Subtitled Gonzo anime online hours after airing in Japan

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Gonzo, following up <a href="http://www.animeuknews.net/news/1625/gonzo-pave-the-way-for-new-era-of-anime-distribution">their earlier claims</a> that they intend to push ahead with the rapid distribution of&nbsp; anime across the web, <a href="http://www.gdh.co.jp/english/news/20080331.html">has announced</a> their intentions to initiate an open-pricing model on the video streaming website <a href="http://www.crunchyroll.com/">Crunchyroll.com</a>. Essentially, anime fans can choose <em>exactly </em><strong>how much</strong> they want to <em>pay </em>for <strong>downloading </strong>"high quality" English subtitled episodes of <strong><em>The Tower of Druaga -the Aegis of URUK</em></strong>- and <em><strong>BLASSREITER</strong></em>.
In terms of speed, these series should be "available online for viewers overseas on the same day of their Japanese TV broadcast" and since <em>The Tower of Druaga</em> premieres on April 4th and <em>BLASSREITER </em>on April 5th, fans worldwide will soon be enjoying legal anime episodes just hours after they air on Japanese TV.
 
It would be nice for Crunchyroll to have an "about" or FAQ page. I don't understand it myself.
How's it set up? And choose how much to pay? That sounds fishy... if not confusing. (I thought about a charity box when I heard this... It's a "give what you can" approach.)
 
I pay... 1p for the high subbed quality video... Well, they can't complain. Our currency is stronger than the American's currency >.>
 
What it says on the tin no deeper meaning.
You think it's worth 1p you pay 1p think it's worth £100 pay £100
If it's free or not not a clue since it's crunchy roll probaly
 
Lupus Inu said:
Elaniel said:
It seems the way it's worded they mean like a donation or something. You decide what it's worth I guess o_O
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If it's from Gonzo, chances are it won't be worth much. >_>
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Ooooh, touche! :D

For the first episode I would probably give a small amount (like 50 cents) as I'm not wasting money for a show I may not like, nor will I try to take advantage of something that could eventually be the norm for the anime/film industry in the future. If I enjoy the show, I'll pay more for each episode. If I don't, I don't lose out on much.

If people end up taking the piss with it, it will be deemed a failure (which I'm sure many people will do as they're greedy and don't realize/care they're harming the market by doing so.) and the market will just end up being in trouble again.

Companies are trying to find a way to distribute anime to make fans happy. (Quicker releases, etc.) and if people take the piss with it then it will be deemed a failure and we're all back to square one again. At least some companies are trying to do something, and I'll definately support it, as if things keep going the way they are now, the anime market will die.
 
Gacha said:
What it says on the tin no deeper meaning.
You think it's worth 1p you pay 1p think it's worth £100 pay £100
If it's free or not not a clue since it's crunchy roll probaly
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They should've done a fixed price, then at least they profit more than from a few simple advertisements!

But then again... With free fansubs murking around, they have to improvise a bit.
 
Elaniel said:
If people end up taking the piss with it, it will be deemed a failure (which I'm sure many people will do as they're greedy and don't realize/care they're harming the market by doing so.) and the market will just end up being in trouble again.
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The man speaks the truth.

Unfortunately I don't want to watch either of these shows anyway (not to mention that I'm not into digital distribution for video yet particularly) so I doubt I'll be checking it out; I wish they were doing a show I was interested in so I could help. Hopefully they'll try some others if the first baby steps are a success with broader appeal. I have a DVD backlog but would be willing to pay to support something I could get excited about!

And to the 1p person (Chrono) - you know Japan and the US use different currencies right? If Crunchyroll make small amount of money a share of those tiny sums presumably have to then transfer over to Gonzo and the yen's price lately hasn't been helpful that way around. Plus every transaction incurs payment processing fees.

I'm scared that even if they do this to directly respond to the digisubbers' desires, they still won't pay up, and my hobby will be harmed whilst the overseas fans' reputations sink even lower.

I suppose if positive encouragement doesn't work, it will further justify anti-digisub approaches like Odex's (and like the music industry).

R
 
If people don't support this method, and "Pay-up" so to speak, then the Japanese markets will probably see it as a lost cause.

I would put money on all the other companies in Japan watching very closely with this experiment to see how it goes.

If it works out, it does not necessarily mean just digital distribution, I would imagine it would mean it's a faster way to for fans to get them so they can't use the excuse that fan-subs are quicker and that's why people download them. While later on down the line we would see DVD releases still.

It's really nice to see the industry taking a serious approach and trying to find ways to help the industry. Before all we had were DVD/VHS, then we addes tv airings. Now we're being given LEGAL subs to download a matter of hours after Japan sees it. I think this is a brilliant idea and should be supported.

It won't just show that downloadable anime works, it will also show that the anime market is still alive and that fans in the western world are showing their support for the industry by trying to work with the Japanese companies with the releases of their shows, and showing off their support.

I in no way see digital distribution taking over at all, it's a way to get shows to us faster and giving people alternatives to having to wait months/years for a DVD release.

I myself am not in total agreement of digital distribution as I love having actual copies of the things I buy. However, as they say "desperate times call for desperate measures." So I will support it somewhat to show myself that I'm still supportive of the anime market and prove I'm open to new ways to get my anime if they're the only means necessary.

Plus, this method could also give us shows that would never be justified to bring over to the US market, even with just subtitles on a DVD. This is a good cheap way for companies to get shows out there that are niche in an already niche market.

Or maybe old shows that were lost in the crowd of bigger shows that companies wouldn't want to release in this day and age due to some people not fond of older anime. This could be a way to get all of these.
 
I'm going to check this out because aside from that I'm purely curious about how Gonzo will handle the subtitling (ultimately, if it's below par, the fans are going scream), I'm actually quite interested in BLASSREITER itself and as long as it's good enough, it's well worth paying a couple of quid to get an episode this early...

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GI5wsXHWW8Y&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GI5wsXHWW8Y&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

1. Violence Jack\Gantz\Angel Cop director.
2. 80s cyber punk setting with motorbikes and cyborg-monster-things.
3. Electronic soundtrack
4. Weird blend of 3D action with 2D character designs.

I mean, who wouldn't want to watch BLASSREITER? It's like the mid-90s era all over again.
 
Shesh, guy's why don't you go to the site and read what's there rather than speculating wildly. you have two choices
1- Watch for free, lower quality (but much better than youtube) but you get adds.
2- Watch high quality, no adds and you can download it, but you make a donation of what ever size you like.

While i agree with Lupus Inu for the most part (they did make FMP!, Last Exile, and Hellsing which i rate), will donate a reasonable amount beacuse i would like for it to be a success.

Quick question thought what would you consider a reasonable per episode? Episodes on DVD cost about £4-£6 at RRP, but if you shop around you can pay less. £1 per episode?
 
How sure are you that that's the right sound to go with the video, Paul? All the Youtube videos, and CrunchyRoll's video has no sound. EDIT: It seems to be the right one, as it's on the Nitro+ website, how odd. Loving that music.

As for subtitles, I think Gonzo are doing their own for Crunchyroll and Youtube, but BOST TV are doing their own version of subtitles.

It's 1 hour to go until we can see episode 1 of Druaga, BOST's site is under maintenance. This is some serious revolution going on right here.
 
Can someone clairfy something for me.

When you download a high quality version, is this to own or is it like a rental?

TBH not gonna be checking it out as I watch all my anime dubbed, but I was just interested to know what you get exactly :)
 
Just seen that Crunchyroll have got a nifty countdown on their website leading to the premiere of DRUAGA, which will be on their site in 00 days 01 hrs 01 min 02 seconds. Just for the hell of it, I'm going to check it out. I might pay for it too, to scope out the video quality etc. To be honest, I'm really excited about this, it could be the start of a new era.

Edit

melonpan said:
How sure are you that that's the right sound to go with the video, Paul? All the Youtube videos, and CrunchyRoll's video has no sound.
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I'm fairly sure. Two of the PV's I've seen use this music, so I'm presuming it's legit and it would be odd if they released this without any sound in the first place. It fits so well. I hope it is the soundtrack because, as you said, there are some muted clips too, so it might be an elaborate trick.
 
Dan said:
Can someone clairfy something for me.

When you download a high quality version, is this to own or is it like a rental?

TBH not gonna be checking it out as I watch all my anime dubbed, but I was just interested to know what you get exactly :)
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It's a keeper.
 
The download is going to be crap. It's not "high quality" at all (Gonzo said in a press releases ages ago that there would be "high quality" downloads). It's going to be offered in two resolutions, one for PSP and one for iPod, and those resolutions are about a quarter to a half the resolution of DVD. So basically, if you download it and full-screen it, it's going to look dreadful.

The stream will be the same resolution as a DVD (i.e 480x720 in this case, because it's taken from an NTSC source). But nowhere near the same quality because the bitrate will be much lower.

My thinking is that DVD quality downloads will be offered in a couple of months, when the Japanese DVD release begins. Gonzo said we'd be getting DVD quality downloads, and they haven't kept up to that at this point, so I assume they will in the future.

What the next stage of the 'digital distribution revolution' will be the 'physical revolution' aspect, i.e getting worldwide simultaneous releases on DVD. But there's no hint at that at this point.

As for paying, on Crunchyroll it's totally free, or you can donate. On Youtube it's totally free, but on BOST TV if you signed up before April 2nd you can see the first episode of both shows free but you have to pay for the rest (at £1 an episode), the download will be DRM free and unlimited, but the streaming service will be rented for a month or however long they said.

Actually, reading the CrunchyRoll news bit, it's going to be exactly the same as BOST TV. Where they say "high quality download", they're lying. It's just PSP/iPod quality.
 
As for what I'm going to do. I'm excited about it massively, and am going to stream it/download it/look into it as much as possible, just for the first episode, but I'll be waiting for the DVD releases in the long run, I could make a long list of why, but I'll just say because ultimately a DVD release is better (and in general a lot of anime has portions reanimated for DVD release).
 
melonpan said:
What the next stage of the 'digital distribution revolution' will be the 'physical revolution' aspect, i.e getting worldwide simultaneous releases on DVD. But there's no hint at that at this point.
Click to expand...

Now this is what I am talking about, lets get a worldwide release of DVDs (with Subs and Dubs) and that will stop most people from importing (I think), taking into account there could be different extras, cuts and video transfers, although hopefully not but I would expect a rise in anime sold in the UK.

After reading that Blu Ray anime wasn't (mostly) region coded in the US, that seems the only way forward for me, or the UK Market will be hit badly or at worst disappear. well at least thats how I see it.
 
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