Otakon 2012 Discussion Thread

[blaizevincent]

the One Piece announcement blew my mind. After waiting so long they now have upto eps 336. Thats like two thirds of what has aired in japan right now (obviously it will be back down to just under half once they have released it upto 336). Plus Strong World too!

Space Battleship Yamato R is awesome and im now not sure if i will spend the cash on the Japanese BLR of 2199 in hopes they might get that if the film does well

Lupin is an Awesome License and im confident they will reunite the English Cast. Since they did the same for Slayers.

More Fairy Tail , All of Tenchi Muyo just awesome Stuff. First time that they have announced more than one thing that has got me excited for awhile.

[blaizevincent]

Originally Posted by AKX20000

what the hell is BLR?

Bad habit of mine

[WTK]

Overall, this is a pretty good slate of announcements. Much better than last year's Otakon panel (not even close).

These would be the top tier announcements for me.

• Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (additional rights)
• One Piece Season 5 (Episodes 264 – 336)
• One Piece Film: Strong World

Nice pick-up...probably later on purchases.

• Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection (movie)
• Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar

Nice to see more episodes (and movie) licensed already. I still need to watch S1 though.

• Fairy Tail Season 2
• Fairy Tail Movie

I watched the simulcasts on these. It's a maybe on both right now.

• Maken-Ki! Battling Venus (additional rights)
• Sankarea (additional rights; this really was known already)

I have not seen this. The original series felt very average. I probably need to watch some episodes to decide.

• Aquarion Evol

It's great to see this avilable for the years to come. However I won't be need it as I own the movie on DVD and Blu-ray.

• Akira

[WTK]

https://twitter.com/lheiskell/status/229733589305139201

Not for Funimation. WAY higher. RT: @GNitro: "Sentai admits 3000 sales is considered a hit in the present anime industry. #Otakon2012"

https://twitter.com/lheiskell/status/229734447610728448

I have access to Nielsen VideoScan. Meaning: I have access to credible Home Video industry data.

https://twitter.com/lheiskell/status/229736342114930688

- Speaking of, are you saying when you sell out at both wholesale and retail, it's more than 3000 copies for a given show?

- by several factors.

https://twitter.com/lheiskell/status/229737255135244288

We pass on shows that can only sell 3,000 units. That unit count can't financially support an English dub. #truth

[bored@lazy]

It gets a little more depressing every time a con finishes and Hanasaku Iroha is still not licensed...

[MelancholicMariya]

Are we getting to the point where R1 companies are just going to be throwing punches at each other?

I'm pretty certain that Sentai said that they're a small company and 3,000 is a "WOOHOO!" moment for them, while Funimation owns, what, 50% of the anime industry? It's difficult to compare both situations.

And I'm not very sure how you pass on a show which can only sell 3,000 units if it hasn't been sold yet. lol.

[Draneor]

Originally Posted by MelancholicMariya

And I'm not very sure how you pass on a show which can only sell 3,000 units if it hasn't been sold yet. lol.

The charitable interpretation is they pass on shows expected to sell around 3,000 units. The less one is FUNi's shows never under perform by extreme amounts (everything is a success!).

[superdry]

Originally Posted by Draneor

The charitable interpretation is they pass on shows expected to sell around 3,000 units. The less one is FUNi's shows never under perform by extreme amounts (everything is a success!).

I never understood why sales numbers for anime in the US are never revealed (same goes with video games) compared to numbers fans can easily see in Japan.

So, Funi passes on shows that they expect to sell 3000 units? I have to wonder how many shows they have licensed that have never met that target. In a way, that explains a lot of the fanservice oriented titles they license because they have data that says "we can move these."

[ultimatemegax]

Originally Posted by superdry

I never understood why sales numbers for anime in the US are never revealed (same goes with video games) compared to numbers fans can easily see in Japan.

So, Funi passes on shows that they expect to sell 3000 units? I have to wonder how many shows they have licensed that have never met that target. In a way, that explains a lot of the fanservice oriented titles they license because they have data that says "we can move these."

Profit. By keeping the numbers private, they can charge a large sum for companies who need to see the information. Oricon only releases a certain amount and has diminished the amount of information lately that they release to the public on their rankings. We're just lucky people on 2ch provide the full info for us.

I'll believe Funi when they don't contradict themselves. Horrible mis-communication regarding release dates at panels is the usual suspect, but I still remember one line Lance said either at a panel or on ANN Cast: "We treat every title as if it's someone's favorite title." Their work on the Index series thus far has directly contradicted that phrase. I've tried getting someone to ask them at their AB panel to fix it, I've physically gone up to their booth at AX and asked them to fix it, and I've e-mailed them saying "This is the wrong logo; it would look better if you fixed it." and nothing's worked. I have no cause to believe Lance.

Personally, if that amount is true, then I fear if/when sales drop for Funi. Their whole business strategy is built around dubbing anime and, with the popularity of simulcasts, there's starting to be an audience who doesn't need a dub or even a physical release.

[superdry]

Originally Posted by ultimatemegax

Profit. By keeping the numbers private, they can charge a large sum for companies who need to see the information. Oricon only releases a certain amount and has diminished the amount of information lately that they release to the public on their rankings. We're just lucky people on 2ch provide the full info for us.

I guess we don't have any US fans like 2ch people who can provide such information (maybe us fans who like to look at sales charts are such a small niche) since it's private and technically shouldn't be leaked. At least Oricon gives fans some numbers to look at, same goes with Media Create and Dengeki.