Forum - View topicAnime Boston 2007 - Bandai Visual
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digitalkikka
 Posts: 462 Location: Chicago, Illinois |
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I agree. I used to think "oh, I'm not paying these prices, Bandai Visual will fail, etc.." but now I'm not bothered by it. If they're going to release a high quality product of a series I want, I'm going to buy it. I never pay full price for a DVD and this is no exception. I've pre-ordered several BV DVDs for $20, and that's a price I'm fine with. The fans are really getting too worked up over this. Right now the loudest complaints are coming from those who don't even have any interest in these shows. Whining on an anime forum is not going to make them change their prices. If you don't like the price, show Bandai Visual that by not buying.
Heh, I have both of those pre-ordered. I was an existing fan but I don't see how they wouldn't be marketable. Dunbine was released here so there have to be some people interested in Rean, and plenty of people are familar with Go Nagai so Enma shouldn't be hard to sell. Plus Enma is short and will probably be the least expensive Bandai Visual release to own. |
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EmperorBrandon
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 2209 Location: Springfield, MO |
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I'm sure it was a very biased focus group. The average con-goer does not necessarily equate to the average anime fan. |
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Ragebot
Posts: 42 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba |
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This is what really bothers me. What companies, other than Manga, CPM, or sometimes VIz, don't release high-quality products? Some people act like R2-quality DVDs are the Holy Grail or something. |
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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Yeah I agree with you, more then anything I think that major of fans watch dubs, whereas more "otaku" (hardcore) fans seems to want Sub. For me I want options, I want to have a dub if that's what I feel like and there are certain titles that I want subs. |
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Ktimene's Lover
 Posts: 2242 Location: Glendale, AZ (Proudly living in the desert) |
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Enma is another dark and seemingly macabre looking work from Go Nagai. Perhaps even more interesting is that this remake of the 70s Toei title of a similar name had the titular character voiced by none other than Masako "Dragonball's Son Goku" Nozawa.
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la_contessa
Posts: 200 Location: Pennsylvania |
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A lack of music cues does not take so much value away from the anime itself that the $40 price tag for thirteen episodes becomes exorbitant, at least in my opinion (if what you love about the series is the music, then sure, you would be entitled to get upset about that, that's just not my primary focus). If I watched dubs and the dub voices were hideous, that would be a deal-breaker for me, so I understand different people looking for different things in their anime. But--although I understand the ability to raise the price somewhat for a niche show like Gunbuster--I still stand by my statement that the $65 tag is absurd. When the high niche price discourages even people IN the niche (like me, and I can't be the only one) from buying the product, it's too high.
That's exactly what people are doing already, though--not buying discs they otherwise would have, which implies interest in the shows. I had every intention of preordering Gunbuster until I saw the price; I had every intention of buying the fanciest Suzumiya Haruhi box ever until I learned I'd be paying for merchandise I don't want. A lower price may also encourage new interest--I frequently see things that look interesting and buy them on a whim, but I wouldn't do that if they wanted $65 for six episodes. But, they've already stated that their pricing scheme has nothing to do with supply and demand and everything to do with a fear of undercutting their Japanese R2 side, so I guess my argument wouldn't get very far. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15314 |
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la_contessa: Why pay $40 for 13 eps of PoT, if you're not gonna get the complete Japanese versions, and you can d/l the show off of Viz's site? It definitely takes away the incentive. As for Gunbuster, it's one more episode than the Oh My Goddess OVAs, and fans had to pay three times for those: twice for two dvds, and once more the re-mastered set. 3x3 Eyes didn't even include any extras when Geneon initially charged fans $65 for it. At least with Gunbuster, you get the "definitive" version. (Until the HD/Blu Ray double-dip anyway...)
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la_contessa
Posts: 200 Location: Pennsylvania |
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Trust me, I'm certainly not saying that Geneon has better prices . . . I used to think they were ridiculous until Bandai showed up. Bandai happens to be the specific topic here, but other companies are not immune--most of them just seemed to have learned their lesson. I don't understand why Bandai has failed in its market research, is my main economic point. $40 isn't unreasonable for thirteen episodes of anything other than a 4Kids release, "complete" or not. I want real discs with subtitled episodes, so downloading isn't going to be as effective for me. If Viz were charging, say, $141 (using the same rate Bandai is charging for Gunbuster, $10.83 per episode, and rounding up), I would believe THAT would be unreasonable. Many prices lower than that would be equally unreasonable. But $40? When I'm getting thirteen episodes of Seigaku goodness, music cues or otherwise? I'll take that. Maybe I'd feel differently if music cues were especially important to me, but my primary concern is getting the storyline, in Japanese. Obviously, like I said, the music cues will be more important to some people, and that's fine. |
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HiroTsukasa
 Posts: 9 |
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I'm still a little surprised Bandai is going through with this. I really feel sorry for all the Galaxy Angel fans who had hopes of having a full collection. I bought Gunbuster when it came out because it had been so hyped, but it wasn't too bad... I got it at a local Hastings (which already have good mark downs comparable to Best Buy) and it was a bit cheaper in account for the first week of its release. All in all I ended up paying just a little over $30, which I felt much less bad about than the $60 or whatever it was supposed to be.
This does make me a little sad though... some of you may be saying these are only niche titles, but sadly I guess I fall into them. I was all ready to pick up Diebuster (err Gunbuster 2, lol... we can't get anything from that series and its titles named right) to accompany Gunbuster (Aim for the Ace... see my point?) and the Rean OVA since the original Dunbine is amazing, but now I'm not so sure. I'm also a bit saddened by the lack of dub tracks. I tend to go through my anime twice (once for sub and once for dub) and most friends I share series with prefer just dubs. I really hope this doesn't become a trend for every company. Purists and Sub Maniacs can go on all they want, but dubs really have gotten a lot better from way back. More than likely what I, and I presume many others will do, is just wait and pick these released up used when they will become more reasonably priced. I guess the downfall in that is if everyone began doing it, considerably less copies would sell so the price would never drop. Eh, I never saw what was wrong with the simple scheme of $20 for 4 episodes. |
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one3rd
 Posts: 1818 Location: アメリカ |
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Actually, Ace wo Nerae! is a completely different series. The series best known to United States by its subtitle Gunbuster is Top wo Nerae! (Aim for the Top!). Unfortunately, because of the choice to use the subtitle rather than the proper title for the first series, Top wo Nerae! 2, subtitled Diebuster, has become Gunbuster 2, even though the Gunbuster is in no way present in Top wo Nerae! 2. Then again, I'm nit picky about these kinds of things and care more about what something actually is than what it's marketed as. |
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HiroTsukasa
Posts: 9 |
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^^; aie.... typo on my part. I meant Aim for the Top. Sorry
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6171 Location: USA |
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I have to agree on that. While I don' t mind thinpaks, I treat it as a give or take. I wracked my brain trying to figure out if I wanted the 'Azumanga Daioh' set or the individual vols. 'TRSI' had a sale one time where they were selling the individual vols. for $6 a pop. Mind you each cost less than the actually boxset. Which was one vol. less. The downside is that sometimes thinkpaks don't carry the extras. Because they're squeezing one extra episode into less volumes or removing the booklets. So it's really give or take. I would prefer quality for a good price than quantity. If I can get quantity for cheaper option I'll go for it. If I can't get it than I'll go for the alternative. Because of sales like this is why I look to buy the individual ones on sales. But yeah, paying $40 is a lot, but if that's what they want then that it. I'd pay that amount for the equivalent of a Japanese port with really nice extras. And while I care very little for a dub release, they should have given one for those that wanted it. But they didn't and that's that. Again it's not the first time this hasn't happened. |
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