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NEWS: Fans Confront Bandai Visual About Pricing

I've been giving this a lot of thought, because afterall it's sort of important to me from the stance of a fan of ANime and Animation in general.

Galaxy Angel Rune aside, as it is absolutely preposterous and retarded, I'm thinking moreso to their OAVs. To get the negatives out of the way- price, dub, disc counts. No dub is a shame, but I don't really mind that much. Price wise, it's bad, but then again we have been getting relativley cheaper Anime for some time and all of the doom and gloom about how the industry would go might have some backing afterall, if only in the form of post-Patlabor/Gunbuster 1 Bandai Visual USA.

I'm in Australia, where Anime very rarely goes on sale, and if it does, I already own it through US imports or I'm just not interested. Given the good exchange rate between our countries, and the discounted prices places like DeepDiscount and DVDPacific offer, i've been able to get normal Anime DVD singles for a while now at anywhere from $18-22 bucks each, before they get to Australia. I've been able to get things like Tekkaman Blade for very, very little. I guess I didn't count my blessings in that regard and took a lot for granted and forgot that Anime itself, is an expensive industry. So now when I have to import a show for $30 a disc (Australian dollars here, and everywhere else in this post) after discounts, I'm finding myself less and less worried- I mean, I bought all 3 volumes of the Australian FLCL release, that was $30, and another $10 for a box AND I didn't see it previously. A dub and extras which I won't watch, personally, won't matter to me.

This doesn't change the fact that sure, it's still relativley expensive, and most people are turned off by this. That's cool, but for me atleast, I'm giving up what the 'fan' wants and moreso looking at what I want. On top of this, I'm one of those sorts of people who would buy R2 releases, except the fact that R2 releases, for the most part, are pretty expensive, and I don't know enough japanese to understand most of the shows I want to watch (the exceptions being like, DBZ and Saint Seiya, and whatever else). However, one of the draws for me, in R2 releases, is that there is so very little potential for things to get screwed up. Americanr eleases by far are good, however there have been hiccups in volumes of things that wont get fixed. Aesthetically they can be fairly underwhelming (which is fine for cheaper releases, but for more expensive, volume by volume things, it's a bit insulting), but moreso it's a video qualoity thing- FUNimation, for all of their vast leaps and bounds in the delivery, packaging and presentation of shows, still have their bitrates of video set far too low to give most of their stuff any kind of justice, and it's not even done justifiably, as there is still space that can be used. So honestly, if i can get certian OAV shows for relativley cheaper than their R2 counterpart, and simultaneous OAV releases (such as Freedom, and unlike Hellsing Ultimate, which I'm still buying but feel that, as a coproduction, we are getting somewhat the end of a short stick, despite being really well presented, that we get episodes a year after the Japanese), then I'm all for it, personally speaking.

However, for longer running series and TV shows, their pricing is unrealistic, but I have a feeling that will be more of a wakeup call than anything else. This HDDVD combo stuff is also fairly ridiculous, but moreso for Royal Space Force, a film I would gladly pay $40 for on regular DVD (US price, at full retail, so like $30 AU when discounted), but won't spend $80 on simply because it has a HDDVD layer or whatever the hell. Seriously, if I wanted a HD disc, I wouldn't want a standard disc too. That, I feel, is probably the biggest offense BV is committing in my perspective, but if they can change that around, it won't be so bad.

Finally, as a note- to all of those who are taking arms against this, and yet say to people who bootleg and fansub "well, Anime IS an expensive hobby/expensive to produce/whatever", where are those standards now? Not that you should flok to this, not that you shouldn't speak against it (which you should, and have, and executed and directed complaints so eloquently and effectivley that I'm genuinly impressed. There isn't enough humanity when it comes to nerds and vitrol anger so I'm glad everyone has shown some form of restraint Smile

), but I just find it a bit well... odd.

Anyway, best of luck to those who are fighting for their dubs/lower price points/less discs/whatever. Just remember to do it sensibly.

I don't know what the big deal is here. I am _extremely_ happy that bandai vis is trying to do dual american and japanese releases. I dream for the day that dvds are released in the USA and Japan at the same time, with the same menus (albiet translated) same extras (with subs if nescessary). The dubs can go to hell for all I care, fills up space for no benefit, dub watches should learn to watch the superior sub versions anyway rather than playing handicap using the dubs.

I am not a Galaxy Angel fan, but I would be fine with that cost as long as they strived to have the dvd very similiar (or the same as) the japanese release dvds. It is a R1 version of a R2 dvd. What could be better? I bet the import costs would still be more if you imported this same dvd, and the R1 has subs. If you really are an anime fan/otaku and are interested in japan as well, you should start to learn japanese anyway to enjoy it in its orignal non-crappified format.

Another point I'd like to bring up about dubs is that I honestly think there hasn't been given enough consideration from US companies in regards to what does, and doesn't, need a dub. Now while more popular shows such as Bebop, FMA, naruto and what not need dubs for market penetration and localisation means, there are shows that are basically made for people who are, you know, heavily interested in Anime. And as much as I like a good dub, I think people are forgetting that Anime actually does come from Japan, so I mean, honestly, you should expect some of it to only be in Japanese.

Of course, BV is simply painting all dubs with the one big, expensive negligent brush and pushing them aside entirely, but really, deos something like Gunbuster, when you look at it from the view of a need, rather than a want, merit a dub? Wings of Rean? Dunbine? Saint Seiya? Rozen Maiden? U.C Gundam?

Media Blasters, i think, has already started to go down this path, given their releases of shows such as Tekkaman Blade, Girl's high, Girl meets Girl and other Yaoi titles are sub only, but I think it's a change that needs to happen across the board and with more common sense, rather than giving everything bar one OAV a dub (ADV), and flat out refusing to do them (BV)

I hate it when people want to get rid of dubs entirely. For me, that's like saying to get rid of all wheelchairs and braille books. SOME people who are, you know, NOT PERFECTLY born in this world want to watch anime as well. If there is something that can help them, then please try your best to have that option. Its a slap in the face to me.

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Forum - View topicNEWS: Fans Confront Bandai Visual About Pricing

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NEWS: Fans Confront Bandai Visual About Pricing