Why Launch With A Bad Title?

Well, to be honest, no title is really bad. Someone out there somewhere likely loves it beyond all things.

But with ADV Films launching into Blu-ray by using the standalone title Lady Death, well, it's easy to ask why they're using such a title. ADV Films did this back in 1999 when they got into DVD, reluctantly at first, by releasing the standalone video game title Tekken: The Motion Picture. It was flawed because it was a dubtitled release and they hadn't figured out the optimal way of putting something on DVD yet. The tools weren't in place and it was a title that would sell even if it was done badly. Lady Death falls into a similar place in that it has a certain dedicated audience that reaches outside of anime fandom and it ADV Films pretty much owns it completely because it was one of their few original productions. So with no need to really go back to Japan for the rights, they can figure it all out in this title and probably get some decent sales off of it as a trial run.

Of course, it's not a title that's going to appeal to anime fans and anime fans are going to roll their eyes as they want something better. But FUNimation essentially did it the same way, practicing with Dragon Ball Z titles before delving into Vexille, Samurai 7 and others that are in the queue for this year. Sometimes a title needs to be sacrificed in order to get an understanding of how to use a new format. And honestly, I'd rather see Lady Death go under the Blu-blade before a high profile anime title that's more deserving of being released in high definition