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How do you handle collecting incomplete titles?


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Bluebeard



Joined: 29 Mar 2008
Posts: 267
Location: Massachusetts
PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:53 pm Reply with quote
As a collector, I think as much about the presentation of my collection as much as I do the content. At the moment, the biggest issue I have is in regards to Geneon's titles that will never be completed by Geneon, especially ones with art boxes. So I was curious as to how other collectors are handling this issue. Do you prefer to collect as much of the original release as possible, and then plan on filling it in with the remainder of the series if/when another company picks up the license? Or do you prefer to maintain consistancy and hold off so that you can buy the complete series all from the same company. Do you ever worry that a particular license may never be reaquired? Or even does anyone feel that in this situation bootlegs are justifiable?

Currently I own Rozen Maiden volumes 1 & 3, with the art box. I plan on purchasing volume 2 when I find a good price on it, so that I have the complete Geneon release of Season 1. That leaves me having to decide whether or not to buy Traumend volume 1, even though Geneon will never release volumes 2 & 3. This also leaves unfilled holes in my art box which I'm unsure how to fill. I would also like to eventually own When They Cry, but I'm still deciding whether or not I want to buy the Geneon dvds that are available. Generally I favor originality (I will get those FMA tins one of these days...) so I'm leaning towards buying the When They Cry art box and the 3? (I believe?) dvds that are available.
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PantsGoblin
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Joined: 27 Jun 2005
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:32 pm Reply with quote
Incomplete titles are extremely rare. The thing that happened to some of Geneon's releases is a special case. Out of the 350 something DVDs I own, my only indefinitely incomplete series is Higurashi no Naku Koroni (aka When They Cry). I bought all three DVDs just because I love that series so damn much though.

Bluebeard wrote:
Or even does anyone feel that in this situation bootlegs are justifiable?


No. A lot have horrible subtitles. Fansubs with understandable subtitles are free and you aren't supporting some shady Chinese pirating company.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 5308
PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 10:44 pm Reply with quote
The only series that I have in my collection that's technically incomplete is the red jacket series of Lupin the 3rd; that's somewhat of a different case than the orphaned Geneon titles, though, since its DVD releases (sadly) petered out some time in 2006. I feel like if there was a series I liked that had a truly incomplete release, I'd probably go ahead and buy it anyway; while I do like my row of DVDs to have at least some semblance of order, the bottom line for me is the disks themselves, not what the packaging looks like. Plus, I figure it's a great way to save hard drive space.

On a somewhat-related note, I'm still a bit miffed that, right after I'd finally gotten around to purchasing half of the Bebop Remix volumes, the Anime Legends set comes out and basically invalidates them, but at least I'll wind up saving money on the second half.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:20 pm Reply with quote
I've got about four Geneon series that are incomplete and two Funimation, so I can understand your problem. In my case, I've bought nearly everything that was released. For the most part, I've lost all hope of the situation being resolved favorably, so at this point I'm just waiting until I can part with what I have without feeling like I've stabbed myself.

I always keep my art boxes with their open end outward until I've filled it. Seeing those spaces where discs should be but never shall be is a constant reminder of the failure of some really great series.

At this point, I'm starting to wait for either box sets or for all single volumes to be out before buying. Once I've completed some of the series I'm getting now and a few that are coming up, I plan to curtail my buying considerably.
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marie-antoinette



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
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Location: Ottawa, Canada
PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:53 am Reply with quote
My only incomplete title right now is Sailor Moon S, which I started collecting right before it went OOP. It's a bit of a different situation than Geneon of course, since the DVDs do exist, but you can't find them in stores. So far I have managed to track down one of the DVDs I was missing on eBay so now I only have two left to get (vol II and volume V).

I also have to say that while most bootlegs are bad, I have considered them...not for Sailor Moon S, but for Sailor Stars, since we are all fairly convinced that it will never be licensed and I'd like to have it on DVD. But the main problem is that so many bootlegs are just such horrible quality that it's not worth trying to find one that isn't.
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cool3865



Joined: 31 Aug 2006
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Location: Austin, TX
PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:10 am Reply with quote
yea i have some, Elf Princess Rein is concidered incomplete since it got shut down even tho they had other episodes made


as for stuff like Rozen Maiden, i would just get the 2nd season and hope someone finishes the releases
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Redbeard 101
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:11 am Reply with quote
Anymore PG is right incomplete titles are a rarity. If a series is being released the whole show gets released. They don't simply release 3 dvds and then go "ya know what, forget the rest." Geneon was a special circumstance and it wasn't a desired outcome by anyone. Let me clarify one thing, that when I say a whole show will be released I mean that particular season in the even of a multi season show. They might not license and bring over season 2 or 3 of show "X" but if they start season 1 they'll finish it. And by they I mean the dubbing/licensing companies. The other exception to this though are older titles from the vhs days that never got a dvd release when they originally came out or were completely licensed over here. I personally have only a few incomplete titles in my collections, and those have their own dvd tower away from the rest. I'm a bit OCD at times so I separate them so it won't drive me nuts heh.
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Richard J.



Joined: 11 Aug 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:31 am Reply with quote
Psycho, while they are the rarity, they're not as rare as they used to be. Viz has recently left more than a few fans in the lurch for a number of series.

I'm not saying your wrong, just that the way things are going, I think we're going to see this more not less often than in the past. Unless the companies just stop licensing anything that isn't a sure thing.
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Redbeard 101
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:59 am Reply with quote
Well I've never been a big collector of Viz titles myself. So any more recent unfinished titles I'll admit I'm unaware of.
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fighterholic



Joined: 28 Sep 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:51 pm Reply with quote
When I heard that there was only a fifth of the Fist of the North Star series episodes available over here, I decided to get rid of my Fist of the North Star DVD that I recently bought. Hence why it's up for the winner of the mini-game from the Best Duo tournament.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:10 pm Reply with quote
Both PantsGoblin and Richard are right. While this sort of thing in the past this was more of a rarity, with Geneon and it's large amount of titles, and now Viz "holding off" on three more titles, it is becoming more and more of a trend. Although there is still hope with Viz titles, since Viz didn't "go under", they have a much higher chance of being released later. Most likely in some sort of collected form.

Bluebeard wrote:
Do you prefer to collect as much of the original release as possible, and then plan on filling it in with the remainder of the series if/when another company picks up the license?

I do both, like in your case I stopped at Vol.3 with Rozen Maiden, since that has clearly defined seasons. But I will fill my empty artboxes with whatever legitimate company decides to release these titles. I am somewhat of a completest, but not so much that I won't fill out a box because say FUNimation released the second half of a Geneon title. Especially in situation like this.

The Geneon debacle hit me pretty hard, since besides Rozen Maiden, I also have When They Cry and Karin half-empty artboxes, as well as half of Black Lagoon, three DVDs of the Hellsing OVAs and two DVDs of The Story of Saiunkoku(have the arbox for that too, though I don't think I will use it for DVDs). So that's like what, six series that likely won't be completed. Crying or Very sad Okay, Hellsing will probably be picked up, and there might be a chance for Black Lagoon. But nothing is ever certain. /).(\
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cloud1989



Joined: 06 Sep 2004
Posts: 274
PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:44 pm Reply with quote
well, I was visiting my mom over the summer when geneon shut down so I fortunately I didn't get the chance to buy series that would have been left unfinished, and if it wasn't for me being their I am certain I would have jumped on karin and rozen maiden. As for what I would do I would just try to sell the incomplete shows you have and download the series, burn it to a dvd and decorated with paper lables and a dvd cover if you want, or don't, but it least you have it and in one consistant form, all illegal, not half legit and half pirated or something.
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Bluebeard



Joined: 29 Mar 2008
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Location: Massachusetts
PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 8:13 pm Reply with quote
Another question just came to mind. If a series like Karin for example does get picked up by another company, is it likely that the 3 existing DVDs that Geneon released will be re-translated by the new distributor, or will they release those 3 dvds using Geneon's translation. I would guess that the Geneon translation would be used to avoid having to eat up the cost of unnecessarily translating 12 whole episodes, but I don't know much about how this sort of thing works.
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:12 pm Reply with quote
I suppose it all depends on the circumstances. For instance, we have the recently-announced case of Bandai Entertainment re-dubbing GITS 2: Innocence using the same main cast from the TV series, despite the fact that this same cast participated in the UK dub. On the other hand, you have a show like Tactics, which ADV had completely finished dubbing before losing the rights to Manga Entertainment, who used ADV's dub. I know there have been instances when licensors who took over a series mid-stream have tried as much as possible to retain the same dub cast from the original license, too. A lot of it probably has to do with the cost/benefit of potential licensing fees for a prior dub/translation versus the expense of an all-new dub. If I had to guess, I'd say that, were anyone to pick up any of the Geneon series that have completed dubs but were not fully released, they'd retain the original dub; I can't imagine those prior translations being extraordinarily expensive.
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cloud1989



Joined: 06 Sep 2004
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:54 am Reply with quote
they would probably take geneon's for karin, since they already have half of it done at least, gurren laggan didn't even get to take of so it probably didn't matter there. It be a better deal to take something half way done than start over though.
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