Overseas The Aniplex Thread

Because it's shorter. It's a lot easier to get people to buy 2 sets than 6.

Basically what Lemon said. Plus he's putting them out faster (I think?), and again Erased is shorter so Aniplex would have pushed him for two sets regardless. Durarara!! is just an oddity.
 
Not really as the DRR ones would have been better value. I dont see the problem with a volumised release as it makes you break up your spending so if you can afford one volume you can just get that one and wait till you can afford the others. Theres also the fact that ERASED is gonna be less quality than AoAs due no OST and mini manga and will be a one disc set.
 
Not really as the DRR ones would have been better value. I dont see the problem with a volumised release as it makes you break up your spending so if you can afford one volume you can just get that one and wait till you can afford the others. Theres also the fact that ERASED is gonna be less quality than AoAs due no OST and mini manga and will be a one disc set.


It does break up your spending, which is nice, but then we're also dealing in collector's editions and like I say if DRR was more sets then it would almost certainly cost a lot more than these three sets are going to simply because AL would have wanted to do more. The market right now just ins't in a good condition for multiple volume releases....

Also I do agree with Erased that the quality, as it stands right now, is not going to be as good as the AoA sets but then AL might still do something quite nice with it.
 
It does break up your spending, which is nice, but then we're also dealing in collector's editions and like I say if DRR was more sets then it would almost certainly cost a lot more than these three sets are going to simply because AL would have wanted to do more. The market right now just ins't in a good condition for multiple volume releases....

Also I do agree with Erased that the quality, as it stands right now, is not going to be as good as the AoA sets but then AL might still do something quite nice with it.

I will see if they can reach there set ERASED date as I didn't plan to get AoAs till Jan anyway but unless they pull something good as the OST is nice.
 
The trouble with Aniplex is that they're super savvy - the reason people are willing to pay so much is that 80-90% of their shows end up being massive hits, so there's always demand, no matter the price.

Like it or not, it's certainly been sustainable for them so far. Although, I do wonder how long it will continue to be so. (And I don't even mean I don't think it will, I genuinely wonder if it will and think it could easily go either way)

Aniplex shows tend to be huge hits, in part, due to popularity gained during their initial broadcast. In the Western markets, this tends to mostly equate to simulcasts and post-broadcast legal streams.
Legal sites, whether Crunchyroll-style anime focuses ones or Netflix-style general sites, make it a lot easier to recommend shows to other people. No trying to get them to play "Hunt the Fansubbers Who Didnt Give Up Halfway" or to struggle with sites potentially infested with crapware.
And much less having a show becoming harder to find the moment it gets licensed. So you can continue the momentum of people discovering the shows.

Get enough people interested in the show in the first place and even if a only small percentage of them like the pricey bells-and-whistles releases, a small percentage of a large enough audience will still allow a fancy edition to sell well.

Where this might start to falter going forward is that it is dependant on people watching in the first place. Remember, people can favour standard/cheap releases and still aid popularity via word-of-mouth. They're an "infection vector", if you will.

So what happens if people who favour cheaper releases start to take my viewpoint of just passing over the majority of titles from Aniplex during the initial airing?
I don't do it to "Prove a point", more like I don't want to get invested in a show to the point of really want to own it physically (but without paying extra for bells and whistles I actively dislike) and then seeing Aniplex pull this kind of thing. I know they're going to, so why bother when there are already more titles out there for me to watch or buy than I have time for? So I don't watch shows like Erased in the first place, as soon as I know they're by Aniplex.

Now I'm just one person, and I don't really have a huge sphere of influence. But what if more and more people stop getting initially invested in shows that they're pretty sure will never get an affordable home release? But then they stop talking about those shows and the people they know don't check them out of curiosity and the cycle grows.

Could Aniplex possibly be at risk of reducing their shows' popularity by the continuing reputation of mainly only ever releasing collector editions physically and insisting that international licencees do likewise?
Or does the fact that they've got away with it so far mean that they're pretty much bulletproof at this point?
 
Playing the game I ain't watching a Aniplex show is stupid Af as they do make amazing shows, like it or not but they do have the best music in anime Fate, Monogatari ERASED, DRR all have amazing OSTs.
The person who are hurting in the end is yourself as like you said there are legal alternatives if you like a show you DONT have to buy it.
 
So what happens if people who favour cheaper releases start to take my viewpoint of just passing over the majority of titles from Aniplex during the initial airing?
I don't do it to "Prove a point", more like I don't want to get invested in a show to the point of really want to own it physically (but without paying extra for bells and whistles I actively dislike) and then seeing Aniplex pull this kind of thing. I know they're going to, so why bother when there are already more titles out there for me to watch or buy than I have time for? So I don't watch shows like Erased in the first place, as soon as I know they're by Aniplex.
I'd have to second the point Doc made above in that Aniplex do get involved in a lot of the better/popular shows (although popular does not always = good) and I'd go as far as saying they do have the west in mind when it comes to producing new shows (heck, they outright said DRRRx2 came to be in part due to how successful it was overseas). The Aniplex model is pretty much give a title as much exposure as possible (CR, Netflix, Toonami etc.) and create desireable collectors sets for the super fans, so it's pretty much the Japanese model at this point ( TV > Home Video). I get where you're coming from, but you are missing out on a bunch of quality shows by not so much as streaming shows because of the licensor. That's like me ignoring Ponycanyon shows (so pretty much Euph I suppose) because I know their Home Video releases will be both expensive and bloody awful.
 
I've been thinking about the whole 'Non-UK English Aniplex sets must follow the AoA model' since this has become quite the discussion.

So Erased was going to be £59.99 per set because Andrew was originally under the assumption that everything from the US version would be included in the UK release (on-disc + OST + Short Manga). If it did turn out to be the case then I would honestly be perfectly fine with that price point, especially as the US version is going for £88 [$114.98] or £69 outside postage on Rightstuf [$89.98] so it's a fair bit cheaper for the exact content. But considering that's not the case and those special things get knocked out, we're left with just the same on-disc content and at times UK exclusive extras from the Japanese release. So in any case, Erased would instead have the same SRP as Sword Art Online II (£39.99) if that were the case. Give it some time or watch retailers reduce the price it would end up as £25 for half the series. That right there, while ridiculous, is not that bad if you give it a nice collector's treatment to make up for it. The SAO II sets were worth it in my opinion because of its packaging, combo pack and booklet; plus it's superior to how AoA handled their US LEs (yes they had OSTs but when they're available on their own then the value of the set is reduced).

I have looked at a 'what if' scenario with Durarara!!x2 and while 6 individual sets may be too much for many, if they each had an SRP £39.99 for pretty much the same contents that the US had plus the OVAs if available then I wouldn't mind. Plus given it's 2 parts per arc, Anime Ltd could have offered an SAO II style box to represent each arc for no extra cost. I know most will murder me for saying this but I'm just thinking that perhaps having half-a-cour per set may not be that bad if you give it the right treatment, the right timing and a smaller SRP.

Meh, I'll get ignored (though I would like to hear Andrew Partridge's thoughts on this).
 
I get where you're coming from, but you are missing out on a bunch of quality shows by not so much as streaming shows because of the licensor. That's like me ignoring Ponycanyon shows (so pretty much Euph I suppose) because I know their Home Video releases will be both expensive and bloody awful.

Yes and no.

Yes, I might miss out on some quality shows that way. But my time (and money) goes towards watching other quality shows, or playing quality video games, or whatever so I don't feel like I'm missing out too much...
'Cos I'm still enjoying a bunch of stuff and when something has rewatch value, I can afford to own it.

Because, to me, that's the point of my personal collection. For some people it's having an impressive shelf display. But for me, it's having memorable shows and films that I can rewatch when I feel like it, in often-better-than-streaming quality and without being stuck if the Network Gods are asleep at the post that day.

If something I enjoyed has rewatch value, I almost always want to own a physical copy. (More reliable than a stream.)
Even if something has rewatch value, though, I'm rarely-if-ever interested in the extraneous stuff that comes with a collector version and provides a good deal of the value. And if the bulk of a product's value is irrelevant to me, it kinda of equates to losing value from my perspective.

Also, again completely personally, falling for a show and being unable to own an affordable Blu-ray version of it is annoying. As I said earlier, I'd rather focus my attention on things I'v got a good chance of owning afterwards. I hate reaching the end of a series, deciding I need to own it and then seeing a price tag (or DVD-only restriction) that makes it unlikely to happen for me any time soon.

So I am not getting Kill la Killed (affordable version delayed longer than I liked waiting), SAO2d (I'm not paying more than Season 1, which was at the edge of my personal value threshold, for a Season 2 I actually enjoyed ever so slightly less) or DenkiGaid again!
If Aniplex (especially AoA) or Pony Canyon (especially PonyCan US) are involved, I'm steering clear unless/until a UK affordable Blu-ray version is announced.

As I said, I might be missing out on some real gems but I have plenty of other gems in my backlog and rewatch piles anyway. As well as new-but-likely-affordable titles every season.
 
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