UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

Really really interested in how the Ping Pong set is going to turn out. Since it's more of a "niche" series (which is funny since looking at MAL its rated #40 with 60,000 members having it in their list with high praise across the board, granted I don't hold MAL in high regards myself because the site is kinda trash) and since it's already had a region B compatible Blu-ray release I'm afraid that the UK set will be no frills, however I remember Andrew mentioning how its a difficult project in regards to getting content secured and that comment alone makes me hopeful that Andrew is actually pursuing said content. I'm looking forward to the set. I wouldn't blame them for a no frills release however I'd be very happy if it came with a nice art-book or the soundtrack or something of a similar nature. I'm not holding much hope but due to the delay...maybe it's possible. Ping Pong will be my first Anime Limited purchase since Lagann, the show deserves my support regardless of any past grudges. In terms of quality it stands up there with Perfect Blue as the best they have in their catalog by far and the type of show I want to see more of. Anime Limited still haven't had a soundtrack with one of their release have they?
 
thedoctor2016 said:
But our chapters skip past the start of the Ep, past the next episode preview. The chapter are the worst part of my least fav product of anime I own as I love AoT it deserved better.
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This was the problem with a fair few releases within the last half of 2014, MangaUK decided to author their own discs instead of using Funi's discs which caused numerous problems such as random chapter marks, poor subtitling and more. Luckily MangaUK has started using Funi's masters again since Noragami so we shouldn't suffer from anymore with those problems. It's a shame AoT suffered worse than others, the extras for Part 1 were taken off the blu-ray and put on a DVD which was exclusive to the Collectors Edition (which was only a flimsy card box). Due to negative reaction of Part 1, Part 2 kept the extras on but still suffered from the same problems as before.

It was these numerous problems that made me go for Funi's CE sets as i wanted to support the show but couldn't give my money to MangaUK when they released a horrible product.
 
SAO S1 french release had two REALLY similar boxsets (same specs) and overall people prefer that format than what you guys are doing for S2 there.
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Boxes of SAO2 are similar to those of the first season.
The only differences is that there is no combo (aka DVD and Blu-Ray) which means that the boxes are thinner, no art-cards and the height of the DVD version and the Blu-Ray version is not the same.
The content is the same, and both box (aka Episode 1-13 and 14-25) have exactly the same visual style.
Many peoples who bought the first box os SAO 2 are very happy with their purchase.
The only peoples who complain are those who have no desire to put + - € 50 for 12-13 episodes or peoples who hate the French (and english) branch of All the anime. (there is one here too)
 
qaiz said:
Anime Limited still haven't had a soundtrack with one of their release have they?
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Patema Inverted Ultimate Edition came with the soundtrack, not sure if that counts as it was kinda a special case with it being on kickstarter. This reminds me, I should probably watch that movie since I backed a Ultimate Edition and all.....
 
I still think that soundtracks are considerably less desirable than other extras, purely because if I watched the show as a stream (or just followed stuff about it) I probably already bought the Japanese soundtrack. Even if I didn't, I can just go ahead and pop it on a future order from Japan if I like it. Considering that they're a pain to license anyway, soundtracks very rarely add any value to special editions for me.

The sole exception are discs which were exclusive to the Japanese LEs, which are rarely the ones that people asking for soundtracks say they want in the west ^^;

R
 
It's true, I guess I just see them as an actual viable extra that adds value to a set, not unlike an artbook/book when compared to the other trinkets that get thrown into LE anime sets these days like stickers and key-chains and what have you that are for all intents and purposes useless and not worth the extra money, for me at least. Your mileage may vary. Granted most soundtracks that come with LE/CE sets are never really the full thing but its not unprecedented to have a full soundtrack or at-least a comprehensive one either. Like the idea of a Ping Pong set that came with an actual high quality Ping Pong paddle and ball would be awesome and novel but also bespoke and thus expensive and exactly that, a novelty. The best extra in that sense are books/art-books and storyboards along with something actually unique like a genga/douga/cel. Clothing is usually something low quality, something that you'd never wear and something that you couldn't wear for the most part even if you wanted to because of the size but could be done right. Ping Pong has some phenomenal artwork so you could do a lot with all those assets assuming you can get your hands on them!

Contents of the Japanese set for posterity's sake, which yes comes with a shirt.
7KsUkcP.jpg
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Twentieth Century Fox did a couple of limited editions for Futurama and Family Guy where they included a script for an episode. They were both really interesting to read, especially since the Futurama script was for the Emmy winning episode "The Late Philip J. Fry". It probably wouldn't work for a TV series and I'm guessing it's hard/expensive to pull off, but it's something cool that could maybe be done for an Ultimate Edition of a movie or something.

I'd definitely give it a read if the film was good enough. Although having said that, the ambitious but rather muddled 009 Re:Cyborg script is probably an interesting read too...
 
DragonBlaze67 said:
This was the problem with a fair few releases within the last half of 2014, MangaUK decided to author their own discs instead of using Funi's discs which caused numerous problems such as random chapter marks, poor subtitling and more. Luckily MangaUK has started using Funi's masters again since Noragami so we shouldn't suffer from anymore with those problems. It's a shame AoT suffered worse than others, the extras for Part 1 were taken off the blu-ray and put on a DVD which was exclusive to the Collectors Edition (which was only a flimsy card box). Due to negative reaction of Part 1, Part 2 kept the extras on but still suffered from the same problems as before.

It was these numerous problems that made me go for Funi's CE sets as i wanted to support the show but couldn't give my money to MangaUK when they released a horrible product.
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From what Jerome has said, it sounds like FUNimation were planning to go DVD-only for the extras too, then baulked last minute and put them on the blu-ray. Unfortunately Manga UK couldn't change them at point, so they were stuck as they were.
 
Has FUNimation ever gone DVD-only for actual content extras (I count the shorts as content)? They have done the opposite and made extras BD-exclusive a few times, to try to get people buying the BDs over the DVDs before the combo sets took off, but I'd chalk AoT's case up to a miscommunication more than an actual strategy if that's what happened. There would have been a lot of annoyance in the US if FUNi had pulled that.

I'm pretty sure Manga UK just wanted something exclusive for their rubbish CE in the UK without being out of pocket creating two entirely different sets of BDs - however they made have tried to spin it afterwards. They proved several times that they just don't get what fans want. To use an example, going DVD-only for Sengoku Basara season 2 when the extras were BD-only in the US; they never bothered redoing the discs to add the extras so the people who stayed loyal to their release not only lost BD, but also actual video content. Lame. I bought the local version of the first season as a double dip to show support but they can keep their second season release.

(I love how these topics always end up proving how impossible the UK companies' jobs are; no matter what they do someone will be upset. Soundtrack or no soundtrack, someone will be unhappy. Card digipack or Amaray, someone will moan. I'm as big a moaner as anyone else, of course!)

Edit: On a more positive note, I like scripts and translated materials as extras a lot, especially when the originals were exclusive to the JP BD release (or otherwise annoying to obtain). I don't think people value some of these things as much as they could but if you really like the show then having extra artwork or behind-the-scenes info is really interesting.

R
 
Buzz201 said:
DragonBlaze67 said:
This was the problem with a fair few releases within the last half of 2014, MangaUK decided to author their own discs instead of using Funi's discs which caused numerous problems such as random chapter marks, poor subtitling and more. Luckily MangaUK has started using Funi's masters again since Noragami so we shouldn't suffer from anymore with those problems. It's a shame AoT suffered worse than others, the extras for Part 1 were taken off the blu-ray and put on a DVD which was exclusive to the Collectors Edition (which was only a flimsy card box). Due to negative reaction of Part 1, Part 2 kept the extras on but still suffered from the same problems as before.

It was these numerous problems that made me go for Funi's CE sets as i wanted to support the show but couldn't give my money to MangaUK when they released a horrible product.
Click to expand...

From what Jerome has said, it sounds like FUNimation were planning to go DVD-only for the extras too, then baulked last minute and put them on the blu-ray. Unfortunately Manga UK couldn't change them at point, so they were stuck as they were.
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I haven't heard that, and I doubt FUNi would be that stupid.
 
SpaceDandy said:
andrew said:
3. French "Ultimate": It's interesting this one comes up, because long before I started working on our one I bought a copy to analyse and critically speaking it's one of the weakest collector's edition products that the French company in question has ever done (they have made a tonne of really awe-inspiring releases too, so that one was a disappointment to me vs packshot).
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I can understand you want to support your release but I think you're forcing way too much there. The french release is perfectly fine. It may not be chipboard and others but that certainly doesn't mean it's weak or whatever. SAO S1 french release had two REALLY similar boxsets (same specs) and overall people prefer that format than what you guys are doing for S2 there.
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Would be interested to hear how you feel I am forcing anything way too much here :)?

As it goes I'm not supporting either here or forcing anything - I was pointing out the difference in quality between the build in an Anime Limited product, which UK fans are used to, and what the Full Metal Panic edition in France was like. Perfectly fine or not - if people are going to use another edition and it's price as a point of comparison to my work as a critical point - then there's no reason why I can't compare fairly :).

Perfectly fine is not the same as a high quality build and people can like or not like the design (like I've said, I get ours differs from the majority of western designs so there's a chunk of people who would find it not to their taste) but there is a huge mileage of difference between the two in terms of build quality. As pointed out before - the cost of authoring and dubbing sapped up their budget from the €79,95 really easily but it does show in terms of build material :).

AP
 
Tind said:
Hey!
What happened to SAO 2 part 2 LE? Has it been delayed?
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It's into production just now so I'd expect to see it the 14th of December I believe - just waiting on confirmation from printers :)!

Best,

AP
 
qaiz said:
It's true, I guess I just see them as an actual viable extra that adds value to a set, not unlike an artbook/book when compared to the other trinkets that get thrown into LE anime sets these days like stickers and key-chains and what have you that are for all intents and purposes useless and not worth the extra money, for me at least. Your mileage may vary. Granted most soundtracks that come with LE/CE sets are never really the full thing but its not unprecedented to have a full soundtrack or at-least a comprehensive one either. Like the idea of a Ping Pong set that came with an actual high quality Ping Pong paddle and ball would be awesome and novel but also bespoke and thus expensive and exactly that, a novelty. The best extra in that sense are books/art-books and storyboards along with something actually unique like a genga/douga/cel. Clothing is usually something low quality, something that you'd never wear and something that you couldn't wear for the most part even if you wanted to because of the size but could be done right. Ping Pong has some phenomenal artwork so you could do a lot with all those assets assuming you can get your hands on them!

Contents of the Japanese set for posterity's sake, which yes comes with a shirt.
7KsUkcP.jpg
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Oh man yes, I have a copy here too and it's amazing. Frustratingly there is very little we can do with the set due to approvals issues - I'm doing my best to find something that works here but doing nicer packaging is about the hard line so far so we're seeing if there's anything else we can do.

In short - we are allowed to use a metric nothing in that box and it drives all of us crazy here :(.

Andrew
 
qaiz said:
Really really interested in how the Ping Pong set is going to turn out. Since it's more of a "niche" series (which is funny since looking at MAL its rated #40 with 60,000 members having it in their list with high praise across the board, granted I don't hold MAL in high regards myself because the site is kinda trash) and since it's already had a region B compatible Blu-ray release I'm afraid that the UK set will be no frills, however I remember Andrew mentioning how its a difficult project in regards to getting content secured and that comment alone makes me hopeful that Andrew is actually pursuing said content. I'm looking forward to the set. I wouldn't blame them for a no frills release however I'd be very happy if it came with a nice art-book or the soundtrack or something of a similar nature. I'm not holding much hope but due to the delay...maybe it's possible. Ping Pong will be my first Anime Limited purchase since Lagann, the show deserves my support regardless of any past grudges. In terms of quality it stands up there with Perfect Blue as the best they have in their catalog by far and the type of show I want to see more of. Anime Limited still haven't had a soundtrack with one of their release have they?
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We're crunching away on this - delay is due to approvals and pushing to include more as you may have guessed! I do appreciate the support for good titles too irrespective of company there too :).

AP
 
anime_andrew said:
Oh man yes, I have a copy here too and it's amazing. Frustratingly there is very little we can do with the set due to approvals issues - I'm doing my best to find something that works here but doing nicer packaging is about the hard line so far so we're seeing if there's anything else we can do.

In short - we are allowed to use a metric nothing in that box and it drives all of us crazy here :(.
Click to expand...
anime_andrew said:
We're crunching away on this - delay is due to approvals and pushing to include more as you may have guessed! I do appreciate the support for good titles too irrespective of company there too :).
AP
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Yes the Japanese set really is amazing. That's disappointing that they're not so forthcoming when it comes to the assets but it is what it is and I can't be mad at you for that at all. I take it most of the UK releases be it from Manga, MVM or indeed yourselves are created with many bits of assets locked away and yet you do a good job or managing the assets that you do have access to so no worries there. I'm always happy to support titles like Ping Pong, it really is one of the best anime series of all time bar none so the fact that it has a domestic release in very pleasing and honestly not something that I expected to see and if it wasn't for yourself and the rest of Anime Limited, I do indeed believe that it would never have seen the light of day in the UK. I'm grateful for that and I really hope people pick it up. I'll be with you championing this release and spreading the good word on the show on forums and social media. I swear I'm not a shill!

You're probably not going to go into specifics at this time so no need to answer but I'm guessing that the discs will be identical to the FUNimation release? And I take it the DVD/BD combo is due to keeping the number of SKU's low, not having to have multiple releases and instead just having one? The set is billed as a "Collector’s Edition" where as many others are considered "Limited Collector’s Edition" so I take it this isn't limited :p

While on the subject I'm happy that Miss Hokusai is getting a Limited Collector’s Edition, was worried that it would just get a standard release although now that I think about it, has any AL release just got a standard affair and nothing else?

And as always, glad to get a response from El Presidente himself!

EDIT: Also while on the subject of the Japanese Ping Pong release, what's your thoughts on having jewel cases for a release a la Japanese release of Ping Pong and FLCL? It's really weird but I kind of like it! Would never fly in the UK however!
 
anime_andrew said:
Tind said:
Hey!
What happened to SAO 2 part 2 LE? Has it been delayed?
Click to expand...

It's into production just now so I'd expect to see it the 14th of December I believe - just waiting on confirmation from printers :)!

Best,

AP
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A very late release I dont think it will sell well till after christmas as most people (myself included) dont spend money on themselves late in Dec
 
thedoctor2016 said:
anime_andrew said:
Tind said:
Hey!
What happened to SAO 2 part 2 LE? Has it been delayed?
Click to expand...

It's into production just now so I'd expect to see it the 14th of December I believe - just waiting on confirmation from printers :)!

Best,

AP
Click to expand...

A very late release I dont think it will sell well till after christmas as most people (myself included) dont spend money on themselves late in Dec
Click to expand...

I have an anime budget for each month so I'm Ok with buying things as an when they release. Christmas be dammed!
 
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