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Upcoming Shows
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
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 Fans of School Rumble rejoice - a 3rd series of the high scholl comedy has been given the go-ahead in Japan, although it may not be quite as easy to get your hands on as the other two - the show's website (Japanese) has announced that it'll be released as two DVDs bundled with limited-edition versions of volumes 21 & 22 of the manga. Volume 21 is slated for release on 17th July. The new series has the same creative staff as the first two, although the LE nature of the release possibly puts a question mark over whether it'll get an English-language release.
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Editorials
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Thursday, 28 February 2008 |
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A little footnote in the history of UK anime that won't be a surprise to those of you who ave been following recent events. Along with many other people, I received an email late last night from Hugh David, ADV UK's head PR honcho, confirming the closure of ADV International. If you've been to pretty much any UK convention in the past few years, Hugh and the crew from ADV UK will be familiar to you, from industry panels, con booth giveaways, cosplay judging, and any number of other appearances - these guys were never slow to get involved and prove they were as much a part of the fan scene as they were part of the "corporate" side of the anime business. From today, ADV UK is no more, victim of the contracting-out of their work to new UK reps Lace Digital Media.
While not wanting to knock LDMS before they've even gotten started, Hugh and the others at ADV UK will be missed, as they were for so long part of the face of UK anime. To them I say: I wish you all the very best in the future, and hope that the UK's other releasing companies have the good sense to pick up the services of at least some of you - it would be a shame for your knowledge and enthusiasm to go to waste. Hopefully in one way or another, we won't have seen the last of you. |
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Shameless Promotion
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Thursday, 21 February 2008 |
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 MVM are releasing the first volume of Black Lagoon on 10 March - and unless Geneon get themselves reorganised soon, we'll be getting the final volumes before those pesky Americans do. How often can we say that?
To tide you over until then, we've got a few preview clips to whet your appetite. I hadn't seen any of the show before these landed in my inbox, but I have to say they've certainly got my interest up. We'll hopefully have the review of volume one posted next week.
Clip One | Clip Two | Clip Three | Clip Four |
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Meanderings
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Wednesday, 20 February 2008 |
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Anime UK News has an article up where Beez's Andrew Partridge and Manga UK's Jerome Mazandarani explain why UK anime pricing is as "high" as it is (in quote marks, as with a number of new release strategies on the go at the moment I don't think it is that high anymore). Worth a read if you're wondering why we were landed with £19.99 releases for so long... |
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Editorials
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
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Here's an interesting piece of industry musing. For a while now, some have said that part of fighting back against the problems of piracy in the anime industry should be shortening the window between the release of a show in Japan, and its release elsewhere. Now, the president of Bandai Visual USA, Tatsunori Konno, has talked in his blog of a decision taken by Bandai-Namco group during a recent visit of his to Japan:
The anime industry is in a depression, not only in North America, but in Japan and Europe as well. The balance between the market size and supply seem to be off, even in Japan. In addition, the world economy is declining. It affects the anime industry to some degree, and it looks like the anime industry is taking a break.
I discussed about our business strategy for this year and the next with others in the Namco-Bandai group; our final consensus is that we will present new anime shows simultaneously all over the world.
My emphasis. If this happens, it will be a big shift in the way that anime is distributed (and may possibly knock the concept of dubbed anime on the head - a whole can of worms on its own). Kanno recognises this:
We have many issues to solve, like how do we reconcile price versus quality while dealing with unauthorized internet distribution? But it is good news to the North American fans that the Japanese licensers have started to work together.
However, North American fans will have to appraise the anime titles at the same time as the Japanese fans. This means that the North American fans will no longer benefit from Japanese fans "pre-screening" anime for them. It's possible that an anime that is not popular in Japan will be popular in the US, and if it becomes a big hit, it would be wonderful!
It'll be very interesting to see how this idea plays out, and if any other anime distributors follow suit. The one worry will probably be that we're talking Bandai Visual here, whose stratospheric prices haven't exactly pleased US fans (European fans seem to get a better deal once the titles have filtered down to Beez.) If they're serious about tackling the problems in the anime industry, they'll have to take a close look at themselves, as well. You can find the full blog post here. |
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