New Anime Releases 09/05/2011: Casshern Sins and Druaga

ilmaestro said:
People who are saying they are going to import instead almost to "spite" Manga... well, you still have the option of buying the first set from the UK to show Manga how many people are actually prepared to buy it, and even if the second set doesn't come out *then* you can import it. If for some reason you can't import it and you have to buy the second part on DVD, this is exactly what you would have had to do if the BD set had never been released in the first place.
Click to expand...
Packaging consistency, man! Just glancing over at my Darker Than Black DVDs, with their misaligned spine art, is enough to make my eyelids twitch :p

I thought Manga were only releasing BDs for movies and 12/13 episode series anyway? If they had to pick a two-cour series as an experiment, Casshern was not the right one.
 
I don't believe in Anime on Blu-Ray anyways except for movies. And decent movies at that, not some crap like Naruto.
 
I might send them another couple of tweets about Funimation's new release strategy. Assuming it stands Funi well.

I certainly think Manga replacing their separate BD and DVD releases with a single BD/DVD Combi pack would get rid of most of their BD problems.
I know lots of people probably wouldn't appreciate what they would see as the DVD price hike. But they almost certainly wouldn't get it cheaper from importing.
 
MikeP said:
I might send them another couple of tweets about Funimation's new release strategy. Assuming it stands Funi well.

I certainly think Manga replacing their separate BD and DVD releases with a single BD/DVD Combi pack would get rid of most of their BD problems.
I know lots of people probably wouldn't appreciate what they would see as the DVD price hike. But they almost certainly wouldn't get it cheaper from importing.
Click to expand...
I'd certainly prefer combi packs seeing as i always end up using both the blu rays and dvd's but thats just me and i see what you're sayin but for the majority of people i would have thought that they wouldnt want to pay for more discs they wouldnt end up using and combi packs work better for film cause its a one time deal.

On an unrelated note IMMA GONNA GET THE CASSHERN BLU-RAY as soon as i get paid next week :twisted: I really love the character designs for it 8)
 
To be honest, when I first heard that Casshern Sins was being released on Blu-Ray, I was very skeptical, considering Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood; which I (and probably Manga UK as well) expected to sell by the bucket load. Let's be honest, in this climate, who would be willing to pay £39.99 for 12 episodes, when for £15 less you get the same amount, just in standard definition? Also, for the price of one volume on blu-ray, you can get both volumes on DVD (Play.com have the blu-ray for £29.99, and the DVD for £14.99).

But boy, rather than giving Casshern Sins the kiss of life, Manga UK's twitter smothered the bugger.

I'd say, Casshern has succumbed to the ruination. Although tbh, it's one of the only anime I actually dropped - it bored me.

EDIT: Play.com lists the Blu-Ray as out of stock...so maybe they just didn't receive their stock? Because if it didn't sell well, they should have it in stock xD
 
Ryu Shoji said:
But boy, rather than giving Casshern Sins the kiss of life, Manga UK's twitter smothered the bugger.
Click to expand...

Yeah, someone definitely needs to go back to marketing school. After getting out of hospital for shooting themselves in the foot. Gerald Ratner or what!
 
Lawrence said:
Just Passing Through said:
Ryu Shoji said:
But boy, rather than giving Casshern Sins the kiss of life, Manga UK's twitter smothered the bugger.
Click to expand...

Yeah, someone definitely needs to go back to marketing school. After getting out of hospital for shooting themselves in the foot. Gerald Ratner or what!
Click to expand...

And to think they actually want to out do fansubbers.
Click to expand...
And imports.

I wonder how many people who brought Casshern Sins Volume 1 on Blu-Ray have now imported the American volume 2.
 
Well done indeed.
I guess I'll just pass on this series for now then.
In fact I think I'll stick to importing Region B Blu-rays from Funi. There's not a lot of them but at least they're consistent.

Time to find cash for Soul Eater, and Dance in the Vampire Bund (which probably won't get passed the BBFC uncut). I'll grab Rideback too if that turns out to be Region B.
 
Sorry to say, but you dont suddenly cut the 2nd release by judging sales on only the 1st 36 hours of release, they should have judged it after the weekend which would have been more sensible.

Lets face it, after the fiasco regarding FMA: Brotherhood i dont think you'll find many people who would confidently buy further series bluray from Manga (especially since the US version got Region Locked from Vol 3 onwards...a bit of dirty play going on there!). At least Funimation reliably stick to their release dates which is something you cant say the same about MangaUK.

so "Well done all the people who didnt buy it" doesnt quite "buy it" for me. Manga dont exactly help themselves by saying "dont import", you dont dictate your consumer base that way! It also doesnt help when comparing the prices between a UK DVD<Bluray to a US DVD<BluRay to find that the difference is only a few $ rather than quite a few £ here in the UK
 
You can't blame people for not wanting it and you can't blame Manga for not wanting to piss away money on a second collection nobody's going to buy. It's **** for those who bought part 1 on BD but these things happen.

Funi have solicited a BD/DVD combo pack of the complete series for August. I might pick that up as I'll be getting a Region A player at some point.
 
You can blame Manga for their horrible PR, saying they were probably cutting the second BD release within two days of the volume 1 release.

Any one who was considering it for Blu-ray, or intending to wait a bit to buy it suddenly isn't going to actually give you a sale.

Further, they've already pulled the 2nd release from the larger web stores. In under a week!
 
True. They could have left it a while longer. On the other hand, I suppose, initial sales of part 1 must have been so rock-bottom bad that Manga had good reason to believe it would never do the kind of numbers it needed to break even. It's not a good move for them because, as you say, who's going to buy it now, but it has given fence sitters like me an early opportunity to look at other options like the Funi combo pack.

I just hope this doesn't deter them from releasing BD altogether. They should stick, for now, with movies and single cour series, and they need to get the pricing right. Why was the RRP for Casshern £5 more than Brotherhood and £10 more than Shigurui? It was doomed from the start.
 
I really hope Funi's combo packs go down well in the US. So that Manga considers it. I can see it being the only release strategy that would still get us a BD release whilst remaining profitable across most series.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
and they need to get the pricing right. Why was the RRP for Casshern £5 more than Brotherhood and £10 more than Shigurui? It was doomed from the start.
Click to expand...
Also, for the RRP of one blu-ray volume, you could get both volumes on DVD online. Heck, you'd only be about £10 short off getting both DVD volumes when paid at full RRP. I know blu-rays cost more to make than DVDs, but come on!
 
I hadn't actually realised how extreme the price difference was regarding the RRP of the BD/DVD. No wonder this release is failing.

£15 difference in the RRP is way too much. Especially for a product that lots of people don't think would benefit from Blu-ray as much.
I would imagine a £10 difference would be the upper limit to hit the "its only £x more so I'll get it on Blu-ray" market. The US seems to have a price difference of $10 - a little over £6.

If the BD RRP can't go down due to cost issues, Manga should increase the DVD RRP and their own profit margins. The BD/DVD need to be competitively priced as they're in direct competition with one another.

tl;dr Manga's DVD pricing is too aggressive and undermining their own BD sales.
 
In continuation of this RRP discussion, I cannot understand what the method is for setting these:

Examples: DVD RRP first then BD RRP

Summer Wars: £17.99/£19.99
Eden of the East Movie: £19.99/£22.99
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: £19.99/£24.99
Evangelion 2.22 (standard) £17.99/£22.99

FMA Brotherhood: £24.99/£34.99
Casshern Sins £24.99/£39.99
High School of The Dead £24.99/£34.99

There is no real consistency in the RRP difference in any of these prices be it between movie releases or TV releases.

Why is the Summer Wars BD only £2 more than its DVD counterpart, but the EotE is £3 more? Why is Haruhi Suzumiya DVD RRP the same as EotE but the BD is more expensive that EotE BD?

Why is the standard DVD release of Eva 2.22 the same price as summer wars on DVD, but then the BD release is £3 more tha SW was on BD? Why is the Casshern BD RRP £5 higher than the FMA RRP and HSOTD?

Surely a company like Manga should operate with a fixed model instead of just pulling prices out of their arses?
 
Lawrence said:
Unfortunately for Manga today I visited the local HMV.
I had £20 store credit and found a copy of casshern sins, however I opted not to buy it because there would not be a second part.
Click to expand...
They never said there wouldn't be a 2nd part. They were just threatening.
 
Back
Top