Mangaranga
Za Warudo
Animatsu had a chance to sell me Mangaka-san after Sentai's hideous artwork. Unsurprisingly enough they have also used the same cover, so I will not be buying the show from either of them.
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IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
Can't say I see anything wrong with it...
Smeelia
Thousand Master
It's interesting because I'd say there's more to the show than fanservice. I mean, it is mostly about fanservice and most of it's jokes/situations involve at least trying to write/draw better fanservice (since that's the kind of manga they work on) but it doesn't constantly involve giving fanservice to the audience. I'd say it's along similar lines to Denki-Gai, though not as balanced or well developed.Mangaranga said:
I wouldn't say the cover gives a good impression of the show, though I couldn't say what kind of cover would be best. I do think the current cover tends to support the argument a review on another site made, which was that Aito is a sexual predator using his position to manipulate the girls for his own enjoyment. Maybe that's the "correct" interpretation of the show, though I never felt that way when watching it (I thought that Aito did a decent job of showing he cared about the others as people, even if he was often foolish and/or bad at expressing himself).
I guess taking the "fanservice cover" option is fairly standard anyway but I find it interesting here because it's not completely inappropriate and yet somehow it feels like they've still managed to misrepresent the show.
qaiz
Pokémon Master
It's one of the things I hate about anime releases, the covers are so sleazy and ugly. Keep it minimal guys *shakes head in disappointment*
In fact physical media in general, forget anime! Just give me nice artwork please! *sobs* You hear people in the video games industry talk about how they had to fight tooth and nail just to get a female on the cover, like come on guys people aren't that stupid and ignorant that a game without a man with his face down and eyes up and a gun in his hand won't sell. Guys, plz.
In fact physical media in general, forget anime! Just give me nice artwork please! *sobs* You hear people in the video games industry talk about how they had to fight tooth and nail just to get a female on the cover, like come on guys people aren't that stupid and ignorant that a game without a man with his face down and eyes up and a gun in his hand won't sell. Guys, plz.
Smeelia
Thousand Master
I wonder if MVM could have kept up the Patlabor Blu-rays and even done the TV series if they'd just put Gotoh in a sexy pose and skimpy outfit on the front cover, maybe give him a gun for good measure. Mind you, giant robot with gun is still kind of fanservicey.qaiz said:
I guess the general idea is that people who already like the content will ignore the cover while people who don't know anything about it might be tricked into getting it. You'd think that people so tricked would stop falling for it though. I guess they wouldn't necessarily complain if they ended up with something better than they had expected but you couldn't rely on things working out that way every time.
Sort of related, it reminds me of all the people that complained about Fallout 3 being a bad shooter. I guess it has guns in it and is from a first-person perspective but it's actually an RPG and a surprising number of people failed to understand that. I wonder if that's a similar phenomenon (not that I'd say Fallout 3 was marketed as being a shooter at all but maybe people made the assumption based on the cover or something).
qaiz
Pokémon Master
Smeelia said:
I mean I don't even care about fan-service, like you said, the cover should be representative of the content. You're not going to put a picture of a cartoon on a cover for a pornographic Blu-ray, because what's the intent? To get kids to buy it? It's not really about the lewdness or fan-service because fan-service is exactly that, servicing the fans so a picture of Gotoh on the cover just chilling out is fan-service to me and general Patlabor fans, because he's an awesome character! This for all intents and purposes is fan-service;
Kanuka, Noa, Bud, the hanger, just the mere sight of them puts a huge smile on my face. And yet the art itself is nice and high quality. I'm not even talking about the amazing art of Akemi Takada, because she's one of a kind. It's just, it's not trying to lure people in like you say with images that are not representative of the product, you know? It's just nice artwork that the fans will appreciate for the content (the characters) while still looking high quality and nice for your average consumer. It's not a big deal, its just a bit of paper, but when people pay extra for say Anime Limited Collector's Editions which consist of the same disc and content but just in a fancy box (with nice artwork) and an art-book, its clear the people care enough for the presentation of their Blu-rays to the extent that they'll import or pay extra just for a nicer looking set.
Anime Limited have been good with this too for the most part. It's why I was impressed with the second set for Bebop. They could have went for any old picture of spike or Faye, I mean it's Bebop for Gods sake, the holy grail itself! And yet...they went with a beautiful picture of Ed, a touching emotional image. Not bad. The box could have been cleaner, and the digipak is really thin and not to my taste, but I still respect the release a lot. The tape design on the didipak? An inspired design, one that fits the ethos of Bebop without being in your face "Whoa hey its Spike! BANG!", I like that.
Lutga
Mad Scientist
As much as it's easy to laugh about it, I do think at times that the UK anime market is still very much biased toward that 'beer and curry' crowd that Manga used to cater to back in the 90s. People want babes, bullets, boobs and 'bots. I'm pretty sure there's probably a section of UK anime fandom who buys releases in the hope of seeing a nipple or two?
IncendiaryLemon
Captain Karen
Lutga said:
Really? I mean, maybe if it was the 90s or something but in an age where you could get thousands of full hentai videos for free with a single Google search, would anyone care about that?
qaiz
Pokémon Master
And I think another thing to keep in mind is that these Japanese committees are very strict about what assets people can use overseas so its probably not just a case of "Hey lets use that cool Japanese cover" which is a shame, but I think maybe they should get a little more backbone (the UK distributors), but I think that they don't really care about that stuff in the end, because people will buy their releases regardless to the point that they just become complacent. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't mean to act like I can do a better job either, I have no idea about the logistics of it all. I'm just a big graphics design person and love that stuff, I even keep up to date with particular graphics design companies that design packaging to the point that I keep up with their catalog. I like how Anime Limited literally shot a message in the dark about a commission for Space Dandy 2 and hey wouldn't you know they've got a nice, exclusive cover for it! Maybe others should try that out sometimes, its a legit selling point too 
Buzz201
Mad Scientist
I don't like the AL-comissioned art, but they're including all the JP covers as art cards, which is nice.qaiz said:And I think another thing to keep in mind is that these Japanese committees are very strict about what assets people can use overseas so its probably not just a case of "Hey lets use that cool Japanese cover" which is a shame, but I think maybe they should get a little more backbone (the UK distributors), but I think that they don't really care about that stuff in the end, because people will buy their releases regardless to the point that they just become complacent. Maybe I'm wrong, I don't mean to act like I can do a better job either, I have no idea about the logistics of it all. I'm just a big graphics design person and love that stuff, I even keep up to date with particular graphics design companies that design packaging to the point that I keep up with their catalog. I like how Anime Limited literally shot a message in the dark about a commission for Space Dandy 2 and hey wouldn't you know they've got a nice, exclusive cover for it! Maybe others should try that out sometimes, its a legit selling point too
msgeek
Magical Girl
Having seen the show. I'd probably say the "Really busy" AL version is actually much more representative of the contents. That cover may look nice but I can't remember one scene in the show that was so un-busy.
That in itself is not a bad thing. It's just different than a lot of other stuff out there...
That in itself is not a bad thing. It's just different than a lot of other stuff out there...
antonusklesk
Dandy Guy, in Space
I got extremely excited for a good 10 seconds looking at that Patlabor artwork.....I completely ignored the fact that it was quite obviously Patlabor, and instead focussed on the "Now and Then" book and jumped immediately to the conclusion that I'd somehow missed a Blu Ray release in the UK of Now and Then, Here and There.
Of course I then came to my senses.
Of course I then came to my senses.
Shiroi Hane
Dragon Knight
Do you suppose they deliberately positioned that "C" to draw your eye in?
Lutga said:
Just noticed that after reading your comment, heh. :lol:
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