Forum - View topicMadman Entertainment
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Feb
Posts: 4 |
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What does everyone think about Madman? Anyone bought DVD's from them and were they better than the US releases? Is the quality and range of titles any good?
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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NEVER bring up Madman anywhere within earshot of me. But, now that you have...
First, the price. NZ$30 for a single DVD (new, older ones go for as little as $10, though that is unusual). Movies are NZ$25 to NZ$35. Collector's Box plus Vol 1 goes for NZ$40. Box sets (and not unpopular ones, which are dirt cheap) go for NZ$80 to NZ$180. Madman are notoriously slow at releasing titles. When they were releasing Eureka 7 at a rate of one per four months, I wanted to, ah, pay them a visit. I was SO annoyed. Madman also get titles far behind North America. Often, if I have just bought the first volume of a title in New Zealand, chances are North America will be getting the last volume (if they haven't finished already). I cannot remember specific instances, but I have had experiences in the past of Madman DVDs not containing some of the extras that North America received. I will read an old review, and it will mention some extra, and I will go "I've got that title (finally) and it didn't contain that!" Most DVDs have trailers, which is the main extra I want anyway. The packaging of Madman DVDs are decent. Virtually all have reversible covers. The artwork is often different from North America, but of an acceptable quality. Almost all titles have the option of a collector's box (with a 33.3% markup). We don't get fancy packaging here - no folding SEED Destiny Box or Gantz ball. However, I've noticed that Madman is sometimes liable to release titles with fewer DVDs than North America. All 50 episodes of SEED Destiny were released in 10 DVDs instead of North America's 12, and all 26 episodes of Gantz were released on just 7 DVDs fitting into a single box. No two episodes-per-volume for us. BUT, we get little in the way of thinpaks. The only thinpak I have is Orphen Season 2. As to their range of titles, they do release most of the major ones. Many of the minor and/or arthouse titles get completely overlooked, or given just a token release. My local Anime store (which isn't really an Anime store, just a gaming/pop culture store) only got a single box (each) of titles like Haibane Renmei, Kino's Journey and Genesis Climber Mospeada. So, I tolerate them, but only because they are my lifeline to legitimate Anime. They aren't too bad, but if they would just release more titles in greater quantities and at greater speed, then my position would change (by the way, cheaper would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath). Last edited by dtm42 on Thu Jun 05, 2008 8:30 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Westlo
 Posts: 1684 |
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You have to take into account the market in Australia and NZ is not that big... |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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And it will never get bigger unless Madman cleans up their act. A vicious circle, wouldn't you say? |
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Westlo
Posts: 1684 |
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I fail to see how licensing more niche titles and releasing things quicker will expand the market, more like over saturation of what's there currently.
DBZ aside the biggest boost anime had in Australia was when SBS showed Evangelion on prime time. That was what... 1999? 2000? I can't remember the last time SBS showed a new anime... that was on a decent time anyway. All anime now is either on Cartoon Network on pay-tv or ABC 2 (Noein!) which is only for people with digital set top boxes. I hardly know anyway with one of those.... aside from myself. I don't know the situation is over in NZ but I assume it wouldn't be much different. |
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Marik101
 Posts: 10 |
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well i live in new zealand and the only anime on normal tv is
mew mew power. and as for madman they use to be great here, you could order a dvd and within to days of paying it was at your house but now its change and it sucks quite badly. now it says on there website that it will take 7 to 10 days just to process your order and another 2 to 3 weeks to get to your place if you live in new zealand im never going to get my samurai champloo t shirt am i 
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Steventheeunuch
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Why do you want a samurai champloo tshirt [insult removed]?
Madman? They do well enough hey. The only thing I really get from them is when, DVD wise, they have something to offer that actually matches or outdoes a US release. Given I dont buy a whole lot of Anime, these are few and far between, but their releases of Innocence, Millenium Actress, and a few other titles (getting the Japanese trilogy for Transformers, etc), make them okay. I guess they appeal to different people. THey do have a fairly expansive range of titles beyond Anime and they do, as far as I can tell, a pretty good and comprehensive job of getting themselves out there. Problem is, Anime can only be as popular as people are interested in. Flooding the market with titles and releases that no one wants will only cause sour grapes and hardships, as they've learnt from what has happened in the US market. If you are keen on getting US DVDs or being ahead of Madman, there are sites where you can import for a relativley lesser ammount of money. [Edit: There is really no need to insult somebody like that, especially for no apparent reason. - Keonyn] |
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Marik101
Posts: 10 |
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hey whats with the attitude what did i ever do to you all i want is a t shirt and you come a tear me down ? whats with that? |
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musk.stick
Posts: 42 |
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I don't think I've ever had a problem with the quality of the titles released by Madman (I've heard a few complaints about glitches and stuff, but nothing that's not common amongst all DVD companies), but their range isn't much in comparison to the American market, namely because the market in Australia/NZ is much smaller and they're pratically the only distributor of anime in these two places (yes, I'm aware that other companies DO release some anime, but Madman have the market share).
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legendfunk
 Posts: 101 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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I detest the fact that Madman have monopolised the market here. Seriously, that limits the market to whatever they release. Plus import laws make it expensive. Some other company, come to teh rescue... |
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nightmaregenie
 Posts: 167 Location: Palmy, NZ - student central |
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Madman as an anime licenser: Madman DVDs offer the same dubs and subs as their R1 counterparts. The art designs and packaging is a bit different but other than that the quality and contents of their products are pretty much the same. Sometimes Madman offers less in terms of extras but in some cases they actually offer more (such as the aforementioned Innocence release). I haven't noticed the different episode counts dtm42 mentioned but it's likely that it only applies to a few longer series (ie 50 eps or more). My advice is that if you live in an area with readily available R1 products then there's really no need to consider Madman at all. Their releases are snail-slow and they only offer a small fraction of what you can get in R1. Madman doesn't really do special offers or thinpacks either.
Madman as a NZ e-store: Crappy service. The orders take forever to process and if you have problems with your order their customer service takes ages to respond. They used to have a free shipping policy for domestic orders over $50 but that was cancelled quite a while ago. Nowadays I get all my anime DVDs from Gameplanet. I detest the monopoly thing as well but I don't think R4 companies are interested in anime. There's just not enough awareness/demand. I have no idea about pricing in R1 but how does it really compare to R4? Somehow my impression is that they are similar... This may be a bit off topic but but I was wondering if anyone has the same problem as me. I bought Madman's release of the GitS SAC 2nd Gig boxset a couple of months ago and the cover of volume one says its extras include a texless opening. When I played the DVD I couldn't find it anywhere on the menu. What's up with that? |
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Skylark
 Posts: 827 Location: ORE NO TSHIRT |
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I'm australian too, but I'm not real proud of saying that I don't buy most of my anime (yet). I don't really have the money for it. And uh, yeah, I have the Madman box sets for Cowboy Bebop, Gantz and E7 and they were way too expensive for me to be happy T.T
When I do flesh out an anime collection and buy the series' that I've watched, I intend to visit japan at the same time to do so (and will most likely buy raw). I don't think the market here is so poor anymore; a lot of the people I meet through university watch anime (admittedly not as fanatically as me  )
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legendfunk
Posts: 101 Location: Sydney, Australia |
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That's the thing. Another problem with Madman DVDs is they don't come with good extras.
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Steventheeunuch
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What are good extras, though? For most releases they come with the exact same content as their US counterparts, and in certian cases, are able to expand on them. If you're referring to cheap reprints of plushies or panties or whatever, I dont really have much in the way of sympathy for you. Subsequently, to anyone complaining in regards to a monopoly- if Siren, or Tokyo Night Train, or anyone else, actually BOTHERED to do anything even half-way decent in Australia (And theyve done what, ten or so DVDs?) in terms of decent DVDs or actually advertising, then they would've gotten on the same level as them. As it stands, nah. Another thing to consider is that while Australia does get a 'fraction' of the titles the US does, we also manage to cut away a lot of the crap that if you're really keen on, you can import. DOnt get me wrong, I still have problems with Madman, but yeah, they arent as bad as they're made out to be. |
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