Nah - I like to know and it was rude of me not to check that part! I even remember after the fact Jeremy telling me about it at the time...doh.
AP
Personal opinions on distributors excised from the Bargains thread (temporary title)
- Thread starter serpantino
- Start date
Nah - I like to know and it was rude of me not to check that part! I even remember after the fact Jeremy telling me about it at the time...doh.
AP
Jaysgba
Combat Butler
It's a real shame only Manga UK manage to screw up how tight artboxes are.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
My Sidonia has that issue too, I think there's an element of luck involved.
I don't think you need to criticise every distributor just because you've highlighted flaws other releases have. Making people say "AoT has subtitle issues just like every Kaze release ever and the first version of Durarara!!" instead of just "AoT has subtitling issues" would be weird and time-consuming...
Jaysgba
Combat Butler
Tight artboxes only seem to be a "defect" for some people when they're Manga releases.
IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
I don't think literally anyone has said that the tight YLiA boxes are not defective.
Absolute codswallop. There were loads of conversations about YLiA on this very forum; I'm a huge AL fan myself and you'll find my name on the list of people who were saying the box was too tight. If you have a problem with Lambadelta's personal opinions please take it to PM or put the other poster on ignore. Following them around just to paranoidly troll every single remark they make isn't productive and I think I speak for the entire community by saying that nobody else wants to read it.
R
Just Passing Through
The Wildcard
What was the missing thought on Metropolis?
I thought it was doing quite well, especially given the recent news about the US releasing it on BD-R, and US importers discovering that the UK release is Region A friendly.
The missing thought was actually a load of rubbish when I checked my steelbook in the end, so a case of me not deleting the reference first - hodor xD. It was about DVD / BD more than anything not performance as it's on fire (I bought a copy anyway as am a huge fan of the film).
AP
Re YLIA - we're on that one just now with some pretty drastic solutions for folks. The whole reason we've not said anything yet is just because we need to get everything lined up first here as it's a super unusual issue if we're being honest about it the more we delve into it. Sufficed to say not forgotten and it will be addressed in the coming month
.AP
No - it's not just them and I get the sarcasm, although I'm not sure it's merited as we've been called out on that for YLiA pretty consistently there. That said, worth pointing out usually the tightness of artboxes is variable due to how print is done so I don't know of any Manga projects that need a replacement for it systematically - I stand ready to be corrected though!
Anime Limited do regularly spend time and resources from their own pocket fighting to fix these issues when they do arise (see above for a small YLiA update). So all in there's a level of customer service you don't see elsewhere and we do that regardless of where the customer as often as we can. When something is wrong, we work to fix it wherever we can and it's practical
. Sometimes it takes longer than others sadly due to the nature of production but we get it done.AP
Jaysgba
Combat Butler
That wasn't a dig at you, or at AL, but the UK fans that will actively avoid all non-AL releases citing the slightest of problems as an excuse, and then seemingly not care about similar issues when an AL release is impacted by them. It's great that AL do get replacement schemes set up to resolve the majority of those issues, but it's also depressing to then see people bemoan other distributors when they recall a product to rectify an issue because fans seem to think that only AL are allowed to find out about an issue with a release after the product has been sent to retailers.No - it's not just them and I get the sarcasm, although I'm not sure it's merited as we've been called out on that for YLiA pretty consistently there. That said, worth pointing out usually the tightness of artboxes is variable due to how print is done so I don't know of any Manga projects that need a replacement for it systematically - I stand ready to be corrected though!
Anime Limited do regularly spend time and resources from their own pocket fighting to fix these issues when they do arise (see above for a small YLiA update). So all in there's a level of customer service you don't see elsewhere and we do that regardless of where the customer as often as we can. When something is wrong, we work to fix it wherever we can and it's practical
AP
Al's CEs/UEs are usually nice, and I'd like to think I have an acceptable amount to still qualify as an anime fan, but it's sickening to see the attitude many UK fans seem to have nowadays - buying AL or Universal is acceptable, if you're gonna buy MVM just buy Sentai's barebones release at a higher cost, if you're gonna buy Manga any other release will do even if it lacks English subtitles.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I think you have a warped view of what constitutes an anime fan...
Jaysgba
Combat Butler
Yes, warped by the general consensus that only AL releases are worth buying.
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
If you took the literal definition of an anime fan, somebody who enjoys anime. I suspect the general consensus would lead you the way of the cat.
What you're referring to is the opinion of (a certain group of) obsessives. It seems unfair to put their behaviour to Andrew, it has bugger all to do with him. If you have an issue with people's behaviour, call them out on it, not somebody completely unrelated. I've never seen Andrew be anything courteous, polite and respectful to Manga. So I'm failing to understand what this behaviour pattern has to do with him.
I don't think that's necessarily fair to say either - we get the same hate when we delay a title due to a fix as well. What matters there is what you actually tell fans and we're all pretty good at where we can in communicating the issues. The downside of that though is sometimes the issues are just ones you can't really talk about and that seems to have been the case with a bundle of projects from others in the past.
The issue with product going out to retailers is different and can impact anyone (which it totally has before at Studio Canal UK and Manga UK as well as us), what does make the difference there is it's easy to recall a product pre-sale, it's very hard to do so once sales are underway and managing a replacement scheme then when people paid for it is a point of principle & customer policy than anything.
I didn't know there was that opinion on MVM's titles or Manga's in any serious way too. We get plenty of people who don't like what we do too - we're all on that same boat and as all of us are humans with real feelings (or I think so last I saw them all) so it does eat at us when we see that. It's a free market and we get that but we all (Manga, MVM, Universal and ourselves) bust our arses off trying to get titles out as soon as we can for folks. We all make mistakes at times and all we can do is ask for folks to forgive us.
FWIW - Manga are doing super well at sales just now based off the monthly sales charts for anime though so whoever isn't supporting them clearly isn't eating away at their core business and they're good eggs, they'll work hard to win folks back over
. Looking here alone there's clearly a load of people who understand and support them too - occasionally at the detriment of folks like us but still with the best intentions. TL;DR - Plenty of people say stuff like what you list for MVM & Manga there too for Anime Ltd at least and whatever the case it sucks somewhat for us as you can guess ;_;. We all do appreciate the folks that are balanced - none of us want to get away when we mess up, but at the same time balance and decency go a long way when interacting with us too - which I definitely appreciate from folks here
.Ramble over, I should probably stop being nonsensical and get on to the gym!
AP
I don't understand where this idea has come from that the entire UK market is biased towards AL and Manganimatsu are some kind of underdog that only True Fans understand to support.
In terms of my collection (which is massive), I have almost certainly spent more on Manga releases than I have on AL releases over time. Buying a series of crummy dub-only cut VHS episodes back in the day cost more than special editions now, so even though I am boycotting them now for important and rational reasons that's just logical, and I have a decent number of Manga DVDs too. I do dislike Jerome, but if they were putting out products I wanted and not directly impeding my access to anime I'd still be buying. I don't especially like plenty of people I buy stuff from in general but it doesn't mean I don't want their stuff.
If other people are boycotting for personal reasons that's entirely their right. Jerome is praised for his coarse approach to PR and if insulting his own buyers annoys some of them, well, that's a risk he chose to take. If it destroys his company (it won't; the majority of his buyers and business partners have no idea he thinks they're idiots and don't read his rants) that's his choice to make. He's a grown up.
This rampant paranoia and witch hunting lately is predicated on the idea that AL fans are some overwhelming and rabid majority who are oppressing vulnerable Manganimatsu fans somehow simply by not performing their civic duty as UK fans and buying releases they don't want to buy for whatever reason. I get the impression people think that AL fans are sheep while Manganimatsu fans are wise free thinkers. It's nonsense. We are all the same people. Barely any fan only owns releases from one UK distributor because we go with the shows first and foremost.
You'll probably find more people on a forum where AL take and debate feedback who feel invested in AL releases in general just because that makes sense. Like the Manga UK fans who attack any dissenters on Twitter; it's smart for fans to congregate in places where they can get news about the thing they like most.
I don't see myself as an AL zombie; I simply like what they are doing (likewise I have nothing bad to say about MVM; they're filling their niche perfectly and I love them to bits). Smudging every random offhand remark from a large number of other people together to form a misguided conspiracy theory about the AL Mafia and our collective hive mind is getting tiresome. It's especially bizarre seeing someone who passively admits to having a bias towards Manga UK (being a writer for them is a direct bias) complaining how everyone else is biased against them. Maybe we aren't. Maybe we are all free thinkers too with our own opinions based on the actual quantifiable merits of each UK distributor, who simply react to the way we're being treated and make decisions for ourselves?
R
In terms of my collection (which is massive), I have almost certainly spent more on Manga releases than I have on AL releases over time. Buying a series of crummy dub-only cut VHS episodes back in the day cost more than special editions now, so even though I am boycotting them now for important and rational reasons that's just logical, and I have a decent number of Manga DVDs too. I do dislike Jerome, but if they were putting out products I wanted and not directly impeding my access to anime I'd still be buying. I don't especially like plenty of people I buy stuff from in general but it doesn't mean I don't want their stuff.
If other people are boycotting for personal reasons that's entirely their right. Jerome is praised for his coarse approach to PR and if insulting his own buyers annoys some of them, well, that's a risk he chose to take. If it destroys his company (it won't; the majority of his buyers and business partners have no idea he thinks they're idiots and don't read his rants) that's his choice to make. He's a grown up.
This rampant paranoia and witch hunting lately is predicated on the idea that AL fans are some overwhelming and rabid majority who are oppressing vulnerable Manganimatsu fans somehow simply by not performing their civic duty as UK fans and buying releases they don't want to buy for whatever reason. I get the impression people think that AL fans are sheep while Manganimatsu fans are wise free thinkers. It's nonsense. We are all the same people. Barely any fan only owns releases from one UK distributor because we go with the shows first and foremost.
You'll probably find more people on a forum where AL take and debate feedback who feel invested in AL releases in general just because that makes sense. Like the Manga UK fans who attack any dissenters on Twitter; it's smart for fans to congregate in places where they can get news about the thing they like most.
I don't see myself as an AL zombie; I simply like what they are doing (likewise I have nothing bad to say about MVM; they're filling their niche perfectly and I love them to bits). Smudging every random offhand remark from a large number of other people together to form a misguided conspiracy theory about the AL Mafia and our collective hive mind is getting tiresome. It's especially bizarre seeing someone who passively admits to having a bias towards Manga UK (being a writer for them is a direct bias) complaining how everyone else is biased against them. Maybe we aren't. Maybe we are all free thinkers too with our own opinions based on the actual quantifiable merits of each UK distributor, who simply react to the way we're being treated and make decisions for ourselves?
R
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
This is difficult, because I don't agree that it's every UK fan, but certain members of this forum seem to always assume the absolute best of Anime Limited, even when there's evidence to the contrary, and the absolute worst of Manga, even when it's quite improbable that they really intended to do things badly. People slaughtered Manga for mislisting a cardboard slipbox as a "Rigid Box", we got huge stories about cardboard boxes being the devil incarnate and never showing up to people's houses in less than a million pieces, and how clearly they did it to prey on poor Collector's Edition fans who wouldn't know any better and didn't deserve to be treated like this. Yet Anime Limited choose to remove a few bonus features from their release and don't remove them from their bonus feature listing. Clearly this was just a mistake and the poor innocent lambs at Anime Limited would never intend to mislead anyone, let's all shed a tear on their behalf for this unfortunate mistake. Obviously neither of these was a deliberate attempt to mislead anyone, but the sheer gulf in reactions between the two is ridiculous.
I know for a fact staff members of this forum have publicly complained about me asking what I felt were legitimate questions of AL's strategy and promotional efforts. And whenever you do question Anime Limited, people will immediately leap to their defence and start making it abundantly clear how catastrophically wrong you are (even when you aren't) before you can even finish your sentence. Yet questioning Manga's strategy is apparently fine. People just seem to have lost their critical faculties when it comes to Anime Limited, they can literally do no wrong in some people's eyes. Whereas Manga are immediately assumed to be actively trying to screw everyone over, and to be deliberately releasing the worst possible product they can just to spite people, but then it's hard to say Manga haven't brought that upon themselves with some of their past decisions and statements from staff members.
I kind of feel people maybe need to work on having a healthy scepticism towards distributors. Perhaps increasing their scepticism towards some distributors and moderating it towards others. Just as others have perhaps been overly defensive of Anime Limited, I have perhaps been overly questioning.
I know for a fact staff members of this forum have publicly complained about me asking what I felt were legitimate questions of AL's strategy and promotional efforts. And whenever you do question Anime Limited, people will immediately leap to their defence and start making it abundantly clear how catastrophically wrong you are (even when you aren't) before you can even finish your sentence. Yet questioning Manga's strategy is apparently fine. People just seem to have lost their critical faculties when it comes to Anime Limited, they can literally do no wrong in some people's eyes. Whereas Manga are immediately assumed to be actively trying to screw everyone over, and to be deliberately releasing the worst possible product they can just to spite people, but then it's hard to say Manga haven't brought that upon themselves with some of their past decisions and statements from staff members.
I kind of feel people maybe need to work on having a healthy scepticism towards distributors. Perhaps increasing their scepticism towards some distributors and moderating it towards others. Just as others have perhaps been overly defensive of Anime Limited, I have perhaps been overly questioning.
Lambadelta
Mad Scientist
I think the gulf of difference in treatment doesn't come from anything other than customer trust in the company, and the products they deliver.
ayase
State Alchemist
I was in AL's corner from the very beginning because before they even existed, their business model of providing more premium releases than their US equivalent to give me a reason not to import and buy locally was one I advocated for pretty strongly. I'm not sure I can find the posts now, but my usual line back in the day was basically "Release cheaper or release better packages than the US version and I have a reaon not to import" this was at a time when the Beez DVDs of Cowboy Bebop would set you back over £60 but you could import Bandai's below the old £18 threshold.
Anime Ltd. did exactly what I wanted. They gave me a reason to buy local versions which Manga still haven't (I imported GitS Arise because for the extra £5 per volume the Funi versions gave me boxes, double the amount of cases and cover art, booklets and spare DVD copies) and which MVM only have because of how comparatively cheap they are next to some of their US equivalient releases. But their releases do also look cheap thanks to their crappy cover art department which still seems like an afterthought even after all these years I've been complaining about them. Not that I think I single-handedly control the UK anime industry with my posts on AUKN or anything...
I don't actually have any problems with Manga (why would I when if their releases aren't to my liking I can just import?) or with Jerome, as divisive a character he is around here. I don't care about someone's attitude on the internet (I've been here a long time and am very desensitized and my skin is now pretty thick) if they're bringing me products I want to buy. Andrew however has always, even before AL when he was a Beez rep, gone out of his way to listen to and address people's questions and comments. Does that leave me feeling well disposed towards him and his company? Of course it does. He doesn't have to do that at all, least of all here on a forum not even connected to AL themselves. So if I ever seem "biased" in AL's favour, those are a few reasons why it might seem that way. Because I think AL actually listen to me and give me what I want. I'd feel similarly inclined towards MVM if they'd just put me in charge of their cover art already.
Anime Ltd. did exactly what I wanted. They gave me a reason to buy local versions which Manga still haven't (I imported GitS Arise because for the extra £5 per volume the Funi versions gave me boxes, double the amount of cases and cover art, booklets and spare DVD copies) and which MVM only have because of how comparatively cheap they are next to some of their US equivalient releases. But their releases do also look cheap thanks to their crappy cover art department which still seems like an afterthought even after all these years I've been complaining about them. Not that I think I single-handedly control the UK anime industry with my posts on AUKN or anything...
I don't actually have any problems with Manga (why would I when if their releases aren't to my liking I can just import?) or with Jerome, as divisive a character he is around here. I don't care about someone's attitude on the internet (I've been here a long time and am very desensitized and my skin is now pretty thick) if they're bringing me products I want to buy. Andrew however has always, even before AL when he was a Beez rep, gone out of his way to listen to and address people's questions and comments. Does that leave me feeling well disposed towards him and his company? Of course it does. He doesn't have to do that at all, least of all here on a forum not even connected to AL themselves. So if I ever seem "biased" in AL's favour, those are a few reasons why it might seem that way. Because I think AL actually listen to me and give me what I want. I'd feel similarly inclined towards MVM if they'd just put me in charge of their cover art already.
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