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NEWS: Funimation's Fullmetal Alchemist Rights Expire on July 31

WOW this has been blown way out of proportion, I'm not defending AOA, but given that this is not a new title, I doubt they are going to start throwing out giant $300+ sets, or $60 8 parts out. And even if they do, they will still give out a standard Blu-Ray. I know they did that wit Gurren lagann, but the Blu-Ray set was brand new.

Yeah, not "anytime soon". Their strategy is to sit on the license of the older shows, for years, and let demand pile up. Then they would release 13 episode sets at $100, print those in limited quantities - and watch them sell like hotcakes. I'm pretty sure that's what they'll do. We won't see FMA re-released until 2020 or so (and I'm not even exaggerating).

I'm happy I have multiple copies of the original and I payed an arm and a leg for the Blu-ray collectors edition. Tis a shame since I loved the original FMA as much as brotherhood.

Saying that Aniplex s being unfair to casual fans is a weak argument to me. True, casual fans will not pay over $100 for a complete show, but I suspect they also have hard times accepting to pay $40 for a complete set from Funimation or Sentai. I believe that casual fans are important for Funimation, but mostly when they acquire titles with wide appeal like Attack on Titan. But for Aniplex casual N.A. anime fans are inconsequential.

The reason why Aniplex USA is still around after 5 years of resentment and flame wars is because enough of the more hardcore anime collectors are willing to pay their prices. Casual fans have never been (and probably never will be) a concern for AoA.

Aniplex right now is acting in a similar way to how Adult Swim acted when they changed their programming philosophy in the late 2000s, the sort of 'we don't care what made us popular we're going to do things our way and to hell with whatever helped us reach this level of success in the first place' mentality. Aniplex wouldn't have Aniplex USA without the success of FMA which was all on Funimation's back and that's is what has me and many other fans upset at Aniplex. The American anime market should not turn into the Japanese market because it hurts the ability of new fans to really go out and buy a show if they like it.

I'm still not understanding...why can't they renew the rights? Was it always going to be a limited time, despite the extreme popularity of the franchise? What happens to the manga?

Hm, it seems to me that "hardcore anime collectors" are the people who want to spend LESS on individual releases so they can buy MORE, as they are hardcore collectors, therefore wanting MORE discs, not LESS for more money. People like me, with hundreds of discs, and very few prestige releases. Because I want to be able to buy more anime, not more prestige.

I think the better term for the people buying Aniplex releases is "prestige collectors". I'm the hardcore collector, because I collect more by spending less.

Looking at the several plastic drawers stuffed with anime discs in my room, I find it difficult to believe anyone would NOT consider me "hardcore" in the sense of collection.

It sucks that Funimation is losing some of their most popular titles. I already went and bought 03 including the movie and ovas, as well as the rest of the manga so now I have all of Fullmetal Alchemist.

I still haven't see 03, as I been re-watching Brotherhood since I bought the Blu-Rays before Funimation lost it. Once I finish it, I'll watch 03.

angelmcazares wrote:

The reason why Aniplex USA is still around after 5 years of resentment and flame wars is because enough of the more hardcore anime collectors are willing to pay their prices. Casual fans have never been (and probably never will be) a concern for AoA.

Hm, it seems to me that "hardcore anime collectors" are the people who want to spend LESS on individual releases so they can buy MORE, as they are hardcore collectors, therefore wanting MORE discs, not LESS for more money. People like me, with hundreds of discs, and very few prestige releases. Because I want to be able to buy more anime, not more prestige.

I think the better term for the people buying Aniplex releases is "prestige collectors". I'm the hardcore collector, because I collect more by spending less.

Looking at the several plastic drawers stuffed with anime discs in my room, I find it difficult to believe anyone would NOT consider me "hardcore" in the sense of collection.

I think the better term for the people buying Aniplex releases is "prestige collectors". I'm the hardcore collector, because I collect more by spending less.

Looking at the several plastic drawers stuffed with anime discs in my room, I find it difficult to believe anyone would NOT consider me "hardcore" in the sense of collection.

Fullmetal Alchemist IS a show with a wide appeal. It was a phenomenon comparable to Bleach, and I WOULD say that at its height, it was equals with Attack on Titan. That's why I think it's a real shame this is going out of the casual market and strictly into that of dedicated collectors.

According to an interview with Jason deMarco on the Toonami Faithful Podcast (I can't provide a link, as the podcast is defunct and the site is gone), what was going on then was that the Cartoon Network executives were asserting more and more control over Toonamias it continued to succeed. It began with Hamtaro and slowly turned into a block of merchandise-driven shows for little kids. I don't know if you can take my word or deMarco's word for it, but it does make sense.

DuchessBianca wrote:

I dislike AoA's prices as much as the next person but are we going to forget that not too long ago anime was sold in singles with a few episodes each for $30-$40? From nearly every NA company?

I'm gonna have to disagree with this.

Back then most titles were between $20-30 and the popular titles had 4-5 episodes per volume. Less well known titles had 3 episodes. While buying every individual volume was more expensive than buying a complete collection it was still affordable since you only had to spend $20-$30 every few months.

Aniplex is basically charging what a complete collection is almost worth for each individual volume.

However, they didn't have the commentary tracks or the 5.1 audio. Apparently, Geneon, or maybe New Generation, retained those, and Aniplex didn't acquire them.

Fullmetal Alchemist IS a show with a wide appeal. It was a phenomenon comparable to Bleach, and I WOULD say that at its height, it was equals with Attack on Titan. That's why I think it's a real shame this is going out of the casual market and strictly into that of dedicated collectors.

FMA WAS that show. FMA is now what Trigun was 5-10 years ago, which is to say an aging favorite that had passed its time and isn't really pulling new people like it once did. I'm sure there are still people finding it, and I'm sure there are still some people that want to buy it, but those numbers are comparatively small and not as "wide" as your statement implies. (heck, I don't think Bleach (your comparison point) really pulls as much anymore and that one actually was actively running more recently)

I'm not saying FMA is "bad" but it wasn't going to be pulling significant "casual" attention in the foreseeable future.