New Anime Releases 06/07/09

I suppose it's best we all get used to such responses...

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On another note, this is the first I've heard of Miyazaki working with pandas. The mind almost boggles...
 
Pre-ordered the LE of Gurren Lagann, but I would be surprised if it's a mistake, and I receive the normal version instead. Sounds too good to be true with the RRP, and the fact it's the same as the standard edition.
 
Wow that Gurren Laggan is exspensive!
There's so many anime i need to buy!
*sigh*
Oh well. Guess ill have to become a male prostitute to get some money.
 
Akaihane said:
Pre-ordered the LE of Gurren Lagann, but I would be surprised if it's a mistake, and I receive the normal version instead. Sounds too good to be true with the RRP, and the fact it's the same as the standard edition.

This is what I am very afraid of and why I haven't ordered it yet. I keep looking at the page every day hoping the name will change or that it will mention the limited edition bonuses on the page.
 
Aion said:
While I don't want the people employed by Beez to not be getting any money, I feel the UK anime industry would be better without Beez. I think Manga would've gotten TTGL if Beez hadn't - it's popular, has lots of action and would sell lots for the prices Manga sell anime for.

For the record here - I actually argued for a lower RRP but doing the maths I see the logic. Ultimately RRP is only a guideline anyway and online discount reduces the price significantly as you can see though - which is a small blessing at least.

Regarding the cheap box-sets, I've actually done the maths behind those and looked at the unit sales and realistically if that's the way you want the market to go then more fans need to actually start buying them to convince me to recommend it! I can't say much more than that due to it not being my business too amongst other reasons really but there are follow-ons from it with some pretty serious ramifications really if current trends behind the scenes continue. I could and may well yet write a whole piece on this one day just to highlight it all to everyone though (perhaps the day I lose my job or such which would make the Anime Industry/fandom a better place I'm sure...!)

At any rate I do everything I try and drive for lower at the very least online for people as much as possible. Right now even for the RRP you're shaving money off the 2 DVD release as standard from what it used to be, online even more so just now. Ideally I would like to see more shaved off in future though in line with £15 a DVD at the very least mirroring the price model of MVM for example - but it all depends on how things go etc. An LE though is by all definitions going to cost more based on the extras and quality of the set.

You're also confusing the UK Anime Industry with the UK Anime fanbase there, unless you're saying that I or my colleagues are a particular menace to the industry, as at the price per episode of certain shows a cheap DVD release != necessarily a profit no matter how many cheap volumes you sell sadly! I'll see what I can do to change things over the next few months though - as ever I do take criticism on board if people bring it to me - consistently acting as one of the only members of the industry to come to you guys and ask your opinion or take your feedback directly online in the UK.

Out of personal curiosity at what price would people say the standard 2 DVD edition would be an "acceptable" price? £30 or £25? Not talking online retail but RRP here.

Aion said:
Like has been mentioned, Manga's releases have shown up Beez. No-one wants to pay £50 for a boardgame extra.

If you're referring to Gundam Seed then I you can look at it that way - or you can look at the boardgame as it is - an extra and the DVDs to be £10 each, saving you £50 off RRP for the 5 DVDs alone. One can argue that is not a high enough discount off a boxset and what people want is a cheaper set with the barebones discs just - but sales for it suggest otherwise as does the fact the initial ship-out for Gundam Seed Destiny box sets was very high as well.

In the case of Gurren Lagann we're offering a regular version in high a high quality box so if after it in the UK you don't have to pay for an LE if you don't want it and I'll certainly pass on the comments to others who hopefully can make a change too on the production-side too. Sadly these changes takes time when you're only a decent sized cog in a much larger machine though >.>.

Hope this helps a bit anyway :)!

- Andrew,
Beez Entertainment.
 
beez_andrew said:
Out of personal curiosity at what price would people say the standard 2 DVD edition would be an "acceptable" price? £30 or £25? Not talking online retail but RRP here.


Either is fine I'm obviously routing for the £25 though
 
I think £25-£30 for a 2-DVD LE box set AFTER online discount, sounds like a good price to me, so I guess that would usually equate to about £40 RRP or so? Maybe a little less if it was a standard, non-LE box set, say £30 RRP.

@ beez_andrew - Is the regular edition of Gurren Lagann an art box set as well, just without the LE extras? Or are they normal DVD case releases?

I do love the fact that Manga has released shows like Ouran and xxHOLiC for such low prices, but at the same time I would rather it that they were a little more expensive but came with a nice small box rather than just standard DVD cases. Say something similar to Funimation's new release of Full Metal Alchemist. Ouran and xxxHOLiC just don't look that impressive when I look at my shelves. I just like it when a series is packaged together, and try to avoid buy singles except for when it comes to movies or short OAVs.
 
£25 would be a good retail price for a standard 2 DVD edition. This would be discounted by online retailers to around £18, bringing the per-disc price to just below what one would pay for MVM's single-disc releases after discount (£10).

I don't think it's realistic to expect Beez to adopt Manga's release model. We're talking about a company with Naruto and Bleach, as well as high profile titles such as Hellsing Ultimate. But Beez should at least look to be competitive with MVM.
 
What is the "standard" two disc release? 12/13 episodes? If £40 RRP isn't acceptable to people then you really need to look into other hobbies.
 
In the past, when Manga weren't respected, I'm sure a lot of people put their noses up and went with the more expensive anime options for quality.

Times have changed. Not only are Manga licensing popular titles without flaws, they're releasing them in multi-disc sets and charging a low RRP. And, like you said, online retailers always cut a lot off the RRP. When you buy Manga releases these days, you get quality for cheap.

I've noticed that, of late, Manga titles don't drop in price for lengthy periods after their release. Having checked the sales ranking of a few DVDs on Amazon from time to time, I can only conclude that Manga have now reached a point where their releases are selling steadily enough for stores not to feel the need to cut prices beyond the initial RRP cut.

Similar things are happening in America. They aren't selling for quite as cheap, but Funimation are now releasing complete sets for reasonable amounts. Manga are seemingly getting good deals because of this, Manga having released a lot of Funimation titles recently. And even Bandai don't charge a huge amount ($40, which once upon a time translated into £20) for their double disc releases.

I don't know the Manga and Beez sales statistics, but Manga must surely be selling a lot more than Beez simply because they've been licensing so much and charging so little. And Manga must be making a profit somehow for them to keep selling DVDs with such low RRPs. So, it begs the question: If they're able to make a profit out of doing what they're doing, why don't the other distributors compete? There are more shounen series out there than Bleach and Naruto. D. Gray-man is long, One Piece shouldn't be impossible to pick up and there are older titles out there that have a following.

I don't hate Beez, it's just that, from my point of view, they're a barrier that's in the way of anime becoming affordable enough for an average person to buy anime. Something is wrong when one distribitour is selling double disc sets for £20 (RRP) and another is charging £35. And it isn't as if Beez mirror Bsndai on the Anime Legends box set front.

Put simply, when I can pre-order the first two disc sets of both Claymore and DtB for £24, I'm going to do that instead of paying for TTGL (standard edition) alone. I think a lot of other people feel the same way.
 
ilmaestro said:
What is the "standard" two disc release? 12/13 episodes? If £40 RRP isn't acceptable to people then you really need to look into other hobbies.

10 at first, then 8 (26 episode series). And Manga put a £20 RRP on those releases.
 
So three sets for a 26 ep series? Okay, probably more like £30 would be a fair RRP. £20 RRP is clearly a massive bargain, working out at less than £10 per disc if they went with a traditional seven disc singles release.
 
Well, £25 would be more competitive than £35. £20>£35 is quite a gap for the same amount of episodes, where as a £5 RRP gap would probably result in the sets being cut in price to around £15-£17 by retailers.

Manga's two disc releases tend to get a discount of £8 by the major online retailers, leaving it at £6 per disc on release. And, in some instances, Manga's complete series releases cost as little as £12 on release. I have Shigurui(sp?) pre-ordered for £12.
 
Well, I would get that Bleach set, but I don't think it would sit very well next to my pitiful standard edition 1st series set... >.>
 
Aion said:
Well, £25 would be more competitive than £35. £20>£35 is quite a gap for the same amount of episodes, where as a £5 RRP gap would probably result in the sets being cut in price to around £15-£17 by retailers.

Manga's two disc releases tend to get a discount of £8 by the major online retailers, leaving it at £6 per disc on release. And, in some instances, Manga's complete series releases cost as little as £12 on release. I have Shigurui(sp?) pre-ordered for £12.
Well, how about manga move to £25 and Beez go to £30, then your psychological £15 barrier will have been changed to a £5 and you can purchase freely? ;)
 
I got the trailers up even found a clip for panda! go panda.

Looking at the new price set up for new BEEZ releases I too think its a bit to expensive, Probably around £30 mark so at least its competitive with MVM prices would been ideal. The new price releases makes title like gundam 00 £10 pound more expensive to compete compared 10 volume release way that 50 episode series sold for in the past for BEEZ, so frankly a step in the wrong direction for a 50 episode series to be released with this new method.

There is place for BEEZ in the UK to offer more luxury product, while MANGA can release mass market product at cheap prices and MVM can release the more Adult niche titles. Better packaging does nothing for me but there still people out there who like that and would pay for extra quality presentation. If people wants a better packaging product and it makes a profit, who are we to argue against there BEEZ selling method.

For the people who want cheaper release but are put off by the high prices, Its only temporary set back for them. As BEEZ bigger brother in the USA: Bandai are probably cheapest place to pick up Anime in complete collection form. I don't have to pay for £63.89 deluxe version of Wolf Rain when I can pick up anime legend version for £17.99 as an example of this.
 
Dave said:
I got the trailers up even found a clip for panda! go panda.

Looking at the new price set up for new BEEZ releases I too think its a bit to expensive, Probably around £30 mark so at least its competitive with MVM prices would been ideal. The new price releases makes title like gundam 00 £10 pound more expensive to compete compared 10 volume release way that 50 episode series sold for in the past for BEEZ, so frankly a step in the wrong direction for a 50 episode series to be released with this new method.

There is place for BEEZ in the UK to offer more luxury product, while MANGA can release mass market product at cheap prices and MVM can release the more Adult niche titles. Better packaging does nothing for me but there still people out there who like that and would pay for extra quality presentation. If people wants a better packaging product and it makes a profit, who are we to argue against there BEEZ selling method.

For the people who want cheaper release but are put off by the high prices, Its only temporary set back for them. As BEEZ bigger brother in the USA: Bandai are probably cheapest place to pick up Anime in complete collection form. I don't have to pay for £63.89 deluxe version of Wolf Rain when I can pick up anime legend version for £17.99 as an example of this.

but u miss the sexy box and soundtrack ;)
 
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