Request for questions for UK/OZ Anime industry reps

E

Eeeper

Completely Average High School Student
Hi all!

Haven't posted in a long, long while here! But I was asked to repost this request by a user on the UK-Anime.net forums. The original request was posted by me. I didn't know where to post this exactly so if it needs to moved, I can repost it.

Hi all,

it's been months since I appeared here (I want to say I was sick á la an anime series and got sent to the seaside ) and I've got a request for all of you.

Recently, I was listening a certain anime podcast that will remain nameless where I was stunned by the amount of fawning going on on the part of the interviewer. And so no actual questions of any substance got asked of the industry rep. I decided since I've spoken to people in the EU/K industry before that I should do a series of roundup interviews with everyone on our side of the Atlantic and give our side of the fandom an idea of what's happening. Then the whole BEEZ/Bandai happened and that made me even more convinced to get it done. My editor and I reached out to the Australian labels as well and Madman responded.

So, my list of interviewees are:

Andrew from @kazeUK and @animeondemand

Jerome from @MangaUK

Sylvester from @animemadman

Andrew's interview is up first this coming week and Jerome and Sylvester will be available in the coming weeks. Note, these will be audio interviews. I''m going to ask each interviewee if they wouldn't mind taking away any questions that we don't get answered on the podcast and answering them if they have the time.

So, do you have any questions that you'd like to ask the guys? I can take questions up to Monday night the 9th of January for Andrew. If you want to reply here, that's fine. If you need to email me, you can get me on either eeeperschoice@gmail.com or Phillip@otakunews.com. For the record, MVM in the UK and Siren Visual in Australia have not yet responded but if they do, I will add them to the list.

I'm getting pretty tired of bad news bomb after bad news bomb of the medium of animation that I like. I'm also, as a buying customer, tired of looking down at my feet because the outlook is bleak. So this is my opportunity to get some answers or as best as I can on your behalf from the people who actually make some of the decisions that affect my/your buying choices. Hopefully, you'll all take the opportunity too.
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So as I've said if you have questions for these reps, please let me know through the thread here or at the email addresses provided.

Thanks all!
 
I have a couple of questions for Andrew if that's okay:

Firstly, as we know the western anime industry is a niche one. In the UK, the only company to experiment with sub-only anime releases in recent years has been Beez Entertainment. I was wondering if, from your time at Beez, you'd know what the average sales of a sub-only series would look like compared to the average bilingual release and do you think that sub-only releases (Which I guess could be considered a "niche within a niche") have a future in the industry?

That kind of brings me onto my next question as well:

Secondly, I was wondering about the nature of some of Kaze's physical releases. While I expect a few series' that have since been picked up by dubbing companies in the States will be made available here with their English dub (such as Tiger & Bunny and Steins;Gate), would the lack of an English dub prevent some titles from receiving a physical release or would the company experiment with sub-only releases like Beez Entertainment did?
 
If he hasn't announced them by then, could you nag poor Andrew to drop some hints about the upcoming simulcasts on AoD before I explode? :)

I'm presuming that he's probably reading this, hence the rambling nature of the next question.

I'd also like to know more about how Kaze handle region locking on blu-ray. I think it's been mentioned before that they region lock everything unless they have rights in a region A country, but I find this a great shame. How tight are the contracts about forcing this, when so many region A releases are not locked at all, and traditionally cheap countries like the US are in that region? I own only one French blu-ray at the moment (regionless Paprika, which is by a certain other studio). I'd also love the option to pick up more stuff (that isn't popular enough to come to the UK) from Europe instead of from farther afield.

One for everyone (well, the UK ones at least): Have they thought about getting a batch of the Aniplex "import" releases and making them available here, or is the BBFC arrangement prohibitive? I know Beez dabbled in this in the early days of Gundam Unicorn, but awareness was low. It would be interesting if Kaze could do this kind of thing from France, as it's a bit silly that I'm effectively importing a Japanese import from the US each time now just to show my market exists. And Kaze often has nice, shiny things at Expo.

I'd like to hear Jerome (and MVM if they participate) talk a little about simulcasting and how they feel about cross-promoting their older catalogues with AoD.

From Madman I'd like to hear more about their question about releasing non-PAL discs in future; will it just be a select few titles as a cost-cutting measure, and have they had much feedback? I'd also like to know, based on their comment about potentially putting out Gosick sub-only, whether the reduction in the number of dubs coming out of the US these days is a worrying trend and whether we're likely to see more sub-only content from them in future. It would also be interesting to know whether their content which hadn't seen a US release yet tends to sell better than expected or whether it's in line with their expectations (there haven't been many such titles from Madman but I'm always interested in this).

R
 
And here's the interview in mp3 form.

http://otakunews.com/article.php?story=1874

The answers to your questions are towards the end of the show, with about a half an hour left to go.

Good night, or good morning! I'm tired now and I need to recharge. Jerome's interview is up next and he's already answered the questions put to him so far and I'll post the answers at the same time the interview goes live.

Laters!
 
Started listening this morning but ran out of time before work! I'll attack it again this evening but if anything super-juicy was said it would be greatly appreciated if someone could make a note :)

R
 
theirsbailiff said:
Hey Eeeper, you did get that PM I sent you.
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Andrew has it so right in regards to making the videos HTML5 instead of having iPhone/Android apps.

Nice to hear about sub-only sales; not on the scale of Naruto and Bleach, but not as bad as Red Garden etc. Also, great to hear that Andrew wouldn't be instantly turned away by the lack of a dub.

The answer to Rui's question was: He said it's a difficult one, but realistically, if a company opens up a territory he doesn't have the rights to, it will be breach of contract even if they're not directly selling in that market. The only reason US titles are unlocked to Region B is if a company has the UK rights too or if the discs are being produced for Australia and the UK too. As much as he'd like to (to get extra sales), Andrew says he simply can't. However, he has said that the rise of region free players etc kinda makes that a moot point.

Someone asked about the possibility of Kaze getting AniplexUSA import titles, the answer was that without BBFC logos, it's technically illegal. However, if there was a way to do it, Andrew said he would consider it.

Another thing that was mentioned:
AnimeOnDemand find a download-to-own service is a very risky service, unless there's copy protection like the BBC. However, they are interested in iTunes; for example, if a show is released on DVD, they might only keep the first episode up on AoD and move the rest to iTunes.

They are looking into Netflix; Andrew didn't say anything definite, but he did say something on the lines of that he's interested. Also, he wants to look into including digital downloads with physical releases (Andrew didn't outright say if it was possible).

They apparently have another AOD title to announce that has already started airing in Japan.
 
Thanks Joshawott! The BBFC thing really needs to change to accommodate the shrinking marketplace for physical releases. They should just be able to stick a leaflet or a sticker with the pack. It's ridiculous that anyone can go to Amazon and buy a foreign, unrated disc, but the disc can't be legally released here without paying a lot and then doing a dedicated print run, argh!

The region thing is disappointing, but not a great surprise. Glad to hear sub-only hasn't totally flopped, and I hope we'll get more experimenting going on in future.

I think iTunes is a good platform, but it's very much dub-only for the most part. Unless this changes I think I'd prefer to see the dub through iTunes and the sub version (or at least representative sample episodes) for AoD subscribers still. iTunes is also a relatively locked environment so coercing ruffians to check out a legal source as an alternative to their dodgy sites would be easier if AoD was also available for me to point them to.

I hope that unannounced AoD title is what I want it to be, and I hope it appears very soon before I explode at all of the music videos I can already see popping up on Nico Nico Douga.

R
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
One way Kaze could legally provide us with non-certified anime is if they sold it directly and shipped from outside the UK. Or they could sell via Amazon Marketplace.
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Technically, selling DVDs to UK customers which aren't BBFC certified is still illegal. Not enforced, but illegal nonetheless. As such, I don't think any distributor would want to be seen doing it.

Incidentally, who would vote for me if I campaigned on abolishing the BBFC and made a manifesto pledge to punch Keith Vaz square in the face?
 
ayase said:
Incidentally, who would vote for me if I campaigned on abolishing the BBFC and made a manifesto pledge to punch Keith Vaz square in the face?
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Sounds like a good campaign strategy, I'm in.

R
 
ayase said:
Technically, selling DVDs to UK customers which aren't BBFC certified is still illegal. Not enforced, but illegal nonetheless. As such, I don't think any distributor would want to be seen doing it.
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I'm fairly sure that only applies to UK companies selling DVDs in the UK (or specifically to the UK). If Kaze, a French company, sold uncertified DVDs via their store, and just happened to allow UK customers to buy them, then I don't believe there's anything wrong with that.

Oh, and I would lend my full support to the abolishment of those BBFC dinosaurs. Obviously.
 
If I remember correctly (it was this morning when I listened to the interview, so my memory isn't perfect), when Andrew thumbed the idea of selling from outside the UK, the word he kept on using wasn't that it was illegal, but that it's not ethical.
 
Ethics? Other distributors are competition. The BBFC cut into potential profits. The more you can do to bypass either of them for your own gain the better. If they can do it, they should do it. Screw ethics, this is business.
 
Ah but if you throw away ethics completely, you end up with all the companies acting like a certain other UK anime company towards their customers. Which I could live without.

On the regioning issue I see my purchasing of UK stuff grinding to a halt for the most part at some point (don't want to buy special hardware just for the UK when everything I buy originally comes from elsewhere, at the moment), and imagining UN-GO's stunning ending credit sequence with a messy DVD encode makes me sad now I've tasted it in higher quality. But I do very much want to get behind the UK for streaming, and I'd love it if the discs were improved too. I guess I'll jump on the region B bandwagon once some stuff gets picked up that I can't get subbed from the US. What a silly planet we live on :s

R
 
It's not necessarily ethics that dictate that you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you; that's good business sense as well. But the hand that takes away from you? That's surely worth ripping off, if you can manage it.
 
My questions to the UK distributor parties (all of them) would be thus:

What would the additional, per item, cost be if you were to release every release as a Bluray/DVD double pack?
As it stands Funi US are starting to release more and more of these double packs, and Studio Canal seems to be releasing most of the Ghibli collection as such.

I know more and more people who do buy rather than pirate if they can, and an increasing number of them prefer to, or in some cases will ONLY, buy BD copies, even if those are professional upscales.
The problem is, where a BD variant isn't available, they often hold off to see if one becomes available, or will import as many shows are released on BD abroad, which does nothing for the UK industry, and perhaps shows or infers lower interest in shows than is actually correct.

Additionally, a certain UK company prefers to judge its release of a BD by DVD sales, yet the two are not mutually inclusive as aside from avid fans, most people will not buy on DVD to rebuy on BD, they will buy one or the other.

Not only would releasing BD/DVD combo packs perhaps entice more people to take up a BD Player (the industry not switching to BD as a whole is not helping the takeup), and switch over fully, but additionally those I spoke to would be happy to pay another £5-10 on the whole on every release, if it were to offer this.

Surely this is worth considering, by adopting double packs you are catering for both groups in the UK, DVD and BD buyers, keeping a higher number of people happy, and additionally may reclaim lost sales to people importing where the UK doesn't have a BD version, resulting in higher overall sales.
 
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