Forum - View topicViz and Monster...now what?
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4737 |
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I don't think I'll have to explain the subject of this thread to many (if any) in here. Viz licenses Monster, Viz dubs monster, Viz gets Monster on SyFy, Viz releases the first DVD set...and some 18 months later, nothing, other than vague rumors of "didn't sell all that well." We know the story. What prompts me to write this is that I picked up that sole DVD set in the current RightStuf Viz sale. And buying it got me thinking about the continued (and possibly/probably permanent) lack of any follow-ups, and what caused the current situation.
First off, I don't really buy the closest thing we've heard to an official line, that the first boxset didn't "perform well." Maybe if you're using "perform well" in the sense of Naruto Season Whatever, but not in the sense of a general anime release. Monster has way too much renown amongst serious anime fandom, the types of people who actually buy DVDs, for that to be the case. People wanted it licensed for a long time, and those same people clamored over it after Viz took their sweet time acting on the license. And when they finally did act, they actually managed to do fairly right by it at first, giving it a good solid dub and (amazingly enough) getting the whole series aired on a wide-exposure cable network. It had the fanbase, it had the exposure...that first DVD set had to at least break even. Viz managed to release four sets' worth of Nana and three of Honey & Clover...you can't tell me that Monster managed to sell substantially worse than either of those titles. (Let's not even get into the fact that Viz distributes at least two series that essentially print their own money, so they could more than afford to have one release that hovers around the break-even point.) But let's say that, somehow, it did. Why would that be the case? If that blame lies anywhere, it's squarely at Viz's own feet. They have to realize the reputation they've gained among fans for not managing to follow through on titles they've licensed and started releasing. There are several different titles this has happened to, and several different fanbases who have managed to get burned. When Viz put out that first Monster set, they had to realize that there would be a decent number of people waiting to see that it would be followed up by at least one more, so that they didn't start buying something that would never get finished. But Viz has never so much as solicited that second set...not even once. In any sort of sane world, you'd think they would have put out at least two sets up-front, just to see how sales progressed with the promise of more material upcoming right down the pike. Because they didn't, the predicable happened: people waited on buying it, and when a second set never materialized, they just didn't. So that's what happened, or at least my take on it. Now here's the real point of all this: what can we do about it? Can we even do anything at all? I went digging around Viz Media's website, and I didn't see any sort of web-based contact information, not so much as an e-mail address (which seems very odd for any sort of company, but whatever). What I did find, though, was a mailing address. We've all seen examples of letter-writing campaigns from various fandoms, some of which managed to produce concrete results. I don't remember ever seeing anyone suggest something similar for Monster, though. So...why not? It's not like there's anything to lose. Even a concrete "we're never releasing any of this, too bad" would be better than the status quo. And Viz seeing letters wind up in their mailbox from people who have bought the first set, from people who didn't precisely because there was never a second set, from people who would pre-order a new set the first day it was available...it'd have to make at least some sort of impression. The way I see it, Viz has already sunk a lot of money into this series. They have all 74 episodes completely dubbed, episodes that are already available via streaming sources. Any profit they could generate off continued DVD releases would be just that, profit. So am I tilting at windmills, or is this something you think could actually work? Could we get any sort of decent-scale letter campaign together? Would people be willing to put pen to paper and let Viz know that there is a market for this series, a market who'd love to finally put it on their shelves? I'd love to see people's thoughts on it. And in the meantime, if you ever thought about buying that first boxset but decided to put it off because of the lack of follow-up releases...try giving it a second thought. I bought that first set because I figured that owning at least part of the show on DVD was better than never getting the chance to own any of it. If Viz really did call off future DVD releases due to poor sales, the very worst thing the show's fans could do would be to continue that status quo by not buying what's actually available. Creating a self-fulfilling prophecy won't help anything. |
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jsc315
 Posts: 925 |
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Well it's goods to see someone at least have some hope for Viz still. These guys have beaten me down to the point of just not caring anymore. I really don't think a petition or really anything will do any good at all at this point. They have a hard enough time doing what it is they want to in the first place listening to the fans is pretty much out of the realm of even possibility. Viz media is a joke of a company. With them and Bandai I really do believe they go out of their way just to fail. I mean there is no other reason for the stuff they do. These 2 companies must just not want to make money and fail at what they do.
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wcsinn
 Posts: 186 |
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Viz is a hard company to figure out, it often seems as if they are working in direct opposition to their own best interests. I would imagine that at least part of the reason lies with there being entirely Japanese owned and operated. Having worked for a Japanese owned and operated company, I can tell you that they do business quite differently from the usual U.S. company.
Look at their recent decisions to start streaming more of their properties thru Netflix I believe it was - all of the series involved have been dubbed by Viz but they have chosen to stream them as subtitled only. It's not my intention to ignite the same old subbed versus dubbed arguments, but clearly these new releases on Netflix would have a much larger potential audience if they had released the dubbed versions which they already have in their procession. As you stated, Monster is another good example - they have already spent the bulk of potential expenses by already owning a dubbed version - the only left to do is burn DVDs and packaging so why withhold the very thing that is necessary to help sales of the series - making the entire series available. All the more confusing in light of Viz's pricing policy - when other companies are making anime more affordable (especially older series), Viz continues to release 2 disc packaging and calls them box-sets while pricing them at the top of the market - this holds true even for older series like Ranma 1/2. And even their more popular series lag far behind the releases available in Japan, One Piece is only available through season 3 I believe, and even Bleach - which they have apparently made some effort to bring more up to date - lags far behind the number of episodes available in Japan, same for Naruto. |
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lesterf1020
 Subscriber Posts: 295 Location: Trinidad and Tobago |
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That's just the way Viz does business. You are just going to have to get used to it. I can't tell you how unhappy I was to hear that Viz got Kekkaishi. It pretty much guarantees that there will be only one box set. If a series doesn't sell as well as Naruto or Bleach Viz will dump it no matter how much they invested in it previously.
Well I suppose one Kekkaishi boxset is better than nothing. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24024 |
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Yeah, I don't get Viz at all. We outsiders would need an insider to give us the scoop to be able to make heads or tails of their decisions. Unfortunately, with some R1 distribs, amateur hour reigns supreme. The people involved with companies that service their customer base poorly, such as Viz, are obviously run by people who either have no clue how to do it right or they don't have enough simple human pride in doing a good job to bother figuring it out.
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Divineking
 Posts: 1296 |
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I don;t know how they make their decisions but I doubt their standards are THAT high. I;m willing to believe Death Note sold around that range since it had a large fanbase and a TV airing, but Buso Renkin and Hunter X Hunter got full releases despite little promotion from Viz so I highly doubt they were anywhere in Naruto and Bleach's range. Who knows? Maybe they just give anything under the SJ label better treatment anime wise. As far as Kekkaishi goes I think Viz will release all of it. I mean it;s been on AS for a year as well as iTunes and and Hulu so they;ve had enough time to gauge whether or not a physical release would sell, but again I;m not sure so I;ll just see what happens. |
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Top Gun
Posts: 4737 |
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that Viz's business practices often make little to no sense. The way in which they've handled Monster from the beginning seems like they're trying to make the minimum possible profit...like, why bother licensing the property in the first place if that's how you're going to approach it? Divineking makes a good point by mentioning those other series that Viz managed to get out the door in full. When you put everything together, it just doesn't add up. I wish we did have a way of getting insider information about how things work at Viz, or at least having someone like Justin or Zac who's much more familiar with the industry as a whole weigh in on the subject.
Still, though, I think it's worth at least trying something. I'll be the first to mock online petitions as accomplishing pretty much nothing, but something like a letter-writing campaign carries much more weight. The fact that someone went out of their way to write out a letter and physically mail it means they're much more invested than someone who clicked a button on a website...plus, it gives whoever opens Viz's mail some actual physical bother.  I think the show has a large enough fandom to produce some respectable response, provided people can manage to get the word out.
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RAmmsoldat
 Posts: 1261 Location: North wales coast |
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what irks me is that they sit on things in silence for years, it took sooooo long for them to release honey and clover i thought they were never going to.
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7991 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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VIZ has definitely made my sh** list for their treatment of Monster, I can tell you that. It's one of my favorite series and I was really happy when I thought I'd be able to own the series....then Viz pulls this.
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Top Gun
Posts: 4737 |
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I'm angry too, so why not channel that anger into something potentially constructive? The chances we may actually change Viz's minds are probably slim to none, but any chance is better than none, and having mail show up on their doorsteps would at least show them that they've managed to legitimately anger a portion of their potential customer base. If you have friends who liked the show too, toss the idea around. Let's see if we can get some nerd rage going.
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RoverTX
 Posts: 424 |
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While we're at it we should something about Inuyasha Final Act also! They are just sitting on that for god knows what reason.....Unless they some how think releasing the anime ending before the manga ending is going to depress sales of the manga.....
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Top Gun
Posts: 4737 |
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There's no way they won't get Final Act out there, not with how huge of a title Inuyasha has always been for them. Common wisdom has it almost certainly airing on [adult swim], so they could be holding off on releasing it until that happens. Though that might be giving them too much credit.
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SgtMustang
Posts: 158 |
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Its a very long, slow paced, mature series, of coarse its going to have poor sales.
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kadosho
Posts: 12 |
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Viz has always been the underdog company for some reason.
*note I am still trying to find Fatal Fury -the movie- (ahem) But actually seeing Monster, finally be complete. I remember the announcement way back in 2006.. um wow it couldn't be that long. Okay, this is not a good sign, especially for them. Ouch. |
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Mad_Scientist
 SubscriberModerator  Posts: 3011 |
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I seem to recall a fairly recent ANNCast where Viz was discussed, at least a little bit. If I remember correctly, they said that for Viz, the anime side of things is pretty much just an afterthought, but they didn't go into a huge amount of details that I can remember. |
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