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SnaphappyFMA



Joined: 14 Jan 2009
Posts: 216
Location: California
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:22 am Reply with quote
There's so much gray-market or bootleg stuff in the dealer's room at cons, I've actually found that the easiest way to tell that it's licensed merchandise is to look for the Great Eastern name and info on the back. Laughing

Hsu needs to get the license for Kuroko's Basketball. There's a market for the merchandise here in the U.S.
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varmintx



Joined: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 1200
Location: Covington, KY
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:23 am Reply with quote
Quite possibly, my favorite OP of all time is an English song: The Light Before We Land by The Delgados. It certainly does cause licensing problems when they come back to the US. Funimation could only get that Oasis song for the first episode of Eden of the East for the home media release.
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Paiprince



Joined: 21 Dec 2013
Posts: 593
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:26 am Reply with quote
I most certainly hope that Jake person doesn't mean someone like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga when he said "relevant." That would be a travesty.
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maximilianjenus



Joined: 29 Apr 2013
Posts: 2862
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:30 am Reply with quote
jojo is a very special case, as everythign is very music related, characters and stands are anmed after bands,artists or song, and almost 100% of them are western ones; IIRC it was not until the 7th arc that a japanese music group/song was used as reference.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:33 am Reply with quote
Another thing is censorship of TV anime (despite being on at 12-4 am JST) just to sell BDs (AT-X is guilty of this for a while now), I can't stand this and it's a good reason why I skip on buying many ecchi anime until they are licensed and buy the merchandise instead. I don't want to pay $360-400 just to unlock some T&A.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 11:59 am Reply with quote
I am generally pretty selective with my purchases and I won't buy something that doesn't stand out from a narrative standpoint or have extremely good characters. If the TV broadcast of a mediocre(or bad) show is highly censored I'm not more likely to buy it at all. It is somewhat frustrating, but I'm not going to support something that I don't care for, just to see a lot more nudity and gore.
The worst is when it actually is a good show with heavy censoring, but it never got licensed in the West. In that case you can only resort to fansubs, or deal with the censoring. Crying or Very sad
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15306
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:02 pm Reply with quote
For Jojo, you should just be glad they can keep the songs at all, since even Shout Factory was still rebuffed on certain selections of WKRP. But that's 'cus record companies are greedy as fark, and don't seem to realize the true potential value of introducing introducing catalog music to younger audiences. [I'm looking at you, dumbass companies holding back Girls on Film for the U.S. release of Speed Grapher and Yello music for the UK dub of Cobra.] So they end up losing even more market share to the Swifts and Rihannas of the world. Oh, and this overprotective paranoia's gotten to the point that it hit manga, too. Dark Horse had to effing change or remove lyrics, FFS, for some old song in a volume of the U.S. edition of Oh! My Goddess. Yeah, because people totally go to Youtube to rip music sheets. Rolling Eyes

Anyway, going back to Jojo, it probably helps that Warner Japan's backing the show, because they got deeper pockets than what a normal distributor would have, as anyone recalls from that 'Alone Again' credit song for Maison Ikkoku, which was only used once. Though I have a feeling the only reason the music is untouched here is because the show's streaming-only, which might make the asking fee cheaper than if someone tried to cough up money for home vid rights.
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CheechMonger



Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 40
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:03 pm Reply with quote
I like the change in the layout. I think it's more readable. Maybe the font could be a point or two larger but other than that I think it's fine.
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unitmikey



Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Posts: 286
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:10 pm Reply with quote
As someone that has to work at dodging bootleg merchandise, I’m really glad that GE exists, and it’s even better that they are being sold at places like Hot Topic. I just wish that fans were more aware of this. It might just be my blindness, but even though people would most likely still buy bootleg merchandise regardless, I feel like there is less information on this area of the industry, than say, fansubs and scanlations. At least, more people are aware of what they are doing when they watch fansubs as opposed to just seeing something at a con and thinking “oh an import I want it”. From my observations, people, especially younger audiences, just don’t have much of an idea (at all) about merchandise compared to online material, but I guess that’s part of the generational disconnect.

With anime using music from other languages (even other than English) I would be interested if they could go towards a route that was directed at lesser known bands from around the world. It would be really cool exposure not just for the band, but for the people watching the show that are introduced to new music as well. I already knew Franz and Oasis, but I'm sure that there is some overlooked music that would work really well for certain shows too.
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DerekTheRed



Joined: 19 Dec 2007
Posts: 3544
Location: ::Points to hand::
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:18 pm Reply with quote
varmintx wrote:
Quite possibly, my favorite OP of all time is an English song: The Light Before We Land by The Delgados.

I agree with this 100%. I usually skip Japanese OPs except for the first episode, but when they make it to the speakers my girlfriend always makes fun of the female voices and says anime music is terrible (Which I kind of agree with, hence the skipping). Anyway, I like to troll her by playing this one on Youtube then asking her if she likes it, which she always does.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1827
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:30 pm Reply with quote
Another favourite song is the Galaxy Express 999 film theme by Godiego (live version from 2013):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5X9HOfeUVs

An interesting mixture of Japanese and English lyrics and mixture of cultural backgrounds in the band members. (Some of us remember Godiego's OP and ED for the live action series Monkey Magic also).

To see who covered that song at Animelo Summer Live 2013:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animelo_Summer_Live#Performers_13

In general I'm amazed how many English words and phrases end up in the songs of anime.
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omiya



Joined: 21 Sep 2011
Posts: 1827
Location: Adelaide, South Australia
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:39 pm Reply with quote
DerekTheRed wrote:
I usually skip Japanese OPs except for the first episode, but when they make it to the speakers my girlfriend always makes fun of the female voices and says anime music is terrible (Which I kind of agree with, hence the skipping).


Really? I can understand that some singers may be an acquired taste, but the best music of anime (vocal and instrumental) can be the equal of the best music anywhere.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3448
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Justin Sevakis wrote:
He needs the support of retailers, since bootleg merchandise is rampant, still accounting for 85% of the market, he estimates. Most consumers can't tell the difference, and many retailers love the lower costs. "Bootleg manufacturers have complete freedom. They don't have to get approvals, they don't have to pay royalties, and they can move a lot faster. They also can manufacture a lot more at a lower cost and sell worldwide, where we can only sell in North America."

I've already in a few threads in the past lamented the fact that so very few shops can be trusted to have only 'authentic' merch. Your local and offline stores are probably the worst offenders in this area. With online stores you can at least do some research and find reviews/opinions by other people more easily...

Quote:
...For example, Funimation is none to happy to share their licenses with Crunchyroll, and vice versa. Having a hit show exclusively means that it gives your site value over your competitors. ...

If it is a show Funi show it's pretty much restricted to USA & Canada only, so if Funi's happy here, we(Europeans et all) won't be. Of course, the inevitable rips aren't restricted so the real effect of the block is debatable...

Quote:
Generally, the only compelling business case to be made for non-exclusive streaming is when the licensor considers it important to have the show EVERYWHERE, because it's going to be a big hit, and needs to be seen by as many people as possible

Nothing prevents them from fudging that too. (Us Europeans;) Watch Sailor Moon in SD on NicoNico, or pay subscription for sake of one show, hmmm what was that third option again?...

Quote:
The thing you must remember about late night TV anime is that it's a commercial for the DVD and Blu-ray releases. Those discs are the real product, not the TV show you're seeing now. Those discs will almost certainly be uncensored. So from the perspective of the creators, censoring the TV broadcast is a way of teasing the disc releases, AND not compromising on the level of gore they wanted to include. Best of both worlds.

In many cases lately, the 'real' in question could also be the original manga or light novel. Case in point, is Terra Formars anime's intention to push the sales of the manga or of the later premium disc releases? Probably both, but wouldn't be surprised if the emphasis was more on the former...

Quote:
This has led to a few notable English tracks on Japanese shows. Backstreet Boys' hit song "I'll Be The One" was used as the theme for the 2002 family series Hanada Shounen-shi. Susan Boyle sang the theme to Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW. Jean-Jacques Burnel of the punk band The Stranglers performed the opening to Gankutsuou. Ergo Proxy used music by Radiohead. Eden of the East had a theme song by Oasis.

As already somewhat implied in the article, when that music gets 're-imported' with the show getting licensed here in West, things can get tricky and we might end up losing bits and pieces. Like BECK dropping the lyrics of a Beatles song, or as in the case of the aforementioned Eden of the East the English song only used in one episode's opening on Funi's release...
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Touma



Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2651
Location: Colorado, USA
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:50 pm Reply with quote
Blanchimont wrote:
If it is a show Funi show it's pretty much restricted to USA & Canada only, so if Funi's happy here, we(Europeans et all) won't be.

Doesn't anybody license anime for streaming in Europe?
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3448
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Fri Oct 10, 2014 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Touma wrote:
Doesn't anybody license anime for streaming in Europe?

Crunchy's titles usually are available at least in this part of Europe, but Funi's obviously aren't. Unless both services stream the same titles. But then Funi might not be happy, as stated in the article...
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