The anime thread sequel (it's still not as good as the Manga though),

Argh, and I only, finally got round to buying the dvd of COC a few months ago:p

I've just finished reading Schoolgirl Milky Crisis (Jonathan Clements collection of articles etc on anime and manga), despite having been reading it for about 3 months on and off:p*
Which was both funny and informative.


*The cover isn't one I could really read in public without getting some odd looks:p
 
It's pretty weird timing for me as I was just talking about Ocean Waves with my Japanese teacher the other day and she is borrowing my Japanese copy at the moment.

I see that it has been announced that the Sentai BD release of Persona 4: The Animation is not going to have the Japanese audio, only the English dub, for it's September release. :(
 
That persona thing sounds pretty weird, I can only guess it's an issue with the licence (from what I remember reading, there have been times the Japanese licence holders have been a tad paranoid about reverse importation at times).
 
It has been indicated that it is a licensor requirement :rolleyes: (at them not you ;))

From PR:
SENTAI FILMWORKS

“PERSONA 4 THE ANIMATION”

HOUSTON, July 31, 2012 - Sentai Filmworks announces a release configuration change. The September 18, 2012 release of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on Blu-Ray will contain English language dub but not the original Japanese language. This change has been required by the Japanese licensor.

The revised Blu-Ray configuration of “Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 will be priced at $59.98 reflecting a shift from the former $69.98 price point.

“Persona 4 The Animation” Collection 1 on DVD will contain both English and Japanese audio, as well as the Japanese episode commentaries. Pricing for the DVD release is unchanged.

Sentai Filmworks’ release of “Persona 4 The Animation” is licensed for sale and use in the USA and Canada only. Export is prohibited.
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Gotta say, I cant imagine that doing wonders for sales. I (and I could be wrong) would imagine a lot of people willing to spend money on BDs of anime, quite probably want the Japanese language track.

I tend to listen to live action in the original language where possible, let alone anime, so I doubt Im the only one with similar preferences.
 
Export prohibited on Persona 4 ...really? :( I was all like "awesome, it releases on my birthday!", then saw the last bit :/ in this instance I don't mind the lack of a Japanese language track all too much as I quite liked the English voice acting of the PS2 game. Can't wait for the movie of Persona 3 either :D
 
Nimdok said:
Export prohibited on Persona 4 ...really? :( I was all like "awesome, it releases on my birthday!", then saw the last bit :/ in this instance I don't mind the lack of a Japanese language track all too much as I quite liked the English voice acting of the PS2 game. Can't wait for the movie of Persona 3 either :D
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That's pretty much always the way, and why most R1 companies won't sell direct to people outside the US and Canada (TRSI are about the only one that does, and I suspect that's because Nozomi are the licence holder and TRSI is the store...).
It sounds like in this case it's down to the fact Japanese discs are often insano prices, and the Japanese company basically don't want the US release to even have a chance of eating into their BD sales.

I think this is the first time I can remember them actually not letting the US release even have the Japanese track,
 
The Japanese price is so high as that the primary market so it's where they try and make back their production costs ... hence they are a rather paranoid about protecting it and are willing to cripple secondary market (e.g. US, UK etc) releases if it means the JP release doesn't have a decrease in sales. I think one of the Persona games is also the only PS3 game to be region locked.

The export prohibition is not normally a big deal really ... if the release is available through the usual stores then you will probably be able to source it from outside the US, (e.g. via UP).

Bandai did release Kurokami on BD as dub only as well due to license restrictions and I imagine that it affected sales like this will. Crayon Shin-chan was released on DVD as dub only as well.
 
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The Japanese Blu Ray/DVD Market is to be honest, messed up, especially compared to other countries.

I think it's a sad state of affairs for the anime industry as a whole that companies can still view their fans outside of japan as secondary markets. It might make business sense but in todays day and age you'd think there would be a better way of doing things where everybody benefits.

Didn't Japan crack down on people importing the American releases, because they often turn out to be much cheaper to obtain?

I love my anime, but they have some real issues with their industry that need addressing.
 
memyselfandi said:
The Japanese price is so high as that the primary market so it's where they try and make back their production costs ... hence they are a rather paranoid about protecting it and are willing to cripple secondary market (e.g. US, UK etc) releases if it means the JP release doesn't have a decrease in sales. I think one of the Persona games is also the only PS3 game to be region locked.

The export prohibition is not normally a big deal really ... if the release is available through the usual stores then you will probably be able to source it from outside the US, (e.g. via UP).
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That would be persona 4 arena.

The export restriction thing is pretty much pointless since other companies like UP can still get it (madoka is another example of this since it went fully export prohibited after the first volume was released and UP was still able to get hold of the later volumes).

Also Kaze have stated that they haven't had a similar request for their BD release yet so I'll be waiting for that to come out (since I've downgraded my US BD pre-order to the DVD version).
 
I think it's that they're worrying about the playback on Japanese machines (Japan and the US share a region code for blu), not export to say Europe or Aus.

As you say Kaze apparently haven't had a request to remove the Japanese track, but that could be because we're region B for Blu, which means reverse imporation to Japan isn't a worry for them in regards to the UK release (unlike if we'd kept the same region as Japan, like we did with DVD's).
 
That's right; they don't really appear to care overly much if people from X country import from a-n-other country as long as X isn't Japan.

--

Btw if anyone has got the UK release of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt then it would appear to be faulty .... from their Facebook feed ....

From Manga HQ -
Re: Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt DVD Issues

“Thank you to all of the customers who notified us of technical problems on our recently released DVD box set, Panty And Stocking With Garter Belt.

After investigating the many complaints we received via Twitter and Facebook we have examined the master tapes supplied to us and discovered faults on episodes 11, 12 and 13 of Disc 3. We run a vigorous quality control process at Manga Entertainment and unfortunately in this instance a critical error was made during the mastering process.

On behalf of Manga Entertainment I would like to apologize for any inconvenience and disappointment this has caused you. I know that many of you have been highly anticipating this release for many months and it is deeply regretful that you have received an inferior quality product.

Manga will be re-authoring both Discs 2 and 3 of the P&S set and creating all new stock. We will re-release the DVD soon, but an exact release date cannot be confirmed at this stage.

In the mean time we advise any customer who is unhappy with their purchase to return it to the point of purchase for a refund or credit. It is my hope that we shall have a brand new and flawless DVD release of Panty and Stocking available online and on-shelf at all good retailers by the end of September.

Please stay tuned for more information as it comes to hand. Thank you again for your patience and support.
Jerome Mazandarani,
Head of marketing and acquisitions,
Manga Entertainment LTD.”
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I got the set through monday, I'm half way through disc 2 at the moment, so will pobably see the problem tonight.

I think I'll probably be arranging with Amazon for a return tomorrow :(
Hopefully Manga are informing the retailers of the problem, as otherwise I can see some people having issues with a return to some retailers (IIRC HMV can be difficult if the DVD has been opened).
 
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