Lutga said:
One of the things that largely annoys me about the UK anime industry is how beholden it feels to other English speaking territories - obviously it's natural to want to share costs, but equally, sometimes it feels like if Australia and the US weren't bringing out titles, there wouldn't be a UK anime industry at all.
As far as I know, Anime Ltd are the only ones that seem to regularly create their own discs/menus from scratch these days?
But yeah, the BBFC fees seem to really screw small distributors over too.
Yeah that's really annoying as you often feel that you're at the behest of the US and AUS, and to be fair that could often mean that we end up getting things that we may not have otherwise got, because most of the work may have already been done, so Memories in this instance may be a possibility now, however that also means that if something doesn't make it to AUS or the US, 9 times out of 10 that would lead to the UK missing out. It sucks too, because I'm sure looking at the raw figures may prove otherwise, but I'd like to think that the UK is its own region with its own tastes so just because a property doesn't work for say AUS doesn't mean it wouldn't work here, although it'd be foolish to assume that the big sellers aren’t the same across the west in hindsight, and most of those are covered (Ghibli, the big three/four shounen series etc.)
Anime Limited does go out of their way, meaning that we were able to get something like Perfect Blue on Blu-ray, something that I’m eternally grateful for. Taking in on all by themselves may open them up to issues, being a tedious task and all that, but also allows them to be more independent and allows for things to be released that might not have otherwise, which is great.
ayase said:
Talk about Patlabor all you like as far as I'm concerned qaiz, I'm certainly always happy to see people discussing it. Liking Patlabor is definitely a sign of good taste in my book, indeed I don't think I've encountered anyone yet who's watched it and
didn't enjoy it. A lot of people who haven't seen it seem to write it off as just another giant robot show, but it's wonderfully character driven and we will probably never see the likes of
a creative collective like Headgear ever again.
Thanks, Patlabor is a series that just puts a huge smile on my face whenever I think about it. The notion that Patlabor is a mech focused show is doing it a massive disservice, I agree. Some of my favorite episodes contain no fighting or mechs at all, from
Snow Rondo (
The New Files, Episode 14) to
Two in Karuizawa (
The New Files, Episode 12) which are two of my favorite episodes of any anime in general, never mind Patlabor. From episodes that focus on a toothache, to monsters that live in the ocean, haunted houses and companies fighting to become the market leader, Patlabor tackles everything and anything, and it does it all perfectly. The most versatile show ever? I’d say so.
There’s a lot to discuss with the show too, as I actually did a lot of research as to why the tone between the first and second films was very different, and I was enlightened by my findings. To cut it short, a lot of it had to do with what was known as the Bubble Economy, a time between 1986 and 1991 in Japan wherein which the economy was greatly inflated. It's actually said that the Bubble Economy itself could be held accountable for why so many cult series and films like Oshii's own Angels Egg were released during that era. The inevitable bursts of the Bubble lead to some dark times, which is evident in the second film. Very interesting stuff, and just adds to the allure of the series, not that it isn't interesting in and of itself
When deciding whether to support the MVM or Neo-ADV releases of Patlabor, I asked myself one question: "How many shows of that length, from that time period, have been released in their entirety on Blu-ray in the UK?" The answer I came up with was "None". That didn't make the prospects for MVM releasing Patlabor on TV look particularly good, so I imported. I guess if everybody thinks that way it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, but really I'd rather UK companies didn't release things which were a hard sell here - It's not likely to do them or us any good if they don't get the sales they want and we get half-finished or DVD only releases.
Yeah you made the right choice, and I think in the end MVM did too. People who want the series will get it one way or another, and with Sentai releases often working on region B players with a little work or sometimes no work at all if you have a PS3, there's not much incentive not to. That's what I did anyways, like you, just imported them from the US and Japan. Make no mistake, I don't want to deter MVM and the likes from every pursuing such titles, as I'd support them with cash on the spot, but I don't think the two of us alone are enough
I assume you’ve got the Films pre-ordered?
Lutga said:
This is one of the things I liked about Vertical's Gundam the Origin manga - the Japanese licensor basically told them, we're only going to let you release this if you commit to releasing every single volume - you can't give up halfway if it doesn't do well (though considering it's Gundam, it was always going to sell...)
I never knew that, very interesting approach.
