Anime Boston 2012
http://bayoab.info/live/live2.php
Sentai’s panel is going to start soon, so I figured I’d post the thread & link to those that want to keep up.
Here’s to hoping for good stuff!
14:33:07 <bay|AB|Sentai> k-on season 2 collection 1 on both dvd and blu-ray
14:33:15 <bay|AB|Sentai> and by the way, i know some are asking, the shorts for k-on are not available
14:33:18 <bay|AB|Sentai> they are not up for license
14:33:53 <bay|AB|Sentai> july …last month we’ve announced titles so far
14:34:00 <bay|AB|Sentai> hidamari sketch sp coming out
14:34:56 <bay|AB|Sentai> clannad after story blu-ray
14:35:13 <bay|AB|Sentai> and then we have… kinoichi theatrical, and hatsukoi limited complete which does include the specials
14:35:16 <bay|AB|Sentai> want to hear new stuff?
14:35:19 <bay|AB|Sentai> august
14:35:27 <bay|AB|Sentai> the world god only knows s2 dvd and bluray
14:35:32 <bay|AB|Sentai> we rescued another title…
14:35:36 <bay|AB|Sentai> new release of parasite dolls
14:35:46 <bay|AB|Sentai> dvd and blu-ray of "this boy can fight aliens"
14:36:09 <bay|AB|Sentai> dvd and blu-ray of no.6 complete collection
14:36:19 <bay|AB|Sentai> and that again, has a japanese commentary on every episode that will be include
14:36:38 <bay|AB|Sentai> a lot of people ask us what we plan to do with persona anime
14:36:43 <bay|AB|Sentai> what are they doing with the dub
14:36:48 <bay|AB|Sentai> want to tell you we are going to use the game cast
14:37:00 <bay|AB|Sentai> they are starting to dub that right away
14:37:04 <bay|AB|Sentai> that will be coming soon
I wonder if that means they’re holding off on announcing the 2 I’m hoping for (Hyouka & Jormungand)
14:37:06 <bay|AB|Sentai> some new things
14:37:11 <bay|AB|Sentai> i’ve got… a ton of stuff that’s being simulcast
14:37:18 <bay|AB|Sentai> but i’m only going to tell you a little
14:37:23 <bay|AB|Sentai> we’re doing phibrain s2
14:37:35 <bay|AB|Sentai> we’re doing sakamichi no apollon, kids on the slope
14:37:48 <bay|AB|Sentai> we’re doing nazo no kanojo x
14:37:54 <bay|AB|Sentai> mystery girlfriend x
Interesting Q&A tidbits
14:40:35 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: Highschool of the dead? A; you want to know about s2? i do too, we keep pushing them
14:40:38 <bay|AB|Sentai> no news on season 2 yet
14:40:44 <bay|AB|Sentai> we keep pushing them though
14:44:57 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: Glass Mask collection2 ?
14:45:07 <bay|AB|Sentai> A; Would love to, but at the moment, has not sold, we’re still in the red on that title
14:45:25 <bay|AB|Sentai> we’ve kicked around various ideas, like getting the japanese to give it to us hoping it will boost early sales
14:46:06 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: Familiar of Zero simulcast and challenges with past seasons not being available?
14:46:41 <bay|AB|Sentai> A; one thing i like doing that is to make sure we’re consistent… we look for people to do the translation, we look at the names… don’t think there were any titles with that title in itself… i know there is one, but i can’t think of the title, but they want the same translator for…
14:46:57 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q; i mean in terms of the fans not able to get others
14:47:08 <bay|AB|Sentai> A: That is a concern, but it’s something we take and discuss internally before we license a show
14:47:23 <bay|AB|Sentai> In the case of Familiar, I hope the others will come available, i dont’ have any word to say on it
14:47:30 <bay|AB|Sentai> so it will become a moot point in the future
-lol-
Is this a license leak?
14:57:53 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: Dub version of Hanasaku Iroha? A: Don’t have any comment on doing dub at the moment…
14:58:08 <bay|AB|Sentai> we look at the titles, and if there is enough interest, and if we think it’ll sell, we’ll do a dub,
14:58:14 <bay|AB|Sentai> but dubs are really expensive…
14:58:22 <bay|AB|Sentai> if we think we can cover the cost of the dub, we’ll do it
14:58:31 <bay|AB|Sentai> there are a few we’ve gone back… i don’t like to do that
14:58:45 <bay|AB|Sentai> we try to be careful about that, there are a few special cases where we go back and do it again like with clannada
14:58:51 <bay|AB|Sentai> and it’s possible there will be dubs for other titles
14:59:03 <bay|AB|Sentai> so there are things that are coming out subtitled only (lost)
15:02:07 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: Second season of Higuarshi? A; that would be the primary reason we would be interested in licensing it
15:02:11 <bay|AB|Sentai> the first season would be nice to get ont he shelve
15:02:18 <bay|AB|Sentai> but the main reason we would be after it is to get the later seasons
15:03:20 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: hoshi no ou kodomo? A; neither confirm nor deny that we have that title (he started to say something)
15:03:03 <bay|AB|Sentai> I know that people see things on the internet, but i can neither confirm nor deny that
Interesting…
15:04:40 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: (something about single style spindle dvd packaging)
15:04:51 <bay|AB|Sentai> A: The reason for it is it’s very inexpensive, when you have a bunch of discs in a set
15:04:58 <bay|AB|Sentai> like blu-rays, they don’t come on spindles…
15:05:05 <bay|AB|Sentai> dvds, when 4 or more discs, on spindles…
15:05:07 <bay|AB|Sentai> otherwise on keepcase
15:05:19 <bay|AB|Sentai> we’re a small company, and we’re watching our expenses everywhere we can
15:05:55 <bay|AB|Sentai> (DVD sales falling…) in the past… 10000 titles was doing okay… now, 2000 or 3000 copies is a hit
15:09:51 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: What has been sentai’s best selling title? A: High school of the dead, nothing beats boobs and zombies
15:10:00 <bay|AB|Sentai> angel beats, clannad and demon king are some of our others best sellers
15:12:05 <bay|AB|Sentai> Q: How well did allison and lilia do?
15:12:09 <bay|AB|Sentai> A: it did pretty well for us
15:12:23 <bay|AB|Sentai> probably it’s right in line with what we expected, can’t say it’ll get dubbed
Interesting little bit at the end.
15:20:16 <bay|AB|Sentai> (Sentai started on the dub for clannad, and then stuff happened, and they shelved it, and when madman and the others licensed it, they all wanted a dub for it so they pitched in)
I’m ambivalent about the Persona 4 dub. I like that Sentai has the commitment to dub the anime with the game dub cast (something Funimation tries to do, but doesn’t seem to try very hard) but I haven’t heard a video game dub of a Japanese game that hasn’t made me cringe. I take it this means that the dub will be outsourced and not directed by a Sentai director. Well, I’ll see it when it streams on here dubbed.
I’m shocked that Sentai doesn’t like going back and redubbing sub-only titles. There are so many titles that they redubbed that I enjoy and wouldn’t bother with subbed. As a die-hard Sentai fan, I have to say that this revelation hurts a bit.
So No. 6 will come out dubbed in August? Was the implication that Persona Dubbed would come out before then?
[quote]14:35:32 <bay|AB|Sentai> we rescued another title…
14:35:36 <bay|AB|Sentai> new release of parasite dolls
[/quote]
The rescue release wasn’t Parasite Dolls, was it? I ask as I could see reading this quote that way, but Parasite Dolls was originally an ADV show. Sadly they don’t have the main shows of the BGC universe any longer 
Well I’m doing my part to buy dvds, as most all of us on these forums are. The more stuff that gets streamed here, the more I can buy. What’s sad here is how abysmally low these number are.
Thanks for the excerpts.
[quote=“celestial_being”]
The rescue release wasn’t Parasite Dolls, was it? I ask as I could see reading this quote that way, but Parasite Dolls was originally an ADV show.[/quote]
Yeah, the rescue was Parasite Dolls.
Which I think is kind of odd.
Did it really do that well for ADV, that they want to put it back out on the market after ADVs Parasite Dolls/AD Police Double Pack in 2008?
I’m kind of curious about the Persona 4 dub.
Johnny Yong Bosch did the voice of the player character, though only for a few tiny lines (like saying some of the persona names and stuff)… But he also provided the voice for Adachi. I’m curious if he’ll be voicing both Yu and Adachi.
[quote=“TheCoffeeGod”]
[quote=“celestial_being”]
The rescue release wasn’t Parasite Dolls, was it? I ask as I could see reading this quote that way, but Parasite Dolls was originally an ADV show.[/quote]
Yeah, the rescue was Parasite Dolls.
Which I think is kind of odd.
Did it really do that well for ADV, that they want to put it back out on the market after ADVs Parasite Dolls/AD Police Double Pack in 2008?[/quote]
Maybe Mardock Scramble is doing well for them, and wanna give PD another shot with a new sexy cover and aimed for the same crowd for MS: those who like dark, gritty, futuristic thrillers.
Or maybe it was one of those package deals one always here about: in order to get new show A, we also need to get show B and/or C.
Either way, I like the show, so it’s all good.
[quote=“TheCoffeeGod”]
[quote=“celestial_being”]
The rescue release wasn’t Parasite Dolls, was it? I ask as I could see reading this quote that way, but Parasite Dolls was originally an ADV show.[/quote]
Yeah, the rescue was Parasite Dolls.
Which I think is kind of odd.
Did it really do that well for ADV, that they want to put it back out on the market after ADVs Parasite Dolls/AD Police Double Pack in 2008?[/quote]
A cheap filler license would be my call. As I’ve said before keeping something for filler is a cheap and simple way to keep a catalog looking full and healthy.
If they’ve not been license rescued by Funimation yet I’d say most of the former ADV titles have a strong chance of being rescued by Sentai.
I’m not to surprised at the not liking going back and dubbing shows. It seems like it just makes the some people think every title it will happen to if they wait. Which makes sales less for the sub-only sets which it turn means there is little chance of a dub happening because the sales were not there for the sub-only releases.
The Familiar of Zero things sounds like PR speak for we thought it’d be cool to license but we licensed the 4th one first then found out we could not get the first three. I think it’s going to fail miserably but hopefully they made the money back with any deals they made with the other streaming services.
Highschool of the Dead S2 another not surprised. The manga keep going in and out of hiatus which at the moment its in again.
Stackpaks: They are inexpensive because no one wants to use them. That should be a big tell tale. I’ve had to spend $70.00 replacing them so them adding the cost of a better case in to my cost of buying the release I’d not mind.
Also Clannad After Story on Blu-ray. Yay no more people asking when it’s coming.
K-ON season 2 sounds like they got the same raw deal Bandai got for Season 1. We will give you the show in HD but nothing else because we fear reverse importation of your cheap product.
Glass Mask really not surprised about that.
On Sakamichi no Apollon, let me sell this for you Sentai, only take a second.
From the director of Cowboy Bebop and music by Yoko Kano coming to Adult Swim soon…
Please, and also, it’s Watanabe, Blum has to have a voice, it’s a law.
That’s depressing as hell.
I must now be officially an old fart because I can’t understand why people would prefer streaming lousy fandubs over DVD except for the fact they’re too cheap to support the industry that they supposedly love so much…but it’s a horse that’s been beaten to death, so I’ll stop at that.
I was waiting for both Clannads to be released on Blu-Ray since I was absolutely blown away by the Angel Beats release, so that’s a sure buy.
Now we just need Clannad The Movie on BD and everyone can be happy.
[quote=“Sensei_Terry_Silver”]
That’s depressing as hell.
I must now be officially an old fart because I can’t understand why people would prefer streaming lousy fandubs over DVD except for the fact they’re too cheap to support the industry that they supposedly love so much…but it’s a horse that’s been beaten to death, so I’ll stop at that.[/quote]
I really have trouble believing these figures. They’re so low that, in theory, everyone who bought a copy of a particular Sentai release could be at a given con. If only 3000 copies were sold then that means that less than 1/10th of the people at Otakon 2011 bought it. That’s a tragedy.
The arithmetic behind it doesn’t seem to make sense. The number I’ve seen kicked around the internet is that it takes $10,000 to dub an episode, so it would take $240,000 to dub a 24 episode series. If Sentai only sells 3000 copies of a show, rounding up, at 60 bucks a piece (again rounding up) then they’re only making $180,000. If the 10k figure is accurate, then for a 24 episode show Sentai seems to loose $60,000. Regardless of that, that Sentai seems to only make $180k on a show, regardless of length, is incredibly tragic.
I’m not a fan of most Japanese dubs, especially the more modern ones. As such, a show not having a dub hurts the chances of it being watched by me, which in turn hurts my chances of me buying the show. If the show were one that I would have liked, as most of the shows that Sentai has gone back and dubbed have been, then I would be missing out.
More importantly, Sentai would be missing out on an anime fan purchasing a copy of their shows. When only 3000 people at most buy a given show, that’s a huge deal.
Have said this before, but I have no problem whatsoever watching a subtitled show, but I’m afraid to buy one at full price and then see RSI dumping them in the bargain bin for 80%+ off when a dubbed issue comes out. Nor do I want to buy a set, then pay again even to buy just the DVDs with the dub. So I’m glad to see they don’t like going back and doing that - I agree it hurts sales if people suspect that they can wait and anything will get a dub.
It makes sense that DVD sales are slowing because of streamed internet content, even here at TAN I can watch the shows online and if I have the right equipment or software make my own DVD to keep. Prices are going up, you’re not getting much more by buying the DVD anymore, DVD format is slowly going away to Blue-Ray, and the economy is slow, no matter how much people tell you it’s not. That all has an effect on sales.
Your math figures don’t take into account cost to license and cost to just sell a subtitled show versus a dub. I suspect the dubbed show sells more copies in the long run, the figures he quoted may have been for subtitle only series. Otherwise, as you said, it would make no sense, they’d lose money on just the DVD sales.
I somehow skipped over the sales data. :laugh:
I’m not surprised as it’s been mentioned for a while sales for physical media are declining. You’ve got to understand as the generations change so will what they want . Most of the current spending generation spend so much time in front of a computer or TV it makes more sense they’d want digital. The older generation of fans well we are declining or are flat busted from the economy or being past over for the current generation in the work place. It’s not hard to see why digital is taking off more or why a lot more sub only releases are happening. Also not hard to see why a company that dubs everything could be in more trouble then they’d let on. I’m not sure how some companies are still in business to be honest. When you look at those figures you get more of the picture as to why Bandai Ent’s parent company decide to close them down. If there was only 1 company then sales might rise but the amount and quality of shows we get would decline.
You also have to factor in digital sales, such as iTunes, PSN, Zune, etc. They may be small now, but they are growing. There have even been some titles that have sold better digitally than via physical media. There are also streaming deals with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. A show could potentially loose money on ts DVDs release but be pushed into the black by digital sales.
Plus, I’m also curious the time frame those sales represent. Is it just the initial release window, like say a couple of months, or over the entire course of a license?
Those sales numbers have been stated by numerous sources in the past, though this is the first time they come directly from one of the anime distributors. Given that, I really have no reason to doubt that. It is depressing though.
Being a somewhat diversified hobbyist, that is to say a certifiable Uber-Geek, I’ve run into sales figure analysis similar to these for many of my other hobbies.
So a run of 3 or 4 thousand units of Product, whether it is Anime DVD’s, Figurines, Cameras, Model Cars or Model Trains, really seems to be a modern standard. Each group has their average cost and selling price ( Some Brass Model Trains make Japanese Anime prices look like small change. ), but the run size remains similar.
It’s also been noted that the run size has been declining for almost all of these items over the past 10 or so years.
Mark Gosdin
The fans at the Sentai panel really let us down by not asking for clarification so we could have definitive answers to questions like this one. Until shown otherwise, I’m going to have to assume the worst here, that the 3000 physical copies figure is in total. On a somewhat-related matter, back when Death Note was released, Viz released limited edition dvds of it. Each box says that there were 15,000 of each box made, and 5 years later they’re still all easily available for purchase new. Great for a fan who was late to the party such as myself, but saddening for the industry as a whole.
Hopefully, though I wonder as industry representatives have often said that while the income from digital is nice, the lion’s share of income comes from DVD sales. If the “lion’s share” is $180,000 then it’s still sad.
ANN stated that the NA anime business is only bringing in about 24 million dollars. I would be interested in seeing a further breakdown of how the money gets back to the industry as some figuring based on what little info we have says that if that money came from shows alone that it would take 134 shows at 60 bucks a piece, sold 3000 times, to get that much money. Since we know that there is digital distribution, which the industry reps still consider a drop in the bucket, and that not all shows from all companies sell for 60 bucks, and since I don’t remember 134 titles being released last year, I don’t think we’re anywhere close to the full picture.
I do my part by buying physical releases, and so have my friends. What’s scary is that my anime buying friends and I represent ~1% of those who do buy.