UK Anime Distributor MVM Entertainment Discussion Thread

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AHA-Lambda

Student Council President
Vincentdante said:
DVD's are actually bigger sellers than Blu-ray just FYI. It's only collectors like those of us on this site that pass them by. John Smith browsing the isles at HMV usually doesn't care though and get's the cheaper one. My old roomates would always get annoyed at me for buying blu-rays when DVD's were cheaper in fact lol.
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Generally this is true indeed but within niche areas like anime I’d be surprised if DVD was still bigger than DVD on new releases?
 
NottJim

NottJim

Brigade Leader
AHA-Lambda said:
Generally this is true indeed but within niche areas like anime I’d be surprised if DVD was still bigger than DVD on new releases?
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Yeah, I could see people buying non-anime DVDs in Sainsbury's being driven by price and not caring about quality, but I think the anime collectors probably skew heavily towards Blu-rays.

I could be wrong, but seeing these fire sales specifically on DVDs would seem to indicate otherwise?

Also, as everyone gets larger and larger TVs, surely there comes a point where even "normal" people won't put up with the blurriness on a huge TV?
 
Jon O Fun

Jon O Fun

Death Scythe
NottJim said:
The 12 Days of Christmas sale is here and it's showing us the stuff that did not sell, even discounted, and is now at fire sale "please god just take this, it's filling up our warehouse" pricing.

It's interesting trying to draw the line between which shows are just bad, which shows people will not buy on DVD, which shows are not bad but the fandom isn't there for them.
  • Flowers of Evil, this show is great but unfortunately, most anime fans won't look past the fact it's rotoscoped. DVD £1.99, 93% off. (no fandom)
  • GATE, I really enjoyed this show, it's dumb fun power fantasy stuff which I thought anime fans would appreciate, I'm surprised it didn't sell. Blu-ray £7.99, 84% off. (is it considered bad??)
  • Kids on the Slope, I haven't seen it, but it's an anime that's held in high respect (rated excellent on ANN)? DVD £2.99, 90% off. (won't buy DVD)
  • Princess Principle, another great show, this isn't quite as big a discount, but I feel like the writings on the wall that no one bought it. Blu-ray £79.99 -> £29.99, 62% off, look out for it in next years Christmas sale at > £10. (no fandom)
  • Serial Experiments Lain, this show is anime royalty, so this must be about the fact it's on DVD? DVD £9.99, 66% off. (won't buy DVD)
  • The Eccentric Family, this one breaks my heart that people aren't buying it, it's in my top 10 anime of all time, but I think this is another show where the small fanbase only wants it on Blu-ray. DVD £2.99, 90% off, Blu-ray £14.99, 70% off. (no fandom)(won't buy DVD)
Is DVD dead for more visual shows? I know I won't buy anything on DVD these days unless there's no other choice.
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I sent my brother the link to the sale and he bought a few blu rays but asked if God Eater was any good as the DVD parts are £3 each'ish and said he might get them...
I informed he was dead to me and that its on FuniNow for his 720p needs before calling him a filthy commoner and telling him never to speak to me again.

tl;dr yes DVD is dead unless there is zero other option.
 
awadama fever

awadama fever

Cardcaptor
In America at least, DVD sales have been increasing vs. BDs over the last few years (article here if anyone's interested):

There was an image of a nice chart here, but I guess AUKN doesn't like it - it's on the link above!

If something is only available on DVD and I want it, I'll buy it - I don't really go for the "give me blu-ray or I'll deprive myself!" approach 😅

If a BD is available, but the DVD is significantly cheaper, I'll get the DVD. MVM only released a Lull In The Sea's BD as a Collector's Edition - it was big and expensive and it came with stuff I had no interest in (like CDs I'd never listen to). I got their DVD release for £9.99 as a DOTW instead. I still got the show, MVM still got some of money from me.

Anyway, I just bought five DVDs and four BDs in this sale!
 
IdiomaticLynx

IdiomaticLynx

Student Council President
awadama fever said:
In America at least, DVD sales have been increasing vs. BDs over the last few years (article here if anyone's interested):

There was an image of a nice chart here, but I guess AUKN doesn't like it - it's on the link above!
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Interesting, though the chart doesn't tell us much. Since it only shows percentages, it's hard to say what's going on. I can imagine that the sales of DVDs have increased due to the pandemic. But from that chart alone it's not possible to conclude that at the same time Blu-rays sales "plummeted" (though it might have).

I always have the feeling that there are two "audiences" for physical releases (roughly speaking). One that mostly buys DVDs, that might not even have the equipment to play or display BD/UHD, and one that tends more towards collecting (and collector's editions), where BD and UHD might be more prominent. Obviously not as clear-cut as this, but assuming this holds, that chart could be the result of either: an increase of the former group, a decrease in the later group, or both.
 
Girls with Guns

Girls with Guns

Za Warudo
I stopped buying DVDs way back in 2008 when I went fully HD with my electronics at home. The only exception is for some anime titles that are still DVD-only - but even so, I bought the mass majority of those DVDs back around 2014-2015. I still buy maybe two or three rare DVD-only anime titles in any given year, now. This year the only DVDs I purchased were the Evangelion Platinum thinpak boxset and the two Eva follow-up movies, just to include in my anime collection since I bought the series on Blu-ray now, the El Cazador de la Bruja DVD sets because I still needed them to complete the Bee Train "Girls with Guns" trilogy in my collection, and the Koi Kaze DVD box set because a friend was selling off his copy.
 
A

AHA-Lambda

Student Council President
I rarely ever buy DVDs now, pretty much only if there is no other option whether that be blu ray or streaming

Tbh I'm not a videophile, I'm not that fussy in many ways and DVD for the longest time never bothered me, but after getting a 4K tv last year I just can't anymore; even I can see how blurry everything looks
 
Violette

Violette

Dandy Guy, in Space
There's also another good incentive to move away from DVDs specific to europe, PAL conversion/speedup, once I got a blu-ray player I avoided DVDs like the plague because of that, unless it was something I absolutely loved and was DVD only.

I know some MVM DVDs are probably ntsc, but I have no idea which ones or how many are.
 
R

Relaxo

Adventurer
MVM usually ships everything that is in stock together - and pre-orders seperately.(May combine pre-orders that are released at the same time)
You may ask them to handle it differently if preferred.
 
Magical Senshi

Magical Senshi

Hunter
In terms of items on sale, excluding early bird titles, which of those would you recommend, as I'm struggling to decide which to go for?

Before anyone answers, I'm looking for BD titles, and the ones I already have are Flip Flappers, Girlish Number, Grimoire of Zero CE, Matoi the Sacred Slayer, Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun CE, No Game No Life, Princess Principal CE, Revue Starlight CE and The Eccentric Family CE.
 
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