The Varying Standards Of Anime Dvds
Infinitum
Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">in Australia. (Ellaborate Rantage)</div> Now I have something of an Anime DVD Addiction. This basically involves me everyweek going down to my Electronic's Boutique and purchasing, at a minimum, 2 DVDs. On a big release I may end up with possibly 4 DVDs, which sets me back about $120 Aus.
So on June 11 of this year, I want down to my local EB store and purchased 3 DVDs. They were Spirited Away: Limited Edition 2 DVD /w Slipbox, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Now and Then, Here and There.
I am here today to give a critique upon the varying standards of anime which are released within Australia. Consider it a well thought out rant if you will, but I feel I need to get this off my chest.
As an Anime fan in Australia it is... 'difficult' to obtain quality series. We seem to recieve series 2 years after their initial Region 1 release in North America. For example, no Australian distributor has yet licensed <a href='http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/997.php' target='_blank'>The Vision of Escaflowne</a> and I have had to import the Region 1 DVDs. This is of no fault of any one distributor, the Anime DVD Industry is simply not substantial enough here to warrant having the massive amount of releases North America has. So I doubt I will ever see something like <a href='http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/2342.php' target='_blank'>Genisis Climber Mospeada</a> reaching our fair shores. In actuallity the only 2 major distributors here are <a href='http://www.madman.com.au/news.php' target='_blank'>Madman Entertainment</a> and <a href='http://www.sirenvisual.com.au/' target='_blank'>Siren Visual Entertainment</a>. However occassionly I will be thrown a curveball, as I was on Wednesday, and something such as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is released by a distributor that hardly touch's anime (In this instance it was Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment)
So for this particular critique I have chosen the 3 DVDs I have purchased on Wednesday too show to you how varying the releases truly are in Australia.
Firstly we have the Spirited Away: Limited Edition DVD, distributed by Madman Entertainment . In the last year or so Madman has <i>REALLY</i> gotten their act together, with countless numbers of quality titles being released. Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing, Robotech, Trigun, Great Teacher Onizuka, RahXephon, Noir, FLCL, Trigun are all just a few of the many exceptional titles now being released. Now I hardly have to wait a month before Australia recieves the same Region 1 releaces grace the store-shelves. Indeed it is with great flourish Madman seems to present these DVDs, with titles such as RahXephon recieving VERY sturdy box's with which to store the pending releases. The way to an Otaku's stomach is through his boxset, but I digress.
I find it extremely hard to find a single fault with this release. Too begin with there is the casing in which it comes with; the coverslip itself is worth some praise with raised lettering, pictures, and bordering and while this may not seem to matter much too 99% of you it shows that Madman have matured and are really taking care of their fans. Removing the sleeve I am presented with a simply gorgeous picture of the Bathhouse where Chihiro works, taking it fully out it folds out present even more exceptional artwork from the film the 2 DVDs and a prize draw slip to send my lazy arse off to Japan. I will not go into details about the DVD contents, other than the fact that with this film by Hayao Miyazaki and the 2nd DVD full of features I could not be more pleased witht his release. A truly amazing release. I love you Madman!
Don't worry, I'm not gonna rave on as much in the next 2 parts. I just wanted to prove that Madman do us Anime fans a LOT of good. ONWARDS!
Next we have the Cowboy Bebop: The Movie DVD, distributed by Columbia Tristar Home Video. I wasn't expecting to see this, in fact because Madman had released the Region 4 DVDs of the Television series I was awaiting an announcement from them; so it was a pleasant suprise indeed to finally have this DVD sitting in my collection. In fact it's an exact replica of the Region 1 DVD. This release would be pretty much the 'standard' I've come to expect here in Australia (Except for the annoying parts that I'll get too) I would probably put it in the 'Above Standard' release catergory as it does feature a few things normal releases don't. Presented in a standard plastic case, it contains a nice slate of extras ranging from documentries, trailers, profiles, concept art, storyboards and music videos. The movie itself is very enjoyable and features all the charm I have come to expect from the Cowboy Bebop universe. However there are a few things that, not so much as annoy me, but really just tiny niggles that stop me from <i>REALLY REALLY</i> enjoying this release. I won't go into too much detail so here's a list:
<ul>
<li>They renamed the original Japanese title from "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" too "The Movie"
<li>It contains no 2.0 Stereo Audio track on any of the 3 languages (Japanese, English, Russian [Yes, Russian. WTH])
<li>Rather bland cover-art
</ul>
I may be grasping at straws a little and I suppose you can call tell me I'm being a little too anal about it, but it's the <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>tiny</span> things that always seem to bother me. It also appears Columbia Tristar has simply mass-produced this for several regions as it contained the Russian Audio track and several different subtitle options in various languages. Something that normally I don't see to often in Region 4 releases. Meh, not really complaining on this release. It's quite enjoyable.
*Take's a deep breath because he need's to be calm for the next segment*
Lastly we come to Now and Then, Here and There (NTHT), distributed by Siren Visual Entertainment. This release is the last kick in the nuts Siren will ever give me. I quite enjoyed watching NTHT in fansub format, indeed it seemed to present several different topics which I attached with throughout the series so when the clerk at Electronics Boutique mentioned it was in, I happily gave away more of my <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=31a77ca8d91a8a31159e16395a40f4fd&search_in=titles&result_type=topics&highlite=bar+fight' target='_blank'>bloodied</a> paycheck for this release. My enthusiasm soon perished as I got home and found out the distributor was Siren. I promised myself I wouldn't rant on this release so I will now do another list of all that is EVIL with Siren's anime release of NTHT:
<ul>
<li>Direct ports of Region 1 releases minus all the cool stuff that makes it worthwhile.
<li>Bland uninspired cover-art
<li>Replacing the Region 1 title logo with some god awful piece of crap, whipped up in Photoshop obviously by the work experience kid (HERE'S A FREE TIP. THERE ARE MORE FONTS THAN IMPACT ON SIZE 20 IN BOLD)
<li>Evvvvvvvvvvvvil back cover designs. It features inverted artwork, on top of which the text is presented in the original colour. I pity the poor colour blind person who has too read this....
<li>No inside artwork. Nothing. It's pure white. I would expect this on a 5 year old release, not now that the DVD industry has got it's act together.
<li><b>WHOLE. CHAPTER. EPISODES.</b> An episode should be cut into smaller chapters so the end user can happily skip too different parts of the ep. The standard is usually Introduction, Part A, Part B, Credits, Preview. NTHT has whole episode chapters, so I can't skip to halfway through the show. This REALLY ticks me off no end. I'm gonna stop myself before I keep going like this... NEXT
<li>Subtitles that stretch offscreen. <b>UNFORGIVEABLE.</b> Who are your main target audience Siren? ANIME FANS. They make up 98% of the market that is going to buy this DVD. Anime fans enjoy watching a series in it's original language with subtitles on. In this day and age... seriously.... your killing me here.
<li>No extras. This is usually the case with Siren releases, but NTHT features a small gathering of features. I'm not impressed.
<li>No DVD numbering on the side of the DVD case. So, for example, if I was looking for #3 in the series I would have too take all the DVDs in the series down to find it by the track listing on the back of the case.
</ul>
The above list seems to be pretty much a standard one has come to expect from Siren. I believe they derive great pleasure from throwing dirt in the face of Joe Anime and stealing his money as he rolls on the ground in agonising pain. It truly is offensive to me as a connoisseur of anime too have series such as NTHT, Vandread and a movie like Jin-Roh BUTCHERED by these idiots. They don't seem to respect the anime communitity at all and they're quite easily more detrimental to the anime industry than the Hong Kong pirate DVDs I can find down in Chinatown.
So there you have it folks. That is a look at just 3 DVDs that were released in one week here in Australia, just an average release week and look at the varying standards that I was presented with. Quite the shock eh?
A company that takes care of it's target audience.
A company that mass produces stuff (That's not a fault)
A company that doesn't care.
Ya gotta LOVE the industry!
MODERATORS: If you want to edit out my comments on Siren I can understand, just alter it to a standard which you deem acceptable. Please don't remove the points, that is of course if you find them offensive.
So on June 11 of this year, I want down to my local EB store and purchased 3 DVDs. They were Spirited Away: Limited Edition 2 DVD /w Slipbox, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Now and Then, Here and There.
I am here today to give a critique upon the varying standards of anime which are released within Australia. Consider it a well thought out rant if you will, but I feel I need to get this off my chest.
As an Anime fan in Australia it is... 'difficult' to obtain quality series. We seem to recieve series 2 years after their initial Region 1 release in North America. For example, no Australian distributor has yet licensed <a href='http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/997.php' target='_blank'>The Vision of Escaflowne</a> and I have had to import the Region 1 DVDs. This is of no fault of any one distributor, the Anime DVD Industry is simply not substantial enough here to warrant having the massive amount of releases North America has. So I doubt I will ever see something like <a href='http://www.animeondvd.com/reviews2/disc_reviews/2342.php' target='_blank'>Genisis Climber Mospeada</a> reaching our fair shores. In actuallity the only 2 major distributors here are <a href='http://www.madman.com.au/news.php' target='_blank'>Madman Entertainment</a> and <a href='http://www.sirenvisual.com.au/' target='_blank'>Siren Visual Entertainment</a>. However occassionly I will be thrown a curveball, as I was on Wednesday, and something such as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is released by a distributor that hardly touch's anime (In this instance it was Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment)
So for this particular critique I have chosen the 3 DVDs I have purchased on Wednesday too show to you how varying the releases truly are in Australia.
Firstly we have the Spirited Away: Limited Edition DVD, distributed by Madman Entertainment . In the last year or so Madman has <i>REALLY</i> gotten their act together, with countless numbers of quality titles being released. Rurouni Kenshin, Hellsing, Robotech, Trigun, Great Teacher Onizuka, RahXephon, Noir, FLCL, Trigun are all just a few of the many exceptional titles now being released. Now I hardly have to wait a month before Australia recieves the same Region 1 releaces grace the store-shelves. Indeed it is with great flourish Madman seems to present these DVDs, with titles such as RahXephon recieving VERY sturdy box's with which to store the pending releases. The way to an Otaku's stomach is through his boxset, but I digress.
I find it extremely hard to find a single fault with this release. Too begin with there is the casing in which it comes with; the coverslip itself is worth some praise with raised lettering, pictures, and bordering and while this may not seem to matter much too 99% of you it shows that Madman have matured and are really taking care of their fans. Removing the sleeve I am presented with a simply gorgeous picture of the Bathhouse where Chihiro works, taking it fully out it folds out present even more exceptional artwork from the film the 2 DVDs and a prize draw slip to send my lazy arse off to Japan. I will not go into details about the DVD contents, other than the fact that with this film by Hayao Miyazaki and the 2nd DVD full of features I could not be more pleased witht his release. A truly amazing release. I love you Madman!
Don't worry, I'm not gonna rave on as much in the next 2 parts. I just wanted to prove that Madman do us Anime fans a LOT of good. ONWARDS!
Next we have the Cowboy Bebop: The Movie DVD, distributed by Columbia Tristar Home Video. I wasn't expecting to see this, in fact because Madman had released the Region 4 DVDs of the Television series I was awaiting an announcement from them; so it was a pleasant suprise indeed to finally have this DVD sitting in my collection. In fact it's an exact replica of the Region 1 DVD. This release would be pretty much the 'standard' I've come to expect here in Australia (Except for the annoying parts that I'll get too) I would probably put it in the 'Above Standard' release catergory as it does feature a few things normal releases don't. Presented in a standard plastic case, it contains a nice slate of extras ranging from documentries, trailers, profiles, concept art, storyboards and music videos. The movie itself is very enjoyable and features all the charm I have come to expect from the Cowboy Bebop universe. However there are a few things that, not so much as annoy me, but really just tiny niggles that stop me from <i>REALLY REALLY</i> enjoying this release. I won't go into too much detail so here's a list:
<ul>
<li>They renamed the original Japanese title from "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" too "The Movie"
<li>It contains no 2.0 Stereo Audio track on any of the 3 languages (Japanese, English, Russian [Yes, Russian. WTH])
<li>Rather bland cover-art
</ul>
I may be grasping at straws a little and I suppose you can call tell me I'm being a little too anal about it, but it's the <span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>tiny</span> things that always seem to bother me. It also appears Columbia Tristar has simply mass-produced this for several regions as it contained the Russian Audio track and several different subtitle options in various languages. Something that normally I don't see to often in Region 4 releases. Meh, not really complaining on this release. It's quite enjoyable.
*Take's a deep breath because he need's to be calm for the next segment*
Lastly we come to Now and Then, Here and There (NTHT), distributed by Siren Visual Entertainment. This release is the last kick in the nuts Siren will ever give me. I quite enjoyed watching NTHT in fansub format, indeed it seemed to present several different topics which I attached with throughout the series so when the clerk at Electronics Boutique mentioned it was in, I happily gave away more of my <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=Search&CODE=show&searchid=31a77ca8d91a8a31159e16395a40f4fd&search_in=titles&result_type=topics&highlite=bar+fight' target='_blank'>bloodied</a> paycheck for this release. My enthusiasm soon perished as I got home and found out the distributor was Siren. I promised myself I wouldn't rant on this release so I will now do another list of all that is EVIL with Siren's anime release of NTHT:
<ul>
<li>Direct ports of Region 1 releases minus all the cool stuff that makes it worthwhile.
<li>Bland uninspired cover-art
<li>Replacing the Region 1 title logo with some god awful piece of crap, whipped up in Photoshop obviously by the work experience kid (HERE'S A FREE TIP. THERE ARE MORE FONTS THAN IMPACT ON SIZE 20 IN BOLD)
<li>Evvvvvvvvvvvvil back cover designs. It features inverted artwork, on top of which the text is presented in the original colour. I pity the poor colour blind person who has too read this....
<li>No inside artwork. Nothing. It's pure white. I would expect this on a 5 year old release, not now that the DVD industry has got it's act together.
<li><b>WHOLE. CHAPTER. EPISODES.</b> An episode should be cut into smaller chapters so the end user can happily skip too different parts of the ep. The standard is usually Introduction, Part A, Part B, Credits, Preview. NTHT has whole episode chapters, so I can't skip to halfway through the show. This REALLY ticks me off no end. I'm gonna stop myself before I keep going like this... NEXT
<li>Subtitles that stretch offscreen. <b>UNFORGIVEABLE.</b> Who are your main target audience Siren? ANIME FANS. They make up 98% of the market that is going to buy this DVD. Anime fans enjoy watching a series in it's original language with subtitles on. In this day and age... seriously.... your killing me here.
<li>No extras. This is usually the case with Siren releases, but NTHT features a small gathering of features. I'm not impressed.
<li>No DVD numbering on the side of the DVD case. So, for example, if I was looking for #3 in the series I would have too take all the DVDs in the series down to find it by the track listing on the back of the case.
</ul>
The above list seems to be pretty much a standard one has come to expect from Siren. I believe they derive great pleasure from throwing dirt in the face of Joe Anime and stealing his money as he rolls on the ground in agonising pain. It truly is offensive to me as a connoisseur of anime too have series such as NTHT, Vandread and a movie like Jin-Roh BUTCHERED by these idiots. They don't seem to respect the anime communitity at all and they're quite easily more detrimental to the anime industry than the Hong Kong pirate DVDs I can find down in Chinatown.
So there you have it folks. That is a look at just 3 DVDs that were released in one week here in Australia, just an average release week and look at the varying standards that I was presented with. Quite the shock eh?
A company that takes care of it's target audience.
A company that mass produces stuff (That's not a fault)
A company that doesn't care.
Ya gotta LOVE the industry!
MODERATORS: If you want to edit out my comments on Siren I can understand, just alter it to a standard which you deem acceptable. Please don't remove the points, that is of course if you find them offensive.
Comments
Spirited Away = pwn
Cowboy Bebop = pwn
Now And Sh*t, Here And Sh*t = ****. (guess what word's censored there)
NTHT was probably one of the worst anime releases i've ever seen, it started off well, the whole first episode was admitedly rather cool (with the big flying snake mech things etc). But then it just went crap. The story was excessively boring and didn't seem to progress whatsoever, there was NO personality in any of the characters and quite frankly you just wished they would die. I realise this is supposed to be a rather "bleak" release, which is really what got me interested since a lot of it is pretty harsh (kids with guns, being tortured, etc) but it was so poorly executed i didn't even get past episode 8 of 13.
Spirited Away - Gotta love it
Cowboy BeBop - It's cool, not my thing completely but still cool.
Third anime - never heard of it.
And on a side-note for Infinitum - I just got Patlabor 1, gonna watch it tonight. Thanks for recommendation.
--Scythe--
Your an idiot.
The fansub communities main message is "Once this series is licensed in your native country, stop distrobution and support the anime industry". I too collect fansubs, but once I have bought the DVD of that series I remove that series from circulation (CD wallets, FTP, etc) and add it to my private collection.
On top of this fansubs don't even compare to DVD releases. Even something like the Macross Zero releases by Anime-One encoded with the XviD Codec are still subpar in quality to the DVD release and do not contain any audio greater than Stereo 2.0
The companies that license anime in North America only tolerates the fansub community as it is a way of promoting the series before it gets released on DVD with all the audio, extras and other goodies. Simply saying "I'm too poor to buy DVDs so I'll just get the fansubs" isn't good enough.
Right now the only way to get quality anime +is+ through fansubs. I don't like downloading them, i wish i could have them on DVD, but in all fairness, this isn't really possible. I mean, Cowboy Bebop, to my knowledge, hasn't even had a release in this country yet, dispite it being played CNX for a few months solid.
The situation is far beyond crap. I wish i wish they would get a european release of Chobits and Great Teacher Onizuka together. I worship these releases so much and i +WANT+ to spend my money on them.
And another thing, manga releases. The only translations of the Chobits manga i've seen has been the Tokyopop one. And a month or few ago i found out it's illegal for them to distribute it to England, since they don't own the rights for anywhere outside america.
From what i can see about the anime industry in the UK, it's like having every major record label distributing using a hobo in a cardboard box with one leg who constantly shouts about "Those damn goblins with their brandy". And THEN having the RIAA come round to your house and break your legs for not buying cds.
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Then how come I could get it here?
<a href='http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1931514925/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/202-5040803-4659031' target='_blank'>Chobits</a>
What if you're a 14-year old kid with no money, no credit card (My mom doesn't have one, either), and no knowledge of a place that actually sells DVDs of the anime you like, that won't charge you an arm and a leg in shipping and customs (If it's online)? I intend to buy the anime that I watch when I can, but for now, it's fansubs for me.
Esuna you just describes the entire UK music industry