The US Persona 4 BD release will not contain Japanese audio

Just Passing Through

Just Passing Through

The Wildcard
The US Region A Persona 4 Blu-ray release won't have Japanese audio!

The licensors have forced Sentai to remove the Japanese audio from their Blu-ray release.

If the same thing happens to Kaze, you may as well just cancel the UK Blu-ray.

Jeez. When will a Western distro turn around as tell a licensor that their demands are killing the local markets. There comes a point where I start thinking I'd rather not have any anime at all, rather than under these terms.

EDIT: And they've Aniplexed it too...

HOUSTON, July 31, 2012 – Sentai Filmworks announces a release configuration change. The September 18, 2012 release of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on Blu-Ray will contain English language dub but not the original Japanese language. This change has been required by the Japanese licensor.

The revised Blu-Ray configuration of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 will be priced at $59.98 reflecting a shift from the former $69.98 price point.

“Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on DVD will contain both English and Japanese audio, as well as the Japanese episode commentaries. Pricing for the DVD release is unchanged.

Sentai Filmworks’ release of “Persona 4 The Animation” is licensed for sale and use in the USA and Canada only. Export is prohibited.
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My bolding
 
Just Passing Through said:
The US Region A Persona 4 Blu-ray release won't have Japanese audio!

The licensors have forced Sentai to remove the Japanese audio from their Blu-ray release.

If the same thing happens to Kaze, you may as well just cancel the UK Blu-ray.

Jeez. When will a Western distro turn around as tell a licensor that their demands are killing the local markets. There comes a point where I start thinking I'd rather not have any anime at all, rather than under these terms.

EDIT: And they've Aniplexed it too...

HOUSTON, July 31, 2012 – Sentai Filmworks announces a release configuration change. The September 18, 2012 release of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on Blu-Ray will contain English language dub but not the original Japanese language. This change has been required by the Japanese licensor.

The revised Blu-Ray configuration of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 will be priced at $59.98 reflecting a shift from the former $69.98 price point.

“Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on DVD will contain both English and Japanese audio, as well as the Japanese episode commentaries. Pricing for the DVD release is unchanged.

Sentai Filmworks’ release of “Persona 4 The Animation” is licensed for sale and use in the USA and Canada only. Export is prohibited.
Click to expand...

My bolding
Click to expand...

Kinda interesting to note the DvD is unaffected, clear signs that there's a increasing fear over BD reverse importing. Gotta wonder just how bad this is going to get, we've already had some release's delays or swicthed to DvD only, how long before we go back to getting shows (on BD at least) years and years after Japan?
 
Wow. Order cancelled. And I'm not buying the UK one now either, because I've had it with this kind of stupidity.

R
 
Stupid, stupid, stupid. While I don't intend to import Sentai's release - we're likely going to suffer the same treatment. Some company needs to take a stand.
 
Unfortunately it is the price Western companies and us are going to have to pay until the Japanese are ready to loosen their grip on the artificially high prices in their home market. It is the difference between a collectors market and just a consumers market.
 
I'd rather they priced the western versions higher than hit us with these insulting restrictions (both types of restriction in this case). It just makes me feel I'm being forced to buy a certain version, and I don't like being forced to do things when money is involved. It makes me want to do the opposite.

I don't understand why Sentai agreed to this for the BD version. Kurokami's dub-only BD seems to have been disastrous. I guess Persona has enough fans from the game side that they think they can still shift a fair number of copies. Grr.

R
 
Sheesh, first Persona 4 Arena gets region locked on PS3 and now this? With all this being done to keep Japanese prices where they are and prevent reverse importation, I shudder to think what will happen to the industry if domestic fans ever decide enough is enough and refuse to buy at those prices anymore. Though I doubt that will ever happen.

But yeah the crippling of foreign releases to prevent reverse importation makes me really mad. Of course with international releases making sweet F.A. compared to domestic profits, the licensors probably couldn't care less if this affects international sales.

On another note, this really shows how popular Persona is in Japan if they're THAT scared of reverse importation for anything related to it!
 
I'm going to be slightly optimistic and think that since our release is like three and a half months after the American release kaze may be able to have the Japanese audio on the UK set (hopefully).
 
I would have absolutely no problem with it if they had subs on the JP release (and likewise in the case of the game, if they allowed the more expensive JP version to be region free, so there is some option for a fully-featured version somewhere), but this is just dumb. I just took the money from my cancelled order and spent it on Sengoku Basara hand towels to make myself feel less exasperated in some kind of pointless protest :D

R, wondering how many hand towels she will own in a few more months of this foolishness from companies
 
sean morrison said:
I'm going to be slightly optimistic and think that since our release is like three and a half months after the American release kaze may be able to have the Japanese audio on the UK set (hopefully).
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Considering that the problem is the US and Japan are Regions 1 might make it possible that Europe (Region 2) hopefully won't suffer the same problem...but i am being optimistic here. Im not fussed to much about a dub only but i do expect the English Dub to be of high quality to compensate.

The only way this will ever change is if and when the japanese realize that if they stop buying the blurays at such ridiculous prices at 2 episodes each, maybe then the production companies over there would think twice about how they do their releases but thats a long shot
 
Unfortunately, I forsee the dub only releases becoming more likely due to Japan and the US sharing the same Blu-Ray territory code. If it was like the DVD regions - with Europe and Japan sharing the same region - then I doubt the studio would have gone to so much effort to block the Japanese language track of Persona 4.

Japanese Blu-Ray and DVD prices just make my eyes water. I'd love to own Sukeban Deka TV series for example, but at £80+ per volume, it really makes me question who would buy a DVD in that price range. Therefore, the root of the problem are Japanese companies expecting their consumers to have oodles of cash and the so called 'true fans'/otaku accepting these ridiculous prices.
 
CloudedMinds said:
The only way this will ever change is if and when the japanese realize that if they stop buying the blurays at such ridiculous prices at 2 episodes each, maybe then the production companies over there would think twice about how they do their releases but thats a long shot
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I'm not seeing much incentive for them to stop selling thousands of copies of releases for considerably more in order to support our market which buys a couple of hundred of copies of each series and pays almost nothing back to the production companies ^^; cheap prices only work if there are large volumes of people buying, otherwise we end up with...this.

R
 
I agree that this is stupid. I do hope that us being Region B will stop it happening to us, but that seems unlikely.

I'll still probably buy it though, as I usually watch dubs.
 
Rui said:
CloudedMinds said:
The only way this will ever change is if and when the japanese realize that if they stop buying the blurays at such ridiculous prices at 2 episodes each, maybe then the production companies over there would think twice about how they do their releases but thats a long shot
Click to expand...

I'm not seeing much incentive for them to stop selling thousands of copies of releases for considerably more in order to support our market which buys a couple of hundred of copies of each series and pays almost nothing back to the production companies ^^; cheap prices only work if there are large volumes of people buying, otherwise we end up with...this.

R
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True, but it does make you wonder where on earth do they get all the money from to pay for such extravagant prices for single volumes. I don't know whether its simply the fact that us westerns are so used to seeing dvds and blurays at reasonable prices that it makes the japanese market look extremely expensive in our eyes or whether its just vice versa.

Eitherway, both sides won't ever really change. I dont mind paying my dues either (afterall i did get Fate/Zero Boxset 1 and Kara no Kyoukai and they were pretty expensive) but i do wonder how long the industry will survive if it keeps on the same track

Shame there isn't a universally accepted price range that suits both markets ;)
 
KazéUK have said on Twitter that they have yet to receive a request from Japan about Persona's Japanese language track, but if try do, they'll let us know.
 
GGs, Sentai.

Also, I wish I could be happier about being right in my "if you ask for more, these companies will give you less" opinion over the last couple of years, but the situation just sucks too much for me to glean that satisfaction.

CloudedMinds said:
Shame there isn't a universally accepted price range that suits both markets ;)
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It is, and this is why you need to shout at Western fans for not wanting to pay more than a tenner a season, rather than Japanese fans who I'm quite sure would be willing to pay less than they do now. :lol:
 
Yeah, thanks a whole bunch ADV, your contribution to the art form of japanese cartoons will be remembered when your inevitable second newco needs to be farted into existence when you make a mess of Sentai.

And Japan seriously needs to ******* stop this and figure out "Oh, the reason Japanese Fans import stuff is because we make it too expensive." rather than try to hoist their own retarded model onto us (Bandai Visual, Aniplex and Fate/Zero, the Madoka thing if Jerome wasn't shooting his mouth off, hell even stupid stuff like insisting the main character in Dog Day's Name is "Sink").

On that note, the US Distributors also need to grow a godamned spine. yes, it would suck if Magical Mermaid Girl Ai doesn't get a release in the US/UK because you told Aniplex to go **** off the next time they pull this ****, but do it enough times and, hopefully, something close to sanity will prevail.

Cuz for all the bluster Japan has about these things, at the end of the day the fandom by and large can and will go back to watching things through shady means if they must.
Just Passing Through said:
EDIT: And they've Aniplexed it too...
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FYI I believe the original licensor is Aniplex.
 
I know I've said this before, but KazéUK currently have not received a request from Japan to do the same with their release (probably due to the differing regions), but they will tell us if it does happen.

So while the Sentai release has been hit with this, there's a chance the Kazé one hasn't.
 
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