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Unit 03.5-ish
Joined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 1540
Location: This space for rent
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 Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:03 pm
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| jsevakis wrote: |
| Unit 03.5-ish wrote: | | I was just wondering, for the sake of having some authority...Justin, what would be YOUR overall opinion of CPM/USM's sum total of anime? Mostly good, mostly crap, or in-between? |
I would compare their licensing in the early ears to the way a whale eats: it just sucked up EVERYTHING, no matter what it was, and then shat it out a few months later. There's a LOT of crap in there, but it's also by far the most interesting back catalog to rummage through looking for interesting things. It's no accident that I've probably written the most about CPM titles. Lots of amazing finds that would have otherwise been forgotten. Lots of hilariously awful trash.
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Interesting thing about ADV, they stumbled upon a mega-hit about giant not-quite-robots that involved Biblical allegories and a kid who has a crappy relationship with his manipulative father. They turned that into success, and after that came many more wonderful licenses.
CPM seems like it had its chance to turn into something great if it had used Lodoss as a springboard, but it seems that never really happened...
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belvadeer
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:05 pm
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Wow, called Project A-ko Supernova? Oookay, not going to touch that one.
And Sushi TV? W...T...F...was that crap supposed to be?
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Unit 03.5-ish
Joined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 1540
Location: This space for rent
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:16 pm
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Oh, for the sake of fun, picture it:
Those pitchmen from the days of "ANIME IS SO EFFING EXTREEEEEEEME!" stumble upon Magic Knight Rayearth...
"Three incredibly beautiful young school girls have to fight their way through a land of evil beasts and powerful sorcery to save the princess of this dangerous and violent world. Now, follow the adventures of Hillary, Ursula, and Farah as these sexy sword-toting sirens battle for the future of the land of Cellophane."
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AirCooledMan_2006
Joined: 09 Jul 2006
Posts: 594
Location: Delaware, U.S.
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:18 pm
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| Unit 03.5-ish wrote: |
| jsevakis wrote: |
| Unit 03.5-ish wrote: | | I was just wondering, for the sake of having some authority...Justin, what would be YOUR overall opinion of CPM/USM's sum total of anime? Mostly good, mostly crap, or in-between? |
I would compare their licensing in the early ears to the way a whale eats: it just sucked up EVERYTHING, no matter what it was, and then shat it out a few months later. There's a LOT of crap in there, but it's also by far the most interesting back catalog to rummage through looking for interesting things. It's no accident that I've probably written the most about CPM titles. Lots of amazing finds that would have otherwise been forgotten. Lots of hilariously awful trash.
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Interesting thing about ADV, they stumbled upon a mega-hit about giant not-quite-robots that involved Biblical allegories and a kid who has a crappy relationship with his manipulative father. They turned that into success, and after that came many more wonderful licenses.
CPM seems like it had its chance to turn into something great if it had used Lodoss as a springboard, but it seems that never really happened... |
Just what happened to CPM anyway? Are they dead or just hibernating? (Considering we haven't seen a new license from them in God knows how long; they really should get back into getting new anime. Hint, hint--maybe rescue some former Geneon titles?)
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Showsni
Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 641
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:00 pm
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The Sushi TV narrator sounds like the narrator from Pokémon putting on a slightly deeper voice to me... And weren't the Summit Media Group behind them too?
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:01 pm
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| Unit 03.5-ish wrote: | | Interesting thing about ADV, they stumbled upon a mega-hit about giant not-quite-robots that involved Biblical allegories and a kid who has a crappy relationship with his manipulative father. They turned that into success, and after that came many more wonderful licenses.
CPM seems like it had its chance to turn into something great if it had used Lodoss as a springboard, but it seems that never really happened... |
"Stumbling" might be too harsh a term for ADV. They clearly knew it was an amazing show and did everything they could to promote it. Around the same time, they hired some absolutely amazing marketing and design people, and everything they did around that era, even if it was a mediocre show, was incredibly slickly packaged and marketed (at least, compared to the rest of the industry). I'm still not a fan of many of their dubs of that era, but the marketing sure worked.
Frankly, CPM never really figured out marketing very well.
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Descent123
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:05 pm
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| jsevakis wrote: |
| Descent123 wrote: | | Then again about a year or two after AnimEigo and CPM got into the business they didn't use Gaga at all for anime distribution rights (If the history of AnimEigo tells us anything).
Then again did CPM and AnimEigo ever get any titles from the US branch of Gaga? |
I was unaware Gaga had a US office. I can't speak for AnimEigo, but Gaga WAS the licensor for those titles that ended up at CPM. In fact, the master 1" tape of Project A-ko still had "SuperNova" on the label.  |
http://www.animeigo.com/About/HISTORY.t?cart_T=
AnimEigo's history page. When they license Maddox-01 and was given the chance to license Project A-Ko according to them they didn't went to Gaga at all.
I found it weird, but at the same time not surprised.
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Unit 03.5-ish
Joined: 07 Dec 2008
Posts: 1540
Location: This space for rent
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:13 pm
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Also, I almost feel bad for the would-be hostess; again, she's clearly not digging her role and her overacting is just embarrassing. The fact that she refers to M.D. Geist as a "classic" takes away all credibility from her and the producers of the thing.
I think the early push for anime as being this edgy, "adult" alternative to Disney and Hanna-Barbera actually hurt the genre's reputation in some ways.
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Elves
Joined: 23 Mar 2005
Posts: 269
Location: USA
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 4:08 pm
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| Justin Sevakis wrote: | | So he digs into his collection and pulls out a handful of nifty things you probably haven't seen. And he thinks he's Oprah. |
Now if you truly want to think like Oprah you'll have people dressed up as elves handing out these gifts instead of just taunting us with them.  Happy New Year & get some well deserved rest!
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Descent123
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 5:23 pm
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Well I just receive an email back from Robert from AnimEigo and he pretty much confirm that they never went thru Gaga at all when licensing BGC. They went straight thru Youmex for Riding Bean and BGC according to Robert.
Well, I can at least sleep at night. 
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MrAnimeSpecialist
Joined: 22 Sep 2008
Posts: 124
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:07 pm
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| jsevakis wrote: |
| Unit 03.5-ish wrote: | | I was just wondering, for the sake of having some authority...Justin, what would be YOUR overall opinion of CPM/USM's sum total of anime? Mostly good, mostly crap, or in-between? |
I would compare their licensing in the early ears to the way a whale eats: it just sucked up EVERYTHING, no matter what it was, and then shat it out a few months later. There's a LOT of crap in there, but it's also by far the most interesting back catalog to rummage through looking for interesting things. It's no accident that I've probably written the most about CPM titles. Lots of amazing finds that would have otherwise been forgotten. Lots of hilariously awful trash.
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Companies have to grab the cheapest licences they could find when starting out, and ADV's no exception. However, Devil Hunter Yohko, their very first release, seems to have some sort of historical value to them (you know, for mediocre ecchi fare ). There's even a commentary track concerning the origins of ADV on the 10th anniversary release.
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DavidShallcross
Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 1008
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:23 pm
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| MrAnimeSpecialist wrote: |
| jsevakis wrote: | |
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Companies have to grab the cheapest licences they could find when starting out, and ADV's no exception. However, Devil Hunter Yohko, their very first release, seems to have some sort of historical value to them (you know, for mediocre ecchi fare ). There's even a commentary track concerning the origins of ADV on the 10th anniversary release. |
I think Devil Hunter Yohko was better than mediocre, but the first episode, at least, was decidedly ecchi.
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doc-watson42
Encyclopedia Editor
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
Posts: 1708
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:29 pm
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| pparker wrote: | | Still, what I have to wonder now is, how bad was the stuff us newbies will never see because it hit VHS and died 15 years ago? |
For a (hopefully) complete list of anime released commercially on VHS, but not DVD, see my Catalog Check Update on the Anime on DVD Retail Forum (in the stickied "Out Of Print Anime" thread).
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MrAnimeSpecialist
Joined: 22 Sep 2008
Posts: 124
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:37 pm
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| DavidShallcross wrote: |
| MrAnimeSpecialist wrote: |
| jsevakis wrote: | |
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Companies have to grab the cheapest licences they could find when starting out, and ADV's no exception. However, Devil Hunter Yohko, their very first release, seems to have some sort of historical value to them (you know, for mediocre ecchi fare ). There's even a commentary track concerning the origins of ADV on the 10th anniversary release. |
I think Devil Hunter Yohko was better than mediocre, but the first episode, at least, was decidedly ecchi. |
Part of me longs to get the DVD collections of DHY again someday (though, given the sheer size of my backlog, it may have to wait)... 
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Descent123
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Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:38 pm
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| DavidShallcross wrote: |
| MrAnimeSpecialist wrote: |
| jsevakis wrote: | |
Compare that to the early back catalog of ADV, who licensed almost all mediocre ecchi fare, almost none of which is worth writing about... either as garbage or as treasure. (Luna Varga? Hanappe Bazooka? I don't think I could write more than a paragraph on either of those.) |
Companies have to grab the cheapest licences they could find when starting out, and ADV's no exception. However, Devil Hunter Yohko, their very first release, seems to have some sort of historical value to them (you know, for mediocre ecchi fare ). There's even a commentary track concerning the origins of ADV on the 10th anniversary release. |
I think Devil Hunter Yohko was better than mediocre, but the first episode, at least, was decidedly ecchi. |
And noting can beat the ADV LD release of the first episode of Devil Hunter Yohko (which I got not too long ago with Lensman for $14). On the back of the description you can pretty much tell what type of show it is.
On the front:
She's Young... She's in Love... ...And a Million Demons Want Her Dead... Or Worse...
Part of the description from the back:
One of the most outrageous animated films ever made, DEVIL HUNTER YOHKO is a brilliant role-reversal parody of the classic Vampire/Monster-hunter genre. Yes, this time it's the daring young heroine who must rescue the hero from a "fate worse than death" at the hands (and other parts) of a female succubus! An of course, in order to sway Yohko from the path of good, the forces of evil must resort to use of nibile young males! With killer swimming-pools, ninja grandmothers, scantily clad femme fatales banging each other with swords, and lots of gratuitous nudity.
It's a CAV two side disc, which means you can look at the whole OVA frame by frame (and see the whole anime frame by frame anywhere, yes anywhere). Even the description on the back saids about this feature. Which means if you want to see Yohko change to her outfit (with the nudity) later in the OVA frame by frame, yes you can do it. 
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