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Answerman - What Does Darker Than Black's License Withdrawal Mean?

Aniplex hasn't done much to keep their older back catalog shows in print, but they do seem aware that these shows -- particularly hit shows -- have value. I expect they will be out of print for a few years to let demand build up, and then perhaps there will be a reissue.

Convenient though streaming services may be, you can't count on them always having a certain show. And discs go in and out of print all the time.

Yeah like Justin said you will have about 6 months to buy the remaining stock so go for it. Its interesting because I was never interested in buying the series but now that the license expired and I may never have the option of buying it again in a really long time I actually want to get it now. My real question is it just the first season or is it also the 2nd season and OVAs as well that has expired?

This reminds me somewhat of Aniplex USA doing the Blu-Ray of Baccano!, after Funimation had released a DVD version. I think this was shortly after Aniplex entered the US market? It was curious because they ended up licensing Funimation's dub. It's also frustrating because Aniplex's BD has come and gone, so now if you want to see it HD, you're pretty much out of luck.

This is definitely part of why I buy the shows and movies that I want to watch rather than streaming them.

I'm not convinced that they will do that. A few more years and the show will be just that much older and most fans will gravitate to what's newer. If anything I expect that they are will just put up these shows for streaming and make money that way and avoid the whole reverse import issue.

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This reminds me somewhat of Aniplex USA doing the Blu-Ray of Baccano!, after Funimation had released a DVD version. I think this was shortly after Aniplex entered the US market? It was curious because they ended up licensing Funimation's dub. It's also frustrating because Aniplex's BD has come and gone, so now if you want to see it HD, you're pretty much out of luck.

The other thing to look at is region/codefree blu-ray players, which are totally legal and not especially expensive these days. For Baccano!, for instance, Anime Limited in the UK did a BD re-release last year that retails for about 50 US dollars at the current exchange rate. You could get that and a regionfree BD player for about the same price that used copies of the AoA BD set go for now.

Kalessin wrote:

This is definitely part of why I buy the shows and movies that I want to watch rather than streaming them.

Maybe you (or others) can explain, but I don't see why buying shows on home video has anything to do with streaming. They are two different ways to access the context and are hardly exclusive of one or the other. I personally stream a lot of anime and buy a lot of anime. If anything the two are complementary, it's good to have both options and there's no reason to look down on one or the other.

And no Aniplex shows are not so expensive you will never be able to afford them. If you save up you can buy anyone of their titles, but if your stubborn and will only pay up to a certain amount for 1 show and that's why you won't buy the show in question well that's on you.

Welp, now I regret being unemployed back when you could actually buy the Anime Classics version of season 1. The artbook for the BD release looks nice, but the packaging seems like a joke.

I'm so glad that I own Darker Than Black Funi's releases and don't have to pay Aniplex ridiculous prices.

Dfens wrote:

And no Aniplex shows are not so expensive you will never be able to afford them. If you save up you can buy anyone of their titles, but if your stubborn and will only pay up to a certain amount for 1 show and that's why you won't buy the show in question well that's on you.

It's not even about not being able to save up for a show at a particular price point, so much as the fact that doing said saving precludes making multiple other purchases. I'd imagine that most of us who buy anime don't just get 2 or 3 shows per year, and anime isn't the only thing we spend our discretionary budgets on. (*glances nervously at Steam backlog*) Spending $200 on a single 26-episode release may be within many people's budgets, but when it's a question of either doing that or purchasing 5 other series at an average of $40 each, one of them makes much more financial sense. I think what many Aniplex defenders miss is that buying anime isn't a zero-sum game. It's not buy one Aniplex series vs. buying no anime at all, it's buy one Aniplex series vs. buying several other series and/or games and/or whatever. Couple that with the fact that Aniplex titles essentially never go on sale, at least not remotely to the extent that every other US distributors' titles do, and it becomes an easy choice for the budget-conscious anime fan.

Eisenmann V wrote:

Welp, now I regret being unemployed back when you could actually buy the Anime Classics version of season 1. The artbook for the BD release looks nice, but the packaging seems like a joke.

It's not as bad as it seems. ...From youtube unboxings, anyway.

And if it's anything like the Bebop exclusive, it'll be quite the rare item soon.

I'm kind of interested to see whether their model is sustainable for them (and I would include Pony Canyon in that too). My sense has always been that it is ultimately not sustainable, but I guess time will tell. I'm not an economist, and I'm as likely to be wrong about that prediction as not.

Eisenmann V wrote:

Welp, now I regret being unemployed back when you could actually buy the Anime Classics version of season 1. The artbook for the BD release looks nice, but the packaging seems like a joke.

It's not as bad as it seems. ...From youtube unboxings, anyway.

And if it's anything like the Bebop exclusive, it'll be quite the rare item soon.