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

The irony is that for all that Kaze's releases are usually super delayed / appear out of nowhere / have absolutely zero marketing - they often end up being very reasonably priced. It helps that they have big name titles like Code Geass and Future Diary which for many people will be 'entry point' titles if they're first getting into anime - likewise with One Punch Man.
 
Lutga said:
The irony is that for all that Kaze's releases are usually super delayed / appear out of nowhere / have absolutely zero marketing - they often end up being very reasonably priced. It helps that they have big name titles like Code Geass and Future Diary which for many people will be 'entry point' titles if they're first getting into anime - likewise with One Punch Man.
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I suspect it helps that the French market suffered from "pumping and dumping" in the last crash, and consequently anime is still inordinately cheap (compared to the UK) there.

At one point, @BlackStrat was talking on Discord about how Anime Limited's French project @Anime was perhaps struggling to convince French fans that it's Collector's Editions were actually worth it. So AL releases are often more at the £30-40 range there from standard retailers, rather than from Early Bird deals.
 
The lack of communication (then suddenly releasing something anyway) really bothers me with Kaze. Even if I wanted to buy something from them there have been so many times when it's looked as though they've gone and left the UK market entirely that I'd import it first. And the way that even Manganimatsu don't seem to be able to take any feedback back to them despite being the sole reliable point of contact UK fans have is frustrating. They used to be cool.

The lack of a concerted push is even sillier when it's a company like Viz (and its various corporate arms worldwide). The US arm is pushing the manga quite well, I feel, but other than that it's virtually invisible outside of fan communities where it's obviously taken hold. Which feeds the elitism of the illegal streaming world and its message that it's hard to watch this underground anime stuff (did it ever even stream anywhere other than Daisuki?)

Love it or hate it, OPM is a pretty perfect type of show for the casual UK buyer who wants something daft to watch with beer and pizza on their night off. It ticks all of the boxes. It's a shame that I can't see it selling the numbers it should; in a post-HMV world my friends who don't follow the industry will never know it's even got a UK release if the only impact it makes is a handful of tweets on an account they don't follow.

R
 
Rui said:
The lack of communication (then suddenly releasing something anyway) really bothers me with Kaze. Even if I wanted to buy something from them there have been so many times when it's looked as though they've gone and left the UK market entirely that I'd import it first. And the way that even Manganimatsu don't seem to be able to take any feedback back to them despite being the sole reliable point of contact UK fans have is frustrating. They used to be cool.

The lack of a concerted push is even sillier when it's a company like Viz (and its various corporate arms worldwide). The US arm is pushing the manga quite well, I feel, but other than that it's virtually invisible outside of fan communities where it's obviously taken hold. Which feeds the elitism of the illegal streaming world and its message that it's hard to watch this underground anime stuff (did it ever even stream anywhere other than Daisuki?)

Love it or hate it, OPM is a pretty perfect type of show for the casual UK buyer who wants something daft to watch with beer and pizza on their night off. It ticks all of the boxes. It's a shame that I can't see it selling the numbers it should; in a post-HMV world my friends who don't follow the industry will never know it's even got a UK release if the only impact it makes is a handful of tweets on an account they don't follow.

R
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The show was co-licensed by Viz Media, Viz Media Europe and Anime Consortium Japan, so only they and their partners were allowed to stream it. Though ACJ has sold shows to Crunchyroll and Funimation before, so perhaps Viz stopped them. (Viz Media Europe is apparently a completely separate entity to Viz Media.)

It was also on Animax UK and Hulu in the US (back when Hulu was cool and people went there).

For what it's worth, even though I understand your personal problems with them and their past(?) conduct, I think a Manga release of OPM would have been the best, so perhaps we could persuade them to wrestle it off Kaze (like they did with Death Note somehow). As much as I love AL, Manga still has connections with retail and the casual fanbase that AL doesn't, and Manga's commitment to trying to lower prices would have been a boon for the title.
 
Buzz201 said:
For what it's worth, even though I understand your personal problems with them and their past(?) conduct, I think a Manga release of OPM would have been the best, so perhaps we could persuade them to wrestle it off Kaze (like they did with Death Note somehow). As much as I love AL, Manga still has connections with retail and the casual fanbase that AL doesn't, and Manga's commitment to trying to lower prices would have been a boon for the title.
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Yeah, I think Manga would handle the property much better. If Kaze would just do the honourable thing and cede all of their licenses to Manga for the UK, we'd at least have some proper communication (even if I wouldn't buy any due to previously ranted-about issues).

R
 
Kaze just need to dissapear from the UK market . they clearly give zero shits about it. the problem is they end up picking up some decent titles. As Rui stated they would be much better if they just sub licence them to Manga. On a seperate point HMV are actually doing OK these days and the business has been turned around. I hope they are around for many years to come as they still have an important place in the UK market for physical media.
 
I thought it was just the second point? I didn't realise the Sentai / live action movie thing was still a thing? If it was, wouldn't that relate to Eva as a whole and not just the TV series?
 
Just read this too, they almost only did outsourcing for other companies and no own productions anymore since 2008. Maybe Bee Train which has been dormant since 4 years will follow, who knows. Hard times i guess for the anime industry.
 
sniper_samurai said:
There is currently a rights dispute between Aesir Holdings(Sentai) and the production committee due to the live action rights.

Plus the remastered version is being witheld from International release until after the final Rebuild movie.
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Thanks. What a legal mess. I have my worn out ADV set which I bought new but one of the discs has started skipping despite careful handling. Really disappointed there hasn't been a re-release in all that time.
 
Rumbling Hearts is fantastic - and sadly not really mentioned much these days. But I'd definitely recommend it to anyone In search of a more serious romance show.

Wasn't particularly aware of the studio though.
 
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