The News Thread (for news that does not need a thread)

Lutga said:
I wouldn't call RWBY anime, but it's so heavily inspired by it, it might as well be. Personally I really enjoyed it, and think the characterisation, action and music is very well done it it.
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I'm just glad the words "art direction" and "animation" weren't included in that sentence.
 
Rui said:
I wouldn't count the Transformers movie as anime though it's more borderline given the series' history in Japan. It's a darn fine cartoon though and I've watched it dozens of times without ever getting tired of it.

Dannielle said:
LtDiscotek said:
Speaking of shows that are far too niche, as awesome as the series is, I don’t think Rose of Versailles or Princess Tutu would ever get a release in a shounen dominated UK market…. We need more fab shoujo sparkles god dammit!
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Agreed, I don't see it happening for either of those, which is a shame. I can see why companies wouldn't take the risk on them even though I would very much like them over here.
MVM seem to be at least trying, hopefully Kamisama Kiss sold well enough for them to look more into Shoujo and it's sparkly goodness.
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Female-orientated shows have always suffered here because Manga UK don't know how to sell them; they get no marketing or consideration for their target audience and many of the biggest shows have had severely glitched releases. If it wasn't for MVM's efforts to have a diverse catalogue, fans of stuff aimed at the fairer sex would never get anything :(

I think Yuri Kuma Arashi could have a good chance of coming over on DVD one day but it's a crying shame there's no legal stream here. RoV and Princess Tutu are probably impossible ^^;

R
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That's very true :(

I cannot help but think the overall weridness of the show would put people off purchasing Arashi. I like that it's strange and funky but others? I don't know, add the fact that it features lesbian relationships (sadly, even in this day of age, that alone will turn people away) and is heavy on the symbolism. I've seen so many drop it a few eps in and rate it low cause it's difficult to follow at the start. I guess though, we did get Penguindrum so hope is there.

I don't see Manga/Animatsu/Anime Limited picking it up, so hopefully MVM will consider it but I do believe it'd only be a DVD only release =[ Which is an automatic no buy for me sadly.

Maybe I'll just put this up every now and then to get people to consider it.

 
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In regards to marketing, do even the male-targeted shows receive that much? I admittedly don't buy Neo or MyM, but the most I've seen outside of pushes on their own social media channels were adverts for Dragon Ball Z in a variety of magazines just before MangaUK started releasing it here.
 
Joshawott said:
In regards to marketing, do even the male-targeted shows receive that much? I admittedly don't buy Neo or MyM, but the most I've seen outside of pushes on their own social media channels were adverts for Dragon Ball Z in a variety of magazines just before MangaUK started releasing it here.
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Yeah but they create a laddish environment on their social media channels so even talking about something fluffy-sounding (even though it isn't) like Princess Tutu would cause everyone to tune out. FUNimation actively target shows to specific demographics, whereas Manga UK seem to work with the crowd already following them and nothing more.

It really doesn't help that most of the major female-interest shows from Manga have been glitched. They just don't seem to care, and I think that's ok as MVM cater much better for that market anyway. I wonder how well stuff like Fruits Basket (one of FUNimation's perpetual bestsellers) does over here nowadays?

R
 
Rui said:
Joshawott said:
In regards to marketing, do even the male-targeted shows receive that much? I admittedly don't buy Neo or MyM, but the most I've seen outside of pushes on their own social media channels were adverts for Dragon Ball Z in a variety of magazines just before MangaUK started releasing it here.
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Yeah but they create a laddish environment on their social media channels so even talking about something fluffy-sounding (even though it isn't) like Princess Tutu would cause everyone to tune out. FUNimation actively target shows to specific demographics, whereas Manga UK seem to work with the crowd already following them and nothing more.
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Could it be less a case of the female market being ignored and more a case of the UK mass market being targeted? Perhaps a majority of UK anime consumers have a preference for more male targeted (in Japan) shows and what you've termed "laddish" culture regardless of their own gender? While of course everyone has their own individual tastes and there are guys who are into those female targeted shows too, I do get the impression that women in the UK seem less into "girly" things than women in Japan.
 
Yuru Yuri Season 3 Announced : https://twitter.com/_namori_/status/574181998127804416 / http://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/ ... announced/

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Made my day, no my week :D :D
 
ayase said:
Rui said:
Joshawott said:
In regards to marketing, do even the male-targeted shows receive that much? I admittedly don't buy Neo or MyM, but the most I've seen outside of pushes on their own social media channels were adverts for Dragon Ball Z in a variety of magazines just before MangaUK started releasing it here.
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Yeah but they create a laddish environment on their social media channels so even talking about something fluffy-sounding (even though it isn't) like Princess Tutu would cause everyone to tune out. FUNimation actively target shows to specific demographics, whereas Manga UK seem to work with the crowd already following them and nothing more.
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Could it be less a case of the female market being ignored and more a case of the UK mass market being targeted? Perhaps a majority of UK anime consumers have a preference for more male targeted (in Japan) shows and what you've termed "laddish" culture regardless of their own gender? While of course everyone has their own individual tastes and there are guys who are into those female targeted shows too, I do get the impression that women in the UK seem less into "girly" things than women in Japan.
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As with the discussion in the GitS live action topic, isn't it a self-fulfilling prophecy? The mass market here prefers less girly things because there's barely any girly stuff available for them to get into in the first place. The fact that MVM keep deliberately picking up otome game adaptations and shoujo hits implies that people are buying enough of them to make them worthwhile.

Since I'm old I cut my teeth on all of the ultraviolent, sexy male-orientated shows, so of course I like that stuff or I wouldn't be here. I think other potential shoujo fans around here are the same; they're people who also happen to enjoy traditional male-orientated fare. But with manga (which doesn't exclusively target an imagined 'dominant' demographic) you see a lot more variety in the kind of people buying the books and I think that's much healthier for the industry in the long term - as well as being more interesting. The feverish excitement here around Anime Limited's HAL release during the Christmas sales showed that a good show in a very fluffy, romantic box doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence for its appeal amongst Brits. Similarly if you go to Expo there is an insane amount of fan support for shows like Ouran, Hetalia and anything CLAMP which never seems to translate into more support from the local industry.

I listened to a pair of podcasts once which had Jerome and the folks at FUNimation talking about the same show, independently. Here's a paraphrased summary from memory:

FUNi: This show didn't do all that well when we first launched it and we were scratching our heads, so we relaunched it aimed at the female audience and it ended up meeting our expectations.

Manga: We acquired the show as normal and then afterwards we realised it was female fans in Japan who were buying all of the merchandise - uh oh! We went ahead anyway and it sold terribly in the UK.

The FUNi version sold fine and led to BD versions of the following adaptations. The Manga version, which they insisted on releasing in their usual way? Season 2 went DVD-only with missing content and the series was rarely spoken of again. It was dumb of them to pick up a title like that without doing a scrap of research first or pitching it at the right market in the first place, admittedly, but their release mirrored FUNimation's first (failed) release and they didn't ever think about how to try to get the word out beyond their regular group of followers. Which was the wrong demographic because they don't target any others. Heck, they'd probably have been better off borrowing MVM's followers for their pitch.

Maybe I'm too idealistic but I thought the entire purpose of local distributors was to use their native UK expertise to find titles markets beyond the ones they'd have if some faceless corporation in Japan was publishing overseas themselves on a conveyor belt. When that isn't happening I think it's the distributors at fault, not the fact that UK demographics are somehow radically different to those elsewhere in the world.

R
 
There's definitely a big female audience out there - stuff like Fairy Tail and Black Butler owes a lot to the female fandom in the UK I think.

Then, on the other hand - when one of Manga's biggest titles last year was High School DxD, they're obviously going to aim for more boobs and babes shows like that.
 
I got an email earlier from Amazon saying the third volume of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood had been pushed forward to 21st May (the same day as Vol.2).

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I've been so happy when I read that, but what are the chances that it's a mistake?
 
Rui said:
As with the discussion in the GitS live action topic, isn't it a self-fulfilling prophecy? The mass market here prefers less girly things because there's barely any girly stuff available for them to get into in the first place. The fact that MVM keep deliberately picking up otome game adaptations and shoujo hits implies that people are buying enough of them to make them worthwhile.

Since I'm old I cut my teeth on all of the ultraviolent, sexy male-orientated shows, so of course I like that stuff or I wouldn't be here. I think other potential shoujo fans around here are the same; they're people who also happen to enjoy traditional male-orientated fare. But with manga (which doesn't exclusively target an imagined 'dominant' demographic) you see a lot more variety in the kind of people buying the books and I think that's much healthier for the industry in the long term - as well as being more interesting. The feverish excitement here around Anime Limited's HAL release during the Christmas sales showed that a good show in a very fluffy, romantic box doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence for its appeal amongst Brits. Similarly if you go to Expo there is an insane amount of fan support for shows like Ouran, Hetalia and anything CLAMP which never seems to translate into more support from the local industry.
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Hmm, we're veering close to the enduring debate over whether the availability of media changes the audience's attitudes or the audience seeks out the media that appeals to them, with the most readily available simply being the most popular. I tend to favour the latter explanation - I don't think most people are awful because The Sun is the best-selling newspaper, I think The Sun is the best-selling newspaper because most people are awful.

I suppose ultimately, it's a case of whether you consider it a problem that certain titles are being pushed at the expense of others. I don't, really. Like consumption of any media, the interesting people will continue to seek out different things which interest them, the uninterested or uninteresting will continue to eat up whatever they're fed. I don't own shares in Manga so I'm not particularly bothered what shows they choose to advertise or sell, I'll look for and find the shows I want to buy or watch wherever in the world they're available. If others aren't doing that and only buy things Manga hype up (and if Manga really are missing out on a large section of market) then really, that's their loss.
 
So, Sony Pictures have registered domain names for Attack On The Titan.

If they're planning a western live-action adaptation that fixes the Engrish in the title, cool Or, it could just be them releasing the Japanese movies. I'd say Attack On Titan is one of the few anime that actually needs a western studio to adapt it though.
 
The Yuru Yuri love =')

Joshawott said:
So, Sony Pictures have registered domain names for Attack On The Titan.

If they're planning a western live-action adaptation that fixes the Engrish in the title, cool Or, it could just be them releasing the Japanese movies. I'd say Attack On Titan is one of the few anime that actually needs a western studio to adapt it though.
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It could work couldn't it? The setting is very European, I believe all the characters are European (bar one half Japanese)... It's a lot to ask for in this day of age with Hollywood but it could work.

I would imagine it is just them releasing the Japanese films but I wouldn't put it past them to jump on the money train and make their own. They do need to do something about that Engrish though :p
 
ConanThe3rd said:
Lutga said:
There's definitely a big female audience out there - stuff like Fairy Tail and Black Butler owes a lot to the female fandom in the UK I think.
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The Ladies want Gray and the Ladies want to be Erza.
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And then Lucy is just the shameless fan service for everybody.
 
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