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ANNCast - The Life and Kime of Geneon, USA


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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:54 am Reply with quote
Bravo.

I know a few people I should make listen to this.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2530
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:21 am Reply with quote
A very enlightening piece with lots of great info, though Justin and Zac's annoying insult jokes towards some shows got annoying. I could understand the whole "No Go Nagai show sells better than 5 units" joke, but Justin's insistence on insulting Law of Ueki, especially when Kime revealed that it more than likely did much better than Justin ever thought it did (almost breaking even) just annoyed the hell out of me. If it was the flip-side and Hajime no Ippo did the numbers Ueki did, then Justin probably would have been somewhat relieved that it did even that much... But Ueki doing close to even? Oh no, then it's a bad joke. I can understand putting personal opinion into the podcasts, but it doesn't have to be pushed so much, especially when during the lightning round Kime said some shows did "well" or "OK", yet didn't break even; where were the jokes for those shows?

That's part of the reason why I don't watch every episode of the ANNCast: Justing and Zac's apparent need to add "clever" insult jokes just for cheap laughs sometimes, though I'll admit that Justin is a worse offender for this than Zac most of the time. But still, aside from those bad jokes, this was a very solid episode overall.
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bayoab



Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 831
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:46 am Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:
but Justin's insistence on insulting Law of Ueki, especially when Kime revealed that it more than likely did much better than Justin ever thought it did (almost breaking even) just annoyed the hell out of me.

They were talking about DearS at that point, not Ueki. Ueki was previously known to have done very poorly. (Hint: FUNi didn't finish the singles in any form.)
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Case



Joined: 09 Apr 2002
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:54 am Reply with quote
Lord Geo wrote:
That's part of the reason why I don't watch every episode of the ANNCast: Justing and Zac's apparent need to add "clever" insult jokes just for cheap laughs sometimes, though I'll admit that Justin is a worse offender for this than Zac most of the time. But still, aside from those bad jokes, this was a very solid episode overall.


Thing is, this is what Zac considers to be ANN's "role" and contribution to the anime fan community. Quoting from last week's episode:

Zac wrote:
I agree completely 100% with Mike and my boss Chris McDonald always says a good review will tell you whether or not you're going to like a show, negative or positive..... And I agree with that to an extent. I think in this day and age, and I used to have a different philosophy on this, but personally in this day and age there's so much opinion out there striving to be the perfect review is not necessary. There are 1500 other people doing exactly what you're doing. So now I think the goal is to be entertaining and interesting to read and provide a unique perspective.


And in this post-4chan era, "LOL [Genre]FAGS" seems to be the lowest common denominator for what passed for wit among anime fans, and in the pursuit of the lulz and attention that's exactly what ANN delivers time and again under the editorial philosophy Zac outlined last week.


Last edited by Case on Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:55 am; edited 1 time in total
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darkchibi07



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 5459
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 10:55 am Reply with quote
Wow, I'm rather surprised CCS sold that number of sub-only DVDs compared to the.....ugh Cardcaptors; the difference between those two were pretty hefty. Granted I kind of expected that would happen, but the number was something else. Though it was pretty tragic sales dropped beyond the 4th volume because of the episode order Nelvana did with their version of it....ugh! Mad
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Shale



Joined: 04 Dec 2002
Posts: 337
Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:04 am Reply with quote
Wow, that was an incredibly enlightening interview. Thanks.

Now I'm sad all over again about Lupin TV, though. I bought it all!
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neocloud9



Joined: 06 Oct 2008
Posts: 1178
Location: Atlanta, GA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:19 am Reply with quote
I remember putting off buying the Cardcaptor Sakura box sets because I couldn't afford to pay $120 for them at the time... Then, of course, Geneon went under and the box sets became scarce, driving up the price even more. Shot myself in the foot on that one.

Glad to hear the subtitled DVDs sold better than that godawful edited dub, though. Maybe there's still a chance for a license rescue...


Last edited by neocloud9 on Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:20 am; edited 1 time in total
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SXAniMedia



Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 139
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:19 am Reply with quote
Superb show guys. I'm sure a lot of us Geneon fans had so many questions after a lot of the stuff that has happened in the last few years - this show addressed a lot of questions and concerns I had as a Geneon fan.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:32 am Reply with quote
neocloud9 wrote:
I remember putting off buying the Cardcaptor Sakura box sets because I couldn't afford to pay $120 for them at the time... Then, of course, Geneon went under and the box sets became scarce, driving up the price even more. Shot myself in the foot on that one.

Glad to hear the subtitled DVDs sold better than that godawful edited dub, though. Maybe there's still a chance for a license rescue...


It's available, but no one is willing to take the chance since it has no dub and is a 70+ episode magical girl show... Even if it IS clamp.

Same reason why we haven't seen utena re-released either. People know deep down in their hearts it'll sell if done right, but the money isn't there to finance the ambition.
And Japanese licensor are patient and not going to license classic titles like these for nothing (because they still make money in Japan - see the recent blu-ray of CCS and DVD remaster of utena)
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jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief


Joined: 28 Jul 2003
Posts: 1684
Location: Los Angeles, CA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:54 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Same reason why we haven't seen utena re-released either. People know deep down in their hearts it'll sell if done right, but the money isn't there to finance the ambition.


That's not why nobody has rescued Utena. People have tried with Utena. And that's all I'm allowed to say about that.
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Shale



Joined: 04 Dec 2002
Posts: 337
Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:58 am Reply with quote
Well that's even more depressing.
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Rolando_jose



Joined: 04 Jan 2007
Posts: 240
Location: Ahhhh it's vacation time again!
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:15 pm Reply with quote
Bravo! Standing obation for this one guys! Mr. Green
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:18 pm Reply with quote
jsevakis wrote:
samuelp wrote:
Same reason why we haven't seen utena re-released either. People know deep down in their hearts it'll sell if done right, but the money isn't there to finance the ambition.


That's not why nobody has rescued Utena. People have tried with Utena. And that's all I'm allowed to say about that.

Ah, interesting. I was assuming Utena was similar but perhaps it has its own "quirks"...
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jenthehen



Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Posts: 835
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:39 pm Reply with quote
Very interesting.

Speaking of Chobits and DearS ... I'm surprised Funimation hasn't yet scooped them up to release as thinpacks. DearS was pretty crappy (the manga is much better ... I almost feel like the people making the anime assumed there would be a second season, but then there wasn't) ... but Chobits seems pretty darn popular and is a decent show (and already dubbed!)
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Case



Joined: 09 Apr 2002
Posts: 1016
PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:51 pm Reply with quote
This week's show was definitely a big ball of catnip for me as bachelor of business and a Geneon addict who has owned near 50% of their total catalog on DVD at one time or another. Kime was a great guest to get candid comments from in ANNCast's specific format.

The most striking comment for me, was the following from around the 46:00 minute mark:

Chad wrote:
We have to release the individuals and we have to shoot for profitability because we tried it at $29.98 and we saw the sales, and we tried it at $24.98 and it sold about the same, and we tried a few at $19.98 and it was about the same. Price did not really have that big an impact, because quite frankly they [the fans] knew what titles they wanted. If they were willing to pay for it, they were willing to pay for it... and if they weren't willing to pay for it, there was the internet.


Taken as a whole, Chad's comments seem to insinuate rather damningly that Geneon's death-spiral was precipitated by and intrinsically linked to the rise of fansubs (and internet buzz in general perhaps). We can surmise that fansubs introduced a certain predictable element into the licensing process (which perhaps leadership at Dentsu hadn't recognized at the time) but their presence also put pressure on Geneon to cling to the single-disc business model to make budget while simultaneously insulating them from price elasticity that would be good for R1 anime DVD consumers, and diminished the influence of television and cinematic exposure for titles Chad mentioned like Samurai Champloo and the Sakura Wars film.

Hindsight is 20/20, but in retrospect I'm disappointed someone didn't have the foresight to ask for his judgment on the relationship, if any, between fansubbing and Geneon's decline.
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