Anime Boston News & Notes

Conventions
21

Its just so sad to see the industry being so niche that it cant flicker a candle compared to the anime industry back in the day when I did not know a thing about anime until somewhere in 2007. And that was when I was a leech until 2010 when I bought and watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, and tearing up when I found out ADV was gone when I was praising NGE and wanting to know more about them. That is how I came to like sentai filmworks due to all the talk about them being “Neo-ADV”.

I’m saying that my experience is like the plot in some stories when the hero is being followed by a victim whom was saved by the hero. I was the victim whom was saved by ADV and due to hearing that the hero is dead and finding out that there is sighting of the same hero somewhere. With shock of finding that out, the saved victim searches for the hero to see if its true.

Though its just rumors or loss of judgment due to nostalgia, I hear Greg Ayres gets ticked off when people talk about it.

Now. I love buying anime left an right because of value, and wanting to catch up with the fan-base. But I feel sad that the US anime industry was live-able during the time I did not know about anime nor the anime industry.

Big tragedy indeed, funny that majority of fans still watch fan subbed or illegal download/torrent. I was one of them until NGE. Hell. People at my anime club raise an eyebrow when I donate some anime I bought(ex:Clannad dvd complete collection), and when I ask questions of which anime do people buy. And when I question why not, they come with stuff that there ridiculously poor or say there is no way to earn money.

I really hate digital for its feeling of limitation. Sitting with a computer neck crooked watching school days or other anime then having to shrink video to select another episode is a pain in the ass, and with so much limited tech in my house with a “in the past” family who still don’t have anything modern except for tv’s/game consoles XD. Plus what will happen if internet or device is broken or has an error, “Well No Anime for You!!!” XD. I just feel better popping in a disc to a Blu-Ray player and sitting in a comfy couch with a simple remote watching anime in the highest quality, one example is watching Clannad on Blu-Ray.

As long as digital industries are limited with licensing or tech restrictions. Which is what physical distribution has problems with too but has a lot of more conveniences that I “prefer”, digital will never surpass physical IMO.

22

I feel the same. I was around when ADV was king of the US anime industry but I didn’t really get to enjoy it or really support it. I don’t feel that we can blame ourselves entirely for this as the industry was at fault as well with a refusal to adapt, and that refusal (along with poor non-Sentai dubs) pushed me out of fandom for a long while. Today most shows can be tried on TAN, Hulu, or YouTube for free, and shows are rather affordable. Back in the heyday, there was no way to really test out a show before you bought it, and if you wound up buying a show that sucked, instead of being out 40-60 dollars for a complete series, you were out $200-some.

Perhaps the US anime industry’s refusal to adapt for years was not what did it in, though it was certainly what did in my fandom, but today all the surviving companies have “seen the light” of releasing a series in 1-2 reasonably priced sets and embracing online streaming. ADV did try to embrace the internet before it died, but it was one of those “too little, too late” situations.

Being able to easily “try before you buy” and being able to buy 3-5 shows for the price of one is a definite plus in my book.

I still miss the grandeur of the glory days of US anime industry. You’d think it would still be here, even better than before, as the shows are cheaper and more plentiful now, but the opposite has happened. It’s mind-boggling that when shows were $200+ a piece more people bought the shows than they do not that the shows are much more affordable.

23

What was interesting when I kept hearing about the industry in the past was that they brought more stuff than just anime. They brought some CD’s, books, merchandise, even magazines from japan. Now, we can only get anime titles and sometimes we get a CD (but that was mostly when Bandai was still doing physical distribution). I must say that some titles I wish had extra’s like english commentaries or behind the studio. I like that sentai has jumped in the bandwagon, but we get japanese commentaries which leave me unsatisfied since my first watched commentary was one from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and then my liking in english dub was set in stone.

I still find watching anime streamed to be annoying, so I just see a trailer or anime opening to decide if I should get it or not instead of watching an episode on the internet. The only anime I watched streamed so far was Another, and I stopped watching halfway because I want to wait for the blu-ray release and to see the english dub (I will be very difficult IMO).

I hope anime gets back on its feet, but the only way I think it can happen is for anime to get commercial success. Not to say anime should get back on TV, though I think that is another way for it to be popular again because I don’t see proof on how it can be popular only on the internet where fan subbers live next door to legal stream web pages. Comparing commercial success to TV anime to Arietty. Arietty commercial success is what we need though no one has deep pockets like Disney XD.

24

Sadly most trailers are just openings. I at least need a narrated trailer to get interested in a show. Showing the intro to a show with only the Japanese song lyrics is not a real trailer IMO.

I’m with you on extras. They’re awesome, and they need to come back. I’m sure that you’ve seen the only recent Sentai extra, the commentary on the clannad bluray. Sadly it doesn’t seem like the epic extras of yesteryear are coming back soon. Matt Greenfield, cofounder of ADV, says not to hold our breath about them returning. The old adv extras are kinda hard to track down, but they’re totally worth it.

ADV was the king of on-disc extras. They had some cool merch and packaging back in the day though. Comparing adv in its prime to Sentai today is depressing.

25

[quote=celestial_being]I’m with you on extras. They’re awesome, and they need to come back. I’m sure that you’ve seen the only recent Sentai extra, the commentary on the clannad bluray. Sadly it doesn’t seem like the epic extras of yesteryear are coming back soon. Matt Greenfield, cofounder of ADV, says not to hold our breath about them returning. The old adv extras are kinda hard to track down, but they’re totally worth it.

ADV was the king of on-disc extras. They had some cool merch and packaging back in the day though. Comparing adv in its prime to Sentai today is depressing.[/quote]

I’m glad asier holdings put the extra’s of princess tutu in there complete collection, though Its in a spindle case they are worth it (loving the commentaries and bloopers XD). Hell, the english dub along with the story is superb.

I’m really okay with them, unlike funimation’s where they make a theme In there trailers that hooks me in then to find out its not anywhere in the series (ex:heavens lost property)I still snap my fingers to that theme XD). I thought the Bacanno trailer was pretty amazing with the gore and dialogue use.

There was one on the blu-ray release? Or did you mean the one in Clannad: After Story, I wish that commentary was in an episode that I would not cry in T_T. Though I wish the blu-ray release of Clannad: After Story gets more extra’s like commentaries(what about one with David Matranga & Greg Ayres. That would be awesome though I don’t think they know each other still), but think of how much money it would take.

26

From what I’ve seen from their releases, Nozomi / Right Stuf have really good stuff for extras: all Aria have booklets, cast discussions and documentaries and the Maria-sama Ga Miteru all have the goofy specials and linear notes included. I also really their style of box art. Their catalogue is small but it’s all quality stuff.

I think that most DVD releases are reasonnably priced, especially when you compare the prices to those of the 00’s or 90’s ($20 for two episodes on a VHS, $5 extra for the subbed version…and you dare to complain ?). However, I’m more inclined to wait a year for a “complete collection” release instead of buying two full-priced half-sets. I also think that Aniplex releases are ridiculously overpriced.

I think that the non-trailers in Sentai releases would be much more effective if they would simply add a “View the first episode for free at Anime Network” mention at the end. That way, you don’t have to put the time and investment to create a full trailer and you get a plug for AN. The current kind of trailers doesn’t do a thing for us since we’ve pretty much seen an episode of a X show already on AN, or at least heard of the show. It’s all about grabbing the attention of the casual viewer, and I don’t the clean OPs are doing much of that.

27

It’s good to see a post saying you believe that anime is reasonably priced. I’m so tired of people complaining about how expensive anime is, especially when they are bitching about MSRP. I’ve rarely paid more than $40 for a Sentai bluray and I think that may actually be a bit too cheap. But if someone is not willing to shop around and always pay MSRP, then they are not only lazy, but stupid. They have no one to blame but themselves.

28

Ooooohhhh, snap…!

:ohmy:

29

Anybody arguing that anime is too expensive these days is a fool. If you have a steady income, you can afford to by a series here or there.

30

[quote=“blakdragon7”]

Anybody arguing that anime is too expensive these days is a fool. If you have a steady income, you can afford to by a series here or there.[/quote]

Well, they are certainly people that can’t afford it or shouldn’t spend the money, but that doesn’t mean it’s too expensive. I can’t afford most brand new cars right now. It doesn’t mean they are all over priced. There is a lot of sense of entitlement among younger anime fans. They think just because something exists, they have a right to it.

31

I wonder when we’re going to find out about what else they licensed?
I hope we don’t have to wait until they announce Hyouka (yes, I’m still hoping).

32

[quote=“TheCoffeeGod”]

I wonder when we’re going to find out about what else they licensed?
I hope we don’t have to wait until the announce Hyouka (yes, I’m still hoping).[/quote]

Perhaps they’re saving them for ACen, April 27-29, where they’ll be unveiled either at the con itself if Sentai does end up having a panel/or something or maybe just through a press release.

33

I haven’t priced a US series set in a while. Is a complete 26 episode series at around $50 discounted from MSRP competitive with a comparable recent season set of a network series?

I suspect not, though, only because often the network’s made it’s money either in the initial airing, or with the syndication, and they can afford to price the stuff low and make it up on a greater volume of sales.

I don’t mind paying a premuim for things I like, within reason, but the reason I buy that physical hard copy is to get some of those little extras you won’t get just watching the episodes online. They don’t have to be crazy like Sock Puppet Theatre, but heck even a blooper reel of dub outtakes might be funny once in a while.

I do wish, too, you could get more of the soundtrack CDs more easily here. One of the Kohime Muso CDs in particular has at least one good song on it that it looks like my only option to find at all is a download from a questionable source. All they need is a new endwrap shrinkwrapped on them with the name and track listing in english and a barcode on them. I bought one of the Aria soundtracks. It used to be they sold enough that even those were bootlegged and you had to really watch what you were buying.

I also agree, RSI’s series have great extras with them.

34

[quote=“rebecca12”]I haven’t priced a US series set in a while. Is a complete 26 episode series at around $50 discounted from MSRP competitive with a comparable recent season set of a network series?

I suspect not, though, only because often the network’s made it’s money either in the initial airing, or with the syndication, and they can afford to price the stuff low and make it up on a greater volume of sales.

I don’t mind paying a premuim for things I like, within reason, but the reason I buy that physical hard copy is to get some of those little extras you won’t get just watching the episodes online. They don’t have to be crazy like Sock Puppet Theatre, but heck even a blooper reel of dub outtakes might be funny once in a while.

I do wish, too, you could get more of the soundtrack CDs more easily here. One of the Kohime Muso CDs in particular has at least one good song on it that it looks like my only option to find at all is a download from a questionable source. All they need is a new endwrap shrinkwrapped on them with the name and track listing in english and a barcode on them. I bought one of the Aria soundtracks. It used to be they sold enough that even those were bootlegged and you had to really watch what you were buying.

I also agree, RSI’s series have great extras with them.[/quote]

That’s the trick, isn’t it? How do you deal with a clientele that is conditioned to full series releases at sub $30 prices?

Vendors here need to provide enough value at a low enough cost to pull in the buyers, while not tempting the Japanese market into reverse importing. ( The lack of Blu-ray barriers just made it worse. )

There’s a lot of tie-in things, like soundtrack CD’s, that I would buy and have bought. Paying a Premium price isn’t a problem. However, it is a problem when the price goes up beyond the premium level. ( What would you call that? Super Premium? Ultra? Traditionally the term Price Gouging implies malicious intent, and that isn’t the case here. )

It’s a complicated dance for everyone involved.

Mark Gosdin

35

I think the in-between Japanese pricing and “US release but lets call it a “import” to make it sound like we are doing people a favor pricing” is where most current in hand US media buyers draw the line anymore.

For about ten years the prices here were like anything below $200.00 was a good price for a 24 to 26 episode series. You got to remember most fans at that time were coming from the VHS era where it was higher then that. Then by the time 2005 hit most of the mainstream stuff had hit the 26 episode for around $49.99 to $69.99 MSRP depending on the series. The LP fanbase was comparing it to that and wanted lower cost Anime sets. We also saw a cut in dub production values and more sub only releases pop up. The good thing about the digital now is it helps to alleviate some of the cost of licensing and production. Like say company A gets a title then gives streaming site B a month lead on streaming the series for a fee. Said fee could make up for a small chunk of the licensing cost which in the end means they won’t have as much into a series so the kind of to low price they have to sell the DVD’s for is easier to do because they’ve already made some of that money back.

As I’ve said before I kind of miss the singles era as the higher cost kept me from buying a lot of trash and kept more of the riff-Raff out. It also allowed them a little more time to work on a dub. The singles also seemed to allow me to watch more as I’d watch them as I got each one. Course some series it was murder waiting for two to three months for the next volume to come out.

I see some series as being valued correctly but then there is some series I think that are undervalued by both the fans and companies. There is a more recent title that I believe Sentai is undervaluing and underestimating ,but other then say something to certain people who said they’d pass it along and send in emails there is not much more I can do. Hopefully the streaming numbers at CR and here are enough to change their minds. Also all of the good reviews the series is getting. I think said title is one of the most liked titles of the last season.

I think right now all of the US companies except at times Aniplex USA is giving fans a good value for the money they are asking.

1 Like
36

Gee, I wonder what title you may be talking about? :wink:

37

You get three guesses, first two don’t count. :stuck_out_tongue:

Mark Gosdin

38

Anime Boston 2016

[size=16]Anime Boston to Host Voice Actor Toshio Furukawa, Voice Actress Shino Kakinuma, Producer Masao Maruyama[/size]
posted on 2016-03-06 13:00 EST

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[size=16]Anime Boston 2016 Schedule[/size]

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###Press Release: Book☆Walker Celebrates Anime Boston with Giveaways, New Titles
Mar 15th 2016

###KLab to Exhibit at Anime Boston
Mar 15th 2016

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/03/16/crunchyroll-announces-partnership-with-anime-boston
March 16, 2016 1:13pm CDT
New England’s largest anime convention takes place March 25-27

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/03/22/crunchyroll-announces-premium-member-perks-for-anime-boston
March 22, 2016 11:59am CDT
Anime Boston runs March 25-27