal Mail handling charges, my credit cards 2.75% currency conversion charge and the risk of it going missing, it would work out being an insanely expensive risk to import. I hate living in England.
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United Publications have it for £75 and they are very trustworthy, It doesn't have a image and because off that you are feeling wiry about it.. Just email them, They get back to you in quite a quick speed. UP1 is a good thing about the UK - They always have stock for things even if they are out off print. ;p

Personally, I don't think the box is that pretty. I haven't seen the series though, It might be well worth it. ;/
 
Jayme said:
United Publications have it for £75 and they are very trustworthy, It doesn't have a image and because off that you are feeling wiry about it.. Just email them, They get back to you in quite a quick speed. UP1 is a good thing about the UK - They always have stock for things even if they are out off print. ;p

Personally, I don't think the box is that pretty. I haven't seen the series though, It might be well worth it. ;/
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Never heard of them before and their site looks verrrrry dodgy. They also don't list a price for some items, rather suspiciously insisting you call them. I'll drop them an email and see if they can supply me with a picture of the set(s) they're selling.

There's no real cheap way to get Gankutsuou - All the individual DVD's are rare and sell for a painful $18 (+ Int shipping) and the box set is extremely rare. Damn Geneon... Why did you have to die!?

The box art is the same as Vol. 1 art box. It's looks very pretty to me, but I'm in Gankutsuou love mode right now since it's just become my favourite anime.
 
Aion said:
... *sigh* With Int. shipping, customs/Royal Mail handling charges, my credit cards 2.75% currency conversion charge and the risk of it going missing, it would work out being an insanely expensive risk to import. I hate living in England.
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I am pretty careful nowadays to make sure I order from places which don't charge extra for separate packages and are not extortionate on the P&P, then I try to make sure everthing on the order has a different release date. That way unless a single package is over the £18 threashold I am pretty safe, although I do have to bite the bullit and pay the import on more expensive boxsets. I don’t mind so much paying the import as it is only VAT unless it is a hughe order. I learnt my lesson as where I normally order use UPS if it is a high value or large package, UPS are bigger shisters than the Royal Mail for extra charges. What I hate is the £8 that Royal Mail charge for paying your duty, which is a rip off as they really do nothing for the money except lose 3-4 of my pakages each year.

Back on subject it was never really a series that grabbed me from the trailers. Maybe I will give it a watch if it is one of the titles FUNi think about picking up or I luck out and pick it up at reasonable price. You mentioned mechs, how much mech/giant robot stuff is in it as I am not a huge fan of that sort of thing, which is why I am willing to watch Gundam on AC at the moment but probably would not buy any.
 
There are only 2 mecha fights in the series - There's a duel during episode 18 and, instead of simply using swords, both characters turned up in mechs with swords... In 5053 you automatically fight to the death in mechs when challenged to a duel, apparently. There's also another mecha fight right at the end.

I'm pretty sure the only reason the series is set during the year 5053 is because Gonzo wanted some CG mecha action. Most of the anime could fit into the 1800's easily, it's only the space and mecha stuff that make you think it's actually set in the future.

I want to post a video of the episode 18 fight on Youtube, the problem being that I can't find a program that will split .MKV files.
 
Is there any difference between the boxset and and the Vol 1 art box filled with the rest of the volumes, as I have had a been having a quick look around and with some play traders and other places I use I have pretty much found all the volumes in stock at around £12-£13, but have not found the box set in stock.
 
From what I've seen, there are no additional extras or the like including with the Vol. 1 art box outside of the lovely looking box itself.

The DVD box set includes all six normal sized volumes in a nice looking box, a box that has the same cover art as the Vol. 1 art box. I don't think it's the exact same box as the Vol. 1 art box - Sorry if I confused you. :)

Edit: Actually, I stand corrected - The vol. 1 art box does seem to be the exact same box as the series box set. I'm new to buying special art box editions of anime.

At £12 per volume, it works out at £72 and at £13 it works out at £78. If United Publications are legit, it would be a better plan to get the box set for £75...unless you want to watch the first volume before splashing the cash.
 
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