ANN article about the podcast.

Regarding the comment he made about a potential One Piece license. To me it sounded like if the licensor (Toei) is content with the performance of upcoming series (DBZ and others?) he should be able to get a contract signed for One Piece.

It certainly sounded between the lines that their upcoming secret announcement *cough*DBZ*cough* will lead on to other things *cough*OP*cough*.

We're screwed then. Cuz the Japanese have no godamned clue what passes for "Contentable" preformance these days.

Forget the Japanese, I haven't a clue what "Contentable preformance" is.

You know what I mean.

Watchign FMA:B On blu ray, mildly ticked you can't watch Dub with subtitles.

I finished listening to this on the way to work this morning, and I have to admit that it was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, it was quite interesting to hear from a distributor's viewpoint.

Jonathan Clements made some good points but Jerome ranted a bit too much for my liking at times,

Just listened to the second one, interesting stuff but nothing groundbreaking.

Things sound fairly positive for K-ON and Durarara fans...

The awkward moment when even they laugh at how expensive Samurai Girls is....

So 70% of blu-ray players in the world are owned by Japan...no wonder the blu-ray market is small.

Now, I'm kinda iffy with the K-ON! question, because it was the same question I asked...but asked by someone else T_T. Interesting news, but as Manga are still undecided, I'll import Sentai's release...or else I'll be waiting for years.

The responses I've heard from Manga about Samurai Girls always felt like they were insinuating buyers should pressure Kaze about it rather than that they supported the release pattern, in order to keep their reputation as a cheap distributor. Perhaps I read too much into it.

I wonder how well it did, though.

R

ANN have done a summary of both the MangaUK and Kanzenshuu podcast.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/news/ ... r-releases

Oh, thanks, nice of them to summarise both. The stuff about the secrecy is embarrassing to read.

It worries me that so much is riding on DBZ being a smash hit here. There's a world of difference between releasing a current Toei show and 're'releasing DBZ, even if it does have some enviable brand name recognition.

R

I don't understand for the life of me this NDA stuff. Once a deal is agreed, it's agreed isn't it? "Sign here Mr. Manga, and you sign here Toei-san... Right, excellent. Manga now have the rights to release DBZ in the UK. But remember! You can't talk about this for six months ON PAIN OF DEATH!" I mean, what possible reason could there EVER be for that?

If those figures are correct then that's terrible takeup for BD outside Japan. There are a billion people in Europe and America, and together they own less than half the number of BD players owned by under 130m in Japan? That is pathetic, Western World.

Is Blue Exorcist really "so hot right now"? I can't claim to have my finger right on the pulse or anything, but I don't get that impression from my internet travels. My prediction: bomba.

I know what you mean Rui. Sure, Dragonball Z has the huge name and the Toonami nostalgia behind it, but will nostalgia be enough to drive it being a smash hit? Doubt it.

If anything though, I'm getting the feeling that this urge for it to be a hit (and the extra marketing they said they'll be doing, like magazine adverts and such) is for Toei, as they don't seem to be the most reasonable Japanese anime company out there (for example, wanting DBZ released before Kai). Hell, it's starting to sound like they're frantically trying to get more sales as they want to be able to secure a good relationship with Toei.

There's also little doubt in my mind that while the Americans will chew up anything Dragonball Z related that FUNimation puts on shelves, the UK industry just won't bite. So if they release DBZ now, I expect they'll have a hard time selling Kai in the future.

It's very hot with certain demographics (and the manga seems to be doing well if the shelf space it's allocated in UK comic shops is representative), however the same demographics don't have a great track record buying Manga releases. I think it could be a minor hit with the FMA/Bleach crowd here, if it's sold right, but I anticipate that it will just be released with no fanfare and swiftly forgotten when it doesn't shift tens of thousands of copies in its first week >_<

Manga at least have the fact that no US blu-ray exists on their side, for once.

R