Original Hellsing Ultimate DVD release cancelled

ayase said:
Well, Manga have lost a customer here. I had it pre-ordered for £11.99. I'm not now going to pay £30 for the same thing.
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You can't blame Manga if they aren't allowed to do the 2 ep per disk. At least they apologised...

But you can always wait for a boxset or wait for a sale on Anime-on-line *shrugs*
 
Chrono Mizaki said:
You can't blame Manga if they aren't allowed to do the 2 ep per disk. At least they apologised...
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Indeed, though I don't think he's really blaming Manga there and just saying they won't be getting his money on this one. I'm not going to buy it anymore unless each volume gets knocked down to a fiver but it's obviously not their fault and props to them for actually telling us what's going on so quickly. Most anime companies prefer to just leave us in the dark.
 
Since this has happened, I decided to go for an auction for the R1 steelbook edition of Vol. 1; I won it for £10.50. It's too bad it wasn't sold with the figurine I believe the steelbook releases came with originally but it's still a good price for the OOP, 2 DVD steelbook release now that Manga Ent. have Mangled.
 
Heh. I had my eye on that but decided against it. I certainly wouldn't have paid that much.

And it won't be out of print for much longer; both the regular and special editions are being re-released this month by Geneon/Funimation.
 
Just Passing Through said:
It's up at Play for £9.99 just as I figured.
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Considering that Hellsing Ultimate is an OVA, which are much more expensive to produce than TV shows, £10 per episode is a reasonable price. Not as reasonable as £12 for two episodes, granted, but it's acceptable. And Manga's discs tend to fall in price quickly, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it for half that within a few months.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Heh. I had my eye on that but decided against it. I certainly wouldn't have paid that much.

And it won't be out of print for much longer; both the regular and special editions are being re-released this month by Geneon/Funimation.
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Aye, I realised after posting that Amazon are getting new stock. As long as the Funimation logo appears on the re-releases I can sell the copy soon to be mine as a first print, though. :p

I probably did pay a little too much for 40-50 minutes really. But, on the other hand, if it's a choice between spending £5 on the Manga Ent. release of Vol. 1 and £10 on the Geneon 2 DVD steelbook release it's an easy choice in my mind.
 
Oh come on, Fooly Cooly wasn't a piss take....two episodes that add up to the same length as three normal ones of any other show, plus a director's commentary for a tenner brand new....I mean come on....I know it's not the ultra value of GitS these days but for a series that was never going to sell huge numbers it's a pretty sweet deal.

I think you have to appreciate the risk Tony took on Fooly Cooly when he brought it over....it's an older title, not really hugely well known, and anyone who wants to see it probably already has...he was pretty much locked into selling it for a tenner, really.
 
I've been asked to post this message by Jerome Mazandarani (Acquisitions and Marketing Manager) at Manga Entertainment, who is "very upset" with the situation and some of the comments in this thread.

Jerome Mazandarani said:
I am very sorry to all Hellsing Ultimate fans that we have had to pull our Volume 1 and 2 double pack and now have to release the series OVA in single disc volumes just like Geneon has done in the US and Japan and as Madman has done in Australia. BTW, I resent our company being referred to as "Mangle". For your information we have used the same DLT (masters) that Madman created so the dub and subs will be top notch. I strongly disagree with the decision of the Hellsing producer's to prohibit a double volume release in the UK. I personally hate single disc releases and feel that they do not deliver adequate value for money, but try telling the Hellsing producers that! As most of you know, you will be able to pick up each volume within the first 2-4 weeks of release via Play, HMV, Amazo, Zavvi etc for between £9.99-£14.99. The point is, if you buy it early you'll benefit from a retail driven price war. We will not be allowed to release a complete series box set until the OVA series is complete and with recent announcements that HU Vol.5 is going to be released in Japan soon I would expect we won't be able to release a box set in the UK for a considerable amount of time yet.
Please go easy slagging Manga off for this. It is not our fault. I bust my balls every day for the UK fans and I still get a load of crap from supposed "passionate" fans for so many of the anime world's woes. Yes, we listen and unfair criticism sucks.
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For the record, I do think it's unfair that people still call them Mangle when they have significantly improved the quality of their releases in recent years. It also sounds rather unfair that the producers have prohibited them from releasing the series in 2-disc sets (Any way round it by say sticking two volumes in cellophane together?), but when I was expecting to pay £12 for something and then am told it's going to cost me £20+ I'm not exactly going to react in an ecstatic manner - especially seeing as it was a blind purchase on my part. Who's fault it is is irrelevant in that respect.

Jerome, is there any chance we could have a reason? If we're going to be told that much can't we be told the reasons Manga were given by the producers for not being able to release it the way you wanted?
 
ayase said:
For the record, I do think it's unfair that people still call them Mangle when they have significantly improved the quality of their releases in recent years.
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I agree but the only person I've ever seen call them 'Mangle' has been Aion which he constantly insists on doing.

I feel the producers really screwed up with that decision. We are a small market in the UK and with DVD's being overpriced as it is and even a tenner for a 55 minute or so episode... well it's just plain crazy. It's a shame but I hope that that don't lose too many sales on this one because of the producers shortsightedness. I won't be changing my mind about buying it though, it would have been for some mindless fun and I can't justify lashing out that much for less than an hours worth of entertainment.

Glad to hear it's an isolated case though at least and I can still pick up the Death Note releases in 2 packs. Didn't relish the thought of having to collect that in single DVD's.
 
Jerome Mazandarani said:
. For your information we have used the same DLT (masters) that Madman created so the dub and subs will be top notch.
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Have to add that the audio quality on Volume 1 is probably the best I've heard on an OVA release. These 5.1 tracks are full theatrical quality. I was seriously impressed.
 
Sy said:
ayase said:
For the record, I do think it's unfair that people still call them Mangle when they have significantly improved the quality of their releases in recent years.
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I agree but the only person I've ever seen call them 'Mangle' has been Aion which he constantly insists on doing.

I feel the producers really screwed up with that decision. We are a small market in the UK and with DVD's being overpriced as it is and even a tenner for a 55 minute or so episode... well it's just plain crazy. It's a shame but I hope that that don't lose too many sales on this one because of the producers shortsightedness. I won't be changing my mind about buying it though, it would have been for some mindless fun and I can't justify lashing out that much for less than an hours worth of entertainment.

Glad to hear it's an isolated case though at least and I can still pick up the Death Note releases in 2 packs. Didn't relish the thought of having to collect that in single DVD's.
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Mainly, I think this strategy is in place to guard against reverse importing. If we did get a better deal than the rest of the world, Japan and US based anime fans might start importing our release over investing in their own, and they rely on those markets to keep them afloat. We are just the "gravy" for them and that's definitely a shame, but I'm not surprised about it either, the only frustrating thing is that this wasn't in place from the day that Manga announced the release.
 
I've seen a fair amount of other people refer to them as Mangle - I copied it from someone else in the first place. Someone on here the other day did.

I somehow doubt a Manga Ent. employee would mention it if only one person called them it. It was pretty fair to call them it in the past, what with their GitS and Naruto ****-ups. I'd pretty much stopped after seeing them not Mangle their Bleach and Death Note releases.
 
Paul said:
Sy said:
ayase said:
For the record, I do think it's unfair that people still call them Mangle when they have significantly improved the quality of their releases in recent years.
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I agree but the only person I've ever seen call them 'Mangle' has been Aion which he constantly insists on doing.

I feel the producers really screwed up with that decision. We are a small market in the UK and with DVD's being overpriced as it is and even a tenner for a 55 minute or so episode... well it's just plain crazy. It's a shame but I hope that that don't lose too many sales on this one because of the producers shortsightedness. I won't be changing my mind about buying it though, it would have been for some mindless fun and I can't justify lashing out that much for less than an hours worth of entertainment.

Glad to hear it's an isolated case though at least and I can still pick up the Death Note releases in 2 packs. Didn't relish the thought of having to collect that in single DVD's.
Click to expand...

Mainly, I think this strategy is in place to guard against reverse importing. If we did get a better deal than the rest of the world, Japan and US based anime fans might start importing our release over investing in their own, and they rely on those markets to keep them afloat. We are just the "gravy" for them and that's definitely a shame, but I'm not surprised about it either, the only frustrating thing is that this wasn't in place from the day that Manga announced the release.
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I believe its simply human to complain and what pissed people off was the change to the release plan. To reply to an internet thread I believe Jerome like that, Jerome must be the most frustrated person with this change.

As to buying or not buying, I think I will get it when I feel the price is right.
 
The thing is, I've paid the same/more for two/three regular episodes before, and just because its technically one [long] episode, I'm still probably going to get it when I see it, somewhere.

The extras and cover don't look to shabby, either!
 
To be fair to them, having read the email Paul quoted, it does sound like Manga have tried very hard not to be forced to release the volumes individually. The box set shows that they would've rather released the full box set from the start than release the series like this, meaning releasing the series at £10 per DVD wasn't something they wanted to do.

It is disappointing we won't be seeing a box set for a long time. I'm going to bet that the sales of this will suffer with no box set release in sight - Who wants to pay £40 for 4 x 40-50 minutes!?

Still, it is their fault for not checking if they could release the volumes together before paying to license the series in the first place. It does fit with the companies 'Mangling' reputation for them to license something without checking to see how they were going to be allowed to release the series.
 
The point is, they care enough about this stuff to be reading a site like AUKN and reading all of the comments in this thread. Calling them 'Mangle' is a derogatory term that denigrates all of that effort they are making to please you. They might have made an error, but it was good intentioned, you don't need to attack them. Lets not forget, they are human too. If someone, like Jerome, has spent the last 5 years of his life working to improve the UK industry, it's a bit **** to come on here and find the very fans he is trying to please throwing around cheap words like 'Mangle' from the comfort of their cosy computers before moving onto something else.
 
Oddly enough, I don't think I was even the first person to call Manga names in this thread... I can't actually remember calling them Mangle here; I made an effort to say 'Manga Ent.' instead. It was a slip of the finger if I did call them Mangle, it being almost natural for me to do so.

I called them Mangle in the past because they deserved it for the awful Naruto subtitles that forced me to import the series instead of buying the far easier (and cheaper) R2 DVDs they had released. I pre-ordered both Naruto 1:1 and 1:2, only to discover the awful subtitle issues after receiving 1:2 when I sat down to watch them. The fact that Manga didn't remedy the problem until after the 2:2 release made me even more angry.

When it came out that they'd fixed their subtitle issues with Bleach it made me think more highly of the company...but I've never liked Bleach as much as Naruto, so it didn't repair the damage. It was only the news that Manga had done an excellent job with their Death Note (one of my top 5) releases that stopped me attacking them.

And, anyway, Jerome should defend himself/his company by posting instead of complaining to the owner of the site. Why doesn't he take a leaf out of Andrew's book and represent his company on here?
 
I think it's a given that since Jerome took over marketing (At around... 2004 if I remember rightly) there's one thing you can say about Manga Ent is that we know what's going on. We can't say the same for companies such as ADV who seem to do everything in private without telling the customer base what's happening until it's too late.
 
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