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rg4619 wrote:

I don't recall any declaration of the end of DVDs either.

From the third article I linked above:

Mikhail Koulikov, 'Industry roundtable: Fansubs - The Death of Anime?', Jul 3rd 2008 wrote:

As the panel wrapped up, Sevakis predicted that ultimately, the anime DVD market in North America will be reserved for the "really A-list", collectible titles, while the average Japanese animated television series, dozens of which come out every season and float off into obscurity several months later, not particularly missed by anyone, will be prime candidates for digital distribution.

Try imagining a world where Death Note, Naruto and Bleach are the only anime being published on DVD in the US. If that is literally all there is, do you think you'll be able to get the volume you want at your local Best Buy/Circuit City/FYE/whatever? Probably not. They would probably be rare and only available through comic book shops or special order. It would be like the last days of VHS (sum total). There are still a handful of releases out there, but very few people are buying them, the vast majority having upgraded to the next thing (in the case of anime, digital). In practical terms, anime DVDs would be dead.

So people have said it, and I gotta say I'm not sure why this needed to be proved. People didn't agree on this obviously; in all the "future of anime" discussions, people agreed on very little aside from the fact that things were changing. But I definitely got the impression that a certain segment of the fans (namely, the younger fans with the limited income that the Crunchyroll business model was supposedly structured to tap into) were intoxicated with this idea that DVD was on its way out and cheap, fast fansub-like formats were on the verge of flooding in to replace it. When the Blessreiter & Druaga digital distribution plans were announced, a lot of people seemed to take it as an affirmation of that concept, and now that they are opting to also release those titles through the more traditional channels on R1 DVD, I can't help but question the success of the digital release and be curious about Gonzo's assessment in hindsight.

uh okay.

Funimation must have a close relationship with Gonzo. How else can they not get some of bad with the good. 'Dragonaut'. Hoo boy.

Oh and why wasn't there an announcement for 'Katsucon'. I mean did it happen? Man it's so damn quiet around here with the licenses and the economy that you can hear crickets. Or "higurashi". Gee man, what gives?

Last edited by Shiroi Hane on Thu Feb 19, 2009 7:59 am; edited 1 time in total

Bamboo Blade is a good license, only ever got the first ep of Draga on BOST and the first ep of Dragonaut was entirely forgettable.

Mario1234567 wrote:

Strike witches was epic but I don't think Any company will have the guts to puck that up, that will be like picking up Kodomo No Jikan, and we all know that will never come over here, Loli's in Questionable situations stay in japan.

Strike Witches is lolis in questionable clothes, not in questionable situations. That and, as I've mentioned before, it depends how you define loli - the characters range from 14-19 iirc.

[edited for typos]

I was at the pannel too. I was happy when Bamboo Blade got announced

Wow, lots of bad talk for Dragonaut. Maybe I will check it out myself to see if it as bad as you people say it is. (You all will propably be right, *sweatdrop* but oh well.)