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

^ That's a pretty damn grim prediction. I had no idea the whole anime industry was seemingly in such a sticky situation. Personally, I wouldn't mind shelling out £50-60 for box set as opposed to the £30 they generally seem to get sold at these days, if it was for the good of our local industry (and the releases weren't flawed), but if Japanese prices ever came into play, I'd be wiped out of the equation. And I really can't imagine selling things at Jap prices over here would be particularly good for the Japanese industry in the long term, as international interest would just dry up completely.

I find with Manga that if you wait a little while, movies can be had for £3-4 new usually and 'half-season' sets for £5-7, unless it sold really badly and then they can be even cheaper than that. At this moment, from a quick skim on Amazon, Ouran (both cours) is going for £8.49, xxxHolic is £4.49 for a cour, Devil May Cry is under a fiver, Sengoku Basara is£7.69, Black Blood Brothers is £5. Eden of the East's complete collection is £8 for DVD or £10 for blu-ray. And this isn't even a sale, this is standard pricing at one shop without looking around. I remember buying Soul Eater's complete collection on sale at such a low price that it was cheaper than just buying the last set (and so I sold the other sets I had to CEX, effectively getting the show for free). If you look out on HMV or Zavvi you can definitely shave a few pounds off even those Amazon prices at certain times.
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This paragraph blew my mind. there are some ridiculously good deals there, Eden of the east for £!0 on bluray? wow. Unfortunately most things I'm interested in have come from Beez recently. But are Beez really no more, now?
 
The abject failure of Bandai Visual is the one thing that keeps me hoping that things won't go entirely the way that JPT predicts. Who paid premium prices for Galaxy Angel Rune? Not many. Japanese licensors will know this, and will choose carefully the titles they wish to distribute directly.

So far there have been two Aniplex Japanese imports made available to US customers; both of those were Type-Moon shows, and we all know how rabid Type-Moon fans are. But for those shows that don't have that kind of fan pull, or that didn't sell all that well in Japan (which is probably a majority of them)? They'll continue to be made available to Western licensees. I think. I hope.

Worst comes to worst and I'm priced out of the anime I've been supporting for 18 years, I'll spend the rest of my days re-watching my few hundred discs over and over. There's so much good stuff on my shelves.
 
Hey Vash, that's harsh, to say that Funi's July releases are a grim prediction ;)

Beez have not, as far as I know, issued a statement on the matter yet, but they haven't done anything ever since the US and French arms withdrew and it doesn't look great. It's a huge shame as they were my favourite UK company, and I'm still hoping we can get some closure (or even good news) at some point :/

As an aside in response to JustPa, Japanese releases usually have pretty good subtitles when they bother to include them, unlike the infamously undecipherable subtitles from other parts of Asia, of varying legitimacy.

R
 
Rui said:
As an aside in response to JustPa, Japanese releases usually have pretty good subtitles when they bother to include them, unlike the infamously undecipherable subtitles from other parts of Asia, of varying legitimacy.

R
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True, but I've found that quality suffers when competition is eliminated. Look at HMV on the High Street!
 
Rui said:
Beez have not, as far as I know, issued a statement on the matter yet, but they haven't done anything ever since the US and French arms withdrew and it doesn't look great. It's a huge shame as they were my favourite UK company, and I'm still hoping we can get some closure (or even good news) at some point :/
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I was under the impression they were too dead to say anything.

Just Passing Through said:
I can see it happening. Hell it's already started in the US with Aniplex and NISA. The Japanese companies are going to do the maths, and work out that it's more worthwhile selling directly to two or three hundred mugs at otaku prices, rather than let the local companies license and sell directly to twenty or thirty thousand at local prices. As long as there is someone willing to import at $300 - $800 a series, they're happier selling direct. The profit margins work out the same for them. They're not in it to open the world to the magic of anime, they just want enough money to keep their series in production. Then it's bye-bye Funimation, bye-bye Madman, and bye-bye Manga, and it's bye-bye to local anime fandom, as all that will be left in the UK will be twenty or thirty mega fans with deep pockets buying direct from Japan, and putting up with Engrish subtitles but happy with their deluxe packaging, art cards and pencil boards, and on disc extras that won't be translated...
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Oh the fandom's going nowhere. Except maybe to download the latest version of whatever Kazza variant is the fresh hip thing to download the animes on these days.

As much as Japan is desperate to wall itself off from anything resembling a world wide market, people, one way or another, will watch anime. It stands to reason, regardless of whatever thier Yes Sir, No Sir ******** mentality has to say in the matter, to make some money from those people.
 
DISTRIBUTORS TAKE NOTE:

fabricatedlunatic said:
Worst comes to worst and I'm priced out of the anime I've been supporting for 18 years, I'll spend the rest of my days re-watching my few hundred discs over and over. There's so much good stuff on my shelves.
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This is what'll happen more and more if the existing fan base is pushed closer and closer to Japanese pricing.

Aniplex and NISA releases won't be getting any support from me in future, for the simple reason that I'll not be abke to afford them.

If you're already having a tough time selling your product, who the hell thinks it's a good idea to price out some fo the customers you DO have? Insane.
 
I don't mind if the UK prices go up a bit, as long as they don't go to Japanese prices.

If I had the money, I would easily pay Japanese prices for anime but since i'm on benefits I can't really afford to do that, at least not without saving for months.
 
ConanThe3rd said:
Rui said:
Beez have not, as far as I know, issued a statement on the matter yet, but they haven't done anything ever since the US and French arms withdrew and it doesn't look great. It's a huge shame as they were my favourite UK company, and I'm still hoping we can get some closure (or even good news) at some point :/
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I was under the impression they were too dead to say anything.
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The voice of Beez was Andrew, although he continued tweeting for them even after he moved to Kaze. He can't say anything until he hears from someone higher up and I guess that's not happening... someone did ask if Kaze would like to pick up the Beez catalogue and he replied something to the effect of "that would be nice".
 
Someone is interested in Naruto on terrestrial TV?

Well well, what's all this then?

EDIT: Oooo a DVD/BD combi for Strike Witches season 1? Well well well...I have yet to pick up the Manga DVD, so...

In regards to the discussion about pricing though. I'm willing to pay say, NISA's prices - they are well worth the money (especially when you compare the difference between the premium and standard editions). I only own their release of Toradora!, but if they license more stuff I want, I will definitely support them. Aniplex? Well, I'm only paying the Madoka LEs because it's Madoka. If I lived in America and were paying the American prices, considering the extras, I would be content - it's only when we import it to hear, when customs get involved, or UP1 have to put a premium on, that it borders into crazy territory.

With episode counts, I am perfectly happy to buy singles of a series that's 12-14 episodes long, as long as the series is good. If it has the acclaim of K-ON! or Madoka Magica I will, but if it's something like Black Blood Brothers which is good but not fantastic, then no.

As I typing this, I glanced over to my 13 singles of Fullmetal Alchemist, then my 5 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and it's quite a surreal thing to see really - a series with a higher episode count collected in almost a third of the amount of volumes that the first series was. In 2012, I would be hard pressed to want to buy a 24 episode series in singles; never mind a 51.
 
Hmm, could it be that Japan won't let them, because Japan is region 2 like us? The PAL/NTSC issue would have been a natural barrier in the past for casual importing (and indeed, all of the foreign imports I saw over there were R1s). It can't possibly be a technical issue since other companies release NTSC here already.

Shame.

R
 
Depraved of a version that hasn't been pressed through the video conversion ringer, all because six twits can't operate a PS3...

They can't hide behind "Licenser say no" ether, that's bunk.

Edit: because here I am, playing Seto No Hanayome (Funimation's and NSTC all all get out) and it runs perfectly fine on my pal PS3. I can also confirm it's a pal PS3 cuz it doesn't play my copy of Xenogears.
 
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