Forum - View topicNEWS: Sentai Filmworks Licenses Dusk maiden of Amnesia Anime
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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I understand. More shows are always a good thing in my opinion, I'm just worried Sentai is picking up too much too fast, which seems to be part of the reason ADV kind of fell apart. Then again, I have no idea about their financial situation, so it's really not for me to say one way or the other  .
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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That's...a bit of a misnomer I think. More product means more revenue but it also means more costs. When it comes to anime, companies are essentially gambling with each show they release that the sales revenue with be greater than the licensing cost (and the dub cost if they decide to do one). Hence, by putting out more product a company is basically just making more bets. That does create the potential for more revenue if those bets are successful but it also creates more potential losses if they're not. I'm not saying this means Sentai is wrong to license so many series. However, I don't think the mantra of "license as many titles as you possibly can" holds true either. In actuality, a balance is ideal. Licensing too few shows may indeed be risky because then, as you said, you're putting all your eggs in only a few baskets. All it takes is a few unexpected flops and suddenly you're in the red. But also, if you overextend yourself and license so much stuff that you start reaching for the "B" material and take a lot of losses as a result you may suddenly find yourself losing a lot of money even if your A material did quite well. There are certainly companies in the past that have fallen victim to this. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23802 |
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@ ikc - true, any release is a crapshoot unless it's called something like One Piece, Bleach or Naruto. And I understand the concern of some people given that there was a time not so many years ago when distribs were making too many bad bets and overpaying on license fees and dubbing everything.
However, it seems to me that the people running Sentai remember that period and alot of those old issues don't apply. Nobody is paying a bomb for license fees any more. Sentai, in particular, has a degree of flexibility in release strategies (unlike Funi who is locked into all-dubs) that goes from subbed DVD-only all the way up to dubbed BD. So that's why I don't get all panicky every time Sentai announces a license. eta: bizarre, N.aruto was automatically hotlinked in my post, even though I didn't do that myself. |
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infiltration.cru
 Posts: 321 |
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since i live in the anime desert known as germany, my enthusiasm for new licenses is kind of modest. been thinking about getting an american dvd player so i can at least import some of the dvd-only series that won't seem to come to at least the uk soon.
anyway, a new license also means at least a small chance at it selling well enough to be picked up somewhere over here and dusk maiden surely is one of the series i'd like to see that happening with. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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This is nice and all, but seriously Sentai, slow down a bit. They're reminding me of Tokyopop's problem of picking everything up in sight.
Anyone want to bet all this stuff will come out around the same time where you'll need hundreds of dollars just to buy everything in the one month many will come out? Your Rightstuf package will have like 10+ Blu-rays that came out in like one week. I'm wondering if all this stuff is stupidly cheap to license right now as while they do earn money from other stuff they've put out, I doubt it's made them so much money they're really, really rich. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18209 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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This is also my take on the matter. Sentai isn't going to make the same mistake twice. As for the questions about turn-around time? For subbed-only releases Sentai has released titles in as quick as three months after announcement if the series is done or once the series finishes. Blu-Ray releases tend to be around a year from the end of a series for a brand-new title and less (typically 6-9 months) for already-aired acquisitions. That being said, I think Sentai has a winner here. It's sexy without being overbearingly so and looks like a lot of fun so far. |
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Angel M Cazares
 Posts: 5426 Location: Iscandar |
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I think the key for Sentai and all other U.S. distributors is balance. I am no expert but if X company decided to release 15-17 series in a given year, 5-7 could be dubbed and in BD, 5 could be subbed and in BD, and the rest could be subbed only and in DVD.
Looking at the 24 series (no OVA's or movies) that Sentai/Section 23 has recently licensed for future releases, they seem to have a varied selection. Out of those 24, 5 series could bomb sales-wise, but 5-8 series could be great successes. I am glad Sentai/Section23 is so enthusiastic about releases. I like their business model; I would only curtail 1/3 of their releases (IMO moe and echhi are not great bets). For the sake of everyone, I truly hope Sentai makes lots of money and stays in the U.S. anime business for a long time. |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Its nerves from the experience of the bursting of the bubble, where people were thinking companies were going great because they were releasing so much, then they went belly up. But as I already said, I agree with several others that Sentai has a more sustainable model, and aren't taking the same financial risks per title, so the release rate is not the cause for worry it would be if they were announcing lots of DVD/BD dubbed releases before they had any results on the popularity of the different series. |
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Saffire
 Posts: 1256 Location: Iowa, USA |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Sad but true. Let's also not forget that Clannad is one of their best sellers and it's as moe as moe can be. People also seem to be looking over a couple things. Sentai has been putting out at least three or four new releases a month for a year or two now. They have slightly increased that since the beginning of the year and are doing about six a month sometimes. Until recently, those were composed mostly of series that were a minimum of 18-24 months old. However, they have worked through a lot of the older licenses they were interested in or were marketable. Most of these new licenses are taking the place of older shows that they would have released in the past. Even with the newer titles, they won't be releasing more than 4 or 6 sets a month. It's unlikely they will have a sudden tidal wave of title hitting the market at once. They've been pretty good about planning their schedule ahead of time and spreading out their bigger sellers. Their planning has also allowed them to be the only R1 that doesn't regularly delay or cancel releases. |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5426 Location: Iscandar |
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I guess it was wishful thinking in my part. I wish thoughtful and great stories were the top anime sellers. I wonder how many copies H.O.T. D. has sold. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1231 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Last edited by BigOnAnime on Fri Apr 20, 2012 1:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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The terms "gang-busters" and "amazingly well" have been thrown around. It was also the top anime and horror bluray on Amazon for nearly two months. It's also one of the most heavily reviewed anime releases on there in recent memory, 100+ reviews. So I'd say it sold quite a lot. Sentai really upped their licensing game after it was released, so it's probably safe to say its paying a lot of its bills. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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That is true. All the Key series do add a lot of drama, but you can't deny that they are heavily moe series. |
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Angel M Cazares
Posts: 5426 Location: Iscandar |
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I didn't want to make a fuss about moe... but I don't think ShanaFan852 is denying that Clannad has moe elements. But honestly, when I think about Clannad, comedy, drama, slice of life, come of age, (the awesome) Kyou Fujibayashi come to mind. Clannad has moe, but it is a high regarded series because of all the other elements it has. If you wanna talk about moe, see K-On! |
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