Forum - View topicREVIEW: Gundam UC Volume 01
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ChocoBar
Posts: 164 |
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Awesome review, can't wait to buy the BD when it's released
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Amuro1X
Posts: 206 |
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You may want to pre-order it on Amazon. They have it exclusively, and you'll save $15. |
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Kalessin
 Posts: 931 |
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I'm surprised that the review didn't mention the price. Even at the discounted price of $34.99, that's a bit much for only one episode - though it's an hour long instead of half an hour. I'd expect that that price makes it almost guaranteed to be DoA. Sure, some folks will buy it, but probably not many. You'll have to be a big fan of the UC Gundam universe and be willing to shell out a fair bit of cash. I question that they'll even make enough money to pay for the dub.
Personally, I love Gundam, but I've mostly seen more recent shows and not much of the UC stuff. That combined with the ludicrous price means that I'm not touching it. Going by the review, I wouldn't be very happy with it anyway unless I were to go and pick up the other series in the UC universe and watched them first. And I have no plans of doing that. I already have too much anime to watch without watching stuff that old. Really, this series is targeting hardcore Gundam fans - folks who've already seen a fair bit of the older Gundam stuff and love it enough to shell out Japanese-level prices for it. I'm not really interested in any Gundam series failing here in the US, but their choice of business model for selling this one certainly deserves to die. Hopefully it doesn't adversely affect future Gundam releases here though. At least it's on Blu-ray. Bandai hasn't released any series on BD yet, so as annoying as what the Japanese Bandai is doing with this may be, at least it means that it's available here on BD and isn't delayed like releases typically are here in the US. |
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Mr Adventure
 Posts: 1598 |
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Hmmmm..... interesting. I've got a bit of a dilemma with this release. On one hand, I'm not a super big Gundam fan. I've got a few problems with some of its core conventions (NEWTYPES. UGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG) and to be frank, 08th MS Team and War in the Pocket are the only series under my belt (wish the original series was easy to get at, Sub-Only). And I thought MS Team failed to build a compelling war story and fell on its face, and found War in the Pocket merely okay (but far better then MS Team) I also have no interest in Wing or 00 or Destiny or anything not Universal Century related. Call me old fashion, but my love of Macross and Votoms demands that I support 'original continuity' when it comes to my classic mecha franchises, not reboots and retellings (also, Wing was awful and every indicator points at 00 being the same sort of show)
On the other other hand, I really want to pick something up that'll look amazing on my new Blu-ray player. Something as new as this, would probably fit the bill perfectly. (also, I'd really just like to find a Gundam series I like. Kind of sucks to not really care for one of the pillars of the genre.) On the other other other hand, its 35/40 bucks for 59 minutes. and subsequent releases will be the same or worse (50 minutes). Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 
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Vicserr
 Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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Finally some Full ON UC Gundam goodness, after so much Alternate timeline stuff we get some meat thrown to the core fanbase after getting piecemeal like MS Igloo. And I do like most of the AT series.
And if we were paying Japanese prices, this would retail for $80, not $50 |
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gunshottrigun
 Posts: 55 Location: VT |
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The thing is, this is America. In America that pricing is ridiculous for one single OVA episode. Even though it is a simultaneous worldwide release and on Blu-ray, it should MSRP for $30.00. I can't stand the "if we were in Japan" argument. The fact of the matter is, most of these people are in the States and it is a ridiculous pricing scheme. If you bought the series full price it would cost you a total of $300 for around 360 minutes of content. Back in the mid-2000s that pricing would still considered crazy. The only show that I remember pulling something like this was FLCL when it was first released on DVD. |
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GracieLizzy
 Posts: 551 Location: Sunderland, England, UK |
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Does anyone know what the DVD pricing scheme is going to be like rather than the Blu-Ray? If it is cheaper I might still consider buying the first one on Blu-Ray (when it comes out in Europe, I don't see a Blu-Ray region 2 release anywhere at the moment; so much for 'worldwide') and the rest on DVD.
It is too much money to shell out for each one even though I could possibly afford it... if I didn't buy any other anime until it was out and I am not willing to do that. Bandai have really shot themselves in the foot on this one. |
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Vicserr
Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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Yeah but that's part of this is the Walmart mentality, the "I want it all pretty, cheap and as fast as possible", 2 out of 3 ain't bad and it's basically $10 over the standard MSRP of Blu Ray in the US. This is a "worldwide" premiere release it's not a budget packaging of a 3 year old anime series, there's no guarantee of a box set in the future, so people should get down on the ground floor while they have a chance. |
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bayoab
Posts: 831 |
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Ranma824
 Posts: 456 |
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Yes, this is America, but the content is not American. You can't expect the same pricing and runtimes as American shows; getting anime over here requires a completely different set of hoops to jump through then your average movie or TV series. It's not a vacuum where everything can be measured by the same yard stick. |
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Rakkan
Posts: 16 |
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Vicserr
Posts: 480 Location: Carolina, Puerto Rico USA |
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I stand corrected 
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samuelp
Industry Insider
Posts: 2248 Location: San Antonio, USA |
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To be honest, I think that Bandai has priced the blu-ray in Japan quite a bit lower than they would have if it wasn't this "worldwide" release. The current pricing scheme makes reverse importation un-profitable by about $5, so I think they actually lowered the Japanese price by 1000 yen or so of what they would have charged in order to get the "worldwide" price under $50. So yeah, we are paying "Japanese prices" but those prices are about 15-20% lower than they usually are from Bandai visual. |
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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Yes...and I suppose if you just made up another arbitrary category like 'all pretty' it would be 3/4. If we want to live within the confines of reality though then it's just 1/2 which is not very impressive. Yes, simultaneous release is nice. No, that does not mean it's reasonable to charge exorbitant prices. $35 seems to be the most common MRSP for anime BDs so it's really more like $15 which is a hell of a lot on an item worth $35. It's almost 50% more.
Yes, that should be taken into consideration. Japanese product or not, the fans are still North American and as such it is reasonable to skew prices more toward their standards. So fine, I'm willing to pay regular BD prices for only 50 minutes of content or pay a bit more than normal for a full length anime feature but asking this much is totally unreasonable. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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£26 for the BD + international shipping is a bit steep, but I'm willing to pay that much for a timely, quality release. If it was a poorly mastered DVD released a year late, then I probably wouldn't be willing to pay above the odds. |
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