Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Dropping the Ball on Anime
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fikshen
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If you get a DVD player that's been out long enough, you may be able to find the program menu code online. It's usually just a number code you enter on the remote while the disc tray is open or while there's no disc inserted, and it'll take you to a menu where you can select the region, or just set it to region 0 to play any DVD. The same can be done with Blu-ray players as well. |
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Blatch
![]() ![]() Posts: 348 Location: Northeast U.S. |
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Squid Girl...
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It's good that you mention that, so I can bring up the series that I was PO'd never got an english release... well, look at my avatar. Last edited by Blatch on Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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tangytangerine
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Technically I guess Negima & Hayate the Combat Butler would fall into this category too.
Once Funimation put out the Shaft version of the series, it seems to have dropped off the map. The Xebec version quietly went out-of-print and the Shaft version was slipped into the S.A.V.E. line until the license expires. Which leaves about 3-4 OVAs spanning 11 episodes and a movie unlicensed here. Hayate never really got much attention from U.S. companies. I mean, Bandai put out the 1st season sub-only(when a dub was mentioned) and went out-of-print even before Bandai closed up shop. Which leaves the 2nd season, OVA, "Cuties" show, "Can't Take My Eyes off of You" show & movie without physical releases. But I guess we can at least be happy Crunchyroll is streaming all the tv series. |
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Gina Szanboti
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I've been looking for an answer to that question for ages, every time the topics of unfinished series or costs of production come up in articles around here, and have yet to hear a satisfactory answer. I can understand Funimation not picking up the second season of Oofuri when the first season didn't sell. But since licensing and dubbing are the two biggest expenses of any release, once they've dropped the money for those, how much more expensive could it be to release what they've already finished? How many copies would they need to sell to break even on the publishing portion of it? Monster makes the least sense in this regard, since it was clear that many, many fans were so wary of Viz backing out that they refused to spend money on an incomplete release. But had they tossed the whole series out there in a space-conscious set, they could certainly have recouped the money spent to publish it, and most likely gained quite a bit back on their initial investment. Now they've lost the license, so any rescue will be that much more expensive and complicated for anyone who's interested. As the article mentioned, maybe del Toro's series will put it back in play, but I'm not holding my breath on seeing even that get off the ground. For a title like Conan though, I am astonished that any company ever takes the leap on those. You'd need to have a Conan room in your house to store all your disks. ![]() |
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NJ_
![]() Posts: 3076 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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@malvarez1: I was one of those who bought the Megaman NT Warrior DVDs because I was a big fan of the Battle Network games at the time and despite the dub not being that great, the series itself was fun to watch so I was angry that Viz never finished it and never released Axess on DVD. As for Star Force, the worse thing is that like with uncut Blue Dragon, the episodes they did dub got a box set release in the UK.
Thankfully they confirmed on their old Facebook page a while back that they don't have the licenses anymore so hopefully Discotek gets them all like they did with the American cartoon and give half of them the Samurai Pizza Cats/Monster Rancher treatment. As for Viz, another mistake was with the original Hunter x Hunter because they didn't get any of the OVAs when picking up the series which was a big mistake since the show ended in the middle of the Yorknew arc and the first OVA series was needed in order to watch the rest of it. There was also rights issues with most of the Opening & Ending songs which angered a lot of people at the time (especially since they didn't tell anyone about it beforehand) so combine those with Viz's other titles that were dropped around that time and it's no wonder the TV sets sold poorly for them. Unfortunately the show's failure may be a key factor in why the new series has yet to get licensed by anybody which is a darn shame because the show is an improvement over the original series & OVAs. ![]() As far as 4Kids goes, I would say their biggest offense was with Ultimate Muscle. It's a shame that series never got a full DVD release here, especially after it did so well in ratings to the point where Toei produced more episodes exclusively for the US after originally getting canceled in Japan. @TonyTonyChopper: Thankfully Discotek picked up 5 of the Dr. Slump movies which I'll be looking forward to buying myself. Hopefully they do well enough so they can get the rest of the films along with the 90s series if possible. I would hope that they get the original 80s show too but it's way too long in length so I doubt they will. @Sailor S: There was also the Make Up! Sailor Senshi recap short that premiered with the Sailor Moon R movie that we never got plus there's also the SuperS TV special which had 3 mini-episodes, one being a recap, the other featuring Haruka & Michiru in their only SuperS appearance (not counting the movie) and the last being based on one of the manga's short stories about the vampire transfer student. Last edited by NJ_ on Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:02 am; edited 6 times in total |
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Kruszer
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The ones that really grind my gears the most are Monster, D.Gray-man, and Kodocha because I liked them quite a bit and they were given such a half assed release. Then there are sequels that were dropped or never picked up to shows I liked such as Moonlight Mile, Stratos 4, Squid Girl, XXXHolic, and Crest/Banner of the Stars.
![]() I'm buying the rest of Monster from Australia, so at least that takes care of one of those headaches. |
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staab99
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Great article as always Mike!
![]() I'm a huge Monster fan, and I bought the VIZ 1st boxset to Monster, and I wanted FOREVER for the next part, but I was really disappointed it never got completely release here in the USA, hopefully someday we will see the full series release someday. One series that I wished they would release here was the 2nd season of Higurashi. ![]() |
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Top Gun
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Pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Though it may be unfortunate for the fans, FUNi deciding to not release additional seasons of shows like Detective Conan makes perfect sense financially. But with Monster, you have a 74-episode series that was fully dubbed, and even aired on TV. After those expenditures, how did it make any sense for Viz to not crap out a bare-bones DVD release and recoup some of their costs? It's like they willingly left money on the table. Like you implied, I think the biggest reason why the first set didn't sell very well is that there was never so much as a solicitation for any follow-ups...with Viz's prior reputation, who was going to take a chance on 1/5 of the series with no sign that more was forthcoming? I do have some slight hope that someone (Discotek?) might still take a chance on it, because you have the whole thing sitting there ready to go. Hell, Hikaru no Go is in the same boat, though I think that's even less likely to be rescued. And yeah, as unfortunate as it is, Detective Conan was pretty much doomed from the get-go here. You have a show that's over 700 episodes and counting in Japan, the vast majority of which are completely episodic in nature, and which falls squarely between two demographics blocks in the US. There's just not enough of a market. |
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PurpleWarrior13
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I kinda wish FUNi would pick up the last season of Case Closed when it comes out so we can at least see how the story ends (it's an episodic show, so it can be done), and maybe do more if that does well enough. My biggest gripe with Case Closed is that I don't get to see how it ends! Honestly, 130 episodes is enough, but with no ending, it's a little bothersome.
Viz has changed since their Monster/Blue Dragon/Full Moon days. Back then, they were REALLY sensitive about sales for some reason. Pretty much the only titles they were able to release were Bleach, Naruto, Pokemon, Inuyasha, and Death Note. Also, Hikaru No Go, Prince of Tennis, Zatch Bell, and MAR all met with unfortunate fates as well (I'm surprised NANA made it out alive). In Blue Dragon's case, selling only edited dub-only singles was asking for trouble (the dub was recorded uncut, as proven by the UK DVDs), and Season 2's dub only aired on Cartoon Network Pakistan. Viz spent all that money dubbing the show for THAT... Now Viz is doing really well with shows like K, Zetman, Tiger & Bunny, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Lagrange, Accel World, the Berserk movies, and they even picked Ranma back up (which I NEVER thought would happen). They've definitely gotten better and more fan-focused, and now they've even gotten Neon Alley. In Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars' case, both Geneon and ADV were interested in picking up the show, but by that point, Kodansha and Toei was letting all the licenses worldwide expire for some legal reason, and weren't letting anyone license any more of the franchise. There's also Sgt. Frog and Shin Chan. Why neither have been formerly canceled, FUNimation has said that both are on "hiatus." Hinting that they may or may not come back. At least it's something. Both have 78 episodes dubbed. Last edited by PurpleWarrior13 on Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HyugaHinata
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I expect a glut of Kickstarter projects relating to these unfinished anime in the near future. I'd personally love to see a legit release of Monster and Saint Seiya.
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PurpleWarrior13
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There's this coming out: http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/jaFOzf=uYmpjA1h6jK/browse/item/98926/4/0/0 And there's even the rumor that Toei is dubbing at least 13 more episodes themselves for this release. |
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DangerMouse
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The ones that still get me good are probably Monster, Cyborg 009, D.Gray-man, and Case Closed (though I'm glad I got all the sets that made it out before they stopped, love the dub cast).
I'm just lucky I got to see all of Monster on Syfy. As already said in the thread, I too thought for sure we'd get those since obviously the dub was completed since they aired the entire thing. And have wanted those Cyborg 009 eps ever since it's run on CN. I think that'd be nice PurpleWarrior13, if Funi could do that, so we can see how it ends, but yeah who knows. Also, as mentioned in the article it would have been nice if they could have at least kept doing the rest of the movies. I'm still glad they did as much as they did though. Oh yeah, Blue Dragon.
Yup, loved both of these shows. |
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victor viper
![]() Posts: 630 Location: The deep south |
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I thought I was the only one. ![]() A long time ago, when everyone was licensing everything they could get their hands on, I had hoped that someone would also take a flyer on Akane Maniax, but no deal. Oh well. With the new Sailor Moon series on the horizon, this has to be our last best chance to get a North American release of Stars. I've always heard that Toei considered Stars to be too mature for the target Sailor Moon audience in North America, and they didn't want to risk tainting the brand. Well, all those fans from 1999 who they were afraid of offending are probably now in their late twenties or early thirties. Maybe the willingness of Toei to license Stars in North America will depend on who the target audience is for the new show. Maybe the new show will get us some new releases of the various TV series and the movies as well. Surely, a set of remastered Sailor Moon would be a good moneymaker. |
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Fronzel
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What annoys me is how sometimes when a show isn't finished, the company will try to act as if its otherwise. The last volume of Kodocha Funimation released is titled "That's a Wrap". When ADV gave up on Super Gals after halfway they even went so far as to remove the next-episode preview of the last episode they released. When Right Stuf made their unlikely rescue of the series, they actually included it in their second-half set.
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HitokiriShadow
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Viz really pissed me off with this when they did this long after it was clear they were never going to release anymore. |
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