Anime industry rant time

Recent post made to one ML I get...


"May I ask why you simple don't start ignoring official releases?"

Ah... That's a good idea. I don't know why I haven't done that. I guess
I care too much to ignore them.

"Why do you even follow them if you hate all of them?"

Well, it's not all of the US releases I hate. Just releases of anime I
used to be passionate about. But I keep abreast of the info because
there'll be those fans who buy those releases that I'll eventually come
into contact with (case in point: Ranma 1/2 "dubbies") that I have to
set straight.

"I don't remember a single post of you saying you liked an official
relase (and I remember many, many posts of you saying how much you hate
them, usually before even buying the item)."

Let's see...

I liked Grappler Baki, $9 from CPM, after being exposed to the manga in
the now lamented Raijin Comics.

I got Cleopatra DC ($9 from AnimeWorks), because she wears a bunnygirl
outfit in the first part. The mastering of the original footage isn't
all that great, and AnimeWorks just pressed their subtitled master to
disc, but hey, it's got babes and a great story. Reminds me of Dirty
Pair.

I bought Mouse V.1 while at Anime North, and the equivalent price was
$15 US, while I had seen it in Previews for $19.99. Only 90 minutes of
video, so $15 seems OK. It's like Lupin III with lots of T&A. Not that I
mind.

I got Hirameki International's release of "Idol Fighter Su-Chi-Pai",
only for bunnygirl footage and some nice DVD-ROM extras. They sliced off
the obscene bits (according to what they put on the DVD), so I feel
cheated for paying $24.95. I wanted footage of Milky Pai so I bit the
bullet, but not again.

I got ADV's release of Miyuki-chan in Wonderland some time ago, only
because the $15 DVD was cheaper than Right Stuf's price of $27 for the
subtitled VHS edition they were offering at the time. Nice Adobe Acrobat
2.0 compatible DVDrom extra on it, too.

The Animatrix was $15. Nuff said.

I own only 2 Ranma 1/2 DVDs. Forever V.6 for the Miss Beachside episode,
and V.8 because it's the last release and has 4 episodes. What fan would
I be if I didn't have both the first and last episodes? Viz, in my
opinion, had a license to print money with Ranma 1/2 VHS subs.

I have all 5 Hyper Police DVDs by Image Entertainment. $19 each. I also
have the entire series fansubbed.

I bought Shamanic Princess ($19 CPM) because it was $19, and I had seen
a promo for it a while ago on a _fansub tape_ I got. A friend of mine
already had it and liked the artwork on the insert I had (CPM has done 2
editions of it), so we switched insert cards, since I like the artwork
his copy had. It turned out to be something that put me to sleep, even
though I was able to watch 5 episodes in one sitting.

I own 3 Anime Test Drive DVDs ($7.99 each, CPM) of Ping Pong Club (so I
could understand some people's fascination with it), Legend of Himiko
(while the opening animation and Pure Snow are excellent, the TV series
falls a bit...), and World of Narue (could have been more than just 1
episode). Watch out for ADV's Anime Minis. They may be cheap but they're
dub only.

I've been trying like crazy to get the one Sakura Taisen disc that's $9,
some Sumire thing that's only 30 minutes long. Funimation had it, now
it's been relisted this month in Previews... Come to think of it,
Tokyopop was offering a manga called "Doll", and now Viz says they have
it. Has there been more than a few cases of one company saying they've
got a manga title and another buying the license out from under them???

and finally, I have Iczer Reborn, 6 episodes, $19.99, only because I
have the original Iczer-3 anime on tape. But there's a bunch of Iczer
stuff I haven't seen...

"Why worry about the quality of something you won't buy?"

Because I'd feel bad that others aren't getting what they should for
what they're paying. If they're paying $10, $20, or $30 for an anime
DVD, they should get their money's worth, from someone who put forth
their absolute best efforts to produce something. Read Ayn Rand's Atlas
Shrugged. A friend loaned that to me and it's changed a lot of how I
view things. If I were to produce a translated manga edition, I'd want
people to have the absolute best version I could produce, simply because
someone would go out and earn money to buy it. They'd be using money to
trade their best efforts for mine, and they deserve nothing less. We all
give our best to do things, don't we? You expect a good value for your
money, you shop around for a price you're willing to pay. You deserve
nothing less than that.

"If things are really this way, stop ignoring completely what is coming
officially and your stress level will be smaller."

I'd rather try contacting the companies and tell them what they're doing
wrong and what they could do to improve. Most of the time they don't
listen, but you have to keep trying. I actually got responses from
people at Tokyopop in the past. Granted, they're not perfect, but not as
bad as they used to be. About the only publisher of translated manga I
don't gripe about is Ironcat. Steve's had his share of troubles, but I
feel they do honest translations. Hanaukyo Maids is one of their current
titles I absolutely eat up eagerly. ^.^

"Your approach of "give me absolute perfection or I'll hate it" it's a
litte bit too much for me."

gomen nasai.. I know absolute perfection isn't possible, but they should
at least consult some fans who love the series as to how some things
should be done, someone outside of the company who can "proofread" what
they've done, someone who has a different view on their work. The
company people sit at these things day in and day out and they can
sometimes lose the focus of what they're doing.

They could help by lowering prices, too. ^_- I don't see these DVDs
competing with VHS editions for your dollars, so the methods used today
are silly.