Forum - View topicNEWS: Kurokami's U.S. BD Release to Have English Dub Only
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7987 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Well, I've had the DVD Pre-ordered since forever, so it's about friggin' time it was taken out of the "To be Announced" range. It's a bummer that there's only 6 episodes on the first volume though instead of the set I was expecting. I'd hoped that we would get more but 6*4=24 though, and there are 24 episodes of the series so that could work out nice if they all had that much. I want an artbox though if I've been duped into buying stupid singles again though.
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Jedi Master
 Posts: 400 |
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Even dub fans agree that a dub-only blue-ray is probably a stupid move. But I still feel compelled to note: with this sub-fans can now have a small taste of what dub fans experience when R1 anime is released sub-only. I write this not to be mean, but to offer a perspective from the other side of the "dubs are unnecessary" argument.
I agree. By voting with their wallets, fans have the power to influence future releases and even the direction of this artform called anime. This could have been an interesting experiment to determine how much dub-only fans contribute to the success of a R1 anime release with sub-only fans excluded from the sales data. But the reduced episode count combined with a superior DVD release prevents me from imagining anyone but the most hardcore blueray-dub-only fans from purchasing this. Even if they didn't get a license for the Japanese audio, they still have not explained the reduced episode count. |
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walw6pK4Alo
 Posts: 9322 |
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Not exactly. I find it hard to lament over something that never existed. The difference here is that the Japanese dub did very much exist, and that not having it on the BluRay release is the epitome of the absence of sense. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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This seems like a horrifically bad idea. I can understand that there are concerns over reverse importation but a move like this is just going to alienate a large chunk of the fanbase, reinforce old misconceptions about the R1 comapnies and drive people further towards fansubs. It's completely counter-intuitive to the entire idea of quick R1 releases.
Though I suppose rationally fans should prefer something over nothing, it might actually be smarter from a PR perspective to have no BD release in North America than this. |
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Almaz
Posts: 134 |
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For what BD prices are, Bandai can just save money and not issue the disks. I would expect the more on a BD than a DVD, not less. Unless they are going to sell the BD for $25 MSRP (never will happen.) Someone can find the disks about half price on sale.
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Geotrio
Posts: 7 |
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But that is the current msrp price for the Blu Ray release. http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/IeElq4g-7MdzZtytlr/browse/item/85772/4/0/0 |
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einhorn303
 Posts: 1180 |
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He's referring to the fact that the actual retail prices are always lower than MSRP. On that rightstuf listing, "Your Price" is $18.74. |
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captainbanana
Posts: 191 |
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It might not be very productive, but let me jump on the hate train. No Japanese track equals no purchase. Period.
Hope Japan is listening. You'll lose more money from us not buying than you would have lost from reverse importation. |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Anime isn't a necessity, it's entertainment and a business. Treating customers poorly produces negative feelings toward the seller and whatever current and future consequences that result from those. I would hope that the majority doesn't think that paying for an inferior product--or in this case an intentionally inferior substitute for the real product--is rational. That would just validate this bad behavior. Whatever market conditions exist for the Japanese, in Japan, has no bearing whatsoever on product value to or response from an R1 customer. We aren't buying Japanese product, but U.S. product once it releases in R1. Sorry, I have no empathy for this style of business. But you are right that they would have been far, far better off not releasing the BD at all. We already don't expect a BD release concurrent with DVD, and the demographic of sub fans with BD setups would have bought the DVDs as usual if they liked the show. If there is a market for a dub-only disc of any kind, with not even subs to compare, I have to imagine it is truly miniscule. They will sell some of these to unsuspecting retail B&M buyers, but that will produce more, and worse, negative reaction when the truth dawns. Not to mention your point of having just handed the fansub-only crowd a perfect justification for not paying for their anime. This is a bad decision from every perspective. |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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I'm desperate for Blu-rays, but seriously, dub only? What the hell is this?? Some sort of tactic to make us import? I feel like I've gone back to the good old VHS days. I hope future Blu-ray releases from Bandai Ent won't be like this...
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Mario1234567
 Posts: 614 |
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Bandai needs to give me my Lucky Star Box-set before they become completely corrupted. I don't want anything pissing me off when they decide to release it. Blu-Ray or regular DVD I don't care I want Sub and Dub, Damn it. HURRY UP AND RELEASE IT!!!!
I still feel pretty bad for Hayate. It hurts me that Hayate DVD's are out there and I can't buy them.. Why not try to get Hayate on Disney  ? Yeah it will suck but Uncut Dubbed DVD's FTW... Cause 7 Subtitled episodes at $40 is just nowhere near worth it.. No to mention Subbed only DVD's Fail.
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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Yes. Yes it is. Especially considering that I was planning on buying Kurokami when it came out here, then I started seeing BDrips from the Japanese release on torrents, and was hoping in my heart that BE-USA would get it, only to see a dub-only BD. It's like a slap in the face for watching the crappy stream and waiting so long to buy it.
This is all so very sadly true. If they hadn't solicited the BD release, I'd have been a happy Kurokami DVD owner shortly in the future. But knowing that there is a BD out there with the impressively well done simuldub, but only the simuldub, gives me pause.
Because as Jedi Master has said here, I will be voting with my wallet, and that will mean putting my dollars somewhere else. I will not support a company (in the long run, BV-J) who gives us a gimped BD release and a nice DVD release, forcing us to choose between bilingual with subtitles or HD format with less content. I'll go buy a real BD release from Funimation, even if they are all upscales. At least then I can choose to watch it in Japanese with subtitles or in English. But this... it's like saying we're not good enough to enjoy the HD transfer with the Japanese language. If you want it in HD, you have to watch it in English, if you want to watch it in Japanese, you have to settle for lower quality. And that is something I won't support. I never finished this on BE-USA's youtube channel, but I guess I will now, since I won't be buying any of the video releases. Way to go BV-J, your evil tentacles are still wrapped firmly around the US anime industry, squeezing more life out of it than when you were physically releasing your own product here. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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Well obviously I still disagree. What you're proposing is a very black and white stance that the industry take. I emphasized my statement above that highlights the meritocratic view most people have when it comes to "value". Basically a Japanese consumer has spent most of his hard earned cash on just one show, costing say $1000 in total. Now, but he likes more than just that one show a year. In fact, he had a really hard time deciding and wish he could've bought the other shows too. BUT the problem is every single show is freakishly expensive, yet NOT all are either "good" or "bad". There's varying degrees of enjoyment, and types of enjoyment. Let's say he bought Code Geass with that $1000. Now he also really likes Shigurui, but just happens to like Code Geass a bit more. Say he now has $100 leftover. Well in the Japanese market, that gets you at most a mere single volume so it's practically useless. Now this is where the reverse importers samuelp mentioned comes in:
.. hey look, at $59.48 / ￥5,472 that $100 will get you the entire series with money leftover! He decides that he doesn't need all of the tons of video extras JP releases usually come with nor artbooklets and artwork and is satisfied with this release instead for another favorite show of his--that only happens to be less favored than Code Geass--that he wants to buy and also support the creation of but could not otherwise in his home country. (this makes me wonder how much of "R1" sales, especially bluray sales are to Japan  )
In fact a utilitarian viewpoint would support having various options available when the premium is not justified, or when the extras are not needed. For example if someone wants to buy a car but does not need all the bells and whistles, it's a terrible idea to force everyone to either acccept or reject the entire package. You're forcing people to accept all of the premium "high end" leather + heated seats + 8 speaker "high end" stereo + GPS DVD navi , etc, when some and maybe most would not want it, or more specifically are not willing to pay. Then when the company looks at the sales results, because it doesn't sell well for its target audience, they determine that the entire car is flop. But in reality it's just that maybe most the target consumers just care for basic amenities, no luxury, but good handling, good engine, etc and still LIKED the car otherwise. A computer analogy would be like Intel or AMD ONLY offering their mega $$ highest end cpu then wondering why it's a flop. So they reverse directions and ONLY offer low end, low perfermance cpus which sells well enough but has disastrous implications for the industry (basically halting performance improvements). Going back to anime, a lack of diversity of products, and lack of varying degrees of sales would be terrible for everyone. |
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ac195
Posts: 48 |
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Hahaha, and I didn't think this series could get any worse...
I guess Bandai Entertainment knows this title won't sell very well anyway. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23888 |
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Unfortunately, Japan doesn't care. As has been pointed out earlier, this decision was doubtlessly foisted on Bandai USA by its Japanese masters who care more about discouraging re-importation in their own market than they do about satisfied customers in other markets. This is incredibly short sighted in that (from what I gather) the Japanese market is stagnant whereas the rest of the world is at least a theoretical growth opportunity. Plus, given the insanely inflated prices of DVDs in Japan, I'm not sure they actually do lose more money. Sure, Japanese companies get cash from licensing fees from non-Japanese distribs, but I don't think this makes up a huge amount of their revenue stream (although I freely admit this is an impression I can't back up with hard facts). |
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