MVM Interview

Dave said:
I must admit there seem to be no reward at all buying single now apart from getting them early. It should be single buyers get the best version possible then the eventual cheaper box set should the be no frill version. BEEZ seem to be doing the reverse now, I would be angry if I brought the Wolf Rain or Gundam wing singles to now see the deluxe cheaper box set.
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I would be kinda annoyed, but looking on the bright side it seems like they've got the message. That being, a single disc with no extras is not worth £20 and very few people are willing to pay that. Looking at the Bandai site from another thread which linked to it indicates most of Beez' singles have dropped to £10 (at least for the moment). Beez, Manga and to some extent Funimation seem to have their fingers on the pulse. The danger for MVM is that I, along with others, look at our MVM releases and think "I wish I'd imported instead" And then next time, we do. This is why I think instead of trying to justify MVM's actions to each other, a little criticism might do them some good.
 
Dave said:
... Apart from the occasional bad cover print, MVM are frankly the best overall quality as I know the disc itself will never let me down. Price are falling gradually as at one point all releases were £20 rrp mvm have now lowered it to £15.99 rrp. Also MVM now are releasing 26 part series on 4 disc which would been unheard of couple years ago.

I just don't see the massive fuss over print cover quality as it just going to unseen most of the time on the shelf.
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If this (highlighted text) is in reference to their Slayers release, Central park media released Slayers on 4 discs back in 2002... I haven't heard of any other MVM releases following the same pattern; I could be wrong though.
 
Me-Mania said:
Dave said:
... Apart from the occasional bad cover print, MVM are frankly the best overall quality as I know the disc itself will never let me down. Price are falling gradually as at one point all releases were £20 rrp mvm have now lowered it to £15.99 rrp. Also MVM now are releasing 26 part series on 4 disc which would been unheard of couple years ago.

I just don't see the massive fuss over print cover quality as it just going to unseen most of the time on the shelf.
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If this (highlighted text) is in reference to their Slayers release, Central park media released Slayers on 4 discs back in 2002... I haven't heard of any other MVM releases following the same pattern; I could be wrong though.
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Not MVM per se but originally distributed by MVM on behalf of FUNimation, Fruits Basket was released on 4 volumes also.

ayase said:
You're telling me they don't wanna grow the market?
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I didn't say that the distributors didn't want to grow the market but that there is not (in my opinion) a great deal of potential growth in the market to begin with. The people you talk about downloading and such are exactly the kind of people who are least likely to buy, especially from the UK market. If they have the wherewithal to be able to find anime to download they are reasonably certain to be able to find US shops and have the ability to play imported discs. All that is assuming that they would even pay for something they downloaded for free no matter what the price. The simple fact is, the market for anime is not that large in the UK.

As far as advertising goes, there are adverts in specialist magazines such as Neo. That sort of advertising, on top of (probably) being cheaper will be the most likely to turn into actual sales. The simple fact is large scale advertising costs lot of money, which would be unlikely to generate more interest from different demographics than cheaper focused advertising. In this day-and-age a great many people know what anime is and the vast majority of those really don't care less for it. Fighting an uphill struggle like that and taking on the big producers like Warner, Disney and their ilk is not something that a small outfit like MVM could possibly do. It costs a money just to get product on shelves in some cases (Tesco, Asda and the like) and still does not guarantee that units will not be returned if they do not sell.

In the case of artwork I personally don't have a great issue with it. As far as I am concerned it fits the purpose. In terms of what they can do for artwork this is limited to what they are provided by the studio/master licence-holder. You seem to have particular issue with particular cases dating a few years back. Basing an argument on such a case doesn't really stand up too well if you are automatically counting out any more recent releases.

I understand your arguments but I just don't feel, in my gut, that they stand up to the cold eye of reality. To my mind what you suggest requires a lot of work with a lot of capitol behind it for little-to-no gain.
 
Gawyn said:
You seem to have particular issue with particular cases dating a few years back. Basing an argument on such a case doesn't really stand up too well if you are automatically counting out any more recent releases.
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Leaving our marketing / sales debate for the moment (we can leave it for when we both run anime distribution companies ;) ) I can give you a list of the MVM titles I own (old and new) which have poor quality, inconsistent or otherwise lacking packaging:

Black Lagoon (inconsistent spines, reversible sleeves ommited from volumes 2, 3 and 3 of Second Barrage. Poor print quality on Second Barrage 3)
Ergo Proxy (inconsistent spines, poor quality print on volumes 3-5)
Lain (inconsistent spines)
Texhnolyze (very poor print quality on volume one. Blue-green colour used throughout is different on every volume.)
Urusei Yatsura films - The spine of The Final Chapter is a duplicate of the previous film, including the picture and not leaving enough room for the title so the T is missed off. Always My Darling has the synopsis of The Final Chaper on the back.

And we can add to this Yagami's comments about the Chobits covers. Having seen the R1 editions of Black Lagoon, Ergo, Texhnolyze and UY, I can attest that they don't suffer from these problems. Therefore they can't be laid at anyone's door other than MVM. While I don't feel particularly justified complaining about Urusei Yatsura or Lain as I got those titles cheaply, Black Lagoon and Ergo Proxy I pre-ordered and so feel a little hard done by having spent £60-£70 on each series. As previously stated, it's simply a question of value for money - I don't feel MVM are giving that to me. As a result, I'm likely to go back to importing titles they release if they don't sort these problems out.
 
The UK is a **** country, filled with idiots who are happy to enjoy that latest Hollywood offering without even trying anything different. Very few would buy anime even if it was cheaper - I know this from the anime bargain threads I've had going for over a year now. There's no point selling anime in the UK if making money is the reason behind doing so.

As for the cost of anime in the UK, I'm sure the blame lies with the country/how much it costs to release DVDs more than it does with the likes of MVM. If they could release anime at the same price it sells for in America and make money then I'm sure they would at least try to compete with the American market. Beez are the only distributor who deserve to be attacked for pricing people out of buying anime.

Moving on to the print quality of MVM releases, it's true that MVM don't seem to put much effort into their releases. As much as I like the slimpack Ah! My Goddess box and covers, it annoys me quite a bit how what's printed on the front of the DVDs wasn't done correctly, resulting in the words looking faded and the quality not looking up to the standard I expect official releases to be at. The fact that MVM, unlike ADV, release slimpack box sets makes up for this but it's still bothersome.
 
ayase said:
Gawyn said:
Black Lagoon (inconsistent spines, reversible sleeves ommited from volumes 2, 3 and 3 of Second Barrage. Poor print quality on Second Barrage 3)
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My 2nd Black Lagoon Volume has some weird double printing effect going on, making it look like a drunken double image.

Still, so long as the discs work I'm not too bothered. My inner collector screams, but that's just me being obsessive - at the end of the day it's fairly trivial.
 
Gawyn said:
Me-Mania said:
Dave said:
... Apart from the occasional bad cover print, MVM are frankly the best overall quality as I know the disc itself will never let me down. Price are falling gradually as at one point all releases were £20 rrp mvm have now lowered it to £15.99 rrp. Also MVM now are releasing 26 part series on 4 disc which would been unheard of couple years ago.

I just don't see the massive fuss over print cover quality as it just going to unseen most of the time on the shelf.
Click to expand...

If this (highlighted text) is in reference to their Slayers release, Central park media released Slayers on 4 discs back in 2002... I haven't heard of any other MVM releases following the same pattern; I could be wrong though.
Click to expand...
Not MVM per se but originally distributed by MVM on behalf of FUNimation, Fruits Basket was released on 4 volumes also.
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LOL completely forgot about that title and I owned the MVM release. That release was one off for it period for any company, I was surprised they could even afford to release it. But Fruit basket was a premier title of it day, releasing three old series like slayer on 4 disc each at £15.99 instead of £19.99 today shows how much MVM have grown.


All this talk about bad covers seems just trivial compared what really matter the discs themselves which are fab. I would rather have them then:

1.) Having missing subtitles
2.) Poor video encoding
3.) Missing English subtitle track for english dub when it desperately required
4.) Having Pre-Orders or already released titles cancelled because they can't get the stock.

These are problem I never get with today's releases from MVM but have gotten these problems with BEEZ, ADV & Revelation.

Importing titles from USA is not always all it cracked up to be, not including what I mentioned before, What happens if you get a faulty product? I thinks it unlikely companies will pay for expense of sending item back and forth across the Atlantic, that will come out of your own pocket and would not be cheap, a service which generally free over here.

MVM are good company if you ignore them and only decide to import from the USA you going to miss out on so many titles:

Chobits
Daphne In The Brilliant Blue
FLCL
Gun Sword
Haibane Renmei
Paranoia Agent
Petite Cossette
Read Or Die TV
Requiem From The Darkness
Revolutionary Girl Utena Movie
Saiyuki Reload
Serial Experiments Lain
Starship Operators
Tenjho Tenge
Texhnolyze
Trigun

There something for everyone there.
 
Oh there's something alright. Something called Wallet Rape and **** covers.

And there's plenty of companies that spcialise in importing anime and the like in the uk. There's United publications (http://www.up1.co.uk) Otaku.co.uk (http://www.otaku.co.uk) and more besides.

Most of these guys show up at any given convention as well, so You can get those two boxsets of GaoGaiGar for £30 or that Double Box Set of the first two FMP series for £50 and the like.

You'd be lucky to get anywhere near half the series for that if you went to MVM and thier wallet sodimising ways.
 
Dave said:
LOL completely forgot about that title and I owned the MVM release. That release was one off for it period for any company, I was surprised they could even afford to release it. But Fruit basket was a premier title of it day, releasing three old series like slayer on 4 disc each at £15.99 instead of £19.99 today shows how much MVM have grown.


All this talk about bad covers seems just trivial compared what really matter the discs themselves which are fab. I would rather have them then:

1.) Having missing subtitles
2.) Poor video encoding
3.) Missing English subtitle track for english dub when it desperately required
4.) Having Pre-Orders or already released titles cancelled because they can't get the stock.

These are problem I never get with today's releases from MVM but have gotten these problems with BEEZ, ADV & Revelation.
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I believe some of us are collectors and get annoyed when they get anything, but a perfect product. Guess this is just human nature.
 
@Dave, you say you'd "rather have this bad thing than that other bad thing". Do you not think us, the people who are paying for anime, should not suffer from these lazy consistent errors? Especially if we're paying the prices of MVM single releases..
 
Akaten said:
Kudos to everyone at MVM for their hard work in creating a viable business from both selling and licensing anime for UK fans, and hope people who are actually interested in supporting them continue to do so, especially with the recession and the massive fall in the value of the sterling against the dollar and yen.
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That's one reason MVM are my favorite distributor in the uk, and also why i purchase all MVM titles (the ones that interest me at least) from Anime on line because i know the money is going straight to MVM.
 
But Madman do the translation and subtitles and authoring of MVM's discs. All MVM have to do is produce consistent cover art with decent print quality and I, as a collector to whom these things matter, might be inclined to buy more of their releases. But they don't, and I'm not. Hence, I'll buy the R1 version if one exists, or just rent the discs.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
But Madman do the translation and subtitles and authoring of MVM's discs. All MVM have to do is produce consistent cover art with decent print quality and I, as a collector to whom these things matter, might be inclined to buy more of their releases. But they don't, and I'm not. Hence, I'll buy the R1 version if one exists, or just rent the discs.
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I also agree with this, in fact the only DVDs I do buy over here nowdays are from Beez, as they have been realeasing quality over the past year.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
But Madman do the translation and subtitles and authoring of MVM's discs. All MVM have to do is produce consistent cover art with decent print quality and I, as a collector to whom these things matter, might be inclined to buy more of their releases. But they don't, and I'm not. Hence, I'll buy the R1 version if one exists, or just rent the discs.
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Madman do not translate the DVDs in most cases. In the vast majority of cases they get the subtitles and translations from the US. MVM have and (and maybe still do although this is a little uncertain since Madman was taken over year or so ago) contributed to the production costs with Madman to produce PAL masters. Certainly the expertise exists with Madman to the greater part but many titles would have been delayed and some possibly never released in Australia without MVM's input.
 
That makes it even WORSE for MVM. The thing's been looked over at least twice before they get thier hands on it and they still can't print out a decent cover?

And they still ask us up to twice the amount america usualy asks for.
 
They don't ask for twice the amount that America asks for. You, along with many other importers don't seem to realise that currency is relative to the country you're purchasing from.

For instance, Daphne in the Brilliant Blue is RRPing at 14.99 in the UK and in the US is RRPing at 29.99. Right now with the conversion there it's actually cheaper to buy in the UK - but that's irrelevant as they are pricing for the USA and MVM are pricing for the UK. In relation to other prices of niche DVD titles anime in England is very reasonably priced.

hmv are pricing Curse of the Golden Flower at 19.99 for a standard, non-HD release. That's a film that was brought to the UK and was in the cinema, in comparison the Tenchi Muyo Ryo-ohki OAV is retailing at 29.99, and that's only £10 more than a single film for 13 episodes.

Complaints over the lacklustre covers are fairly apt with MVM as of late; however, to complain about the price is foolhardy. It's a niche marketplace which is cheaper than many other asian films and other niche marketplaces.

Someone also mentioned worse products equal better prices. In this situation that's right. They have clearly spent less on producing a few logos for DVD cases and owing to the fact that the prices have remained stable, they're going to get more money from that release.

To be honest with you, given the exchange rate at the moment we should be lucky we're getting as much out of all of the companies as we do at the moment. I would much rather see a thousand poorly done covers than loose an entire series. Which given the current climate may be likely in the longterm.
 
There's a number of things to remember here regarding pricing - firstly, UK companies have to pay BBFC fees, not once but twice - that's because the BBFC insist on charging for subtitled and dubbed versions of the same program.

Secondly, and it may be a cliche, but its more expensive to do business in the UK, and that gets passed on to the consumer. With the pound failing we're starting to see that gap close, but you realise it is actually illegal for companies to import and sell non-rated DVD's right? That's why Cyber City Anime in Leeds was closed down.

That said, I do import some series myself, so I'm not criticising the practice, I just think its important to understand the market before condemning a company needlessly.

Also, the reason MVM and Manga are talking to UKA is because they approached the distributors and asked - it's not rocket science ^^

Lastly, I'd just say that if you have a criticism of a company, why not email them and make your point - I doubt many companies trawl through forums for market research (as much as we might think they should!) and if the criticism is made politely and constructively they might actually do something about it.
 
There's also VAT to take into consideration. That accounts for more than £2.50 of a £15 DVD. After discounts from online retailers, prices for single DVDs are perfectly reasonable, but slow release schedules don't help matters. MVM have just released the first of six volumes of Desert Punk, for example, which is £10 a disc from the cheapest online stores. A few weeks ago I bought Funimation's Viridian collection for £18.

But I'm not sure how it's relevant to point out that it's illegal for UK based companies to supply non-rated DVDs. Even if the authorities did give a crap -- the continued existence of United Publications and Otaku suggests that they don't -- there's nothing to stop foreign stores supplying UK customers.
 
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