Forum - View topicNEWS: Funimation's Higurashi, Familiar of Zero Licenses Expire
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Mirri
Posts: 313 |
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As much as it pains me to say this - you are entirely right. I only wish that the publisher-profit portion of my $100 for Big Windup part 1 & 2 meant something. I honestly did not expect the title to sell nearly as bad as it did, considering the rabid fujoshi fanbase for it. I mean, do I really need to go beyond saying "pitcher" and "catcher"? No Higurashi severely disappoints me, the wording is pretty blunt, but it's the sort of message that fans need because they will cling on to even the tiniest shred of hope. |
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Sewingrose
 Posts: 579 |
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Uh, the problem of not enough people buying it to recoup the cost of it or encourage more licensing kinda is on the fans. And to the people complaining about how mediocre the dub was so of course they wouldn't buy it: Then why the hell are you complaining about there not being a release of Kai since it would probably have the same dub-style of the original? It's simple math people: Funimation releases titles that sell, some times they take leaps on fan-favorites that probably won't recoup the cost of dubbing, but you can hardly expect that of them all the damn time. It's not some conspiracy to not license the shows you particularity love, and wishing them ill-fortune or bankruptcy because they licensed something you don't like but will sell or let a license for an ill-selling title that you loved expire, is just stupid. They are not trying to kill your puppies they are trying to stay in business. |
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spinja446
 Posts: 87 |
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Funimation already licensed Shiki. 
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2174 |
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What?!?!? First, France got a School Days boxset and now New Zealand gets Kaiba? I feel like I'm living in some bizarro world dream or something when I see stuff like this. I guess they must charge different licensing fees to different countries. If it's one flat rate, I can't imagine that the fanbase in countries like these (I'm speaking about population) is larger than in the US and they can be profitable over there but not here. |
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Shenl742
Posts: 1524 |
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And despite having a rather similar setting to it (horror story set in an old fashioned Japanese country town), Shiki has something that Higurashi doesn't: Vampires. Vampires are kind of "in" right now, so grabbing onto such stuff is pretty much a no brainer (though apparently they're having issues figuring out a release for Hellsing due to red tape) |
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ArsenicSteel
 Posts: 2370 |
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Here's part of the equation Funi is not bringing up. Geneon had already released When They Cry and it sold for them in 2007. The complete collection was made by Funi in 2009 and sales figures for Funi are not including the sales figures Geneon have for the title. |
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Almaz
Posts: 134 |
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Some people in the thread seems to think that I do not understand supply and demand. Sorry, I do. My point was about cutting off supply just because demand is weak. That makes customers unhappy. Cut off enough supply; people would go elsewhere.
The other part of supply and demand is one can raise the prices. Others in the thread made suggestion of raising prices. If it is reasonable, I am for it. If Garden of Sinners Blu-ray set was stripped down to the disks, I would pay a little more than the prices of the R.O.D Bluray set. Subtitled only. Maybe Funimation needs to quit abandoning series and start the NICHE line. Charge double the price and throw in some extras or not pick the titles up in the first place. Lately, everything looks like a fishing expedition. I understand that Funimation is wasting money on failed titles. On a micro level, I am wasting money on the same failed titles. Thanks for taking their side and not understanding others are buying things to bolster demand. As a waiting for a title to come out, years is quite a long while. I have a hard time believing I am impatient for waiting years for something. That is a long period of time. You can get hit by a beer truck several times in that time period. FYI Duke Nukem Forever has finally came out 10+ (?) of development. To bad the game still runs like one from that time period. I have to give kudos to Gearbox for gambling on the title for fans. A rarity these days. |
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Dark Absol
 Posts: 813 |
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Though it sucks that FUNi didn't bother to license the new seasons after the first season, I would prefer Sentai Filmworks to license the remaining seasons.
Sentai Filmworks, please license The Familiar of Zero Season 2/3 since it's my top ten fave anime (the first season that is). |
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14836 |
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Just don't make it personal too.
That's reasonable alternative. But how high does it need to be to at least break even? If the sales were meager in the first place, that increased price (leading to even lower sales) may be higher than you bargained for. Maybe high enough that the whole endeavor may not be worth it because there'd be so few buyers and pleased fans.
We feel for ya, just not as much when it all becomes a blaming game.
That is a problem. But it's hard to bypass. When there are 40+ series coming out in Japan every quarter, while there are only a handful of licensing companies, there are not enough money and manpower to go around and do even just a fraction of that stuff just to keep up. Eventually, stuff just piles up in the "to-do" list, and those titles with better sales prospects get the priority over iffy titles. And even if they can release all those series in a timely manner, there are not enough buyers and buyers' money to afford all those series being released at the same time. Stuff has to be staggered release regardless, meaning some releases will still take time.
Duke Nukem Forever is not a previously released title - it's all new; fans have no choice but to wait. And they can afford the gamble - there are enough gamers who actually pay for their shite. 
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ScruffyKiwi
 Posts: 693 Location: New Zealand |
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I'm pretty sure that licencing fees depend on the potential sales in a region. I'm not sure if there is a per unit fee as well but I would guess so. I think that the whole 4Kids issue was that 4Kids under reported their sales to the parent Japanese company. But yeah .. you could always order Kaiba online in Australia or New Zealand. Would be kind of ironic considering how much I order online from the USA! |
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Yamato-san
Posts: 12 |
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I only skimmed through this topic, will probably read through all of it later. Personally, I bought the first three volumes of Higurashi when The Right Stuf was having a clearance of Geneon titles (this was, of course, before the license was even rescued, and even at a major discount, I was gambling on a series that was only halfway completed), so yeah, I don't think any money went to Funimation there. However, I did buy the latter volumes not too long after their release, and I had every intent to buy Kai. At any rate, I can't help wondering if Funimation took this into account at all: that some people might already have the first half. Now I wonder if there's any hope for StrikerS at all (I haven't heard anything about Nanoha expiring, not yet at least).
Also, I saw someone mention Dance in the Vampire Bund as being a top-seller. Earlier, there was a lot of controversy surrounding Funimation's announcement that they "might" release it censored due to featuring a loli, only to later retract the statement and affirm everybody that it would be uncut. If I recall correctly, such controversy was there in the first place due to America's paranoia over "child pornography" found in people's private hentai collections, and with anime being a niche market, it would be best to avoid that kind of trouble lest you KNOW it's gonna sell well enough (like when there were enough people protesting against this move). Surely, that might have something to do with it, right? |
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luffypirate
 Posts: 3187 |
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I think theres more hope for a Japanese BD box with subtitles, which I'd gladly give monies for, than anything domestic. So many good titles got lost in that whole Geneon to FUNimation rescue thingie. There wasn't enough marketing done to get those names out there. Sales prob could have been better. Oh, and in case you are thinking "YOU DON'T KNOW THESE THINGS!" you're right, I don't. I DO know that Geneon Spot was set to go full blown right as they folded though. I was super excited for it and had my own profile and everything. That project was most defintely going to be a huge leap for them in the marketing area. Zero, WTC, and Nanoha were their newest stuff so I bet they would have been plastered all over that place. |
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darkhappy1
 Posts: 495 Location: PA |
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@spinja446 Yeah, and I know they also licensed Chaos;Head too. That's why I said "Oh wait" and then used Steins;Gate and Madoka Magica. 
@Shenl742 I totally understand. I was just using Shiki so that I could highlight the extremeness of the "not licensing anything with even a minor resemblance" comment. |
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AntztheGreat
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They discontinued Nanoha along with almost every other Geneon title back in December: http://animecornerstore.blogspot.com/2010/12/funimation-discontinues-several-former.html |
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NJ_
 Posts: 3065 Location: Wallington, NJ |
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I still think that whole Bund fiasco was a publicity stunt just to get more people interested because of how they even got people who weren't familiar or didn't care for the show at all complaining about it at the time. |
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