Message-ID: <485137.87381.qm@web42101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:52:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Joseph Riggs To: tenchi@usagi.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: [tenchi:106435] Re: Seikishi Monogatari Subbed Reply-To: tenchi@ml.usagi.org ML-Count: 106435 Precedence: bulk --- On Fri, 7/10/09, Alan Zabaro wrote: > From: Alan Zabaro > Subject: [tenchi:106433] Re: Seikishi Monogatari Subbed > To: tenchi@usagi.org > Date: Friday, July 10, 2009, 1:15 AM > Joseph Riggs wrote: > I attended AX, though I didn't catch all the industry > panels. However, no such license was announced, according to > what I saw and the ANN panel summaries. Frankly, I can't say > I'm surprised - the US anime industry has had its ass > thoroughly kicked these last few years. To recap, for those > who haven't kept up on the news: > > 10. Japanese companies are getting more directly involved > in the US market, though they're still going through some > American companies. Toei provided a bunch of the shows for > video rooms (they're working with Crunchyroll), and Aniplex > held their own panel (they showed a dubbed episode 1 of Guin > Saga, and it looks like they're trying to build to a release > of Kannagi; I don't see that as doing much better than Lucky > Star, which sold poorly enough that the Limited Edition of > volume 6 had to be cancelled...) Anyway, I get the > impression that Aniplex is inclined to partner with Bandai > for the time being, if only because Bandai's release of > Gurren Lagann seems to have gone well enough. That's basically the Bandai model, and it makes a certain amount of sense (keeping in mind that the local Bandai affiliate is still forced to bid for pretty much every Bandai Japan release except for Gundam related shows). In particular, now that the US and Japan are part of the same Blu-Ray region, I think that we can expect to see more and more of this. As more Americans get Blu-Ray, I expect that we'll see more Blu-Ray discs released by Japanese companies that also have English sub-titles and are meant for sale both in Japan and the US. > To give you an idea of the scale of announcements: Nozomi's > new licenses were Antique Bakery and Junjou Romantica. And > that's it from them. Funimation - who now constitute 40% of > the US anime market by sales volume, IIRC - announced > Sengoku Basara, and a re-release of the original Dragon Ball > (which I count as a new license only because they got the > first 13 episodes, previously in license limbo). Don't get > me wrong - I think that the convention itself was in pretty > good shape (the video rooms could've used a little more > variety), and the fan energy was great. But the industry was > barely present. Given that, and given the fansub I saw of > episode 1 of Saint Knight, I don't intend to hold my breath > on it getting licensed in the US. I mean, much stronger > series haven't even been touched yet (Zetsubou-sensei, > Moyashimon, Dennou Coil...), and I don't think that > indicates a lack of interest from the Region 1 companies so > much as a lack of cash on hand. Hell, Funimation's now the > only company that basically dubs everything they license. > Maybe Manga still does, when they get around to licensing > something. And Funimation is also busy grabbing old series that have had their licenses expire. > On a lighter note, I arrived at the anime club a few > minutes late a couple weeks back, and it took me a minute to > realize they were showing Saint Knight. Not that I'd seen > it, but it isn't that hard to recognize Kajishima-inspired > character designs. I'm glad to see that Tenchi's > half-brother knows how to handle himself in a battle, though > I wonder if that's the influence of Tenchi and Yosho, or if > that comes from Tokimi's blessing. I finally got hold of a raw of episode 4 last night. And mini-spoilerette - Episode 4 contains the first definitive link between Kenshi and Tenchi. There's a very short (just a second or two) scene of someone/something that should be familiar to everyone here, but won't mean much to anyone who's not familiar with Tenchi. junior