I am astounded that this show had an animation problem. The only way that I could be more astonished is if I heard that K-On or KMB! had animation issues; how can someone eff up moeblobs?!
…looking up this song that was excluded it doesn’t sound like I expected.
6% is a deal, here it’s 8% or more. And in my state, it’s not legal to post a sign saying “sales tax included” believe it or not. So it’s possible they can’t do it in Maryland either.
Collecting sales tax at a con is basically a business preference and depends how a dealer does their accounting. Me, I’m small time and I just file and pay once a year. I don’t want to mess around with change and a calculator trying to calculate tax in the middle of a busy sales floor, so the price is the price.
I don’t think that it is illegal to post such signs in MD. I don’t like sales tax as it makes it difficult to legally sell things. Thanks for nothing WV (first state to impose sales tax).
MD general sales tax was 5% for so long, and neighboring VA has a 5% rate, that I’ve often been charged only 5% sales tax from con vendors. Supposedly MD sales tax was supposed to be temporary, and only 2%, when it was created but… 
8% is absurd. That’s getting close to Chicago levels (another reason I’ll probably never do ACen). We need some cons in states without sales tax…if only Otakon could have moved to Delaware instead of to DC. 
Virginia’s sales tax isn’t too bad, but they tax you on EVERYTHING! They even charge a luxury tax for owning a car (a percentage of the blue book value.). It’s an expensive state to live in.
Here in PA, our sales tax is 7%, or 8% percent for Philadelphia and Allegheny County/Pittsburgh. However, it’s only on certain goods. Services, food, and clothing are exempt. A lot of people cross the borders fr New York, Ohio, and Maryland to buy clothes and save on the sales tax. It’s why we have so many large malls and outlet centers built near the state lines.
I’ve been to those in DE and PA a million times in my lifetime (it seems) lol. PA is also the most progressive state in the mid-atlantic regarding fireworks. Good times.
As far as I know the only area in which MD can compete with some of the other mid-atlantic states is with booze, and only just barely. That it can when it has a 9% (!!) booze tax is sad.
My con group spent enough at Otakon that they money that went to sales tax could have bought a blu ray of Medaka Box with money left over. Sigh.
I’m paying 8.6% in sales tax counting state, county and city.
Here in Houston, sales tax inside the city limits it is 8.25% but outside the city limits it is 7.25%.
On a positive note here in the state of Texas there is no personal state income tax:)!
Eh, if you sell enough to require one, you just need to have a tax number and file a report and pay something. Not a big deal. When I was in South Carolina and did a meet, I asked about that and they didn’t care.
You guys are lucky. I am envious of the no income tax. Just another reason droves of people are emigrating from the midatlantic down to TX. If I didn’t have it my anime purchasing power would increase dramatically. Though I can’t say that I’m a big fan of fractional sales tax as it makes the mental calculation harder.
In MD if your Marylandtaxes.gov | Welcome to the Office of the Comptroller So many vague legal statements and loopholes to deal with.
My receipt from the Sentai booth @ Otakon actually has a special “Sales tax:” item on the receipt and it says 0.00. I know that I still payed the tax but it feels good to see that.
Probably time to get this thread back on topic before Slowhand cracks her whip.
So when is this going up on RightStuf? Is the delay between Sentai officially announcing a product and RightStuf listing it normally this long? It has been almost 2 weeks! I thought Kleckner would have his “finger on the pulse” of anime lol.
Releases only go up for pre-order on TRSI after the solicitation comes out.
December solicitations are not out yet.
I notice that TAN is behind on the solicitation front: the only one stickied is for this month when we’re “solicited” through November already over in Kleckner-land lol.
TAN schedules are done month-to-month.
The September Online newsletter was sent out today, though I don’t know why the September VOD newsletter wasn’t (at least I haven’t gotten it yet) since they’re usually sent out at the same time.
I was wondering the same thing. maybe there’s some last minute changes they have to make to the VoD?
And some people wonder if the JP reverse impotation fears are even worth worrying about.
The US GuP release is actually ranking on the Amazon.jp Top 100 Bestsellers list since it was announced the other day.
When I checked it yesterday, it was all the way up to #26.
Today, as of this moment, it’s down to #58.
But it has been on this list since it was announced, fluctuation places but never actually dropping off.
Even with the missing OVAs, they’re still buying it.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/dvd/
And this is probably why the OVAs will be in a seperate release for us.
Just goes to show, especially for very popular series, reverse impotation is actually a very legitimate fear.
Honestly, I wish people would stop posting these on online forums. Reps from the Japanese companies do keep an eye on them from time to time. I wouldn’t want news to get around too much, and for us to end up with another Persona 4 situation.
Personally, I think they should know about things like this.
At the end of the day, the anime industry (both here and there) is a business, and anyone with any logical sense should want to protect their intersts, thus, the more they know the better.
However, regardless of how you personally feel about it, Persona 4 was kind of a unique situation, it was an Aniplex series having the 1st Sentai half season set released only a month after the final JP vol. release.
I believe that it is infinitely more likely that the Japanese are themselves checking the Amazon.jp sales and know of the “reverse importation” well before it gets posted to places like TAN.
Perhaps someday they will get their act together and embrace Capitalism. Someday they should realize that their system is antiquated and that only fools wouldn’t buy a superior version of a product (ie:the Sentai one), sold at a lower cost, with time being the only thing sacrificed, and that they should remedy this by changing their system. Instead the only “adaption” going on seems to be the foolishness that Aniplex of America is giving us, where instead of changing their failed system at home the Japanese are trying to suppress superior systems by forcing their system on America.
I have to believe that the Japanese are aware of the irony, that by allowing their anime to be licensed by independent American companies they’re creating the alternate market that hurts their “business model”, and that if Aniplex of America is successful that it could become the norm. I would have thought that they learned their lesson from Bandai of America but it seems that they did not.
I didn’t mind the Persona 4 situation. Better than the Funimation alternative. Though if anyone decides to go the dub-only route again, could we please get a better dub?
See the thing is, Anime shows in Japan are done the opposite way than Animated shows are done in the U.S… The company doing the show has to front all the production costs. They make the costs + profit back from the show being run on whatever TV station they end up on and the Home Video Sales, plus any licensing deals they may make. It’s the main reason why BD and DVDs are more expensive in Japan, and why the episodes are broken up like old school ADV Films Anime Series releases, or how AoA does it.(4-6 eps per disc etc.) It’s the main reason why you see production committees listed on Anime shows.
Counter that to the U.S. model where the network that shows it will front quite a lot of the production costs.
This is the main reason why some shows that are borderline or only moderately popular may not get picked up for a 2nd series because the JP home video sales may not have been high enough to warrant it.