Forum - View topicREVIEW: Gunbuster 2 Sub.DVD 2
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Nerv1
 Posts: 601 |
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Seriously, what's with Bandai? Bandai's my favorite company and yet they're selling DVD's at a $39.99 msrp
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Shale
Posts: 337 Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE |
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Bandai Visual and Bandai Entertainment are different branches of the same gigantic company, which doesn't care enough about how they're run to micro-manage them. It's not the same people making the decisions.
Anyway, I love the episodes in this volume. Tycho's story doesn't add a whole lot to the show's plot but it's fun, well-told and caps off with an awesome fight scene, and episode 4...well, the ending just rocks. |
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Brand
 Posts: 1029 |
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The price is the only thing stopping me from buying these right away. They really need to re-think the pricing plan. I'll just wait for the box set for now.
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Deltakiral
 Posts: 3338 Location: Glendora, CA (Avatar Hei from Darker than BLACK) |
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I don't think the boxset (if one is ever released will be cheap, in fact it will probably cost the same price if not more. I am just going to rent all of BV releases, I mean that why I have a rental service I pay for to see titles I am interested but am not sure about dropping 20 dollars on each.....and for BV not sure about $25 each. |
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Shugotenshi
Posts: 18 |
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As much as my enjoyment of this title has been marred by the lack of a dub and the ridiculous price
 (I too am renting) I really enjoyed the first two episodes. However, I was thoroughly disappointed with episode three. Tycho is a total bitch and I normally like what bitchy characters bring to a story. Luckily the fourth episode kicked enough ass to make up for Tycho (but not enough to fork over $80 bucks for four episodes).
This is only my personal opinion and I'm not trying to introduce the sub/dub debate into this thread. |
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Saiyo_Chan
 Posts: 72 Location: U.S |
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I typically don't care too much about the lack of a dub, especially if it means a price cut. But in this case, it seems like a significant negative, at least for me; I hate having to pause the DVD to read subtitles.
That, and the price tag and lack of episodes, means that if I do buy this, I'll definitely be waiting until I can find the DVD for $15 or so on eBay. Most likely, this will be a rental, because I can't imagine paying $20 an episode whether there is a dub or not, no matter how good the extras. Too bad, though, because I thought this would be an interesting series from the moment I saw the DVD cover. It's very Haruko-esque, so I wasn't at all surprised that it was a Gainax series, and I've been wanting to watch an anime with more of the FLCL-style animation. |
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Lix
 Posts: 31 Location: All the wrong places... |
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Since I've already seen this show, I didn't actually read your review, but I have to say I honestly don't care about the price (and certainly not the lack of a dub). I'll be buying this release immediately. Why? Because I love Gunbuster 2, and it's worth every dollar bill I have to go out and earn to pay for it. The article from today's Ask John at AnimeNation has only further cemented my decision. The truth is, these are OVA releases anyway and can't be accurately compared to television series in terms of disc content. They cost a lot more to produce and have far less exposure; they are obviously going to want more money for them. And even if that weren't true, I have no right to believe that I can steal releases from them and act as if I have any legitimacy as their customer.
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Shale
Posts: 337 Location: The Middle of Nowhere, DE |
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That article is idiotic. Customers don't have some moral obligation to buy anime regardless of the cost - they buy titles they like at prices they can afford. That's how capitalism works. If a company prices its titles out of the market and I decide to buy some competing, affordable kind of entertainment instead, that is not me being a bad person, even if those prices reflect the cost of producing the product. It's just a rational economic decision.
Now, maybe there are enough hard-core fans out there with the disposable income to support this kind of release. If there are, then this strategy makes sense, for all that it annoys me by releasing titles I might otherwise buy out of my budget. But you can hardly bitch and moan about more casual (or poor) fans not buying the when they're being deliberately excluded from the target audience. |
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calawain
Posts: 192 Location: New York, NY |
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I would also dispute several points in that article. Maybe it's different in Japan, but here in America you shouldn't just "accept" that something is expensive and just blow all your money on stuff you don't know whether is good or not. Capitalism is based on spending your money smartly and corporations predicting what consumers really want and how much they are willing to pay for it. Lower prices, competition, more quality and less quantity-these are all good things in many cases. If anime companies are struggling here in America the solution isn't to save them by having anime fans dump all their money into no-name titles. If the companies are struggling they need to adjust their business model, that's how capitalism and the free market works.
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chicogrande
 Posts: 190 Location: Huntsville, Alabama |
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Says "Ask John" at AnimeNation. "The temptation of cheap anime has convinced American consumers that anime isn't worth high prices." "The availability of free, illegally distributed anime and the availability of cheap official releases have combined to convince consumers that anime isn't worth paying for." Exactly! "Anime is not a right. It is a privilege, a consumer product, art, work for hire, a luxury, a hobby, entertainmen," Chris Beveridge, Anime On DVD. I am tired of the complaining about how "expensive" Aim For The Top 2 (Gunbuster 2) is. I watched my volume 2 last night and it was wonderful! 
IMO, Gunbuster 2 has the best 2ch Dolby Stereo I have ever listened to. It has a sound quality I had never heard before from any other domestic distributor release. With a video quality to match, it is the best region 1 release in a long time. I haven't had this much fun with Anime since my early sub-only VHS days. I have enjoyed the fast-paced storytelling, the effective character development, the mecha action, and the loud explosions! I am so glad I paid for quality with this DVD release. |
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Brand
Posts: 1029 |
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Here's how I look at it. The American anime market is already set at 30 dollars a dvd. For that 30 dollars I'd like 3-4 eps, and a dub along with a sub.
I myself almost never watch the dub first but often I buy series I want to watch with my friends some of whom rather watch the dub for various reasons. Often back in the VHS days if it came down to watching two series and one was dubbed we would watch the dubbed one because my best friend couldn't see the subtitles all that well. I can be more forgiving for the number of episodes if it's a short series but there are limits. So to me buying a 40 dollar dvd isn't worth it. I steal really liked Gunbuster 2, but with my budget I can't see justifying the price. And as for the ask John article there are a few major problems with it it's logic. Sure America has the chance to be a huge anime market and break though shows like Dragon Ball Z and Naruto prove that. But I highly doubt that the anime community in the U.S. is even close in size to what it is in Japan. Plus a lot of anime titles that are very popular are aimed at younger children (pre 13) in Japan, which is a huge segment that isn't that reachable in the U.S. because content that fine for kids in Japan does not equal content that is fine for kids in the U.S. Also while the kids are the ones buying toys based off of these products in the U.S. it's the teen/young adult fans buying the dvds in the U.S. So that's my problem with that article. While I do strongly believe you should pay for the entrainment you have enjoyed, if it comes down to two things I like and one is less expensive it's going to be the one I'll buy. I really don't think Bandai is being competitive enough with their pricing especially with a lack of dub. For titles that are very strong like Gunbuster 2, this might not hurt it, but with other titles this might be a big downfall for them. But I guess we will just have to wait and see. |
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Pepperidge
 Posts: 1106 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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You can defend them with that angle if you want, but it's not the logic that they're applying to their business strategy. Most of the titles they're releasing are TV series, or decade (or two) old movies. If anything, we're getting a better deal on Gunbuster 2 than we are on a lot of their upcoming stuff. |
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HitokiriShadow
 Posts: 6251 |
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Galaxy Angel Rune is the only TV series they are releasing, as far as I know. Everything else is a movie or an OVA.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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As this thread has dissolved into a "BV USA: the suck or not the suck?" I'll just say that it was episode four that got me interested in Gunbuster 2 with all of its hectic lunacy. I was on the fence after the first three episodes, which are enjoyable in their own way, but the fourth sealed it. But that seems to be a trend for some OVAs, like Gunbuster, Giant Robot, and Bubblegum Crisis where you have the bubbly episodes to kick off the series and then the "uber-serious and quality writing" decides to show up in the latter half.
Should we expect a review of the final volume soon, Theron?
They've licensed Kissdum, too, though that's apparently so god-awful that no one really cares. I really hope that BV USA keeps it to OVAs and movies. Their upcoming Honneamise release seems more similar to their Patlabor movie releases with a Criterion-esque release (yes, English dub included), sans regular edition, and I can tolerate having to put down money for that along with an occasional OVA series like Gunbuster 2. But if they pick up something like Denno Coil, effectively ostracizing an excellent series like that from a lot of fans who would buy it otherwise and potential viewers who would check out it, then I'd be mad as hell. |
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HitokiriShadow
Posts: 6251 |
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Oh, right, I forgot about Kissdum. So BV has two TV series and neither has actually been released yet.
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