Michael Toole (animejump@FANBOY.ORG)
Mon, 11 Oct 1999 13:59:52 -0400
X-Originating-IP: [199.207.255.50] Message-ID: <199910111759.NAA19063@musone.chek.com> Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 13:59:52 -0400 From: Michael Toole <animejump@FANBOY.ORG> Subject: Re: ADV release date
[side note: I'm back, folks, and all excited about the forthcoming Sakura Taisen DVD-- not to mention the fact that I got Hanagumi Columns for $14.00 in Akihabara last month!)
On Sun, 10 Oct 1999 22:31:29 -0700 terrence huey <thuey@UCDAVIS.EDU> wrote:
> true, but it took CPM a little bit to acquire Next, and
> as you say Try(I don't believe I read about any official
> announcement on that one though).
There's something about it on www.animeondvd.com-- Chris doesn't usually report on stuff unless he has the word from the company. Slayers Try from CPM is a no-brainer, though; Slayers is just about their most popular title, and they had first dibs on it.
>Or perhaps it was just thrown in with something non-sega
> related. They announced a bunch of titles at that time.
They announced Sonic, ST, Panzer Dragoon, and Nadesico all at the same time. All of these have sponsorships from SEGA. Probably not a coincidence.
Anyway, I'd think that they'd have been hotter to get Sonic than Sakura Taisen-- it's sold WAAAY better (even cracked the Billboard Top 10!).
>50 people that like ADV? Why? Because ADV's rich?
No, because they're getting the titles that people want. That's the name of the game.
> The only thing the company has over others is the fact
> that they've got tons of money,
No they don't! They're a startup, they're only a few years old. The reason they've got so many good titles is because they're willing to bid higher than any of the other companies, and also willing to spend way more money marketing their stuff. The fact is, John O'Donnell is a cheap bastard; if a title isn't already a proven seller (like Slayers or Lodoss TV) or doesn't have his preferred ingredients for success (sex n' violence) he won't pay much for it, and he NEVER buys advertising of any sort outside of a few ads in Animerica. He's said as much in the past. Pioneer have WAY more buying power than ADV (as do Manga), but I don't think they're as interested in releasing everything under the sun as ADV are.
> because of that, they buy other licenses(and sit on them
> for a year or so...).
Yeah, they have this bad habit of announcing licenses way too early (it takes six months to a year to actually produce and prepare a title for the American market. ADV are announcing stuff as they're buying it; other companies don't really do that. Media Blasters let it slip in February or March that they had Rayearth; sure enough, six months later, we've got a product. ADV took a lot longer with Nadesico, but hey, here it comes.)
> But the point is, yes, I would have preferred AE because
> they have not "wronged" me in any way.
AE are much bigger slowpokes than ADV, imho. They should be able to produce new volumes of Urusei Yatsura way faster than they have been.
> This is NOT my opinion! My opinion is that I hate ADV
> and I would be very happy if their office burned down to
> the ground.
They probably have insurance. ;-)
>The above is a fact. There are only two companies out
> there that people consistently complain about, and taken
> a step further, will not support at all.
Terrence, what's your source on this? I've seen people complain about ADV on raam, but USENET is not an accurate gauge of what fandom thinks. I've also seen people complain about every other company on raam. And at conventions. And at retail stores. Every company has its fans and detractors. I'm on the fence-- I like Central Park Media because they release DVD, but I hate them because they're turning into a soft-porn company. I like ADV because they have slick, attention-grabbing product and are friendly people, but I hate them because their pricing structures are absurd.
> But I don't think Viz is doing any harm since they're
> mainly doing Ranma and those who care for Ranma will buy
> it, those who don't won't.
The hell you say, my friend! ;-) Viz have Please Save My Earth, and I *VERY MUCH* want that on DVD. They're not moving forward with DVD much at all, I don't like that.
> It was ADV because it is ADV that actually pisses off
> the fans, and AE in retrospect, tries to appeal only
> to the fans.
Actually, out of all of the retail-friendly (AE is *not* retail friendly, Robert has said specifically that he's turning the company into a specialty boutique to bring over niche titles for the fans who preorder them) vendors, it seems like ADV has the best idea of what fans want. They just charge an arm and a leg for it. :-P
>1) How good quality are those ADV tapes you get?
I get screeners. They're fine. I only watch each one once or twice. I'm a DVD man.
>2) What about extras? Let's see... AnimEigo has box sets > for people as collector's items. Pioneer has first
> pressings that usually come with stickers, cards, etc.
And ADV releases have had stickers and postcards stuck in with them (EVA and Dirty Pair Flash had free NERV and WWWA parking stickers, IIRC-- and Nadesico will come with postcards). Not only that, but Nadesico has clean versions of the OP and ED of Nadesico on their tapes. I'd like to see Pioneer do that-- their "clean" credit sequences on the El-Hazard DVDs still have hard subtitles!
>Am I the only one who is bothered by this? This is just
> the extreme case,but normally the dub/sub gap is $10
> with ADV(as opposed to $5 for other companies or no gap
> at all some cases).
Yeah, they're definitely being assholes about this. Thing is, I don't even BUY VHS anymore...
>4) What about descriptions and advertising? ADV started
> out with a lot of adult titles and that was their main
> selling point. Yet even though they mainly do
> mainstream titles now, they sometimes try to advertise a
> product as being sexual in nature or whatever.
They haven't done this for years, though. (Yeah, I was pissed off when they laid that kind of advertising copy on Airbats...)
> I know a bunch of people were upset with how they
> handled Boku no MARI/My Dear Marie because if you read
>the description on the back of the video, it gives you
> the impression thatit is porn-ish or at least ecchi.
I've got a copy of the catalog in front of me (the catalog uses the same synopses as the box copy) and there isn't much suggestive language in there at all. Maybe they changed the copy (they've been known to do that-- see also Ninja Resurrection!)
>5) Translations?
Questionable, particularly Matt Greenfield's dubs. The Slayers movies are crappy (the entire way ADV has handled their portion of the Slayers license is crappy), but the quality level is generally OK for a lot of their stuff-- I was actually quite pleased with the job on Sakura Taisen.
>But while the latter sounds fine and dandy, the fact that
> ADV fits in this equation changes everything and I will
> most likely get neither.
That's your decision. I've already preordered mine, and VEHEMENTLY encouranged Matt Greenfield to continue to release DVDs that way-- I want ADV to release better products, and the only way to do that is to communicate with them, and buy their products on YOUR terms.
I don't believe we need to take this discussion to private email. It's too interesting! Let's just be civil, we're all friends here right? ;-)
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