Shiroi Hane said:
Neferpitou said:
But not having a DUB is no longer essential for UK release as BEEZ proved with licensing Durarara! SUB only and with MANGA UK suggesting they may consider a similar approach.
It will only be "proved" if the experiment is successful - and since this one is getting a dub anyway it is a little moot (although they will still have the sales figures from the sub release to pore over, not that we're likely to see them).
It also isn't exactly the first sub-only DVD - Vexille, for example, which sold 30% of what the CG Appleseed did (according to Manga) while being an expensive license.
You can't say the sole reason why Vexille sales figures are worse than Appleseed is simply becuase of a lack of a English DUB. Appleseed is already an established title with multiply manga volumes and and OVA all released in english. With the creator begining Masamune Shirow who was the person behind the Ghost in the shell franchise. The Appleseed movie would always get massive boost in sales because of his name attached. By the way Ghost in the Shell Movies are still the biggest selling Anime titles for Manga UK on VHS and DVD. With that name behind Appleseed would always have sold more than Vexille Dub or Not.
Gunbuster 2 was a successful Sub only release If you are looking for an example of one. BEEZ must have some belief in SUB only release with them planning to release Durarara! at one point and other series in future too.
Jayme said:
Neferpitou said:
I never mentioned comparing MANGA to MVM title in term sales. It just shows with titles like Daphne you never can tell what will be successful in the UK.
I wouldn't call it successful in the UK though. It might have done well by MVM's standards, but MVM aren't the biggest around.
Who to say if released by Manga it wouldn't have sold even better. Manga are even taking a similar path now with: Master Of Martial Hearts. Anyway it's not how many titles you sell that matters its the profit margin you make. If Manga released Dragon Ball and One Piece in this country then no question they would out sell more than 90% of all other UK titles. But with the high fees Toei are asking even with massive sales they could still easily lose money on the titles.
Shiroi Hane said:
Neferpitou said:
Also the internet popularity you talking about is general USA consensus as that where the majority these fans are from as that the biggest English speaking anime market. Titles which were hits in the USA like Yu Yu Hakusho and Sailormoon have both flopped badly when released in the UK. A title not going to sell well just because it popular online or in the USA, it's not simply as that.
When did YYH get released in the UK? Or Sailor Moon for that matter? I'm curious, but I would have loved to have snapped YYH up if it did. Both are them are popular due to tv showings, YYH got shown on [AS] and SM was a sensation of sorts when it first came over. There are them fans, fans of certain titles from tv shows and probably make up a larger proportion of anime buying and make things hits (Naruto, again). Did YYH ever get shown here? I don't recall anything like that. I would still make the argument that although there might be some differences, most anime fans are internet-savvy enough and form up a consensus with the rest of the English-speaking world. You don't often know where the fans are, Australia, India, America or even the UK. It's just one blur of popularity. When something gets released and does well in the US, why wouldn't it do well over here? America is a just sample group for us and our companies. LS didn't get released here (well, yet) because of how it didn't do as expected in the US (mind, that might have had something to do with the lavish box sets). Bebop was popular stateside, was popular here. DBZ was popular stateside, was popular here, Naruto was... If the title is big enough, it probably will sell well over here. It probably is as simple as that.
YYH and Sailormoon where both released by MVM. MVM mention frequently that licensing Sailormoon was one of it not their biggest ever mistakes. At the time Sailormoon was one of the few or maybe the first Shojo to break into USA market. With no competition in the UK it still flopped badly. I am not sure what the UK fanbase was like when Saliormoon was released, but looking at last Expo I attend it was near equal split between Males/Females. So if was similar then there would been fan base to buy it but they still ignored the title.
Even with so many Anime/Manga fans speaking English around the world the bulk of them are still American based. So its still their majority opinion on the matter. Being popular in one country doesn't necessary mean it will popular elsewhere. Otherwise One Piece would be the biggest title in the USA as it is in Japan, but of course we know that is not so.
A couple more examples of beginning popular in one country and not in another:
BEEZ has mentioned that in Europe their biggest ever selling title was City Hunter which was no near as successful in USA.
Voltron and Robotech similar anime titles which were big on US TV and both successful when later released on DVD in USA. When released in the UK: Robotech did very well But Voltron didn't get past volume 1.
Its simply not that easy to know what will sell and what will in the UK.
I don't think you can say Dragon Ball Z was that successful over here, it only had 3 movies ever released here. Lucky Stars maybe be announced soon and maybe it didn't get UK release as they were asking for too much money for it?
Jayme said:
Neferpitou said:
Taking other things in account like Bleach having more filler than D.Gray Man, D.Gray Man is a newer release so has more of Buzz around it and Bleach currently getting a lot more criticism of late could all affect latest DVD volumes sales. Its not that simply to say which is the more profitable show for MANGA UK.
Bleach is getting a lot of criticism, but so does Naruto and that does fantastically. I think your really confusing quality with popularity.
Shiroi Hane said:
Neferpitou said:
Internet popularity does not always equal good retail sales. One Piece gets a much better reception online than either Bleach or Naruto who often get slated a lot more. But One Piece still trails way behind either of them in actual retail sales in the west.
One Piece, yeah, I suppose gets a better reception online and generally as well, but that doesn't mean the fanbase of One Piece is anything like Naruto and Bleach's. One Piece fans certainly are avid, but One Piece is (from what I've noticed) only watched by people who like anime. People who have seen a decent amount and consider themselves fans of the medium. With Naruto, apart from the anime fans, it's recongised beyond that. Naruto has shown for years on UK TV and even Bleach had a short run on Anime Central. A while back, if you got into Naruto whilst [DB] was subbing, you would have watched Bleach as well. They just went hand in hand, and CR and stuff has helped keep them together.
Bleach is getting way way more criticism than Naruto at the moment. But it still popular online,why? Simply because they are can read it for free and it not like it takes that long to read with the latest Bleach chapters. I swear a lot people just read Bleach theses days to later troll on about it online. Its one thing to read a short manga chapter each week illegal for free online, its another thing to ask someone to pay for it.
One Piece for one week was the most downloaded title worldwide beating the biggest USA shows for the week. No other Anime title even got into the top 20 that week. Never heard Naruto or Bleach do that. Just show how popular One Piece is worldwide but still falls short on sales in certain countries.
