Honneamise coming to Europe?

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
In a recent press release that outlines their future buisness strategies, worldwide anime publisher Bandai Visual have announced that they intend to roll out their premium DVD label "Honneamise" across North America, Asia and eventually, Europe.

Having launced late last year in North America, Honneamise have already released an expensive, limited edition version of the classic sci-fi anime Patlabor. The idea is to "focus more on developing high-quality, high value-added products ... the company aims to rebuild its business in America by implementing this business model which emphasizes a “Made in Japanâ€
 
For a minute there I thought it was news of an imminent relase of the old Gainax classic! Ban Dai have been very successful with the Beez label though, so I suppose this is still good news.
 
Hehe, I admit I'm teasing people on purpose with regards to the thread subject :) But yeah, a release of the Gainax movie is essential.
 
I honestly think Honneamise is one of the greatest anime movies ever. I watched it a couple of years agoon sci-fi, at first I thought it was quite boring but as it wore on I saw the realistic nature of its events, and great characterisation with a really compelling story.

As someone on animenfo says: 'a deep, insightful, slow paced classic from Gainax.'
 
Whether or not it's genuine?

Anyway, this is good news, I was allready considering the Patlabor re-releases & if there's a chance they'll come out here then I'll definitley get them and everything else in the hopes of seeing Gunbuster.
 
Not sure where I read it, but apparently the licensing of Gunbuster (license now lapsed) is linked to the licensing of Gunbuster 2. Or its the reverse way around if you see where I am coming from.

Basically both must be licensed as part of the same deal, with I presume the condition that the licenser commits to releasing both.

I imagine that the licensing of Gunbuster 2 is expensive enough in the first place.

But basically, Gunbuster would be a great signature title for the Honneamise label.

Though the odd attitude of the Honneamise label, restoring margins to the anime market through higher prices and justifying them with 'value-added' stuff, seems a bit funny. It could backfire spectacularly if it starts marketing exclusively towards the collector market. If they think that they can force in japanese-style price markup in europe & the US its going to implode considerably. Unusual circumstances make the japanese DVD buying public tolerant of their price model, its not something that can be exported.

Even in the US, anime is already at the high point of the DVD price spectrum (even still considering the massively discounted collected sets that distributers whine about), and their prices are far better than ours. I simply can't imagine paying more, certainly not for TV series. There are a limited amount of titles that I would be willing to pay top dollar for, Gunbuster 1&2 yes, properly remastered domestic versions of The Wings of Honneamise, yes. But not many really.
 
Laughing Manji said:
Not sure where I read it, but apparently the licensing of Gunbuster (license now lapsed) is linked to the licensing of Gunbuster 2. Or its the reverse way around if you see where I am coming from.

Basically both must be licensed as part of the same deal, with I presume the condition that the licenser commits to releasing both.
Click to expand...

I've seen that posted a lot as well but it was more like fan speculation, i.e "I imagine that whoever has Gunbuster 1/2 will want to release both."

The super expensive release would never fly over here, the kind of folks who can aford that would buy the american or even the japanese versions anyway. I reckon there could be a solid enough market for the basic versions though even if both Patlabor movie scan be had for a tenner.
I know they're not great quality but the prices will speak for themselves when it comes to choice.
 
The quote was attributed to John Sirabella CEO (?) of Media Blasters who said that:
Top o Nerae 1& 2 are tied together, and that Media BLasters weren't interested
 
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