Hello and welcome to another edition of Sunday News Bites! This week we dragged Claude of Star Ocean 2 away from his lover Dias Rena so that he could comment on the latest news of the hour.
ADV turning Blu?
With the death of Geneon leaving everyone paranoid, further unwelcome news has come with the news that ADV are working through some “short term challenges” which led to certain titles being removed from their site. In the aftermath of these events, ADV seem to have deflected queries by claiming that they are preparing to embrace Blu-ray for their anime releases, but exactly what we’ll be getting from them in the future and in what format remains unclear.
Financial correspondent Mr Tibbs: Anime licensing companies are going to have tread carefully in the near future, because as we saw with Geneon, the wrong business decisions can be costly. Fansubs will always be cited as a problem, but equally damaging is the fact that fans are no longer willing to fork out on single DVDs when they can save cash and shelf space with boxsets- watching four episodes every two months or so not only damages the momentum of a series, but is hardly preferable if you’ve already seen that series via fansub.
As for the move to Blu-ray, once again care must be taken- the gap between DVD and hi-def formats isn’t as great as the DVD/VHS divide and so far only those with plenty of disposable income are going to want to invest in the newest toys. PS3 owners will make an attractive market, but most people are still content with DVD.
Claude says: In my time, we can fit hundreds of episodes on a single mini data drive.
Shigofumi, true tears licensed
Bandai Visual have so far made a name for themselves with their highly priced and content-poor releases and now two more titles have been picked up by them just weeks after they started airing in Japan- Shigofumi and true tears. Unfortunately, the plan is to spread these short 12-13 episode series across seven DVDs in a mirror of the Japanese releases, with each DVD retailing at either $29.99 (1 episode discs) or $39.99 (2 episode discs). The DVDs are to start being released in May, and will not contain an English dub.
Claude says: Hmm, I’d have to fight a lot of monsters to save up for those discs- I think I’ll spend my money on health-restoring items instead.
Hunter X Hunter to resume serialisation…again
The March 3rd issue of Shounen Jump will apparently see the Hunter X Hunter manga resume serialisation once again, with the 25th collected volume of the manga set to be released on the next day. There is no news on how long the manga will run before another hiatus.
Claude says: In my time, the HxH manga still hasn’t ended…
Manga ending serialisation
Several manga have recently ended or are coming to an end over the coming weeks; the titles in question include Blue Drop ~Tenshi no Bokura~, Wild Life, Sola, Towards the Terra ~Aoki Kōbō no Kiss~ and Ai Kora. For more information, see here.
Claude says: I don’t really have time for reading manga, busy as I am saving the world.
Star Ocean: First Departure
For those keeping abreast of the RPG world, the chance to watch some recently uploaded videos of the PSP remake of the original Star Ocean should not pass unnoticed. Although it’s difficult to really gauge game play from these short videos, the game has certainly had a graphical overhaul, with the addition of voice acting and animated cut scenes polishing it up further.
Claude says: Just wait until the remake of my game is ready!
Any game with a catgirl in it must be good 🙂
I just hope it´ll reach the eastern shores.
Blueray for anime? Why bother? As it is now it isn´t worth the cost of having blueray disc for anime as it would turn the buying a lot more expensive than it is today.
Getting only 1 ep on a disc is way to small for me. Atleast 3 eps. Buying the anime you watched way back can be a really nice move, atleast if you´re a Kyoani fanboy like I am. Now when Kanon is starting to be released I feel that I must buy the DVDs. And to complete my KyoAni collection Air isn´t that far of either.
I´m just waiting for Lucky Star and Clannad to reach us here as well. Feels like I need a bigger room…
“Any game with a catgirl in it must be good :)” *agrees strongly*
Blu-ray will be good for some anime (I should’ve waited and bought Paprika Blu-ray instead of DVD) but since there are no multi-region players for it yet us here in the UK will miss out on alot of it till there are some *kicks PS3 for being region locked*
nlu-ray may be the future, but right now it’s to expensive for it be considered for anime. You need a lot of cash to play them. Sure you can pick up a player for $300 and up, but what goods the player going to be if you don’t have a tv capable of displaying it right?
If ADV does as others have said, and releases all of those pulled titles on blu-ray only, ADV will go the way of geneon, down the toilet super fast.
as for this:
“Unfortunately, the plan is to spread these short 12-13 episode series across seven DVDs in a mirror of the Japanese releases, with each DVD retailing at either $29.99 (1 episode discs) or $39.99 (2 episode discs). The DVDs are to start being released in May, and will not contain an English dub.”
Do they seriously expect people to buy them at that price?? I know i sure as hell won’t. If that turns out to be true, they’ll basically of shot themselves in the foot, since i can’t really see anyone forking out $30 for a dvd with 1 episode on it, let alone $40 for 2 episodes. Most people will wait for the collection release, or go to the grey market and buy them that way.
Congratulations Bandai, way to alienate yet even more fans!! Though i give you credit for dropping the terrible dubs, it’s a shame other companies don’t drop them aswell.
>> manga: Blueray for anime? Why bother?
I’d personally generalise that to “Blueray? Why bother?”
$40 for two episodes? That’s two series I might just have bought on DVD (True Tears especially on its current form), but not in that kind of price bracket. Good work Bandai…
manga: I want to get Air on DVD, but again I’d rather wait for a boxset
Neriya: Haha, I completely agree.
Tiamat, Hanners: They’re using that pricing strategy to stop the Japanese reverse importing, but at the same time they’re alienating the very English-speaking market they’re trying to sell to. Well, except the rich fools with nothing better to spend their money on…
Hmmm, considering how long it often takes these shows to make it to US retail shelves, is reverse importing really that big an issue?
Well as I said these series are due out in the US in May, which would make them still pretty current. Not that I’m trying to defend Bandai Visual or anything, because I certainly don’t think it’s a good pricing strategy.
So, to stop reverse importing they’re uping the price to a region where 99% of their current fans will stop buying them, until they’re available on the grey market as box sets. Thats a great way to boost your income 🙂
If they do that we’ll have another Geneon on our hands, only a lot quicker
And i have to agree, why bother with bluray, sure it sounds good, but i was tlking to a mate of mine who has one, well two if you count the PS3. Without buying a HD TV it’s pointless having a bluray player. Then there’s the life span of the players, he’s had 4 in 8 months, all of them the lens breaks after a short while. The disks are over priced and there’s very little difference in the content. So why wast all that cash?
If bluray was a viable product like DVD’s were when they came out, it wouldn’t be so bad. However bluray players won’t play other HD media, only the sony brand bluray, so your going to ned 2 or 3 players to play all the media out there.