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NEWS: AnimEigo's Yawara! DVD Set to Go Out of Print


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staab99



Joined: 05 Jul 2010
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:24 am Reply with quote
I am not surprised by this, since they couldn't get the rest of the series awhile back, I knew they would lose this sooner or later.
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Teriyaki Terrier



Joined: 26 Mar 2008
Posts: 5689
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:49 am Reply with quote
Fans of this series might want to buy this before the online price becomes either quite sizable or very hard to find.

Older anime is hard to come across, even more so if the license has expired.
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Sunday Silence



Joined: 22 Jun 2010
Posts: 2047
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 12:54 am Reply with quote
Still waiting for a release of Sazae-san.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15295
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:30 am Reply with quote
Teriyaki: I should know. I would've liked to get KOR, but didn't have the dough for it at the time. I can't believe what they're charging for Baoh, though.
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Gundam0084



Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:22 am Reply with quote
Exclamation Hmm. I really love Yawara. It's a great anime that more people should have watched. I do wish AnimEigo would have made sure they could license the entire series before they started releasing it. It looks like just poor communication overall. Now genuine fans for this anime are left out in the cold.
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Redlinks



Joined: 14 Feb 2010
Posts: 496
Location: America
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:31 am Reply with quote
I've been meaning to get this. Will definitely grab a copy before it goes outta print.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 3:49 am Reply with quote
Gundam0084 wrote:
Exclamation Hmm. I really love Yawara. It's a great anime that more people should have watched. I do wish AnimEigo would have made sure they could license the entire series before they started releasing it. It looks like just poor communication overall. Now genuine fans for this anime are left out in the cold.

Huh? How would they know? It's not like companies will know how well something will sell, especially with old niche stuff like Yawara. Enough fans didn't buy the set they released and so they didn't see fit to lose any more money than they already did. If the show had done well then there is no doubt that they would have continued releasing more of it. That's not poor communication at all. That's just common sense.
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Gundam0084



Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:36 am Reply with quote
Did you get a chance to look into AnimEigo's history with Yawara, Megiddo? It was posted right on this very site. It wasn't a matter of poor sales. They weren't able to license the rest of the series. Here's the story link: animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-04-29/animeigo-unable-to-license-rest-of-yawara-anime
My point was that it would have been nice if they had reasonable assurance that they actually could license the entire series before they started releasing it. As it stands, I'm still very thankful to be able to see at least 40 episodes.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:41 am Reply with quote
Yeah, they were unable... most likely by their company not wanting to go further into the red. Though phrasing it so that they're waiting on the Japanese license holders (which could be true, waiting for them to drop the cost of the license) is just for good PR.
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Gundam0084



Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:01 am Reply with quote
Yeah. It either went one way or the other. It's a shame. Something like this happening just reinforces the notion that older anime won't sell in the states. I'd like to see some of the bigger companies(like Funimation and Section 23) take a chance on a classic series or two. I know Discotek and perhaps one other company are doing that, but stuff like that never seems to have any sort of marketing budget behind it. The last big classic anime release I can think of was ADV's release of Macross. I thought they did a fantastic job on that, too.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15295
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:50 am Reply with quote
Megiddo: My guess it's the usual JP middleman bullshit, where Animeigo claimed to have the rights to the entire show, but the latter party didn't wanna budge until Animeigo paid more money.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14756
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 6:24 am Reply with quote
IIRC, back when they were airing, Yawara was even out-TV-rating Ranma 1/2.......... though the real Yawara-chan and the women judo debut on the then-upcoming 1992 Barcelona Olympics may have something to do with it. Yet it wasn't really that big among fansub circles.

AnimEigo probably could only afford to license the first 40 eps at the time, then when those didn't sell so well, couldn't afford to license the rest at the same rates, unless the Japanese licensor lowered the price enough.

But this was how OAVs used to be released though. Sales of the preceding volume funded the production of the next volume - if there's not enough sales, then there won't be a next volume. As a small company, that's usually how AnimEigo operates - in piecemeal.
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Gundam0084



Joined: 12 Dec 2007
Posts: 61
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:32 am Reply with quote
That makes sense, especially for a small company. I'm just saddened that we'll never get the chance to see the rest of the series. It's unfortunate that fans in the states are pretty much screwed when it comes to classic/older anime. I'm talking about acquiring it through official means, of course. It ticks me off sometimes. There has to be a way to market older anime effectively.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23750
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:40 am Reply with quote
Huh, I keep forgetting that AnimEigo is still somewhat officially alive, I guess. Anyway, I watched a tiny bit of Yawara - certainly not enough to consider it in anyway a fair sampling - but it didn't grab me, so I don't think I'll buy it. I didn't even know that the entire series wasn't licensed, so even less incentive to look into this further.
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Gilles Poitras



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 476
Location: Oakland California
PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:53 am Reply with quote
I'll echo the recommendation to buy Yawara!

In my opinion this is one of the best titles to have been released in the US. I'd rank it up with Maison Ikkoku and Nadia as one of my favorite long TV series.
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