Forum - View topicThis Week in Anime - Why You Should Just Buy the Anime Blu-rays
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RommieSG
 Posts: 126 Location: Hokuei High School |
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If a series is near and dear enough to me, I will try my best to get a physical copy if and when available and affordable.
But one of the things that irks me the most is that when Funimation was migrating to Crunchyroll we were told to cancel our Funi sub and move to Crunchy as that's where new series were going to be, and eventually the Funi library would be transferred to Crunchy. As has been pointed out, there are still titles that have not migrated to Crunchy. Also Funi had dubs for several series that have yet to transfer over to Crunchy as well. It irks me to no end that we were told to end our Funi sub, when Funimation still exists, and there are still series on Funi that have yet to transfer over to Crunchy. Will there ever be a point that our Crunchy sub will count for both platforms? I doubt it, but that would certainly alleviate any further issues. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4593 |
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*looks around at shelves overflowing with past purchases and a few other orders in the pipeline*
Why yes, I think I shall. |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3022 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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To be specific on their releases HD releases - 12-14 episodes a disc SD releases - Usually 52 episodes a disc but there are some exceptions like Great Mazinger (56 episodes and short extras) & the Shaman King dub (64 episodes but with 4Kids' edits, is shorter in run time) Each of those look and sound fine from the sets I have.
I believe they still do the disc work in Japan, some releases has Q-Tec & Imagica credited under authoring in their English credits and they are Japanese studios. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1325 |
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I would buy more Blu Rays if some of my favorite anime actually HAD some Blu Ray re-releases by now.
They don't and that makes me sad. |
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fathomlessblue
 Posts: 349 Location: Manchester, UK |
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I was wait for the huge "Buttttttt" to arrive at any point during the article, and was kinda shocked that it didn't. Which leads me to hope that it becomes the jumping off point for a more serious, editorial article. Because while the preservation of physical media is as important as ever, the trends we're beginning to see are becoming worrisome.
Enough ink has been spilled about streaming platforms like Netflix & Amazon putting their licensed content in home release jail, so I'll pass on that. What doesn't get a lot of mention is that a few years ago Sony decided to start gobbling up international companies to become part of the Crunchyroll brand, with the UK's Manga Entertainment & Australia's Madmen being the biggest acquisitions. Which is fine I guess, given that Crunchyroll mostly uses AB region disks to help reduce the cost of authoring separate EU disks. The problem is, rather than help with the ease of distribution, Sony/CR has decided to cut back of the release of shows in smaller territories to a fairly drastic degree. I noticed this less than a year ago when it became apparent the UK wasn't going to see the release of several niche, but critically lauded titles such as Sonny Boy & Heike story. However, by early 2023 we weren't really seeing anything barring select isekai, prominent shounen & the very odd rom-com. And now even that's not for granted, with Re:Zero S2 recently getting permanently removed from pre-order for some undetermined reason. At the same time, Sony/CR owning streaming & distribution rights for the majority of new shows means there's far less chance of those titles being released by other companies. Stateside, people have been speculating about the state Sentai is in for a while now, while here in the UK, the output of the two other physical media companies, MVM & Anime Limited, has plummeted. MVM tends to keep a fairly low profile in response to industry storms but is heavily reliant on sub-licensing Sentai titles, while AL has pivoted to selling a fairly broad range of titles, with vinyl in particular close to overtaking their blu ray output at this point. I've heard similar things on blu ray forums coming from collectors in Australia, although I suspect it might not be as bad there yet. Anecdotally, I've also been keeping an eye on US licensed titles from around 12-18 months to see what has shown up on home market yet, compared to the same 4-8 years back, with the current picture appearing to be far more uneven - although it might be too early to make any definite claims yet. That said, I've seen mention of legitimate concerns by some pretty established folks in the blu ray authoring scene, including Justin Sevakis, talking about how major media corporations have little-to-no interest in physical media, even for profitable sectors, such as anime. I'd love to hear a nuanced take from a professional about what the future of the anime home market might potentially look like. I'm sure Discotek will be fine mining the classics (& trashy live action adaptations) for the time being. For currently airing shows, however, particularly outside of America, I think there are pretty significant worries regarding their place. Last edited by fathomlessblue on Thu Aug 31, 2023 4:42 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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dragonmastr
 Posts: 197 |
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The answer is unfortunately: it depends. Blu-rays have two methods for preventing you to play it. The most commonly known one is the region locking, so a blu-ray player for region A can only play blu-ray discs authored for region A. The other lesser known method is called geo-locking (or geo-blocking). Each blu-ray player has a hardware code to identify what region it was manufactured for and meant to be sold in. For instance, a blu-ray player meant to be sold in the US would have some kind of hardware code to identify that it was manufactured to be sold in the US market. A geo-locked blu-ray disc would check to see if the blu-ray player has a valid hardware code before it could be played. A prime example of this is Sentai Filmworks, that is to say that all blu-rays that they release are geo-locked for North America so a lot of region-free players will not actually work for those discs. I don't know if it's common practice for British or Australian companies to employ geo-locking, but it really depends on the publisher and what agreements they have with the Japanese distributors on whether or not they lock the discs. From what I've seen Aniplex discs are usually not locked/restricted, which makes sense since their bloody high prices means that there is almost no risk of reverse imports to cut into the Japanese blu-ray sales. |
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Norbuck
Posts: 19 |
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As mentioned above, the acquisition of smaller regions streaming platforms and merging them into the amorphous blob that is Crunchyroll has been shambolic for those of us that had access to regionally licensed anime. (not my cup of tea, but interspecies reviewers was a good example)
There are far too many titles that disappeared since the closure of Animelab (best streaming platform by far), that were promised to be on Funimation and never showed up, and then everything that was on Funimation that never showed up on Crunchyroll. I was used to most shows having an Uncut version once the Blu-ray was released but these seldom appear on Crunchyroll these days, and i have no idea if any of the AU approved releases will ever appear again on a (legal) streaming platform in our region. Its hard to justify the cost of a subscription when the alternative (piracy) is more convenient and the catalogue more complete than the paid product. |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 349 Location: Manchester, UK |
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On the other hand, pretty much all Sentai disks will work effortlessly on all western (& beyond?) Playstation 3/4/5's, bypassing the need for the multi-region blu ray player you would need for, say, a Discotek release. There are pluses and minuses with both, depending on the hardware you own. |
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KlarkKentThe3rd
Posts: 108 |
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You wrote what I was thinking. A good solution to storage problems, is to share the more mainstream works that you would like to watch once. It makes little sense to buy a disk you will use once and will then leave collecting dust. If you rend half of what you watch, that's half less storage space needed. Buy to rewatch, and buy what you love to bits. Rent the rest. |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 661 |
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*stares longingly at A Place Further than the Universe and Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko* The latter did get a gorgeous Blu-ray release in Japan not very long ago, and I keep hoping and praying for Discotek or someone else to get ahold of the North American rights. But yeah, I try to buy hard copies of my favorite anime whenever I can, especially if they're older and/or obscure. |
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fathomlessblue
Posts: 349 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Well at least A Place Further than the Universe will be coming out in the US at some point, courtesy of Anime Limited. |
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kotomikun
Posts: 1205 |
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I was going to say that probably won't ever happen, but apparently they actually made a dub and announced a box set version... almost a year ago. The agonizing slowness of these things is why streaming took off, but that has its own host of problems. It's kind of strange that you still generally can't just buy digital copies (that aren't riddled with DRM schemes making them even less practical than a physical disc that requires a dedicated player). Yeah, people would share the files with non-payers, but they're doing that already; all it takes is one person who knows how to rip a blu-ray. You can buy clean MP3s of pretty much anything these days, and it hasn't killed the music industry (Spotify, however, is a mostly-bad influence). Streaming vs. physical is a false dilemma they've forced all of us to accept, mainly due to the industry's fear of change. |
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R. Kasahara
Posts: 661 |
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True! Very much looking forward to that. |
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1232 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Worth noting that the home video versions of shows often have animation corrections, and will remove censorship for broadcast. Then there's Shaft shows where the home video version can be entirely different. The home video versions of shows from the simulcast era rarely stream. FUNimation offered both versions, HIDIVE sometimes does, but Crunchyroll does not.
https://imgur.com/a/fp2rX#0 https://www.otakutale.com/2014/nisekoi-tv-blu-ray-comparisons/ There are times where the broadcast version was released by accident. I had a list in this post. Streaming a nice way of checking out a show, but never for longterm repeat viewing. When I stream a show, it's usually only once, and then if I care enough about the title, I will buy it on home video if a release exists. The days of the only legal option being blind-buying are mostly over, and thus you're less likely to spend money on a show you may end up not liking in the end. Also of note, sometimes there's Director's Cuts or extended editions of episodes, then there's specials and extras and such. And then there's the easter eggs. |
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L-S-M-F-T
Posts: 9 |
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I forgot about Devilman Crybaby!!! That's a great one! I kinda didn't expect it to get a physical release since it was a Netflix Exclusive; But if it did, I would totally buy it. On the flipside, I was so surprised and stoked Blade of the Immortal (2019) got a physical release because I thought Amazon wouldn't want an alternate source cutting into their views. I bought that one when I had some cash saved up.
My biggest problem when it comes to collecting physical media is saving up the money to make a purchase. I'll see something that resonates with me and either it already has a physical release, but I don't have the money to buy it right away or the show does not yet have a release and I forget about it and then it sells out before I can get myself a copy hahaha. It was particularly frightening during the COVID economic shutdown, when even books started running out! I was gonna wait till One Piece ended and see if a single super big box set would be released; But when I saw even popular mangas were selling out, I panicked and picked up the 4 separate box sets when they were back in stock. I think what scares me the most is feeling like you never really know how much time you have left to pick something up. I used to think I had all the time in the world cause nothing ever runs out in the modern day. Turns out that's not true; There are a couple of things I missed out on cause I lagged it. It stings, but oh well. I'm glad this discussion hit on so many important topics. And I loved that they talked about DVDs aging. For anyone that's interested in learning a little bit more about how different formats age and the process to preserve them, check out a documentary titled "Film, The Living Record of our Memory". There's a part where they talk about the longevity of discs and it scared the hell outta me! I thought my DVDs would last forever if I took care of them properly. NOPE! |
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