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Hey, Answerman! - Everything Old Ain't New Again


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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:14 am Reply with quote
Wow, that's a fast turnaround for an Answerman question, Brian... I just sent it in last night! Anyway, your answer effectively meshes with the way I feel about the idea of bundling multiple OVAs & movies in multi-packs: It's a crazy idea, but it just might work... As long as the licensing & costs keep from becoming a nightmare.

As for Gundam, I doubt that after Unicorn the franchise will be dead in terms of DVD/BD releases over here, but it will definitely be a lot slower. It's too big of a name, with previous exposure over here, to not keep releasing.
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Granamonkey



Joined: 08 Oct 2010
Posts: 10
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:21 am Reply with quote
The manga series of Durarara!! is suppose to be different from the light novel, which is different from the anime. The series is looked at as a multimedia series, with each medium giving a different look, and sometimes exploring a different time, in the series. Everything is overlooked by the original creator, or so I hear. But with the light novel, it came first, and is written by the creator, so I really would like to buy a legitimately translated copy of them, because I already have all the manga and I'm hoping for a second season of the anime sometime in the future, though that's doubtful.
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ljaesch



Joined: 03 Apr 2009
Posts: 299
Location: Enumclaw, WA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:27 am Reply with quote
"Terrible Robotech novels"?

*sniffle*

I actually own all of those novels, and the novels based on the actual episodes and the Sentinels volumes were books I enjoyed reading during junior high and high school (late 1980s and early 1990s). The End of the Circle came out while I was in high school, and the remaining novels were released when I was in college.

OK, I give you that the Sentinels material and The End of the Circle can be a little weird, and that the remaining books released those weren't as good, but... they're still a major part of my formative teen years and they bring me nostalgia. Yes, I admit that I'm looking at them through the lenses of nostalgia.

The "terrible Robotech novels" quip aside, though, good column this week. The question about the OAVs seems rather timely, considering the 3-part licensing series published by ANN this week. Like you, I think we have to resign ourselves to the fact that these older OAVs will probably never see the light of day again.

I walked away from anime in the late 1980s/early 1990s, and came back in the late 2000s (with some exposure to Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! through my kids in the early 2000s), so I know I missed out on a lot of gems (which get referenced a bit in Mike Toole's column). Sadly, I know that for many of these OAVs and long-lost series, I will probably never have an opportunity to see them legally.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:30 am Reply with quote
Just FYI, there is an english dub of Gundam AGE, for asian markets, done in Hong Kong I believe.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1255
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:39 am Reply with quote
Seiji Horibuchi of Viz Media predicted a while ago that light novels would eventually take off in the US. I love 'em and buy whatever's still in print in the faint hope that it will generate more, but what I've seen leaves me less than optimistic.
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littlefleur



Joined: 15 Jun 2012
Posts: 7
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:43 am Reply with quote
The Haruhi novels are available on Amazon and in stores. I found them in the Young Adult section of a local bookstore. The hardcovers with the manga-ish front cover are sold by Amazon when you pre-order. However, nice looking paperbacks without the manga art are sold in the book store. The art inside is the same. I was really impressed with Yen Press' version of them. I'm not sure how they sell but was pleased to see them there nonetheless.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
Posts: 4210
Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 10:45 am Reply with quote
I was disappointed when Viz dropped the Shana light novels only a few volumes in, since the light novels are far better than the anime and manga for that series. But I guess its just one of those things that Americans just aren't interested in.

I never saw that Spice and Wolf cover before, and man thats hideous for the light novel. Why would you even bother releasing light novels if you're gonna try to turn off the fanbase that would be interested in them in the first place? Reminds me of back in the old 16 bit video game days when they gave American drawings to anime JRPGs and people were all upset.
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Hypeathon



Joined: 12 Aug 2010
Posts: 1176
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:10 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
I was disappointed when Viz dropped the Shana light novels only a few volumes in, since the light novels are far better than the anime and manga for that series. But I guess its just one of those things that Americans just aren't interested in.

Honestly, I didn't even know whether or not Viz Media even does release light novels at all, let alone that one.


Last edited by Hypeathon on Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:10 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:

I never saw that Spice and Wolf cover before, and man thats hideous for the light novel. Why would you even bother releasing light novels if you're gonna try to turn off the fanbase that would be interested in them in the first place?

Yen Press did include the original art; some fans just got pissy. Though I don't blame the ones who simply didn't want to read it in public with that cover. But the point was to expand the reading base. Light novels usually don't do too well in the NA market compared to manga. It also takes much longer to translate and copy edit them.

Now, YP releases the books with the original work underneath a Westernized slip.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:12 am Reply with quote
littlefleur wrote:
The Haruhi novels are available on Amazon and in stores. I found them in the Young Adult section of a local bookstore. The hardcovers with the manga-ish front cover are sold by Amazon when you pre-order. However, nice looking paperbacks without the manga art are sold in the book store.


That's interesting - the Books-a-Million near me sells the hardcovers in the YA section, though the old Borders had the paperbacks in the manga section. BAM also puts Spice & Wolf in manga but Kieli in YA, so I'm not sure what they're going for - perhaps they think that Haruhi and Kieli have more mainstream appeal? Though they also shelve Book Girl in manga, so maybe not.
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superdry



Joined: 07 Jan 2012
Posts: 1309
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:25 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
I was disappointed when Viz dropped the Shana light novels only a few volumes in, since the light novels are far better than the anime and manga for that series. But I guess its just one of those things that Americans just aren't interested in.


I remember the manga being much close to the light novels than the anime. Unless there was something else in the manga you didn't like.

But, yea, sucks that Viz dropped the light novels after two volumes and the manga after six.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:46 am Reply with quote
Thank you very much for taking on my question about LNs, Brian! It seems that one has sparked some conversation, as well.
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walw6pK4Alo



Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 9322
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 12:38 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
But another problem is that, for a lot of older OAV titles, the masters and original materials for these titles are often in terrible shape, to the point that they would basically be considered unreleasable without a proper remaster. And chances are, the original Japanese license holders won't bother to clean them up themselves (unless they have their own plans to rerelease them, which is rare), and the expense of remastering an oddball OAV title or two is just out of the budget for something like this.


That's not totally true. A fair number of older and less important OVAs I've come across have had exceptional clean-ups, definitely HD remastered but with no BD (Devilman OVA, BAOH, Desert Rose, Cleopatra DC, etc). And even if not that level of quality, there's still acceptable DVD quality like Lemnear, Dragon Century, and Exper Zenon. So the quality isn't the massive issue, being able to even compile the shows together is. You've seen those horror/sci-fi movie packs, Brian, some of the films are in awful condition there too. It's about the number of shows, not the quality.

The other issue here when not talking about the boxsets directly, there is a growing number of older anime coming out on BluRay or remastered on DVD that we're just not getting over here, even for popular titles like Gundam and Patlabor. That's a big shame.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:00 pm Reply with quote
only LN id be interested in getting is the Kino no tabi ones.
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Asterisk-CGY



Joined: 09 Mar 2007
Posts: 398
PostPosted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Hah, that one AMV I keep remembering but can never find properly I was able to find!

I can never remember the lyrics properly, and all I got was the tune, but my google-fu pulled through!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSAYvMQWIXc
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