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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
Posts: 1346
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 2:48 pm Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
I never said Funimation doesn't license crap, too, but their entire catalogue isn't as peppered with crap as Sentai's. Seven bad anime for every good one. Funimation's rate is better.

I'm not sure you'd be able to tell from my shelves. In the last two years my DVD purchases appear to run about 2 Sentai series for every Funimation series (the real winners in that race, pound for pound, have been Nozomi and Aniplex, probably).

Admittedly, there are a lot of Sentai titles I'm not interested in at all, and Funimation tends to license series I'm happy to stream but not interested in buying (or doesn't bring out the series they stream that I'd happily buy (Tatami Galaxy (which I imported from England), and, until recently Michiko to Hatchin).
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Come on, Sentai's catalogue reads like a joke:

- A-Channel
- Akikan!
- Allison & Lillia
- Asylum Session
- Battle Girls
- Blue Drop
- Book of Bantorra
- Canaan
- Cluster Edge
- Coffee Samurai
- Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

And I could go on. Is anyone interested in these titles? Who is clamoring for Indian Summer, Kobato, Polyphonica, or Samurai Harem?

They licensed Tytania, FFS.


Last edited by penguintruth on Mon May 27, 2013 3:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:00 pm Reply with quote
angelmcazares wrote:
Article wrote:
Q: When you release a blu-ray, there are questions of economy of scale plus what's in the catalog. How hard is it to get HD masters for older shows from Japan?
A: It depends on the title. I can say this: we won't do a blu-ray without an HD master. That's mandatory now, and I'm actually pushing Sentai to insist on 1080p masters. 1080i isn't quite enough for me! We don't like releasing upscales.


This is interesting but very worrisome. From what I have heared from Justin Sevakis and other people, R1 distributors are supposed to convert themselves the 1080i masters they receive from Japan to 1080p.

The answer from the Sentai representative sound amateurish.

That's exactly how these things are sent. Broadcast production and editing, if still using tape, is done in 1080i and 1080p is an upscale from 1080i afterwards for 1080p receivers. The man is talking out his arse thinking the nerds won't know the difference. Rolling Eyes
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superdry



Joined: 07 Jan 2012
Posts: 1309
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:05 pm Reply with quote
bs3311 wrote:

Overall, I somewhat agree with chronoclast and you on further questioning them. Did sentai filmworks get bad masters, or did they do it themselves. I question that because of Cannan which have a bad look IMO where they might actually be 1080i upscaled poorly. I was surprised on the quality of MGX to which brought up my trust a bit to continue preordering titles from them.


Canaan, at least with the Japanese release, was a funny scenario where it was 720i upconverted to 1080i (I can only presume Sentai got the already upconverted masters when they released the show). Here is the thread over at AoD that talked about it and other shows part of that peculiarity - http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?t=99282

I agree with chronoclast that their encoder probably is the cause for the problems with Penguindrum and other recent 1080i releases. From that Acen panel link, I understand where Dave is coming from too with having your tv or bd player do the IVTC for you.

It's great that they are demanding 1080p masters, but, even then they have few where they mucked up - Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Part 1 and also Colorful as examples. But, hopefully moving forward, things are going to be better. Their older releases were pretty decent overall.
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dragonrider_cody



Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 2541
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:15 pm Reply with quote
Mohawk52 wrote:
angelmcazares wrote:
Article wrote:
Q: When you release a blu-ray, there are questions of economy of scale plus what's in the catalog. How hard is it to get HD masters for older shows from Japan?
A: It depends on the title. I can say this: we won't do a blu-ray without an HD master. That's mandatory now, and I'm actually pushing Sentai to insist on 1080p masters. 1080i isn't quite enough for me! We don't like releasing upscales.


This is interesting but very worrisome. From what I have heared from Justin Sevakis and other people, R1 distributors are supposed to convert themselves the 1080i masters they receive from Japan to 1080p.

The answer from the Sentai representative sound amateurish.

That's exactly how these things are sent. Broadcast production and editing, if still using tape, is done in 1080i and 1080p is an upscale from 1080i afterwards for 1080p receivers. The man is talking out his arse thinking the nerds won't know the difference. Rolling Eyes


That may be true, but the majority of the masters they receive are 1080p. It's only a small number of their bluray releases that have been 1080i, and most of those came from Starchild (with at least one or two from TBS and others.). These shows, in most of the cases, did have 1080p masters, but they were not provided. Sentai, so far, hasn't made any changes to the video they've received, so shows with 1080p masters received 1080p blurays and those with 1080i (broadcast) masters received 1080i masters. If ALL shows were sent to them with broadcast masters, then we wouldn't see any 1080p releases from Sentai period.

The issue wasn't so much in the fact that the releases were 1080i, but in the fact that 1080i is far more difficult to encode and as a result their 1080i blurays have had high amount of artifacts, particularly is high motion scenes. It is possible to have 1080i blurays that look decent, but in all fairness, I've never seen one from any company. Every 1080i bluray I've seen has had some serious issues of one type or another.

Hopefully, they get the issues resolved, whether its by doing the inverse telecine themselves, or by getting 1080p masters from Japan. Mysterious Girlfriend X seems to finally be breaking the Starchild trend, as it was solicited as and has artwork indicating it's 1080i, but the actual discs are 1080p. Hopefully, this is the start of a new trend.
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
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Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Mon May 27, 2013 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Depending on the age of receiver, or when it was purchased, mostly all new ones or ones built in the past 3 years were built with an up converter for 1080i to p anyway, and some of the older ones had at least a selection in their menus to convert when selected, at least they do in the UK. US receivers might be different. I know earlier Blue rays were originally 1080i players.
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GhostShell



Joined: 25 Jan 2011
Posts: 1009
Location: Richmond, B.C., Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:10 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
Come on, Sentai's catalogue reads like a joke:

- A-Channel
- Akikan!
- Allison & Lillia
- Asylum Session
- Battle Girls
- Blue Drop
- Book of Bantorra
- Canaan
- Cluster Edge
- Coffee Samurai
- Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

And I could go on. Is anyone interested in these titles?


I have four of the twelve titles on your list. I'd have to say "yes", some folks are interested.
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dragonrider_cody



Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 2541
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 3:13 am Reply with quote
GhostShell wrote:
penguintruth wrote:
Come on, Sentai's catalogue reads like a joke:

- A-Channel
- Akikan!
- Allison & Lillia
- Asylum Session
- Battle Girls
- Blue Drop
- Book of Bantorra
- Canaan
- Cluster Edge
- Coffee Samurai
- Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

And I could go on. Is anyone interested in these titles?


I have four of the twelve titles on your list. I'd have to say "yes", some folks are interested.


I saw a TON if people asking for Canaan and Book of Bantorra before they were licensed. Canaan was also one of their early best sellers and was picked up in other English markets due to demand for it.

Croisee is an excellent series and had a large number of fans. The simulcast also did really well, and the DVD sets sold very well for subonly slice of a life series. They had to order a second orinting shortly after release because it sold out at wholesale. They've also said that Allison and Lilia sold very well and that it's a title they could consider dubbing in the future.

Blue Drop sold well enough to get into Best Buy stores, and its numbers were strong to later be dubbed. It was also picked up overseas. The show actually received positive reviews when it was released, and it topped the weekly purchase polls at a few anime forums.

As for the rest, you have to remember that anime licenses don't always come just in singles. A lot of times, you have to take two or three titles to get the one you want. A lot of times, you have to license a lesser title first before a company will let you take on a more prestigious property. So many of the short Comix Wave properties were picked up so they could get the Shinkai films. Do you think ComixWave would have let them have Children Who Chase Lost Voices (one of their top three sellers) if they didn't prove themselves with things like Assylum Session and Coicent first?

Business in Japan isn't just about money, it's about establishing relationships. That's why nearly all of Sentai's early titles came from TBS and Showgate, and why you've seen them branch out to more companies and bigger shows.

Penguin, I realize that you think you are the end all and be all of anime fans and that your word is the word of God, but, I know that you won't understand this anyway, but not everyone shares your opinion. I've seen you "excited" over titles that the majority of fans I know have never heard of, and I've seen you whine about unknown titles that I've seen tons of people asking for. The anime market doesn't revolve entirely around your personal tastes.

I never quite understood why some people feel that just because they don't care for a certain title, that it shouldn't be picked up. I also don't understand why some people can't understand that their own personal opinion of quality doesn't automatically translate into sales.

I also find it somewhat amusing that the majority of the titles Penguintruth listed are from 3 to 5 years ago. Do you really expect a brand new company to start out licensing the cream of the crop? Indian Summer? Really? Their very first "new" release? What did you expect? One of the Eva movies?
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fireaxe



Joined: 07 Jul 2006
Posts: 503
Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:09 am Reply with quote
GhostShell wrote:
penguintruth wrote:
Come on, Sentai's catalogue reads like a joke:

- A-Channel
- Akikan!
- Allison & Lillia
- Asylum Session
- Battle Girls
- Blue Drop
- Book of Bantorra
- Canaan
- Cluster Edge
- Coffee Samurai
- Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

And I could go on. Is anyone interested in these titles?


I have four of the twelve titles on your list. I'd have to say "yes", some folks are interested.


I also own four of those titles. And I also own And Yet The Town Moves and Uta~Kata, which I'm sure Penguintruth would have added to his list. Despite what you might think, yes there are people out there who are genuinely happy to see those titles available in North America.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:26 am Reply with quote
penguintruth wrote:
Come on, Sentai's catalogue reads like a joke:

- A-Channel
- Akikan!
- Allison & Lillia
- Asylum Session
- Battle Girls
- Blue Drop
- Book of Bantorra
- Canaan
- Cluster Edge
- Coffee Samurai
- Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth
- Daphne in the Brilliant Blue

And I could go on. Is anyone interested in these titles? Who is clamoring for Indian Summer, Kobato, Polyphonica, or Samurai Harem?

They licensed Tytania, FFS.


Well there's real douchebag logic for you: I don't like these titles (which I haven't seen, of course), so obviously nobody does. Rolling Eyes Funny how despite the fact that Sentai puts out titles that penguintruth doesn't like, they are still one of the biggest R1 distribs around. The people running Sentai are making a living off their business while penguintruth is some anonymous nobody on the internet who obsesses over the masturbatory habits of moe fans.
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:34 am Reply with quote
Don't give me that lame, "Well *I* was interested in it!" crap. Of course there'll be a few people interested in nearly everything. But those are outliers, exceptions.

You're going to tell me that there is a significant enough fanbase for Samurai Harem for Sentai to take a chance on it? Don't be so naïve.

You're so busy trying to catch me in some kind of trap that you can't think reasonably. Sure, literally, somebody is interested in Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka or Tayutama: Kiss on My Deity, but they are a statistical anomaly.

At least I can admit that something like LoGH would have almost no market value, despite my desire to see it released over here.


Last edited by penguintruth on Tue May 28, 2013 10:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:39 am Reply with quote
You're the one who is naive/stupid. If there is such little interest in the titles that Sentai is licensing, why are they one of the biggest R1 distribs around? Do you have some kind of evidence that Sentai is in financial difficulty? What are you basing your claim on that not many people are interested in those titles? Do you have sale figures?

Of course you don't. All you have as "evidence" is your own narrow-minded "taste."
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penguintruth



Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8458
Location: Penguinopolis
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:41 am Reply with quote
Blood- wrote:
If there is such little interest in the titles that Sentai is licensing, why are they one of the biggest R1 distribs around


Because they're one of the only ones left. I could start an anime distribution company tomorrow and still be in the top eight.

It's not a sign of Sentai's quality, it's a sign of the dearth of others.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:46 am Reply with quote
I doubt you could find your ass with both hands and a flashlight, let alone start up any kind of company. The only way to know for sure what sort of interest Sentai's titles are receiving is to have sales figures. I certainly don't have them, but the fact that Sentai continues to put out more titles than any other R1 distrib is at least suggestive of the fact that you are under-estimating the appeal of titles you don't personally like. But you are more interested in being an a-hole troll as opposed to advancing an intelligent argument, so I guess I can only expect more uninformed drivel from you.
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bs3311



Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Posts: 416
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue May 28, 2013 10:48 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Don't give me that lame, "Well *I* was interested in it!" crap. Of course there'll be a few people interested in nearly everything. But those are outliers, exceptions.

You're going to tell me that there is a significant enough fanbase for Samurai Harem for Sentai to take a chance on it? Don't be so naïve.


Don't give me that lame, "but *those* are outliers, exceptions". THEY. ARE. LIVING. PEOPLE. repeat after me.

Lets see how you will survive as a company or even a leader with that ideology.

Go on the internet and you will find more people who like it. Don't look at some crap englsih dubbed anime trailer and see the thumbs up or comments on the page. Actually find people who bought it, streamed, or recommended it. In fact, Holden bought samurai harem..........or was it bobsamurai?. But they are nobody...........right?

You could say they are the minority which sounds understandable, but know that Sentai gave us an option to buy a licensed copy in the states and it did'nt cost them a pretty penny unlike some companies that try to milk so much out of it. I could see Funimation or Viz growing more if they followed there module of licensing.
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