×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Hey, Answerman! - The Man With The Power


Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next

Note: this is the discussion thread for this article

Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
_Emi_



Joined: 16 Feb 2008
Posts: 498
Location: Langjökull
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:09 am Reply with quote
On Garden of Sinners:
Quote:
Aniplex USA is doing online orders only, and only through their official website. No Right Stuf...

Actually TRSI is selling it. And if I wasn't completely broke and without a job I'd cough up the cash for it.

As for my pile of shame, I'll not list it as it is HUGE. I'm so behind on my anime watching.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Captain Crotchspike



Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 355
Location: Phoenix, AZ
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:16 am Reply with quote
They're selling Garden of Sinners through Right Stuf online only, but yeah, same idea. (edit: ...er, like the above fellow just said, I am slow...)

I hope it gets a DVD release somewhere down the line, since while it is an often thick, heavy show, the dark atmosphere and violence coupled with the relative length of the whole thing could give it a wider audience than we might think.

But yeah, this kind of premium release isn't completely senseless. In a way, it's "get what the Japanese are getting at a lower price at about when they're getting it" as opposed to "waiting months and months (years?) for an NA Blu-Ray release (albeit at a lower price)". It's still annoying that there's no standard release in sight while this is happening, but all the same...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14746
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 7:38 am Reply with quote
The Answerman nevermore! wrote:

Really? You wouldn't want to take a crack at animating the pieces of Nausicaä that were only in your gorgeous manga? Okay.


Are you talking to yourself again? Laughing


Captain Crotchspike wrote:

But yeah, this kind of premium release isn't completely senseless. In a way, it's "get what the Japanese are getting at a lower price at about when they're getting it" as opposed to "waiting months and months (years?) for an NA Blu-Ray release (albeit at a lower price)". It's still annoying that there's no standard release in sight while this is happening, but all the same...


Yeah, this release is not for N. Americans; it's for the Japanese (gouged as they are) and N. Americans who want to feel like Japanese. Laughing

Who knows, if there's a NA-standard release later, these Japanese and wannabes (kidding guys, just for lack of better word Very Happy ) are the ones subsidizing the lower price for the plebeian folk could afford. If so, the plebs should be getting on their hands and knees and be thanking these generous Japanese et wapanese for getting gouged out of their money, ne? Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
here-and-faraway



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 1528
Location: Sunny California
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 8:28 am Reply with quote
The Garden of Sinners never hit my radar. From what Brian wrote, I gather it is made for adults - that's fine. But does it have a good storyline? or is it more of a show that's tailor-made to people with certain "kinks"?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Captain Crotchspike



Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 355
Location: Phoenix, AZ
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 8:52 am Reply with quote
here-and-faraway wrote:
But does it have a good storyline

Yes.

...um, er, now instead of reviewing whether policy here dictates one word posts will be deleted, I'll add that it has a rather thick one at that - the storytelling and dialogue are definitely the backbone of the whole thing. It's not a simple series-of-kinks-chained-together-by-something-resembling-a-narrative show.

And before anyone says it, sure, there's no lack of otaku elements in it, like every other anime ever, it's just still not one of those easy flavor of the year fetish shows.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:07 am Reply with quote
My problem with the Kara no Kyoukai release isn't even the steep pricetag, it's that it's Blu-Ray only which means I won't be able to buy it for years because I don't have either an HDTV or a Blu-ray player, and being minimally employed I won't be buying either for a long time. I saw it in fansubs, and I know its gorgeous art and music necessitates the Hi-Def, but it's completely beyond me to purchase right now.

My pile of shame is pretty much one DVD high: Wings of Honneamisa. Man, I feel embarrassed that I've never gone through the effort to find and watch that! Anime hyper
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
DuelLadyS



Joined: 17 Mar 2006
Posts: 1705
Location: WA state
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:31 am Reply with quote
My problem with the whole 'pile of shame' concept is there's so very little anime that really falls into a must-watch category, across all people and all tastes, becuase it's so ingrained the community. I mean, Princess Tutu is a fine, fine show, but you're not going to be missing anything but that experience. Even for shows that have permeated the very fabric of this whole 'anime' thing, you can usually glean what you really need to know from the community without having to actually view it. My fiance does not need to watch Evangelion to know Shinji's a wimp and Asuka's a bi... sorry, 'tsundere'. (In fact, he outright refuses to watch Eva... sort or a personal statement, I guess.)

Having said that- until just a few years ago, my biggest 'shame' was being, basically, completely unfamiliar with the works of Miyazaki and studio Ghibli. Yeah, that's right- years of fandom and I somehow managed to avoid this entire body of work, save for Princess Mononoke (which I saw in the theatre with friends back in high school.) I've since remedied this. Wink
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Anime World Order



Joined: 05 May 2006
Posts: 389
Location: Florida
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:40 am Reply with quote
As fate would have it, yesterday I posted this writeup with regards to how and why more and more anime fans have never seen Cowboy Bebop. I can't exactly blame them. After all, it's now a series from about THIRTEEN YEARS AGO. That movie is coming up on its 10th year anniversary!

I must agree that if any Hayao Miyazaki work called for a mulligan, Porco Rosso would certainly not be it. I'm surprised that there hasn't been much widespread desire expressed from either fans or Miyazaki himself to do a followup or remake of Nausicaa. Given the scope of the comics, I don't think the story could be told in one movie. In fact, it seems best suited to OAVs or television, but Ghibli doesn't traditionally deal in those media.

As for the latest round of "the Japanese animation industry is crazy" by way of this Aniplex pricing/release method on things like Read or Die, Garden of Sinners, and to a lesser extent Durarara!, a part of me just wishes that someone over there would at some point decide "you know what? Maybe we SHOULDN'T price our releases at $80 each!" like what happened way, way back when with Patlabor. For that one they found that if they sold their show cheaper than what most other things were priced at, more people would be inclined to buy it than just that core anime-purchasing audience. Perhaps if this approach were utilized today, we wouldn't see quite so much of what I deem "sabotaging" of US releases for the sake of stopping the oh-so-terrible harbinger of doom in the eyes of Japanese publishers that is "reverse importation."

The traditional argument to justify the outlandishly high media prices for anime in Japan has been that it's a by-product of their distribution systems in which plenty of parties have to get their cut of the pie. If you're selling something online only, then presumably you no longer have to deal with that. In light of this, keeping the prices what they are "because that's what people are used to paying!" reeks of well, greed to me. Then again, I was never, ever buying Garden of Sinners in the first place and the only Read or Die anime I particularly care for is the original OAV.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website My Anime My Manga
keichiku



Joined: 16 Dec 2010
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:44 am Reply with quote
People, I'm from Cuba and I'm in a completely different level of shameless than you. Even as I managed to collect and significant amount of stuff (all fan provided, thought), never have enough time to watch all the stuff I want. Seen your lists brought me some comfort and now I know that I can find some time and see all those greats animes. As I said, my list is tooooooo long. So, thank you for the inspiration. I must get to work. I promise that for this weekend I'll finish at least one series. Maybe planettes or claymore.
Keep the good work.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
gartholamundi



Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 316
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 10:04 am Reply with quote
vashfanatic wrote:

My pile of shame is pretty much one DVD high: Wings of Honneamisa. Man, I feel embarrassed that I've never gone through the effort to find and watch that! Anime hyper


That's on my list too. Thanks once again to the AWO podcast I ended up buying both versions (the DVD that's good quality to actually view and then the older one that has the extras on it). It's been in my pile for months, and it looks like I will finally be getting to it probably this weekend.

Unless I end up working on the little animation homage to Satoshi Kon I've been storyboarding. I've got the backgrounds scanned into the computer finally, and have a opening credits section framed-out.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Penguin_Factory



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 732
Location: Ireland
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:09 am Reply with quote
Quote:
So apparently Aniplex is planning on releasing The Garden of Sinners over here in North America for a whopping $398.98.


I had never even heard of Garden of Sinners up to this point, and even I think that's dumb. Normally I don't go in for blame-the-victim mentality, but if this gets pirated to hell (and saying "if" an anime gets pirated is kind of pointless these days) whoever came up with that price has only themselves to blame.

Why was it so expensive in Japan, anyway? Was it released on solid gold discs or something?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
redcar



Joined: 04 Jun 2009
Posts: 172
Location: Texas
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:24 am Reply with quote
Anime World Order wrote:
As fate would have it, yesterday I posted this writeup with regards to how and why more and more anime fans have never seen Cowboy Bebop. I can't exactly blame them. After all, it's now a series from about THIRTEEN YEARS AGO. That movie is coming up on its 10th year anniversary!

I must agree that if any Hayao Miyazaki work called for a mulligan, Porco Rosso would certainly not be it. I'm surprised that there hasn't been much widespread desire expressed from either fans or Miyazaki himself to do a followup or remake of Nausicaa. Given the scope of the comics, I don't think the story could be told in one movie. In fact, it seems best suited to OAVs or television, but Ghibli doesn't traditionally deal in those media.

I was shocked to learn that my girlfriend, a purported anime fan, had not seen Cowboy Bebop. We started rectifying that last Saturday night Laughing

I've also been surprised that at least some party hasn't seized upon the idea of an animated continuation of Nausicaä. Not only is it quality creative material in a time when production companies seem to be often scraping the bottom of the barrel, but I'd think it'd be almost guaranteed to show a large amount of profit. Isn't that what the Japanese anime industry has been about for some time now? Producing the things most likely to be reliable successes? When it comes down to it, though, I suppose Miyazaki is probably the main factor. He could arguably do anything he wanted at this point if he so desired, including animating the rest of the Nausicaä manga. Perhaps someone should organize a fan-based movement to convince him...

That's a good point about the length though. Since we're talking about it, perhaps Ghibli could actually do something similar to Kara no Kyoukai: make a series of two or three additional movies to follow the first and flesh out the rest of the story. As Brian said, movie sequels aren't exactly Miyazaki's thing, but if they ever were you'd think Nausicaä would be a good place to start.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
ZakuAce



Joined: 06 Jan 2010
Posts: 525
Location: SE Wisconsin
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 11:27 am Reply with quote
Aw dammit I forgot to write in this week! Sad I had stuff to say...

My finals haven't even started yet Razz My first one is tomorrow night.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
RedTail



Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 176
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:00 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I think the situation between Aniplex USA and Bandai Visual is a bit different. Bandai Visual made the mistake of thinking that their exorbitantly-priced DVDs would actually sell in brick-and-mortar stores. Surprise! They didn't! Aniplex USA is doing online orders only. That means virtually no overhead, a minimal amount of advertising, boom; they take their small profit and apply that to releasing the next Aniplex title that Funimation doesn't want.


Yes, Bandai Visual USA did initially utilize wider distribution methods, but they abandoned this practice in favor of selling all their items exclusively through their own website and/or RightStuf. It's the same thing Aniplex is doing, but with one key difference! Aniplex has no prior existing distribution branch in the US. Bandai, on the other hand, did.

If you talked to anyone within Bandai Entertainment at the time, you probably heard there was a general sense within the company that BVUSA was meant to eventually displace BEI. The execs back in Japan never really cared for the way BEI operated and several years of losses finally gave them a reason to form a company they had more direct control over. Of course BVUSA turned into a gigantic financial sinkhole that never came close to generating the profits BEI once did, so the latter survived and absorbed the former.

Aniplex, on the other hand, is probably looking at their US operations as a very small side project. I really doubt they have any expectation whatsoever that they'll gain mainstream (in terms of US anime fandom) appeal. So long as they don't overestimate the market for their insanely overpriced releases, Aniplex should be able to rake in a little extra profit that they might not have otherwise seen. Remember, the US and Japan are in the same region and these are going to be the same discs you could buy in Japan. Only big difference will be the translated booklet.

Anyway, I'm a pretty big collector and all, but until Aniplex decides to expand their US operations and come out with some more reasonably priced releases, they won't be seeing a penny from me. To all those who can afford it though, good for you. You're getting English subs and saving on international shipping. That's better than nothing I suppose.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
Asrialys



Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 1159
PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:19 pm Reply with quote
Captain Crotchspike wrote:
They're selling Garden of Sinners through Right Stuf online only, but yeah, same idea. (edit: ...er, like the above fellow just said, I am slow...)

Bandai Entertainment's online store is also selling it.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3  Next
Page 1 of 3

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group