Manga want to know what you want in 2015... Be nice...

Just Passing Through

Just Passing Through

The Wildcard
On their Facebook Page... A whole lot of wishful thinking in their questions...

Dear beloved Manga customers! Please tell us what you'd most like to see from us in 2015?

A. More deluxe edition box sets. If so. What do you want to see in a special edition box set from Manga? E.g. Rigid art box, bonus items, more content etc. And what type of pricing?

B. Is there a particular license you want us to acquire for the UK? If so, which show or movie do you most want us to pick up for you?

C. Digital! Do you want to see more of our catalogue released online for you to view? If so, which platforms? E.g. iTunes, BlinkBox, Netflix, Viewster, Amazon Prime etc.

We look forward to hearing back from you.
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I went on there all ready to comment, then saw there'd already been over 130 comments and was like nahhh...

I think everything that needs to be said has been made plain to them already - I just hope they actually take it on board.

I do find it odd they don't specifically mention Blu-Ray at any point in that FB post though.
 
I want them to stop cancelling series or changing them to DVD only, replace faulty products instead of ignoring the issue & release more blu-rays.

Sadly I can't post feedback as I don't use Facebook & never will.

Manga UK really needs to learn that customer retention is the most important thing for niche products. I won't buy from them on release or before all volumes are out because of how unreliable they are.
 
serpantino said:
Manga UK really needs to learn that customer retention is the most important thing for niche products. I won't buy from them on release or before all volumes are out because of how unreliable they are.
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This, though I take it even further. I was a massive Manga customer back in the day and now I won't buy anything from them any more. They've ripped me off too many times and nothing about the way they do business has convinced me they're worthy of support, especially with their strategies to backstab even the most hardcore fans last year.

A Manga UK license nowadays means a guaranteed import purchase if it's a show I want to watch. I don't even know what they can do at this point to win me back other than by showing some integrity for a sustained period of time.

It's interesting that they list a bunch of streaming services and only one of them is relatively anime-focused at all. Crunchyroll might not be returning Anime Limited's calls but it's surprising that even Manga can't deal with them (they're forgiven for no Wakanim as nobody ever has any idea what's going on there, and not mentioning Animax UK might actually be a selling point).

R
 
I get the feeling Manga (or Starz) big drive now is mass-market, mainstream streaming services - someone has probably figured that the profit margins in the majority of their titles (eg. anything that isn't Shonen regulars) isn't good enough/just doesn't sell enough and have deigned to focus on streaming as that takes the cost of producing physical product out of the equation.

My feelings about this are mixed, as I'm a big advocate of streaming as the future of media consumption, but I think it needs to be paired with respect to the hardcore fans that keep this industry alive and who are still very much interested in good quality physical releases.

Having Netflix full of Death Note, AoT, Yu-Gi-Oh etc. is great, and if it gets more casuals into anime, then brilliant. But I think a company with Manga's heritage and market position owes it to itself and UK anime fans in general to 'put on a good show' as it were and in many ways act as the face of the UK industry.
 
It’s weird, in my opinion physical releases, especially Anime releases are pretty much for the collector crowd exclusively these days. When Gintama is available in its entirety on say Viewster, why would you buy the just released Blu-ray from Japan that costs £170 and only consists of the first season? Likewise with a show like GITS: S.A.C that is available in HD on the official Manga YouTube channel, why buy or release the Blu-ray at all?

Reasons like this are why I believe that Blu-ray is truly the last physical format. We're not even using the full capacity of the space available right now as is, the quality for most is more than good enough and releases are just getting more and more expensive. Streaming seems like the way to go and that seems to be the sentiment here.

It obviously makes me sad, but that's the way it is I guess. I think one issue with Manga is they never leveraged this. They hardly, if ever released a truly limited or collector’s edition. Just an amaray in a cardboard slipcover with a few postcards thrown in. That's not the way to do it. You’re in a market that is truly for the hard-core, who have the money and are willing to spend it and are subsequently spending their money elsewhere for the same releases aboard, so why not go all out on it? For what it's worth, Manga still do have their faithful’s and have ownership of some truly profitable and ludicrous IP. You have GITS, Eva, Dragon Ball, Akira. Why not leverage that diverse and respected catalogue? Release your standard amarays. That makes sense. That seems to be a big part of why Anime is big in the UK. A lot of people just want to own the show, which is why ironically they are now migrating to places like Netflix because they have no attachment to physical goods, but I digress, but please actually try and put effort in your releases. Make use of the gifts that you have.

If they are still around, I hope that the release of the Eva TV series on Blu-ray is the changing point, implying they release it. Manga have done a lot for the UK industry over the years and have released some great stuff and helped popularise Anime during its dark times in the UK. I'd like to think that Anime is a lot more popular in the UK due to them. It's just a shame at the state of affairs now. IMO Manga is somewhat of an important figure in the UK anime space.
 
Best post in that entire comments thread is the guy who said "About time we got the licence for the rest of fist of the north star isn't it?". He holds a grudge even better than I do!

R
 
People saying the future is digital really need to take into account what utter garbage the internet speeds are in a lot of the country & other countries. Companies like BT just have no big incentive to provide faster speeds, especially not in rural areas like mine where it's market 1 (BT is sole provider.) Basically I pay more for less but people have much worse than me in places. I can't watch HD in the evenings.

Websites can also be less future proof than a hard copy. The quality is always lower than a decent bluray & the often overlooked audio aspect too... Can't imagine uncompressed 7.1 becoming the norm for a very long time.

The other big one is value.. The price seldom matches the drop in quality.

I'm not a collector & I don't much care about extras & hate having to pay extra because there's no standard release. I just want my shows to watch whenever in the best quality available.
 
serpantino said:
People saying the future is digital really need to take into account what utter garbage the internet speeds are in a lot of the country & other countries. Companies like BT just have no big incentive to provide faster speeds, especially not in rural areas like mine where it's market 1 (BT is sole provider.) Basically I pay more for less but people have much worse than me in places. I can't watch HD in the evenings.

Websites can also be less future proof than a hard copy. The quality is always lower than a decent bluray & the often overlooked audio aspect too... Can't imagine uncompressed 7.1 becoming the norm for a very long time.

The other big one is value.. The price seldom matches the drop in quality.

I'm not a collector & I don't much care about extras & hate having to pay extra because there's no standard release. I just want my shows to watch whenever in the best quality available.
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The thing is, they’re never going to have 100% market penetration in any case. Not everybody has a HD TV or a Blu-ray player or even a DVD player, or internet at all never mind a fast one. I guess, the way I see it is Blu-ray releases seem to be something that is picked up by enthusiasts who want the best quality for their shows and thus they should be getting the premium treatment. I guess with the sales not making up for the effort in their eyes, and the cost to produce these shows and release them to mild sales where DVD's tend to outnumber the sales outside of Ghibli releases, well that incentives these companies to think "Hey, let’s slap it online and call it a day!" especially for shows that don’t benefit Blu-ray or are too long. I'm not saying that’s good, or what I want, just trying to rationalize and better understand how things are heading. Your tent-pole series will get physical releases, and you’ll continue to see them released in Japan but the UK market seems to be heading in a different direction. I would like to be proven wrong however, and Anime Limited seem to be going against the grain. Time will tell. I just want my End of Eva Blu-ray.
 
There are some classic shows that need to be on netflix. it's good for getting my friends to watch stuff (psycho pass, death note, FMAB,steins gate) that are must watches.
 
I want anime limited eva blu ray ultimate edition. I would pay £150 for that. I hope haruhi can get a blu ray over here too (or at least in Australia :p)
 
Cel said:
I want Naruto Shippuden: Blood Prison on Blu-Ray WITHOUT having to buy the boxset :evil:
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You can. Either get the US version or if you can't play A locked discs then look to Australia, Madman has released it on Blu-ray.
 
serpantino said:
People saying the future is digital really need to take into account what utter garbage the internet speeds are in a lot of the country & other countries. Companies like BT just have no big incentive to provide faster speeds, especially not in rural areas like mine where it's market 1 (BT is sole provider.) Basically I pay more for less but people have much worse than me in places. I can't watch HD in the evenings.
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This is me as well. I'm out in a village in the countryside and my signal drops all the time. I can only watch, Crunchyroll for example, in SD (and 480 at a real push). Half the reason I was reluctant to take out a subscription, though getting rid of the ads will help. This is why I get eager for shows to be released physically even if they are available readily online...because it can take me over an hour at times to watch a 25 minute episode. Sometimes just trying to get on the internet to watch something is a real pain!

Just being able to sit down and put a DVD in and not to have an episode lag every 5 minutes is bliss!
 
black1blade said:
I want anime limited eva blu ray ultimate edition. I would pay £150 for that. I hope haruhi can get a blu ray over here too (or at least in Australia :p)
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I'd pay more than double that, easily! I know I know, I shouldn't be giving them any ideas but what can I say! I'd pay £150 of End of Eva alone! :p
 
I'm thinking about buying the fate stay night heavens feel blu rays as they come out so your not alone there. I wonder if the jap eva box will have english subs or not.
 
PandoraHane said:
serpantino said:
People saying the future is digital really need to take into account what utter garbage the internet speeds are in a lot of the country & other countries. Companies like BT just have no big incentive to provide faster speeds, especially not in rural areas like mine where it's market 1 (BT is sole provider.) Basically I pay more for less but people have much worse than me in places. I can't watch HD in the evenings.
Click to expand...

This is me as well. I'm out in a village in the countryside and my signal drops all the time. I can only watch, Crunchyroll for example, in SD (and 480 at a real push). Half the reason I was reluctant to take out a subscription, though getting rid of the ads will help. This is why I get eager for shows to be released physically even if they are available readily online...because it can take me over an hour at times to watch a 25 minute episode. Sometimes just trying to get on the internet to watch something is a real pain!

Just being able to sit down and put a DVD in and not to have an episode lag every 5 minutes is bliss!
Click to expand...

I was in a similar situation (until last year when Fibre came available).

Companies who are thinking 'digital only' also need to consider that not everyone will have an unlimited usage; a variety of service providers still offer 'restrictive' limits on broadband; BT keep trying to sign-me-up to their faster fibre broadband but it has a 10GB allowance. 10GB is nothing nowadays; just as a perspective the Halo: Master Chief Collection update was 20GB - and that's just an update.

I always prefer physical releases, as it actually feels like I own the product, besides I can then watch that product wherever I want with no restrictions.
 
Raildex.

In fact, for every anime company reading this: Raildex.
In fact, for even non-anime companies reading this: Raildex. Yes British Gas, I will convert my coverage to you if you can license and release Raildex.
 
A: Just a better box/case will do and obviously it will be slightly more expensive so give us extra content so it's worth the price.

B: Chihayafuru*, Ao Haru Ride, Cardcaptor Sakura*, Golden Time, Great Teacher Onizuka*, Haikyuu!!, Non Non Biyori, Tamako Market, Space Brothers*. All on DVD and Blu-ray or Double pack.
* - most wanted

C: Not in to digital but I guess on Netflix.

P.S I think all Naruto fans here deserve the reason why Blood Prison was not released on Blu-Ray on its own and only on DVD.
 
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