Forum - View topicNEWS: Kurokami's U.S. BD Release to Have English Dub Only
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2231 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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Here's a DVD sale site devoted to reverse importing of R1 dvds to Japan:
http://www.fantasium.com/ Not just anime, of course, but anime seems to be one of their biggest business segments. On amazon.co.jp by far the longest thread on their internal forum on their blu-ray section is "foreign version of blurays" http://www.amazon.co.jp/tag/blu-ray/forum/ref=cm_cd_ecf_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx1VIPT1QJBQ9W4&cdThread=Tx20ONXCJJ7LQ0K which lists all blu-rays that have japanese subs or dubs and definitely includes anime. |
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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Yeah it perplexes me too why they did not include the english subs on the JP release, given how it's already done. But I disagree on your last point. I think the R2/JP BD releases are far far too expensive. If you look at how much sells, only a few tens out of hundreds of titles actually sell any appreciable amount. Looking at the oricon charts shows a huge sales gap between the handful of big sellers and the rest, which makes sense given how every title is expensive, yet not all titles are "worth" the same. Your average japanese buyer just does not have that much money to spend--less than US actually (income for the same equivalent professional position in Japan is less than US, with higher cost of living in Tokyo) so he/she will only be able to spend it on his/her most favorite couple of shows. The rest, unsold. As far as quality goes, I don't see any difference in video quality for shows that are encoded/transferred properly (and most are). Now the JP release do get lots of extras, which is nice, but not 5-10x the cost nice. @samuelp - thanks for sharing that Last edited by configspace on Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:51 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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Kaioshin_Sama
Posts: 1215 |
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Fans: Bandai Visual? We thought you guys broke up?
Bandai: HAHAHAHAHA! That was what we wanted you to think! 
But in all seriouness I thought they were doing good with their whole simultaneous release policy, but this does seem like they are taking it a bit far and falling back on the old bad habits that Bandai Visual established out of arrogance. This happening to Kurokami sort of worries me a bit now about how the simultaneous release of Gundam Unicorn is going to go over next year. There was a chance that my friend and I were going to pay for it over the PSN release and get it the moment it came out but now I'm thinking it's possibly going to be dub only on the Canadian PSN release. This....complicates things..... 
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pajmo9
 Posts: 630 |
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I definitely agree that there is no reason to complain about R1 pricing these days, even though people do all the time. But, about $100 for 3 episode on BD is no drop in the bucket. I actually thought about buying the Japanese BD release of this when I first found out in had the English dub on it but I simply could not afford it. Its not so much that I have a personal problem with the way there handling this as much as it is I know every one else would. It just seems that Bandai really doesn't have a clue what there consumer base wants and I'm starting to get the impression that they don't care. |
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Tenchi
 Posts: 4469 Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer. |
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I have no interest in Kurokami or Gundam Unicorn but I will admit to a tinge of concern regarding even just the potential of a domestic K-On! BluRay release being dubbed-only, since I have no interest in dubs, but I'm not particularly eager to import the Japanese K-On! BluRay disks due to them being a little out of my price range. (Of course, that's *should* K-On! be licensed by Bandai Entertainment, which isn't a given.)
I'd sooner accept a one-year moratorium on "new" anime titles getting billingual (or sub-only) BluRay releases in North America than I would dub-only disks, and I hope this move doesn't kill the potential of BluRay becoming a viable format for anime releases in North America, for those of us only interested in purchasing anime on physical media. |
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monkeyshinobi
 Posts: 114 |
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Wow, when i buy my dvds i like having the option of Japanese and english audio, not just english and the BD is costs more, has less episodes (wtf?) might as well just buy the normal dvd :/
I guess I can understand why the Japanese want to buy the american dvd over the japanese release. I went browsing online once for some anime and a set for a few episodes (for hetalia i think?) was nearly $60. Madness i say... -___________- |
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pajmo9
Posts: 630 |
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Poor Bandai. Well, I guess that solves the question of why. |
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Big Hed
 Posts: 1607 Location: Melbourne, Australia |
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Yes. And this means almost without a shadow of a doubt that reverse-importation is at the root of this. Well, I didn't commit to Kurokami anyway. Hell, I'd be buying the DVDs if I did. |
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holybell
Posts: 39 |
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Let's see how the BD release fares in North America. If sales are (very) low, maybe this will make the Japanese company think twice of allowing Japanese audio included as well the next time around. If not with this series, maybe other future/current Bandai licenses.
Last edited by holybell on Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:02 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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PlatinumHawke
Posts: 204 |
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And I'm fairly certain that anime releases go out of print relatively quickly in Japan, so a much cheaper non-Japanese release a few months down the road doesn't cut much into what they consider the real profits. |
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einhorn303
 Posts: 1180 |
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I suspected this, but it certainly makes me give Bandai Ent. a lot more sympathy.
Considering reverse importation fears, you basically get three options, all of which have real-world examples: 1. A delayed release, usually at least multiple years. See: All BD's from Funimation. 2. An expensive release, at the same levels of R2 prices. What Bandai Visual tried to do. 3. A neutered release, what Bandai Ent is trying now. So, it's "pick your drawback." Personally I'd go with expensive, but it seems like in the long run "delayed" might be favored by the market. Though many-year delayed releases aren't a very good option for those who don't watch fansubs.
That's the beauty of the system, though...it insures that the shows which truly succeed have to truly and passionately connect with fans. It rewards high quality. (Yes, some will say, "It only rewards otaku shows!", but I take a utilitarian view of quality). Also, in regards to US only BD releases from Funi...well, a lot of those are just upscales anyway. |
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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mania.com is saying that the bluray volumes are going to be priced at 24.98. If that's the case, I guess it's not such a big deal. That's alot cheaper than I was expecting anyway.
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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As it is, Bandai is an arm of a Japanese company and a broken arm at that. They're trying to negotiate with their superiors and, since they're low on cash and hemorrhaging consumers, they got a big no from their bosses. Funimation is in a better position to negotiate given their cash supply and market dominance (what is Bandai's market share nowadays? Better or worse than previous years?) and since they need time to dub anyway, they don't try to force the earlier releases and avoid the pitfalls like this situation. I'm a hardcore English dub fan. I got into anime because of Laura Bailey so I'm all for English dubs. However, this move by Bandai is just awful all around. It's bad for sub fans for glaringly obvious reasons and since Bandai has CLEARLY decided to focus on them, this seems a very counterproductive move. It's also bad for English dub fans though as many of us prefer to have the option of the sub, if for no other reason than to be able to spot check it out of curiosity, not to mention the fact that dub-only releases are heavily associated with edited and censored anime. I've never exactly been excited about this show and I've yet to see it but this mess just makes me think I should stay away. Frankly, I don't think Bandai's going to be in the R1 market in the future and a move like this suggests a deteriorating position if nothing else. At this point I think it's valid to say that Bandai Entertainment USA is either running on fumes or is being run by idiots. It would have been wiser not to try for a Blu-Ray at all under these circumstances. They're basically releasing glorified singles with even fewer features than singles in the past and we're supposed to swoon? As if. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23770 |
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I guess that... 4. Japanese distribs dropping their prices so that they are more in line with other regions (thus removing the impetus for re-importation and potentially reinvigorating a stagnant domestic market) ...ain't on the table, eh? *sigh* |
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einhorn303
Posts: 1180 |
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At this point, I think it's best to just pretend the BD release doesn't exist. The DVD release is normal and makes sense. I'll just live in a world in which Kurokami was only released on DVD in North America.
That's so far off the table it's in the closet. |
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