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NEWS: Discotek Adds Free!, Robot Carnival, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, More

The "vote with your dollars" concept doesn't work when it comes to this type of stuff.

Which will only result in the company not licensing shows like the one in question again.

The "vote with your dollars" concept doesn't work when it comes to this type of stuff.

Fascinating how times have changed, all these "No dub? No sale!" folks. I remember back in the day how wanting a dub would get you shunned at the anime club! But now? Seems the tide has turned.

what is weird is that free season 2 is owned by funimation and is getting a dub. i cannot think of a series with one season owned by one company and another season owned by another.

I think the last vestige of argument for DVD over BD was for that person who keeps bringing up how Qwaser season 1 or older JC Staff anime in HD might not necessitate BD, but for the greater volume of anime out there since 2009, that argument is over.

AbZeroNow wrote:

I could also mention that DVD was a bigger jump over VHS than Bluray has over DVD especially since most Bluray players will upscale the disc for you anyway. I'll say that I prefer Bluray for anime, but DVD is perfectly acceptable. I also buy AoA releases and I buy Sentai and NISA releases so I do have an idea of the range of what things go for these days.

DVD is not acceptable for me. The jump to DVD from VHS was greater, but I still don't see why people would want to pay for a worse product especially these days where streaming gives you similar quality.

Mr. Oshawott wrote:

A bit surprised that Season 1 of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club is among the plethora of shows that Discotek picked up. Looks like I'll have to wait even longer before I'll be able to watch this show since it will be awkward just trying to jump straight into Season 2 without knowing what went on in the first season.

Or you could just, you know, watch it subtitled........

*GASP!*

You're kidding me, right? An English dub's main purpose is to be accesible to people who haven't watched it in Japanese but to watch that English dub you have to have watched the entire first season in Japanese? What in God's name is going on here?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure CR sold the Gargantia hom video rights to Viz. Is there some reason why they couldn't do something similar with Free? Or are they just being greedy pigs because they finally managed to secure the rights to something popular for once?

904thehero1 wrote:

what is weird is that free season 2 is owned by funimation and is getting a dub. i cannot think of a series with one season owned by one company and another season owned by another.

It's not that rare... think Ikki-Tousen, You're Under Arrest, Ah! My Goddess, Hell Girl, Genshiken, Queen's Blade, Sailor Moon (before Viz got it all), Tenchi Muyo! before Funi got it all, Super Gals! (and that was for two halves of the same series), Full Metal Panic!, Comic Party, Galaxy Angel, Saiyuki, Fate/Stay, and probably others I'm not recalling.

Quote:

"no details yet on the possible dubbed version or who will release it yet."

This line in particular interests me. Are they implying that someone like Funimation could still release it? Its possible they only have the DVD rights and Funimation could get the Blu-rays I suppose

also the licensing of the street fighter movie means that the inevitable have happened though its been going on for a long time now. manga ent is about to go six feet under just like the others which will of course mean the end of an era for anime companies that made the industry famous and infamous with their titles.

I read somewhere long ago that they are supposed to be adjustable to user's preference, but I am yet to find an option that would allow me to do that.

Personally I don't give a crap about not having a dub since I'm not from a native english speaking country so I've been reading subtitles since the day I knew how to read. Also I personally don't like how english dubs sound like, they just don't fit for me.

What helps is licensings costs are no longer insane like they used to be. It costs more to dub a show now than it does to license it, and you need less than 10,000 copies sold for something to be a good seller with a dub (Subbed seems to be 3,000 going by what Sentai stated was a good seller for them years ago at a con). Back in the day that could be considered bad.

With the current market being as utterly argumentative to price as it is, Discotek/Crunchy are putting these titles out as profitable as they can for each title. As much as people say "dub it! I'll buy it!" there's little evidence to show that it's worth it to start a new venture unless you do what Aniplex and Pony are doing. It sucks for fans, but this is the market you voted to support with your wallet, so deal with it. If you want a dub, show financial support that there's a market for that title. Otherwise, there's nothing you can do as your fellow R1 fans have spoken for you.

Funi can take a loss on a dub since they have big titles to offset any loss; Discotek and Crunchy can't. For those saying "give it to Funi", remember how aggressive Funi is going after Crunchy's marketshare for streaming. Why would they want to help a competitor, especially one trying to put them out of business?

Again, you reap what you've sown. Many complaints here and on Facebook about prices and you get the cheap set you wanted. Why complain now?

Well, that's the way ya have to watch Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Oh man, the numbers we could talk about back then! It wasn't uncommon to sell 40k units. Cowboy Bebop sold more than a million!
But that's a discussion for another day. Times change; economies change; internets change; heydays change; fans change.

enurtsol wrote:

Well, that's the way ya have to watch Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Not really, there's a Japanese audio track.

enurtsol wrote:

Oh man, the numbers we could talk about back then! It wasn't uncommon to sell 40k units. Cowboy Bebop sold more than a million! But that's a discussion for another day. Times change; economies change; internets change; heydays change; fans change.

Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and Pokemon also sold over a million. The combined total of all Dragon Ball Z DVD unit sales is about 25 million, each Sailor Moon feature sold close to a million, while the first 12 volumes of Pokemon sold 8 million.

Fascinating how times have changed, all these "No dub? No sale!" folks. I remember back in the day how wanting a dub would get you shunned at the anime club! But now? Seems the tide has turned.

Also - come on, where's the love for Robot Carnival? That thing is a piece of art. It should be mandatory viewing for all anime fans! And more shocking, of everything on the list, that's the one thing I thought would never ever get a release in the states. How the hell did that happen?

Robot Carnival is back!

Oh man, Robot Carnival has some amazing animation. My SO's dad has the laser discs for it and I always wanted to own it. I'll definitely be picking it up.

At one point in the post-Streamline 00's, think it was APPP that had gotten the rights back, claimed they would be handling the NA DVD themselves, and if it ever did come over here, I....don't recall seeing it.