New Anime Releases 18/07/2011: Xam'd & Casshern Sins

Since I kinda like my collection to look uniform, I'd rather import both sets than have my collection made up of mixed US and UK volumes. And that's not a problem for me. It may be a problem for those without multi-region BD players (and Manga, if enough people feel this way). Also call me old-fashioned, but I don't believe in rewarding failure.
 
You know very well what the problem would be, you naughty boy. Allow me to demonstrate using the power of images:





Lucky for me I have the box in which to hide the horror!
 
Does it say something about me that I was more interested in the pic of Ironhide than any of the above conversation?

[Does not own a Blu-Ray player]
 
One thing that annoys me about the Xam'd DVD release, is that in the US, Sentai released it with DD5.1 English and Japanese. But Madman, and consequently Manga have downgraded the Japanese audio to DD 2.0 Stereo.

It does make the Blu-ray with its DTS-HD MA 5.1 English and Japanese audio tracks all the more desirable, as the surround audio on this series is pretty sweet.
 
ayase said:
Just Passing Through said:
EDIT: And yes, I would wait to see if part 2 was released for retail before buying Part 1.
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As would anyone with an ounce of sense. Which probably means they'll sell even less copies of part one of Xam'd than they did either of the other series on BD, due to the fact that everybody will wait to see if there will indeed be a part two this time.
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I bought part 1 of xam'd blu based on gut feeling that it will sell ok. Actually my gut feeling is that the blu is gonna do better than the dvd.

I am usually right
 
I think the Xam'd Blu-ray will be a bigger seller than Casshern, but I'd be surprised if it outsold the DVD when there's that much of a price difference. Not to mention all the potential buyers taking a cautious "wait and see" approach.

All eyes on Manga's Twitter feed in the next few days... /o\
 
ilmaestro said:
I remember that Xam'd cover from some of the initial promotional art... it is misleading.
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I've been staring at that cover for about 30 seconds now and still can't quite figure out what I'm looking at. I know theres a school girl and what looks like a rocket, but I have no clue whats going on. :?
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
You know very well what the problem would be, you naughty boy. Allow me to demonstrate using the power of images:
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I like it, it has character. ;)

fwiw, Japanese releases [I want to say never, but never say never] basically don't have this problem, so you should probably join me in importing them. >_>

vashdaman said:
ilmaestro said:
I remember that Xam'd cover from some of the initial promotional art... it is misleading.
Click to expand...

I've been staring at that cover for about 30 seconds now and still can't quite figure out what I'm looking at. I know theres a school girl and what looks like a rocket, but I have no clue whats going on. :?
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Well, I know what I thought was going on. It's probably not what was actually going on, though. :D
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
I think the Xam'd Blu-ray will be a bigger seller than Casshern, but I'd be surprised if it outsold the DVD when there's that much of a price difference. Not to mention all the potential buyers taking a cautious "wait and see" approach.

All eyes on Manga's Twitter feed in the next few days... /o\
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Which is exactly what i am doing ;)

I seem to remember them canceling the 2nd Casshern Blu-ray less than 24hrs after it was first released! You cant blame me in the end though with regards to the "wait and see" approach, and considering Manga's previous track record i definitely don't have that much trust in them!
 
Here we go again then! Now if only Manga would set the retail price to £17.99 (Sendit) instead of £26.99 (Amazon) then there would be no problems at all! Thats considering the dvd version is £14.99
 
I think the price is justifiable given the extra picture and sound quality offered by HD. You can't have cheap *and* high quality. If you want better quality you have to pay for it, if you can't afford it you have to make do with lower quality or earn more money. That's aspiration - the drive to work harder / more to be able to afford better things. But I digress.

However, releasing one volume of a series with no guarantee the rest will ever see the light of day... And doing it not once but three times is beyond a joke. It's farcical. I don't dislike Manga. They have given us a lot over the years and ironed out a lot of problems, but this is just destroying any faith BD buyers have in them. For us this is ADV and Revelation's partial release fiascos all over again.
 
ayase said:
I think the price is justifiable given the extra picture and sound quality offered by HD. You can't have cheap *and* high quality. If you want better quality you have to pay for it, if you can't afford it you have to make do with lower quality or earn more money. That's aspiration - the drive to work harder / more to be able to afford better things. But I digress.

However, releasing one volume of a series with no guarantee the rest will ever see the light of day... And doing it not once but three times is beyond a joke. It's farcical. I don't dislike Manga. They have given us a lot over the years and ironed out a lot of problems, but this is just destroying any faith BD buyers have in them. For us this is ADV and Revelation's partial release fiascos all over again.
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At least ADV and Revelation had the excuses of a)going out of business in ADV's case, and b) having Funimation pull their licenses in Revelation's case. Manga do it for the bottom line. Which as they are a business you can understand in the short term. In the long term it will probably mean that Blu-ray anime series in the UK won't happen until manufacturing Blu-ray becomes cheaper than manufacturing DVD, about another five years. And given fan memories, it won't be Manga that capitalise on it.

It was Manga's treatment of Heat Guy J, Noein, Tokko, and Tetsujin 28 that killed single volume releases for them.
 
ayase said:
I think the price is justifiable given the extra picture and sound quality offered by HD. You can't have cheap *and* high quality.
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While I don't have a personal issue with the pricing, as anime in the UK in general is cheaper than it's ever been, the only reason BD is that much more expensive is because of manufacturing costs. That should change in time.

I do think the difference in price is a problem, though, because anime fans tend to be quite a young demographic, and therefore have less disposable income, and I think a lot of people remain unconvinced about anime in HD (or just HD in general).
 
CloudedMinds said:
Here we go again then! Now if only Manga would set the retail price to £17.99 (Sendit) instead of £26.99 (Amazon) then there would be no problems at all! Thats considering the dvd version is £14.99
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Manga can't set the retail price. They sell it to the retailers for a price and it's up to the retailers to set their retail price. Wasn't it even made illegal for someone such as them to set a retail price under competition law?
 
And this is why I don't even own a Blu-Ray player. Most of what I watch is anime, and like anime on TV, anime on blu-ray is looking to be a cursed business.

Instead of constantly repeating the same mistakes, wouldn't it be wiser for now, to only release single release titles on blu-ray (Such as movies, 12-14 episode series' and select boxsets). Once blu-ray production is cheaper, then obviously other series' may become viable, but until then, they shouldn't even bother, they'll end up cancelling them anyway.
 
Well, I'll be ordering the first part of Xam'd, anyway. To go back to my earlier argument:

Scenario A - you can play imported BDs fine:

You have no problems. If Manga don't release part 2, you can import it.

Scenario B - you can't play imported BDs:

i) You decide to do nothing with the first part of the show. You end up either not buying the second half of the series or having to buy the second half on DVD with no BD release, or being able to have the whole series on BD (less likely since you didn't buy the first part).

ii) You decide to buy the first part on BD. You end up either not buying the second half of the series or having to buy the second half on DVD with no BD release, or being able to have the whole series on BD (now more likely since you showed your support for the series by buying the first part).
 
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