'Popular' series that never got a UK release

Lutga

Mad Scientist
So, with the imminent release of Index / Railgun, which it's seemed like forever was the show everyone always clamoured for more than anything else in terms of a UK release, it got me thinking: now that's out of the way, which historically 'popular' shows have never had a proper UK release.

In this sense, I'll be going by the 'seen by' numbers on ANN's encyclopaedia, just because it was easy to pull the data. I've also included things like Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 because even though we got some of it, it was by no means the whole run - and they've been OOP for yonks anyway.

Inuyasha
Rurouni Kenshin
Blood+
Sailor Moon
Air
Higurashi
GTO
Case Closed
Kanon
Ranma 1/2
Monster
His And Her Circumstances
Genshiken
Oreimo
Scrapped Princess
Hunter x Hunter (original version)
Nodame Cantibile
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Cardcaptor Sakura


Did I miss any obvious ones out? Any you'd add?
 
Lupin III? Urusei Yatsura?

Lupin has had some of the movies released (mostly on VHS I think), but nothing from the TV series. Same with UY as well from memory. I remember having Beautful Dreamer on VHS but that's it.
 
Ahh yeah, I definitely had UY in mind, although has that even had a full release of all the eps in the US?

i have the OVAs that MVM released ages ago, and they put the movies out here too.

Heck, even Pokemon and Digimon have never had 'proper' releases here.
 
Lutga said:
Heck, even Pokemon and Digimon have never had 'proper' releases here.

Not all bad news then.... :p

UY - yeah, AnimEigo released it, 50 volumes on DVD, although sadly long since OOP.
 
Gintama is a big one. Sentai had a sub only release for it in the States I think so there is no reason why it couldn't have a UK release. The original FMA is up there too. It did receive a UK release but it is in dire need of a re-release as it's been out of print for awhile as far as I can tell. I'll also throw Shirobako up there too but I'm not sure *how* popular that is. I know it's certainly well regarded in any Anime community I've been to. Also, I don't think it's been released anywhere outside of Japan, so that would be harder to get hold of in the UK as UK distributors couldn't just port a US or AUS release like they do with a lot of titles. I'll also add Hellsing Ultimate out there since that only has a partial UK release.
 
Shirobako is too new to be worth counting (only finished 5 months ago and hadn't started yet this time a year ago). It also hasn't been watched by many people - it's just highly regarded by most of those who do watch it.

I'd add Hyouka. Almost 3 years now since that finished airing and still no sign of it being licensed anywhere, let alone over here.

Also Haganai.
 
This was briefly mentioned on the UK Anime Network podcast, Andy Hanley seemed to think Shirobako would be the next series people kept going on and on about getting a release.

I'm getting slightly fed up of people making comments like "I can't believe (insert vaguely popular but reasonably marketable show here) will get a release here before Shirobako", so I can completely buy that.
 
Stuff like Shirobako and Sound Euphonium are definitely ones people will be asking for a lot - although I was thinking more along the lines of older series. One of the reasons everyone got so OTT about Index/Railgun is that those series were about six years old and are only now getting a release.

But yeah, Gintama is a good shout - and seems to be rated insanely well on all the sites I look at, but suppose it's one of those ones where the length is potentially off-putting (especially here where BBFC costs have to be considered)
 
For older shows, Hajime no Ippo hasn't seen a UK release. As far as sports anime go I think it's fairly popular. I know it's a show I've been wanting to see for ages. It's another fairly lengthy show if you combine all the seasons and almost as old as I am so I doubt we'll see it any time soon.
 
While they're probably not 'popular' among the stereotypical anime audience of 2015 per se, I'm surprised that things like Heidi, Girl of the Alps have never been dubbed and stuck on CBBC/CITV or something - it's been dubbed in a myriad of different languages on the continent! It's very popular in Japan by the look of things

EDIT: To correct myself, Heidi has been dubbed in English twice - for broadcast in India and the Philippines. But it's never been released in a primarily English speaking country
 
I don't know if Nichijou is one of the most watched shows but it does generally get good ratings. It's probably along similar lines to Shirobako, though obviously it's a bit older (and had issues being released due to who picked it up).

I wonder if certain shows have a tendency to be watched by groups of people that don't necessarily make the fact they've watched it known. It'd be interesting to see what Crunchyroll's viewing figures are like for different shows that haven't been released here (of course, Nichijou isn't on there anymore).

I'm probably just being optimistic but I'd like to believe that more people have watched Space Brothers than the ANN stats would suggest. Otherwise, there are a lot of people missing out.

On a related note, I seem to have a bad habit of not getting around to watching popular shows. From the list at the top, I've only seen Nodame Cantabile and Rurouni Kenshin. I'm kind of impressed at how many people have apparently seen Nodame Cantabile.

I'm guessing we're not counting the various Gundam shows since Anime Limited may be working on them. I'm also surprised that Lavigne didn't mention Macross (though I guess we do have a Robotech release, at least). I guess some of these kinds of series have various segments and offshoots so maybe it's harder to measure exactly which parts are most popular.
 
Smeelia said:
I'm also surprised that Lavigne didn't mention Macross (though I guess we do have a Robotech release, at least).

The lack of a UK release is a touchy subject with me, which would have inevitably led to me ranting/venting towards the evil incarnate entity known as Harmony Gold. I thought I'd spare everyone...... :p

Seriously though, with HG's death grip on Macross, how did ADV and AnimEigo manage to release it (on DVD) in the US? Assuming sub-licence from HG, which wouldn't work with a blu ray release as HG most definitely wouldn't have access to the HD remaster/re-scan.
 
Smeelia said:
I wonder if certain shows have a tendency to be watched by groups of people that don't necessarily make the fact they've watched it known. It'd be interesting to see what Crunchyroll's viewing figures are like for different shows that haven't been released here (of course, Nichijou isn't on there anymore).

I'm probably just being optimistic but I'd like to believe that more people have watched Space Brothers than the ANN stats would suggest. Otherwise, there are a lot of people missing out.

From what I've heard, part of the problem Shirobako was/is having with attracting Western audiences is that it was doing better with older audiences than most other shows for the beginning of it's run. Consequently it wasn't getting the coverage, buzz and twitter conversation other shows were, until later in it's run. At which point you've probably already lost a lot of people.

As I understood it, Space Brothers is aiming for an older audience as well. I haven't seen either though, they're both on my queue ready to be watched when I get the time.
 
It's hard to believe that it's only been around ten years since Manga put out Macross Plus - guess a lot can change in the anime industry in a decade. I presume that was a direct license from Japan in that instance?

From what I've gathered re. Harmony Gold, it's a very similar case to what happens with a patent troll, which might explain why HG is so hesitant to try and put much out - they don't want to set off real flags back in Japan and finally get summoned to a court case they know they would lose. So instead they squat and try and shut down anything that happens in the West where they have a more realistic chance of doing so.

With Shirobako - I remember it having fairly so-so popularity on Crunchyroll while it was airing, it was certainly never in the Top 5 from what I can remember, even though it was by far and away the critical darling of that season. But I think everyone's seen how well it's sold in Japan now and wants a piece of that pie.
 
Lutga said:
With Shirobako - I remember it having fairly so-so popularity on Crunchyroll while it was airing, it was certainly never in the Top 5 from what I can remember, even though it was by far and away the critical darling of that season. But I think everyone's seen how well it's sold in Japan now and wants a piece of that pie.

Critical reception means jackshit, as much as I personally enjoyed what I've seen of World Trigger, it didn't get a positive review off anyone, still seems to always be fairly high up Crunchyroll's most popular list. I'm sure you could find plenty of similar examples.

I think it's Japanese success is probably more of a problem than an encouragement. That probably means Japan want more money for it, and without being rude, it doesn't look like the kind of series that will make it's money back release week. A similar thing has happened with Bong Joon-Ho's Snowpiercer, it's international success raised the asking price, but wide availability means everyone interested has already seen it, consequently it hasn't received a UK release.
 
Lutga said:
It's hard to believe that it's only been around ten years since Manga put out Macross Plus - guess a lot can change in the anime industry in a decade. I presume that was a direct license from Japan in that instance?

From what I've gathered re. Harmony Gold, it's a very similar case to what happens with a patent troll, which might explain why HG is so hesitant to try and put much out - they don't want to set off real flags back in Japan and finally get summoned to a court case they know they would lose. So instead they squat and try and shut down anything that happens in the West where they have a more realistic chance of doing so.

With Shirobako - I remember it having fairly so-so popularity on Crunchyroll while it was airing, it was certainly never in the Top 5 from what I can remember, even though it was by far and away the critical darling of that season. But I think everyone's seen how well it's sold in Japan now and wants a piece of that pie.

HG have already lost a court case in Japan, they just don't recognise the jurisdiction of a Japanese court.

This page sums up the situation fairly well;

http://kotaku.com/5990702/why-you-haven ... y-15-years

Also the quoted post from TheLoneWolf on this page re the constituent parts of the franchise and what HG does and doesn't have the rights to;

http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/?showtopic=36541

The problem is that HG thinks, and implies that it has far more rights than they actually do, and they've not exactly been shy about throwing their weight around.

The most surprising thing is that Studio Nue, and Big West don't appear to have the desire to challenge them outside of Japan. It's a shame as HG don't have a leg to stand on. They only continue the whole charade because no one will actually call them on it. Studio Nue and Big West appear to be happy in just bringing Macross to the home market.

Of course this would be somewhat moot, or at least offset, if Bandai Vision included English subs across all of the Macross releases instead of just some.....
 
Buzz201 said:
This was briefly mentioned on the UK Anime Network podcast, Andy Hanley seemed to think Shirobako would be the next series people kept going on and on about getting a release.


I can see that. Remembr the 'Shows we want in the West' thread back along? (I haven't forgotten about that feature, by the way - just waiting to see what happens with the layout of the forums here and whether we stick to the current board.)

Almost EVERYBODY asked for Shirobako. I don't even know anything about the show, but it's evident that there's an audience for it.
 
magical girl lyrical nanoha i would pay aniplex prices for this on blue ray, I heard that it did not do well in the usa but have seen only good things online about it.
 
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