Anime fans of the world, unite!!! [ADV's Gantz release]

Arcane Azmadi · Post by **Arcane Azmadi** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:44 am

As you may or may not have heard, ADV have licensed the relatively recent TV anime GANTZ for North American release. It will have all the censored sex and violence removed from the TV release and fansubs restored, which will certainly spice things up a bit. As an Australian, I can expect it to eventually trickle down to my territory and I would be eagerly awaiting this, especially as I have a particularly tasty AMV lined up for this series. However, there is a sinister twist to this story:

Where do ADV get off thinking they can release a 26-episode series on 13 2-episode DVDs?

This is the single most outageous rip-off since Blue Submarine No. 6. ADV seem to have got the idea that just because they're released the uncensored version, they can rip off fans who are already suffering from their erratic translations and sub-standard dubs. And what if this sets a trend? We could see more series' released in this ridiculous manner, costing us a bloody fortune!

I'm attempting to organize some sort of protest or petition about this- I've contacted ADV and will try and get things going ASAP. So who actually gives a damn about this, or are we all already using fansubs and rips of pirate DVDs to make AMVs?

AmazonMandy · Post by **AmazonMandy** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:12 am

OK...i have never seen the series in question, but my first thought on this is "are they trying to give bootleggers competition"? I mean, thats classic bootleg style, whole series on a few discs. So honestly, my first question is HOW MUCH are they charging for this set of disks? If its near the cost of a normal series (read: several hundred dollars), then yeah, i would be REALLY mad (ARR!). ..however, if this is a tactic to lower costs to encourage people to buy retail over bootleg...i may be a bit more FOR it than against...

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:35 am

AmazonMandy wrote:OK...i have never seen the series in question, but my first thought on this is "are they trying to give bootleggers competition"? I mean, thats classic bootleg style, whole series on a few discs.

Arcane said "on 13 2-episode disks", not "on 2 13-episode disks".

But I must agree, I'd like to know how much they plan to sell each disc for.

bobbarker31 · Post by **bobbarker31** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:42 am

Simple economics drive the market for anime DVDs like for any other product. If they raise the price too much or offer too little, they will kill their fan base off by forcing them to buy bootlegs or worse making them leave the world of anime entirely.

I can see ADV, Manga, and the others charging a little more than big studio DVDs like Paramount and Warner Brothers because anime DVDs are not printed in the large quantities like regular movies are and those studios are larger and have more resources. But these are not the old days anymore. The anime DVD business is quite lucrative and they should be careful.

Adding toys for box sets, pins, detailed liner notes and art are all ways to add value to anime DVDs that bootleggers will not do and I applaud these efforts. But when you offer very little like only one or two episodes per disk or a single DVD is priced as high as multi-disked entire season of another TV series, what you have done is hand the bootleggers increased business demand.

I do not approve of bootlegging. I am very much against it and this should not be a discussion of the morality of it. I am just pointing out the natural laws of economics that will drive a generation (of which many have no trouble with piracy) toward the shadier means of getting titles.

AmazonMandy · Post by **AmazonMandy** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 9:54 am

Akk i misread that, sorry...

pricing (thanks bob)
http://www.animenation.net/news/index.php?id=7219

ok...so now, yeah..i am mad. Don't they realize they are just going to turn MORE people to bootlegs?? This does NOT help thier buisness... T.T

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:14 am

The $17.98 price is MSRP. Sites like DVD Pacific are listing volume one for far lower (about $12.58, which would make it $21/4 episodes which puts Gantz about par with other anime).

The wolves over at the AnimeOnDVD forum are feeding on this, believe me. Once the convention season starts up then Dave Williams is going to have the fans trying to slash his throat unless he gives a good explanation...

Kai Stromler · Post by **Kai Stromler** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:15 am

My first thought on this was that this release is being structured deliberately to be non-competitive in the Japanese market, and was probably a condition of getting the uncensored version.

Reverse importation is a growing problem in the Japanese anime market, mostly because they pay about the same as the rest of the world per-DVD, but generally get 2 eps per disc where 4-5 is the norm elsewhere. Gantz was censored literally at the last minute for TV, and so there was probably a larger percieved demand for the uncensored version, especially among casual fans who would be more likely to wait for a NA release (on fewer discs) and re-import rather than paying the going Japanese rate.

ADV also probably figured that they would not be able to sell Gantz at all in North America if it was TV-censored, so they were kind of stuck in this situation. I would not expect this sort of release packaging to become the norm in the imminent future, but as the industry moves towards simultaneous-release, it's likely that per-disc episode counts will drop; we'll probably see more 8-disc releases of 26-ep series rather than 6-disc versions, but 13 discs is probably going to be reserved strictly for condition-of-license situations like this.

--K

Harlock7876 · Post by **Harlock7876** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:06 pm

Perhaps ADV had to pay a lot for the rights to distribute it or something. Make profit by selling fewer episodes per DVD and you've got the situation explained.
I'm just guessing since I don't know the popularity of the series or what price the Japanese demanded for it.

dokool · Post by **dokool** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:14 pm

Kai Stromler wrote:...but as the industry moves towards simultaneous-release, it's likely that per-disc episode counts will drop; we'll probably see more 8-disc releases of 26-ep series rather than 6-disc versions...

I'd like to hope not. In my first year of fandom I watched as more companies made a concerted effort to go to 6 and 7-disc releases instead of 8, for the benefit of everyone. It'd suck to see a regression.

Bulghod · Post by **Bulghod** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:25 pm

I wonder what extras they're going to put on it.
I would figure if they're going to WASTE such space with only 60 mins, there should be a lot of other stuff to fill in that gap.
I can understand that they're going to try to increase sales to possibly cover for whoever much they needed to pay to get the rights, but if the DVDs have simply two episodes and little else to appeal to the fans, there is the significant chance that they won't even get enough money from sales to cover.

bobbarker31 wrote:Adding toys for box sets, pins, detailed liner notes and art are all ways to add value to anime DVDs that bootleggers will not do and I applaud these efforts. But when you offer very little like only one or two episodes per disk or a single DVD is priced as high as multi-disked entire season of another TV series, what you have done is hand the bootleggers increased business demand.