Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Do Publishers Choose Which Older Shows To Re-License?
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Zalis116
Moderator
Posts: 6896 Location: Kazune City |
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The conventional wisdom used to be that titles that did decent sales the first time around had a better chance of getting a re-release. However, Discotek's rescuing of titles like famed Geneon hundred-sellers Cybuster and Demon Lord Dante now have us questioning that wisdom.
I know it was just a year thrown out as an example, but... Interestingly, a fair number of the eight pervy OVAs from 1985 are not completely unknown among fans of older anime, including Urusei Yatsura, Megazone 23, Vampire Hunter D, and Dirty Pair: Affair of Nolandia -- the last two of which have already been re-licensed. Others like Fight!! Iczer-One and Leda ~ The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko have gotten R1 releases in the past as well.
I frequently see Evangelion held up as the great "white whale" by anti-industry detractors, who use its unavailability as a cudgel against legal streaming services and disc publishers. Of course, the fact that Eva is less popular on a views-per-month basis on The Flagship Bootleg Streaming Site than many mediocre yet legally-available modern anime kind of punctures that talking point. And even if NGE were available, they'd name something like Paranoia Agent or the NGE-inspired, best-moe-harem-comedy-of-2002 RahXephon as the replacement. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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The problem with Rakugo never has been "age", it is an anime for mature audiences (and by that I do not mean sex, nudity, violence, obscene language, drugs or guns). This one would really benefit from a kickstarter, as in "We know this series will not provide any real profit, but we will do a kickstarter to serve our most excellent fans", a true gentei product. If successful it could open the door for other similar series that will n-e-v-e-r get a print release. |
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Ouran High School Dropout
Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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Love what you did here... Truth be told, I'd love to see someone rescue Kurumi, my all-time favorite pink-haired bubblehead. The only other vintage title that comes close for me is Witch Hunter Robin. Just reading this article makes me want to be a fly on the wall at Eastern Star's offices... |
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Ouran High School Dropout
Posts: 440 Location: Somewhere in Massachusetts, USA |
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Had to look up Raguko; never heard of it, sorry to say. But then again, there's so much produced these days that it's easy for me to miss something. But for me, I'd be more likely to back a "What the *bleep* did I just watch?" kinda show. Backing a bizarre little gem like Potemayo would be a slam dunk for me. |
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LegitPancake
Posts: 1308 Location: Texas, USA |
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These days, I’m not as interested in a Berserk 1997 re-release since I imported the bluray from the UK, but I would pay good money for Evangelion, Monster, and Hajime no Ippo on bluray. I also need to import the FMA:B bluray set from the UK since they are OOP here in the US.
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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They would need to pick something else, at least as far as streaming goes. Rahxephon has been streaming legally for years. It was available on Anime Network, and then moved to HiDive. It’s also been available on Amazon Prime for quite sometime as well. But those who use pirate sites will always make up some excuse. |
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katscradle
Posts: 469 |
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It’s only been around 14 months since the anime finished. The comic has been licensed for awhile in different languages at least. Personally I would not support the anime of Descending Stories if it was licensed though. Same as I haven’t picked up foreign versions of the comic despite a large portion of it being well crafted. I respect Haruko Kumota and still have some of her other comics but, what she did at the end displeased me. I still haven’t gotten over it enough to revisit the series in any form without feeling it is spoiled and I don’t know if I will. As a result I feel like the audience is limited in that respect as well besides being a very slow burning, culture heavy title. |
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Tempest
I Run this place.
ANN Publisher Posts: 10448 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Yeah, Justin missed that. Your answer is 100% correct. |
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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This is true, though the net imbalance lies in your favour. If you compare WTK's solicitation threads posted on ANN to the industry threads on AUKN, for example, the monthly release volumes seem quite uneven. |
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MarshalBanana
Posts: 5477 |
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Kadmos1
Posts: 13593 Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP |
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This Answerman column might sum up the way Discotek approaches old-school licenses. While Funi and Sentai occasionally license older stuff, Discotek seems to be company that is specifically skilled at getting that obscure pre-2000 anime show.
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Moonsaber
Posts: 343 Location: USA |
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Animeigo has been working through their old catalog slowly for Blu Ray releases. Since it is such a small shop I would not expect anything new from them, but I am certain the Blu Ray of Gunsmith Cats will put a big smile on my face.
I keep hoping that Robert and his crew pick up something new, or look to updating a release of say.. Kimagure Orange Road, or even a Blu Ray of Macross. KOR now fetches pretty enormous prices for used DVDs. Hell, even the Laserdiscs and VHS fetch good prices. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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*raises hand* Hai hai it was mine and that answer is Full Moon Wo Sagashite. Wish they used the pic I sent them for the column =.= |
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Spawn29
Posts: 554 |
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I would imagine most companies would pick up titles that sells well with their audience. Funimation picks up titles that the mainstream season watcher and younger generation will watch and buy like MHA, Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, etc. Sometimes Funimation picks up older titles, but not always. Current Shonen anime is Funimation's bread and butter to them.
Discotek is probably the only anime company in the US that cares about older titles. I do think that we need more companies that pick up older titles. We have many companies that will pick up horror movies, grindhouse movies and other cult films like Shout! Factory, Arrow Video, Kino Lorber Studio Classics, Synapse Films, Blue Underground, Code Red DVD, Scorpion Releasing, Severin Films, Twilight Time Movies, Vinegar Syndrome, MVD Rewind and Vestron. I'm pretty sure there is many other obscure and cult anime titles that people can pick up and buy. If there is a audience for Ted V. Mikels movies, I'm sure there is a audience for something like Call Me Tonight and Hell Target. |
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Lord Geo
Posts: 2640 Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey |
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I've always felt this way too, & I remember Mike Toole once saying in his articles that there should be an anime equivalent to Mill Creek (i.e. one which just does cheap re-releases), but at the same time I sometimes wonder if anime fandom is just too small &, for lack of a better word, curated for being able to support multiple smaller outfits like this. General movie fandom is so gigantic, it's possible for boutique publishers to operate on a more focused & niche basis, and in some rare cases, they even tackle anime. Hell, anime in general is already a "boutique" industry, with only FUNimation & Viz being the arguable "mainstream" entities. Every other company, even the likes of Sentai, are already operating like those boutique publishers, specifically aiming at lase-targeted niches. Really, that's the best way to think of the anime industry, especially here in North America: Our entire industry is already made up of Severins, Synapses, & Blue Undergrounds, so we can't possibly get any more niche! |
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