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Sentai Filmworks: Gatchaman Crowds Release Does Not Include Director's Cut Episode

I mean it doesn't really matter, this show is just a lili filled piece of trash that dares to sue the Gatachman title for something that has no real relation. Fricking anime industry is killing it self with this sort of crap.

While it was material they wanted to put on TV, they couldn't. By releasing on disc only, it becomes an OVA. Sentais contract was more than likely only for TV. Where they offered the OVA? No one knows.

I mean it doesn't really matter, this show is just a lili filled piece of trash that dares to sue the Gatachman title for something that has no real relation. Fricking anime industry is killing it self with this sort of crap.

Look, that stuff in the 'extra special" episode was supposed to be in the TV airing. Things happened, they got delayed and were not able to animate it in time. They went admitted fault and asked for forgiveness online. Again, this isn't bonus content, this was planned from the beginning as being part of the show. Why is this so hard to understand? It's not bonus if it is pivotal to the story. It's not bonus if it was supposed to be in the final product. It's not bonus if they meant for you to see it as part of the story. Yes, Sentai might not have meant to screw anymore. The Japanese company screwed everyone by not managing to finish the show on time. And no, I'm not offended by how NA companies do their business, since I don't care. But I find it amazing that people defend it.

And no, it wasn't made by another company. I have no idea where you people got that idea. It's the same studio, and the same people that worked on the
whole TV show. I don't see how another company can own it, like Sentai claims.

I do get that the production screwed up and could not air the tv version of episode 12 they intended to. And because Sentai licensed only the tv anime, they are stuck with the "unfinished" version that aired on Japan.

The right thing would have been for the licensor to add the director's cut of episode 12 to the original license deal, but if the Japanese companies refused to do that, I cannot blame Sentai for not having all the produced anime content.

And yes, I am defending Sentai because it appears that the things that happened in the Japanese side of things are out of their control. Like others have said, I rather see the 12 tv episodes released than nothing at all.

News flash, people from Romania can, and in fact do, buy NA releases. We order them from Rightstuff or Amazon.

Also, were is the "looking down on international anime fans" BS coming from? The only reason the R2 industry has been reluctant to share their best stuff is because R2 and R1 are now on the same bluray region. Back in the DVD age, it didn't matter because they were different regions (R1 and R2), but now Japanese could reverse import the cheaper NA releases and not buy the Japanese ones, which would be bad for the anime industry. It's not "looking down" it's "looking ahead".

Problems licencing certain animes outside Japan have been frequently discussed, and those problems seem to apply to virtually all Japanese entertainment. Convoluted production committees require detailed permission from each stakeholder. And many of the people in charge have a very insular, xenophobic mentality, and will only consider harebrained schemes like setting up their own distribution outlets and demanding ALL TEH MONEYS for standard or less-than-standard product. Anime and videogames are actually some of the more openminded industries in Japan, despite whatever complaints we might have.

Well, yeah, the Japanese have always been slightly xenophobic, but it's not something aimed specifically towards international anime fans. I believe they hate all people equally.

To get back to your question, since OVAs are produced largely as a separate marketing event for a given franchise, they are usually a separate license for international publishers. However, what do those publishers do when there's just one episode? How do you justify the expense of a separate license fee for what's essentially a glorified DVD extra, one that is mostly filler and doesn't contribute anything to the main story? Sometimes the licensor doesn't even want to make it available outside of Japan. After all, the program is an important premium item for Japanese fans, and they risk cheapening it by letting an American company throw it on one of their already low-priced discs for free.

So without some way to package these OAVs into a compelling multi-episode volume, there's really not a good way to package and sell them to the US market right now. Perhaps that'll change in the future, but in the mean time I don't think anybody in the US would be too excited to buy a Blu-ray with a single episode 25-minute OAV on it.

It's impossible to tell what shows are genuinely lost forever in film form. American companies have long been told a specific classic show they're after has no good elements, or that the film has been lost, and then a brand new HD version magically shows up on Japanese store shelves a year later. I've heard gossip that "Show X had its masters lost in a fire," so many times, only to later be completely proven wrong, that I've stopped believing it. What, are Japan's anime film vaults just constantly burning to the ground?

Are the American publishers being lied to? Probably sometimes. "Those elements don't exist" is a nice and polite way of shutting down a proposal from a zealous and possibly annoying American, and licensors do it all the time. But sometimes licensors genuinely don't know what exists, or what might be lurking in the vault somewhere. These are big companies, and it's pretty common for things to fall through the cracks. Frankly, I don't blame them for not wanting to trust their precious and completely irreplaceable film elements to dirty Americans FedEx and international customs.

Is that enough to stop your complaining, DmonHiro???

mdo7 wrote:

Is that enough to stop your complaining, DmonHiro???

Well, no. I couldn't care less that the Japanese are xenophobic.
I also don't care about then looking down on me. I look down in them because I think they have terrible taste in some cases. Does not make me right.

All I care about is the end product. And in this particular case it's not worth my money.
I don't care the reason why it's incomplete, I just care that it is incomplete.

mdo7 wrote:

After reading this article the first time it proves to me that the Japanese production seem to look down on international anime fans, if they weren't, then the director's cut episode would've been included and this article wouldn't have been written.

I know more about this then you do, apparently. The OVA wasn't supposed to exist at all. They never planed on making it, thus there was no way include it in the original deal. It's not even OVA to be exact. It's the completed episode 12. The original deal was probably for 12 episodes. But this completed episode was not included because it's technically a 13th episode, even though it is the planned ending to the anime. And no, it wasn't made by another company. I have no idea where you people got that idea. It's the same studio, and the same people that worked on the
whole TV show. I don't see how another company can own it, like Sentai claims.

PS: No, Sentai was not being honorable in admitting this. They were asked about this specifically, and had no choice but to fess up. Had they not have been asked, you would not have known about until people got their discs, just like with Funimation.

What needed to be done was for another contract to be made for that last episode. Sentai was either refused by the Japanese, or Sentai didn't care enough to try. Either way, it does not matter. All that matters is the end product, witch is Incomplete. That is fact. There is no way to dance around the issue that the shows intended ending is not on Sentai's release. If you want to support incomplete shows, that's your business, except you are screwing over people who want an actual quality product. And no, you can't have a quality product if you're missing something as important as this. Q.A.D.

There was also the fact that Section 23 was asked about the director's cut, as the replied that they did not have the rights to it.