New US anime licenses & convention news

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Over the weekend, at US anime convention 'Katsucon 2005', Media Blasters and Bandai announced several new acquisitions for their US anime releases.

Media Blasters will have stolen many hearts with their licensing of Oh! My Goddess TV series, Genshiken, Hinotori, and (3-part OVA) Phantom, while Bandai (US) announced their acquisitions of the Stratos4 OVA and Panda-Z as well as outlining their plans for Cowboy Bebop Remix- a remastered release of the seminal anime series which includes special extras (behind the scenes) and commentary tracks with the likes of director Shinichiro Watanabe and soundtrack composer Yoko Kanno.

With regards to UK conventions, Minami Con have issued their final press release before the convention officially opens in Southampton from 11th - 13th March, just 3 weeks away.
<span class=menu>Source: <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/">Anime News Network</a></span>
 
Paul said:
Cowboy Bebop Remix- a remastered release of the seminal anime series which includes special extras (behind the scenes) and commentary tracks with the likes of director Shinichiro Watanabe and soundtrack composer Yoko Kanno.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the odds are of this hitting the UK anytime soon. Probably slim to none. Which is a shame considering that the current UK release of Cowboy Bebop seems to be lacking in any real extras at all.
 
Well aside fom the commentry tracks (whitch by the way, only are with the Jap VAs, a shame really) there isnt anything in Remix that i would wait for (the 5.1 mix will be done by Bandai Ent themselves, so i doubt id would sound as good as one done orginally, and the video quality isnt that bad on the current releases)
 
subedii said:
Paul said:
Cowboy Bebop Remix- a remastered release of the seminal anime series which includes special extras (behind the scenes) and commentary tracks with the likes of director Shinichiro Watanabe and soundtrack composer Yoko Kanno.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the odds are of this hitting the UK anytime soon. Probably slim to none. Which is a shame considering that the current UK release of Cowboy Bebop seems to be lacking in any real extras at all.
Click to expand...
yeah, i noticed it too. i've been looking enviously at the region 1 release, which has interviews, character biogs etc. but since it's such a great show to start with nd the UK release so belated, i just accepted it.
 
Concrete badger said:
subedii said:
Paul said:
Cowboy Bebop Remix- a remastered release of the seminal anime series which includes special extras (behind the scenes) and commentary tracks with the likes of director Shinichiro Watanabe and soundtrack composer Yoko Kanno.
Click to expand...

I wonder what the odds are of this hitting the UK anytime soon. Probably slim to none. Which is a shame considering that the current UK release of Cowboy Bebop seems to be lacking in any real extras at all.
Click to expand...
yeah, i noticed it too. i've been looking enviously at the region 1 release, which has interviews, character biogs etc. but since it's such a great show to start with nd the UK release so belated, i just accepted it.
Click to expand...

I just think it's ridiculous that the US release which is around 4 years old still has better features than the release that we're getting now. It just doesn't make any sense and says to me "Hey, the UK market. They've never really gotten much anyway, so let's just shaft them on this release too."

Yes I know it's probably not like that, but I'm bitter. :mrgreen:
 
I can see why this makes our UK Bebop releases look stupid, but we can't expect everything as fast as the Americans. At least we're getting Bebop now, god knows we waited long enough. I guess, as has been stated above, the UK market just isn't large enough right now to support such investment.

I'm almost 100% sure things will be different (a lot better) for the UK in 2 years time. Right now, it's as though the UK market is teetering on the brink of explosion and all we need are a few more elements to ignite it- most notably, TV exposure- once anime finds it's way back onto our TV screens (only a matter of time, I'm sure), the real honeymoon starts.
 
personally, i think the small size of the UK market could actually be a positive thing in terms of testing for a new release'spopularity. because the projected market size is small, it would be a lower risk investment before going to the expense of promoting it in the larger US market. i'm no businessman, unfortunately.
 
Having a small market is bad for the companies because it means that they can't sell many copies. It'd cost them the same to translate and dub it -- the only thing that would be different would be the licensing fee.

Promotion costs must be fairly negligible anyway -- how much anime advertising have you seen lately? Probably nothing outside of anime magazines and the like. I know I haven't.

I'm not too upset about the delay between the releases, but it seems rather harsh to give us less content as well. Guess they couldn't afford to license the extras...
 
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