I get told delays is "Be Patient" Or AL got better
So why when the first release ive ordered in 6 months gets delayed by 2 weeks its like AL has never changed.
If we're talking about Eureka Seven - it's bad luck of the draw there I'm afraid. Sorry you have been caught in that as we obviously hate delays too.
That being said, this kind of delay is now an irregularity nowadays for us to do it and it's always for a reason be it in or out of our control. Even with a hiccup like this, I would go as far as saying we have gotten better in the last year.
Mind you, like any company in a product creation capacity - whatever we do will always have room to improve in any number of people's eyes (often including our own) at anytime and perfection is highly unlikely. All we can do is try to minimise the number of people that is the case for at anytime
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"Eventually" so why can sentai, FUNi AL with films in cinemas do SE and CEs so same days not force customers to suffer cos they liked a show but not £40 much.
Happy to clarify this as it's a question further than the last time I covered the issue of how we handle titles not released on wide theatrical. Basically in the USA you have a larger population size willing to buy anime legally (which makes sense as dubs need to be recouped there) so three editions makes sense as even without film screenings there is a high chance the three versions (LE, BD and DVD) will sell pretty well between (DVD lagging behind nowadays to the point of slowly being phased out though).
In the UK you're looking at often a fraction of that size (often 10% is a good indicator) - where adding a third SKU of a standard BD immediately for a title aimed squarely at anime fans doesn't really divide and often leaves the standard BD sitting in bulk for a time. This is where the 6 month policy came from to begin with there for us and so far there's no real proof that a change is needed there. Rest assured though that we do remain vigilant so if the trend shifts we will react.
And EBs if you miss them you dont want to pay full price so can be helpful and not at the same. And we've repeated this arguments because NOTHING HAS CHANGED. They havent improved they've got worse with E7 Hi Evo and now no DVD "SEs" for sound, Amanchu, Kiznaiver I can go on.
For Kiznaiver - actually there should be a DVD edition, it just hasn't been listed of yet due to waiting on packaging approval - so that hopefully moves that one out of the way of any concern
!
For E7 Hi Evo / films - I've directly replied to points before from you here but these hasn't gotten worse - as standard we don't do a regular BD on Day 1 for films we don't run theatrically (Sword of the Stranger, Expelled from Paradise, Psychic School Wars, FUSE etc as examples). We've been very lucky in the UK that widened theatrical has been possible over the last year so the majority of our films do fit the theatrical release model and even borderline titles based on performance receive a standard there as fair is fair.
I totally see where the perception comes from though given the amount we released theatrically as that turns the tables on how it is viewed. Looking at the system discussed before for film, things
have changed for the better for you as we do now release regular BDs for everything we do on mainstream theatrical release.
For Amanchu - I think we can all agree that this is a title aimed squarely at anime fans as opposed to the wider market. Basically in this scenario you need to pay for DVD authoring, a share of the BBFC and replication - not to mention staff time for QCing the discs. Meaning you need to sell circa 150 units of 1,000 all in to just break even on the financial costs.
As a small thought experiment - can you locate 150 people in the UK who are so incensed by a lack of DVD that they will not buy Amanchu on BD be it today, tomorrow or 6 months later when a standard version comes up?
In short - DVD costs money and while for a lot of titles it still makes sense, for titles that are anime-fan specific to that degree it's a really difficult situation as you can see from the USA slowly phasing DVDs out (Sentai first but it won't be a long time before others follow suit I imagine). That doesn't mean there are not fans impacted by phasing DVD out though and it kills me to see it - but the uncomfortable truth is that for titles like Amanchu it's a genuine risk if you'd sell enough.
So literally its CE or wait a unknown amount of time I would love if AL made a rule 6 months for a SE or something that would make me happy. Lucky Star has been OOP 6 months and now getting a SE. Gundam Rec in G likewise except no SE yet. Its not like giving a SE timeframe would hurt AL.
Sadly some older titles fell through the gaps for standard editions before we'd solidified workflows to manage this. Really appreciate when people flag missing ones and we are on those two now! Otherwise we strive to maintain the pattern of 6 months down the line on all new titles unless there are extenuating circumstances.
Hope this helps clarify
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Andrew
