I'll take that eras character designs and faces over just about anything outed these days. In an ideal world, studios wouldn't have to reduce detail for additional frames!
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Summer 2012 Anime |OT3| Where All the Waifus Are Made Up and the Points Don't Matter
- Thread starter Branduil
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I'll take that eras character designs and faces over just about anything outed these days. In an ideal world, studios wouldn't have to reduce detail for additional frames!
Jex
Member
Well, regardless of a titles popularity you usually see sales decline with each new release.
Which I always find a curious thing given the price of media in Japan. Why would you even buy one to begin with if you're not already committed to purchasing the whole thing?
Vol 4 had Ep 8 and 9 I thought.
I read that there was a dispute between Aniplex and Amazon a couple months back where Amazon delisted all their anime titles. That's generally considered the reason the middle volumes of Nise (Vols 2-4) were lower than expected and why it shot back up for Vol 5's release since the dispute was over by that point.
Buy first one to put on the shelf, stuff the rest with old Mahoromatic DVDs.
Why are anime reviews so bad
Jex
Member
I suppose that, while collectors will inevitably acts as they always do, each new release of a show will still attract a certain amount of more casual viewers who want to 'dip a toe in' as it were.
I think some people buy certain volumes for the goodies. Maybe that accounts for the decline many shows see.
That's a link to Otaku USA's review. Freudian slip?
PdotMichael
Banned
buy the first volume for the event ticket (or other stuff) and download the other volumes.
Saimoe Round 2 begins. Things are slightly more entertaining now since all of the fodder characters are gone.
Today's matches (overview):
- Saki vs. Ilyasviel vs. Nako
- Yuka vs. Iori vs. Shinobu
Today's matches (overview):
- Saki vs. Ilyasviel vs. Nako
- Yuka vs. Iori vs. Shinobu
So god damn tragic
I still think to this day this that
the build up to his death was one of the most symbolic deaths in anime that I can think of. I could write an essay on it.
Jex
Member
I understand that's the same outside Japan though. I guess it's why you tend to see things released as big box-sets rather than individual volumes.
I find Aniplex's approach with F/Z intriguing for this reason. Is it better to sell everything in bulk for the prices they're asking for as opposed to individual releases that decline over time? Does it not matter in the long run? Will we ever have a good answer to this question?
Dedication Through Light
Member
Same, it seems awkward to have partial collections of anime...though such a large investment, Im gonna have so many Naruto shippuden and one piece discs and maybe hxh, toriko, and fairy tail too, er magi?
Jex
Member
I think there's two issues there, one's about boxsets vs. individual volumes and the other is about 'premium' releases.
MangaUK have said they're not getting any good returns from releasing stuff on individual discs (shockingly enough) so going forward all their releases will be as proper box-sets. I don't know how stuff is released in America because I don't live there.
As for the 'Aniplex premium pricing model' I imagine that's going well for them because their limited release runs all sold.
Does it matter in the long run? The answer is obviously yes, if you intend to buy anime. Companies will soon feel that there's no point wasting money putting out releases to the general public that don't sell and instead only target the most hardcore fans who are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a boxset. This further intensified Anime's status as a niche product.
Chet Rippo
Member
It would be weirder if the later volumes outsold the ones before it.
No no, I meant does it matter in that whether no method can be determined to be better or worse than the other.
I think Psycho-Pass has to be promoted hard. This isnt totally ment for the normal audiance, this is ment for world wide audiance. FujiTV feels that this series can make alot of bank. They want to get in into the states as well, where there has been a hunger for another GITS type franchise. I personally wish them the best honestly, they need to show that cute isnt the only thing that can sell.
PdotMichael
Banned
Boxsets are standard for normal shows, though.
the main difference is just the price. I can buy the first season of Breaking Bad for 18 or Madoka for 80 here.
Personally, I'm more interested in seeing just how low the Fujiko box set numbers are this week!
In seriousness, though, it's an interesting strategy, especially considering that there's the real potential that they've thrown money away by not releasing F/Z in the usual installment format. The series is popular enough that I think that they would have sold to an audience of roughly the same size regardless of how the show was divvied up, and furthermore I'm not sure how the psychology of paying in smaller installments over a long period of time vs. a large but ultimately cheaper one-time lump-sum payment affects purchase habits.
Ultimately, I suppose that the risks and benefits may eventually nullify each other.
Dedication Through Light
Member
I thought out of America, madoka was sold in a complete set and not singles, and was like only 30 or so on UK amzn?
Bandai were basically the last holdouts on the by-volume release format here and they're gone now, so virtually everything releases by season or half-season here. A couple of long-running shounen series which are impossible to divide into traditional 12/24 episode seasons due to the nature of the narrative are still technically released as "volumes" rather than "seasons", but they still receive a number of episodes per release larger than the 4-episode-per-disc releases of the mid-00s and before.
Some of the final series to receive volume releases here were SoraKakeGirl, Hayate the Combat Butler, Kurokami, and K-On!, and I don't even know of some of those managed to be released to completion. Hayate the Combat Butler, for instance, is extremely difficult to acquire now.
Madoka is being sold in three volumes of four episodes each.
EDIT - Wait, misunderstood this post. Never mind.
Nah, it varies by region quite significantly based on circumstances. The UK release is weird in that it's one of the cheapest - if not the cheapest - release there is (and for that very reason Manga have been hinting that it might not be on the shelves for very long on BD). In the other European territories in which it's been released, it's been as individual volumes.
Jex
Member
There's a difference?
Chet Rippo
Member
Thank god for that.
Birdy Decode:02-
All in all it was better than I expected I guess.
I really have no clue why I started watching this as I hated the first season with a fiery passion. I guess it was to check up on Kanno's music, which I very much enjoyed, and also my inner-completionist screwing me over again.
I'll say this, the show was leagues better than the first season. It was actually entertaining to watch and I think that's because it focused more on the sci-fi component instead of the trifling human drama. That said, Senkawa didn't play pretty much any role in this season and was just a time-waster. In fact, my least enjoyable components of the season had to do with Earthly matters such as chasing a girl around a city. I actually might watch a third season if it focused more on the Federation as a whole instead of the shitty Earthlings. The romance component didn't aggravate me for once. I also thought this was another case of the side-characters being much more fascinating than the main character, because good God is Birdy dry.
I suppose I should comment on the artstyle. After watching a bit, I was wondering where I had seen this style before and I thought of Noein. I go and check the staff page and surprise, the same staffers as Noein. That said, I think Noein did a much better job. This may be nostalgia talking as I haven't seen Noein in years, however there seemed to be a cleaner presentation in Noein and the style didn't look so damn ugly. There are times in the fight sequences where it looks like a mess. I think the show did a great job with the movements and on the emphasis on speed but it definitely came at a cost. There are also times during some of the fight sequences, such as the first fight sequence with Birdy in episode 7, where there isn't a good sense of placement and it becomes a jumbled mess.
All in all it was better than I expected I guess.
Jex
Member
The switch to seasonal formats was actually what got me to start buying anime.
Jex
Member
I wonder if those two things are connected...
In fairness, I think that they started doing seasonal releases for some series right before the end. Wasn't Star Driver two thirteen-episode volumes?
SoraKakeGirl and Hayate had pretty high episode-per-disk counts, though - higher than most traditional "single" releases. Problem is that the video looked atrocious as a result, particularly on Hayate where the SynergySP series already had some peculiar filters applied to it at source. Compressed terribly.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Bandai bet their future on K-On and Haruhi and basically lost. K-On just came way too late for them.
Chet Rippo
Member
Releasing it over 4 volumes probably didn't help either.
Partially, but not entirely - I gather they were doing alright in most the territories they were operating, but Japan decided there was no longer a need to deal directly outside Japan. Remember that they also closed down Beez, their European arm which handled the way more stable French market, at the same time.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
Barefoot Gen
Uncompromisingly, searingly raw tale of the impact the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had on its residents. Unpolished in certain respects, but that only enhances the impact. The depiction of the bombing itself is one of the most disturbing things I've ever witnessed. The visuals, with the
, were horrific.
The historical tragedy is made personal by grounding it in the plight of one family. You grow to care about them as you witness their love for each other and ability to find lightheartedness in the midst of war - and then you get punched in the gut. Again and again.
While you might think this would contain some anti-American sentiment, which would be understandable, there's practically none. Instead, the greatest anger is reserved for Japan's wartime leaders, stubbornly fighting a losing battle for the sake of their nationalist pride at the cost of their citizens' lives.
I was struck my how much the imagery of this film resembles post-apocalyptic films - of course, that has to be how the residents of Hiroshima experienced the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Their whole world was blown away in an instant. It'll certainly stick with me for a long time to come.
Uncompromisingly, searingly raw tale of the impact the atomic bombing of Hiroshima had on its residents. Unpolished in certain respects, but that only enhances the impact. The depiction of the bombing itself is one of the most disturbing things I've ever witnessed. The visuals, with the
people and environment literally melting away
The historical tragedy is made personal by grounding it in the plight of one family. You grow to care about them as you witness their love for each other and ability to find lightheartedness in the midst of war - and then you get punched in the gut. Again and again.
Tomoko...
While you might think this would contain some anti-American sentiment, which would be understandable, there's practically none. Instead, the greatest anger is reserved for Japan's wartime leaders, stubbornly fighting a losing battle for the sake of their nationalist pride at the cost of their citizens' lives.
I was struck my how much the imagery of this film resembles post-apocalyptic films - of course, that has to be how the residents of Hiroshima experienced the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Their whole world was blown away in an instant. It'll certainly stick with me for a long time to come.
Interesting. That Hayate release really sounds like the worst of both worlds--more episodes at lower quality, and still more installments than a box set.
Dedication Through Light
Member
Well at least they gave us awesomely priced Star Driver blu rays.
Other than the marketing, has there been any comments on the show itself such as the design process?
My first instinct is that this is going to be overproduced to hell but the fact that they got people who don't normally work on anime, should make this interesting.
Pretty much. I ended up bailing on the release four or five volumes in, partially because of the video quality, partially because I discovered that it really wasn't that much fun to rewatch it (and given it's all on Crunchy now, it's not like I need the disks for rewatching the sporadic episode now and again when the desire arises).
In the case of SoraKakeGirl, the UK release was both better quality - even with the weird aliasing which occurred due to them having scaled an NTSC-resolution master upwards - and was spread across fewer volumes (three two disk sets, as opposed to four single disk ones). Of course, neither release had the Pizza Hut jokes or the extra footage from the Japanese releases, which kind of put a lot of the people who were interested in buying it off.
Oh no you didn't. *rolls up sleeves*
I think I may have seen their works, but just to be safe what's the pen name?
Thats not what started me buying because I began with individual volumes up to 6 or 7 discs, but when boxsets came out, I was able to quickly and significantly expand my collection affordably.
This movie was disturbing. Parts of it are literally burned into my memory. You cannot forget what you see in this movie. It holds back nothing.
Ilya.
Shinobu.
Accept no substitutes.
Upscaled to 576p, I take it? I'm surprised that this isn't a more common issue with European releases (or maybe it is and I just don't know.)
I haven't seen much of SoraKakeGirl but from what I recall, the Pizza Hut references were a big part of the fun. That's a shame.
I was in high school at the height of the anime boom and from my perspective, anime releases were very much a rich man's hobby. I think the very first anime that I was ever interested in purchasing was Fullmetal Alchemist, and I remember being absolutely shocked at the realization that it was thirty dollars for four episodes. I'd already been spoiled by entire seasons of television series not costing much more than that, hahah.
Chet Rippo
Member
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Yeah. Although I figure they had to do that to make up some of the cost of the license? Haruhi S2 was a single box iirc. It had a defect, but still.
Haha, that works out if you're a fan I guess.
I'm just sad that Nichijou is forever lost to the North American peasants.
There's been more obvious issues with European releases to deal with before we get to upscaling issues. The 60hz->50hz thing was the bigger issue for a long time. These days, most the shows I've seen recently have done a proper inverse telecine though, but that tends to mean there's a small increase in speed for the video (increased from 24fps to 25fps). Almost unnoticeable for most things, kind of murder for something like Tatami Galaxy where the dialogue is rapidfire as it is!
In the case of SoraKakeGirl, I'm really not sure why it wasn't downscaled from a higher definition master. The Japanese BDs looked pretty good. It's actually the only release I can think of which displayed the kind of upscaling issues it had
BD removes these issues entirely, which makes it a shame that the local market can barely support BD content right now.
Well, from my recollection, the Pizza Hut references only occurred in three, maybe four scenes in the entire series. The thing is that they were all pretty specific context-related jokes - there's one scene in particular were it ends up changing the tone from being firmly tongue-in-cheek, to actually kind-of-tragic.
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