Forum - View topicINTEREST: Media Blasters' Founder Reveals Company's Worst-Performing Title
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PurpleWarrior13
 Posts: 2035 |
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Bakuman underperforming was pure karma because I recall Michael Sinterniklaas mentioning that Media Blasters didn’t end up paying NYAV Post for their dubbing work, at least that was the case at one point. They also released it in singles during a time when 13 episode sets had long become standard.
But Sirabella’s absolutely right that a creator’s name means very little. Just look at almost any Rumiko Takahashi title that’s not InuYasha or Ranma 1/2. While InuYasha was selling over a million units, Rumiko Takahashi Anthology was selling as little as 80 per volume. There’s also Akira Toriyama with Dr. Slump, and also Heat Guy J (from the director of Escaflowne). |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5524 |
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I recall that Bakuman had its dub cancelled, but didn't know why at the time. I don't know a great deal about Media Blasters, but aren't they infamous for picking up cheap licenses.
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4631 Location: New York |
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GaoGaiGar being a poor seller hurts, but I get why. It was a show where a lot of the fan demand was people who already watched it, and it wasn’t really going to appeal to a ton of people in that hardcore space. It’s the kind of show that should have aired on Toonami with toys of all the robots in stores, and that would build popularity to sell DVD sets, rather than going DVD only into that hardcore crowd that wasn’t going to pick up the robot show that didn’t get good till the second half.
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Brainchild129
Posts: 307 |
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I was amused by the later part of that video, where he talks about their biggest unexpected hit being Weiss Kreuz. I can absolutely believe that TMS was reluctant to push that show, considering that their own sales trailer couldn't hide how janky that show looked. It's almost as amusing as Sirabella going with it simply because the promo art looked cool.
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Zendervai
 Posts: 202 |
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I had a friend in highschool who was really into it...and she very quickly moved to other stuff once things like Vampire Knight and Ouran High School Host Club started coming out. There were occasional anime things aimed more at girls coming out beforehand, but it was on the rarer side and a lot of it didn't have the "group of hot guys" appeal. I don't think Weiss Kreuz started a trend or anything like that, but I do think it managed to show up in English just far enough ahead of that trend becoming distinct that Media Blasters got a lot out of it. |
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marshmallowpie
 Posts: 308 Location: Nova Scotia, Canada |
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I remember really liking the English dub of Bakuman, and hating that the whole thing wasn't dubbed. I don't think I watched any more of the anime, but it sucks it didn't do well, because it's such an awesome manga.
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mrsatan
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 915 |
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That sucks. GaiGaiGar is great! Everybody should buy the Blu-ray and check it out.
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GATSU
Posts: 15604 |
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Bakuman probably got effed from piracy. Gaogaigar was a mech show which wasn't Gundam or Macross or Eva. And only those shows have had consistent home vid sales in the U.S.(Maybe Nadesico, too..)Though I guess I can call both it and Bakuman fake fanboy anime to appease Mike and Justin...Though maybe Bandai Visual charged a fortune for Gaogaigar to get back at companies for being more successful with other anime.
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MysticGon
Posts: 44 |
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Whoops! |
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Hagaren Viper
 Posts: 793 |
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Didn't Bakuman have immediate trouble with it's dub? I don't doubt that it would never pull as many numbers as Death Note did, but I had always assumed the behind the scenes drama was was killed more Bakuman releases in the first place. I forget all that went down but remember that it was enough to keep me from buying it right away, which was just as well.
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blahmoomoo
Posts: 507 |
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To be fair, that is Death Note's (and Bakuman's) artist, not the author. The author of Show-ha Shoten! is different, and they are doing a pretty good job. |
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BlueAlf
 Posts: 1555 |
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I really believe that the success of Death Note's anime was more because of how Tetsuro Araki handled it as the director. In a lot of ways, I believe that guy was a genius in his field.
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Aresef
Posts: 918 Location: MD |
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I hope Gaogaigar does better for Discotek. But at the same time, I feel for Media Blasters. Following Sirabella's videos, it's a minor miracle they're still around. The buyout of Rightstuf really threw them for a loop, because they had to spin off their hentai sales. And hentai keeps his lights on. So he had a bad Christmas and that's why he had to push back his Kamen Rider stuff, because putting out adult stuff is where he makes his money. He can't afford to take a lot of risks and that's why what happened with Gaogaigar hurt so much.
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Wyvern
 Posts: 1603 |
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I love Gaogaigar, it's one of the best mecha shows ever, but you could tell even when it first came out that it was a huge financial flop. It's the first instance I can think of where a dub was straight-up cancelled in the middle of a series.
The first 25 of its 49 episodes were released in bimonthly single discs volumes as was the normal practice at the time. Then the show just abruptly stopped coming out, with no new releases for a year. When it returned, it was in a multi-disc box set which contained the remaining 24 episodes, with no dub, all for the price of a single DVD. It was a great deal, but you could tell they were just dumping this thing unto market because they had to release the episodes somehow, not because they expected any sort of profit at this point. I still have my Media Blasters discs of the whole series. They still hold up! Even if it's awkward when the English voices abruptly vanish after episode 25.
This is absolutely what they should have done. Media Blasters did eventually put one of their shows on Toonami with Rurouni Kenshin, but Gaogaigar would have been a perfect fit. |
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Covnam
 Posts: 3850 |
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Interesting that Discotek was able to make GaiGaiGar work for them. Maybe the cost went down since then?
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