Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Standard Edition Blu-ray & DVD Releases Confirmed!

Well, this is absurdly annoying to see. All reports on Manga's twitter seemed to suggest no plans for a Standard Edition for some time, yet here we are, with a release date only 3 months on from the Collector's Edition, at half the price. The lack of an announcement alongside the CE seems to suggest they conned people into buying an expensive, unintentionally or not. The set is oversized, and I'm probably not going to read the book, so I'm sitting here with a set twice the price of the standard, with me gaining essentially nothing from it.
 
To be honest I saw this coming. I didn’t quite expect it this soon though. The reason I saw it coming is simple, gits is a larger franchise and so it would make no sense to have no standards available.

I’ll refuse to buy it smimply because they made it seem like this wasn’t coming, that’s not my style as far as I’m concerned that’s as @IncendiaryLemon has said and is essentially conning people into buying the big flashy edition (kudos if you wanted that, considerations if you simply wanted it and saw that as the only option) and for me that’s a way to lose my business albeit a meagre amount.
 
Eh, I don’t begrudge anyone this. Would have seemed slightly less dodgy to announce both the LE and the standard at the same time to give people choice (though given how short a time it’s been out, regretful LE buyers could probably send theirs back for refunds) but £40 is a fantastic price for both series on BD.
 
To be fair we wouldn't be getting a SE release if the CE didn't sell well like with others series by other places.
There was no SE for french release either.

Manga or any company can't state " yeah there will be one " if they don't know how the CE will be going among other things.
So a no plans at the moment was a good answer overall.
The SE will be 2 amarays with a slipcover.
 
Silly Manga UK. There's no such thing as '1st GIG'. It's like retroactively adding 'Indiana Jones' to 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
 
Wow, I just bought the deluxe edition and while very nice, it is not worth £60 more than the standard edition, especially if you already owned the various GITS:SAC movies on blu-ray.

Obviously all value judgements are subjective and buyer beware etc. but I'm feeling pretty burnt by this one.
 
I have no regrets buying the CE is a very nice set. I would have preferred the SE later down the road but it's good for those who wanted a standard
 
Happy I cancelled my order for the LE now. As I have the Korean sets already I was only considering it for the lossless dub. I'll be picking up the SE. I already have the OVAs and Movie.
Why Manga couldn't have released both LE and SE at the same time I don't know. The LE would still have sold out, just not as quickly.
 
sniper_samurai said:
It's not the official name for season 1 but it is colloquially referred to as 1st GiG by fans.
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My season 1 box set quite prominently display the words 'compleste 1st GIG Boxset' on it. Make of that what you will.

Also: I hope folk are paying attention here. On either side of the distributor / consumer divide. From this news, we can infer that 'no other editions planned at this time' when an expensive CE edition appears can be taken with a pinch of salt.

If folks are happy spending megabucks for CE releases, that's their prerogative fair and square. But I personally can't wait to see that model die a death. In recent minths, I've detected a few practices and some language being used which indicates that standard edition on-disc releases are likely to become an endangered species. Which is asinine. They should be the ground level point of access for folks wanting to own a show on disc.
 
Glad I canceled my CE set now, 1st and 2nd gig on BD for £40 is pretty great. I mean I assumed it would get a standard at some point but this is a lot faster than I imagined and far cheaper too, like I thought it would be about £30-35 per season, or even released as 4 half season sets at about £20-25 each (I'd probably have bought them at that too...) so I'm pretty happy with this outcome.

That said I can't help feel a bit bad for people who bought the expensive set thinking it was the only option due to Manga saying they had no plans for a standard, especially if what Joshawott above just said (Like I don't care about chapter markers myself but the people buying the standard shouldn't have better discs).
 
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Wow, so not only do Standard buyers get it far cheaper, with barely a release gap, they get an objectively better product? I am angry beyond belief.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Wow, so not only do Standard buyers get it far cheaper, with barely a release gap, they get an objectively better product? I am angry beyond belief.
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*puts on best Michael Winner impression*
Calm down Lemon, it’s just chapter markers. Think about this logically.
  1. Wait for the LE to sell out.
  2. Sell it on for the same if not more than you paid for it.
  3. Buy the standard edition.
  4. Profit.
HdE said:
Also: I hope folk are paying attention here. On either side of the distributor / consumer divide. From this news, we can infer that 'no other editions planned at this time' when an expensive CE edition appears can be taken with a pinch of salt.

If folks are happy spending megabucks for CE releases, that's their prerogative fair and square. But I personally can't wait to see that model die a death. In recent minths, I've detected a few practices and some language being used which indicates that standard edition on-disc releases are likely to become an endangered species. Which is asinine. They should be the ground level point of access for folks wanting to own a show on disc.
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Except the LE selling out kinda proves there was a market for it, doesn't it? As does the fact AL offer warnings when their LE stocks are low and they generally sell out fairly quickly as well. I don't see a model that's clearly working dying any time soon. And isn't this actually fairly positive for people who just want reasonably priced standard editions? All of SAC on Blu-ray, £40 (that's less than I paid for the DVD singles of ONE series back in the day) and coming quickly after the LE. Isn't that pretty much exactly what you want?

And I think what you'll eventually have to accept, however grudgingly HdE, is that cheap standard edition home media releases are not the ground level access point for anime any more - Streaming services are.
 
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Don't just believe what someone tells you (that applies to me too, by the way!) without checking. If the LE has "sold out" as some would want you to believe, how come it's still in stock at Zavvi then? Wouldn't that indicate that it's not sold out? And how are they able to offer me a replacement for my damaged set if they have no more stock left?

I think the main issues here are that whilst people kinda assumed they'd release a cheaper set at some point, you'd have expected Manga to have some decency and at least wait a few months before announcing it. They didn't even wait a month before announcing a much more user-friendly sized set and they've even rubbed salt in the wound by fixing a few issues on the discs too. The fact that it's also significantly cheaper doesn't exactly help things either.
 
クッキー said:
Don't just believe what someone tells you (that applies to me too, by the way!) without checking. If the LE has "sold out" as some would want you to believe, how come it's still in stock at Zavvi then? Wouldn't that indicate that it's not sold out? And how are they able to offer me a replacement for my damaged set if they have no more stock left?

I think the main issues here are that whilst people kinda assumed they'd release a cheaper set at some point, you'd have expected Manga to have some decency and at least wait a few months before announcing it. They didn't even wait a month before announcing a much more user-friendly sized set and they've even rubbed salt in the wound by fixing a few issues on the discs too. The fact that it's also significantly cheaper doesn't exactly help things either.
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No one here has stated that the set has sold out, Manga however have stated that remaining stock is low.
 
Manga are in the business of making money, and there's a lot more profit in a mass market seller like GITSSAC via standards than there will be in a limited edition Collector's set. It would have been naive to expect that the Collector's would be it. It was only a matter of when, rather than if. And if Zavvi's stocks are down to the double digits, that's the perfect time to announce the standards. If it had been a slower seller, I'm sure that the standards would have been announced later.

GITSSAC is like Full Metal Alchemist for me, I would have got the Collector's Edition regardless of whatever else was announced at whatever time. I suspect that most of the people who bought the Collector's wanted the Collector's... Second hand resales on e-bay because of this announcement will probably be few in number.
 
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