(LET LUM OOOOOOOOOOOUT!!!!)
So AnimEigo is still way the fuck behind the rest of the world. They stopped padding their anime selection forever ago (losing basically everything except for their most sought after titles) and focused heavily on old Japanese movies, Samurai stuff in particular, but they have this... ISSUE with boxes.
So they have typical cheap dvd cases, cheap (disappointing) dvd extras, cheap (usually shitty) english dubbing, and not an ounce of sanity when it comes to business.
Why is printing boxes or mass producing thinpak style boxed sets so difficult for them to grasp? I know it seems weird, but given the sheer SIZE of Urusei Yatsura they should consider the opportunity they're missing by hoarding it as they are. Sure, on one hand you're paying roughly $2 an episode, but there's 195 episodes so if your like it you'd better brave yourself for over $400 worth of pain after taxes, not to mention the shipping. Oh and for the record that's JUST the TV series, for a complete collector there's about $96 more dollars of pain for just the 6 movies and the six discs containing MOST of the OAVs, just not the most recent one from 2008.
You're basically looking at over $500 worth of anime. Does it make sense? Not really considering the anime is about 30 years old and its distribution method is the same as when they had on the VHS tapes, the primary difference being that they charge roughly one-third of what they charged for each tape back in the nineties.
I'd fork over shitloads of money for UY stuff, in fact I have personally distributed quite a bit of money into AnimEigo's pockets and I'm not fond of being ripped off over shitty products. The anime is fine, but everything coming out of them is almost poison to their industry.
If it's not DBZ, Pokemon or Bleach no one is buying that shit for so hefty a price today. They made something of a killing when they printed awful looking boxes for Boxed Set, which were just flimsy paper sleeves for more overpriced DVDs. The first series of Boxed sets are still worth a bundle because so few were produced, I held out because I assumed they'd have half the mind that other anime distributors had in that they would push their product appropriately with updated boxed sets or DVDs that had more than four episodes.
I wouldn't gripe so much if they had added anything to the entirety of the Urusei Yatsura Library, but all they do is sit on it and let it stagnate trying to soak up as much money from the series as they can before the copyright owners see what they're doing to their products.
Funimation makes shows better every day, it keeps its titles fresh with re-releases and cheaper selling points to save you sanity, money and shelf space. ADV films (before passing) had similar methods of keeping product on the shelves and money in people's pockets.
(UY makes me as happy an anime character in P-p-pajamas!)
Lemme give some comparisons here:
UY has multiple seasons consisting of 195 episodes as well as 6 Movies and 11 OAV episodes.
I know that seems like a lot, but when you look at how Viz released Ranma 1/2 in neat, well dubbed packages arranged by season, you gotta wonder how fucking inept the folks at Animeigo can be when they can't even manage putting out the UY seasons in manageable packages for all this time. When Ranma has its entire library out there three times over! Starting with pricey Digital Dojo in a large $100 set for the first season and then dropping to price and size to a manageable thinpak set for about $20-$25.
It's been over fifteen years, just so we've got a picture of how pathetic this is and how far behind the rest of the industry these assholes dicking around in their garage have gone. The movies are in a PARTIAL boxed set because they turned over the 2nd Movie rights to Central Park Media (making Beautiful Dreamer the ONLY marginally decent dub that UY ever had and leaving the rights to one of its best films floating out in the cold since CPM's bankruptcy), but the OAVs and the series discs still manage to be scattered by AnimeEigo like you're putting together a pricey vase back together.
The Slayers has Numerous seasons itself, the first 3 alone season ran at 26 episodes apiece, it also has a handful of movies as well as OAV episodes. The first three seasons of Slayers have been put into boxed sets every time through their re-releases and they've even been released together in rather attractive book-style packaging recently. Granted, they're not as old as Urusei Yatsura, but their common sense in distibution is vastly superior. ADV had the right to the Slayers OAVs and Movies so naturally they released each movie or set of OAVs (3 episodes per disc) as they obtained them (or managed to put them onto DVD). They also managed to put them out in sturdy boxes when they released the boxed sets of thinpaks which made the formerly sizable stack into a significantly petite collection. Hell, if Central Park Media can put UY in a dub AND release The Slayers seasons in boxed sets what the hell is the excuse for lagging so far behind??
ADV's Guyver: The Bio-Boosted Armor came out in single bits, but it also came out with a large, strudy box for you to collect the discs with as they came out. When ADV went under Funimation took the franchise under its wing and released the show in its entirety with an attractive thinpak style set. There were some complications in Guyver getting to that point on its own, but that was the same style of distribution ADV practiced anyway.
This raises the question though, would someone else be able to sell UY better? The simple answer is: "Hell Yes." I ran across UY discs that Animeigo put out only on occasion and there's no way I was going to pay what stores were asking for so few episodes. So I waited for the rational decision to make a more enticing set that I would willingly purchase, which was hard for me to stave off because I wanted it so badly.
The rational and economically sound release of UY never happened to this day. I own them all now because I went to Amazon and got the entire series used or on clearance. I paid about $140 including shipping. That's for all of the discs, which are impossible to display and even harder to store, so all save for a few live out in the open when I need a slice of Tomobiki.
UY is the most important anime out there for me personally, but even I feel that about 70 DVD cases are really fucking pushing it. Their cases look like an asshole spent 2 minutes in photoshop putting them together, their boxes granted to a precious few of the masses are ugly and look cheap, the DVDs don't tend to have more than 4 episodes on each disc and the most exciting addition you can expect to own when you buy their dvds are the paper cultural files tucked in the case to translate japanese humor to an american mind, that's their forte after all.
I hold Animeigo in great contempt because they've let such amazing titles sit and collect dust without hiring someone like the Ocean Group and Viz to come in and fix up their anime titles so they sound amazing and can pull in new audiences with their classic status and contemporary, acceptable dubbing that might even get their foot in the door for airing on specialized cable television. Split the costs. Whatever! JUST STOP SMOTHERING THESE THINGS BEFORE YOU LOSE THEM!!!!
Animeigo's one claim to fame is that they are exceptional english and japanese speakers. Their translations are so brutally accurate that even THEY get subtitles for their subtitles that explain the cultural significance of a distinctly Japanese action or saying making you almost worried that watching their stuff might make you learn something. I appreciate that and I swear by their accuracy, but they are supposedly a business as well and they can barely keep the roof from leaking or so it seems back at their website.
Back in '91-'92 their catalog was very impressive and they kept a lengthy, updated list of their movies and series in stock which followed one or two lengthy trailers that led to many purchases on my part. Their anal retentiveness almost seemed prudent back then, but when the market changed to accommodate things like the INTERNET AnimEigo decided to dick around and let most of its titles dissolve while they pursued shoddy old Japanese movies.
AnimEigo, get your shit together. Please.
You don't have enough titles to be so indifferent about protecting what little investments you've made. UY is your flagship series and alongside Bubblegum Crisis they stand as your only connection to today's market. Sure, that keeps people coming back after taking Japanese class or seeing Project A-ko, but you should give them something to come back for and something to draw new people in so that you can stave off dying a coward's death and instead make a practical financial decision to FIX your mess.
If you don't want to, someone will come in and eventually fix it for you. Why not do so in a way that actually keeps you afloat and food on your plate? Do you truly fear success?
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