True Tears Licensed by Bandai Visual USA (now Bandai Ent.)

[Pellissier]

Bandai Visual USA has licensed True Tears, source of the news being the official site:

http://bandaivisual.us/pdfs/PressRelease080130-st.pdf

http://www.bandaivisual.us/truetears/

Feel free to discuss the topic in this thread. And as usual, any discussion about where to download the True Tears anime are no longer allowed as of now.

[suguru]

Wow...seven discs for a 13 episode series? Looks like Bandai Visual USA is trying to price this the same as Galaxy Angel Rune:

True Tears will have...one episode on the first volume and two on the subsequent six volumes. Single episode volumes are being done at $29.99 while two episode volumes are at $39.99.

I applaud them for bringing it to the US quickly, but the pricing is so much higher than what R1 releases historically go for, it's hard not to feel ripped off. I guess I'll have to see after Netflix-ing it if it's worth buying or not, as good as it's been so far it might be.

Makes me wonder though--did anyone buy Galaxy Angel Rune at the same prices? Maybe enough people did that they considered it a success, but I would have expected it sold badly and that Bandai would have learned their lesson from that. Funi's CEO recently said in an interview he thought single-volume releases would go away and be replaced with just box sets...Bandai Visual USA seems to have different ideas, though...

[Ultenth]

It's protectionism, in order to prevent reverse importing so they can still charge the crazy rates in Japan. I expect very poor sales as most hardcore fans that would want it that early would have already watched it via fansubs, and regular fans won't be willing to shell out the cash. I imagine only a very very small subset of fans will willingly pay $270 for under 5 hours of a sub only release show. Just in terms of cost per minute compared to other ways to spend the money on entertainment it's crazy. Also Bandai usually does a crappy job with most of the shows they bring over, so I can imagine their sub only release won't be any better (probably worse) than the subs done by some of the better fansub groups (which are also available in HD).

[suguru]

Yeah, if everyone in R1 was charging as much for anime as Bandai, I'd have less sticker shock since I'd be used to it--kind of like how everyone in the US is more or less used to paying $3 a gallon for gasoline now. But what Bandai's doing is like trying to sell gas for $10 a gallon, when every other gas station in town has it for $3...

[fuzzles]

this is a joke right? no matter how good a show is(and this is a dang good one) $30 for 25 minutes of entertainment? I'd like to know who's running that company and where he's been living. I'm still getting used to $25 for 3-4 episodes, the quality sure as hell better be better than the HD formats and it better include a 2 hour director's cut if i buy this entire show i'll blow 3 months of my entertainment budget for something I'd finish in a few hours.

they should post their profit curve cause I'm curious how many they expect to sell

[Sinestra]

Jesus so expensive that makes 2 series today (shingofumi) that i like and considered buying depending on the ending but with these prices im not sure that i want to. I watch fansubs just like everyone but if i like a series i make sure to pay homage to the hardworking people and pay money when the series comes out. Other than that im not surprised it was going to happen sooner rather than later as this is a good series to market in the west. But because of the high price and lack of material on each disc i dont see it selling so well.

[Rhyel]

The guys of Bandai visit the Animesuki. Possible dialog in Bandai Visual US:

- Hey Boss, look. True Tears win a subforum on AnimeSuki.

- Wow, Then True Tears is really good. Fast, call to Bandai Visual JP now.

- Roger.

- Hello, Boss JP, Here is Boss US speaking, Give a License to True Tears, please.

- Sure, but surprise me the speed of the request, any reason?

- No, just my intuition for business.



PS: Sorry my English

[DragoonKain3]

For this series, I'm more than willing to pay the price. On one condition, there MUST be dubs.

And yes, I was willing to pay half a thousand dollars for two Cardcaptor Sakura box sets, only to find out before hand that they don't have dubs. Needless to say I didn't buy it, and seeing as this one won't, I ain't buying it either. Maybe when it's discounted as being in a box set, I'd buy it, but certainly not at that price w/out dubs.

Bandai Visual, do you hear me?

EDIT: Either that, or give me an option to buy it in HD, I'd even pay extra. Though I know there's nary a chance in hell that's going to happen. ^^;

[Blaat]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

For this series, I'm more than willing to pay the price. On one condition, there MUST be dubs.

And raise the DVD price to $50 because of the dub? no thnx.

[cloudninja]

Unfortunately if the street price is'nt much lower then they're not going to sell that well numbers wise. I can get a number of 24 episode series box collections at Amazon for around a hundred or less and this is only a 13 episode series. I would be willing to pay 100 to maybe 150 but not 200+ for 13 episodes. Even 100 to 150 is a big premium compared to almost all the competitors.

[rg4619]

Funi's CEO recently said in an interview he thought single-volume releases would go away and be replaced with just box sets...Bandai Visual USA seems to have different ideas, though...

Bandai Visual is in a completely different position. As long as they make more money than they normally would (i.e. via typical licensing agreements with American distributors), they aren't actually worse off than before. With licensing fees are bottoming out, they don't have a whole lot to lose.

It'd be interesting to know what they deem to be a success. Obviously, BVUSA isn't targeting as large a customer base as ADV or Funimation.

Jesus so expensive that makes 2 series today (shingofumi) that i like and considered buying depending on the ending but with these prices im not sure that i want to. I watch fansubs just like everyone but if i like a series i make sure to pay homage to the hardworking people and pay money when the series comes out.

Yeah, I don't expect many people to buy these.

For me, collecting the series right off the bat is out of the question. However, I do intend to support it initially by purchasing select volumes.

[KholdStare]

True Tears will have...one episode on the first volume and two on the subsequent six volumes. Single episode volumes are being done at $29.99 while two episode volumes are at $39.99.

... .... ...

[Kristen]

Well, this is certainly stupid. How does Bandai even know that the series is going to be any good? And selling it for such a high price too.

[felix]

They know you like it ATM... that's why.

[Deathkillz]

YO WTF!

...

And another pricey license.

Dam...



The seem to have an eye for picking series but at the rate they are going, it is more a turn off than turn on >.>

[rg4619]

Bandai Visual is also behind the production of these series. They aren't a third-party licensing someone else's product.

[Vexx]

They might be going for the "as long as a few rich patrons buy it and we make a profit, the unwashed masses get entertained as well".... but the reverse-import fixation seems a better notion.

Heh, globalization works both ways... but its kind of funny watching corporations (US, JP, FR, whatever) try to have globalization only benefit them and not the consumer
(region codes, price-fixing, lobby for laws, import bans, internet-destruction, etc)

Sadly, this makes those nasty DVD-rips->torrent even more attractive to the "anime-fer-free!" segment....

[rarukyu]

sigh...* one of the best animes of the season ever! and its licensed at such a high price too... sad too sad just another 2 months left to.

[KholdStare]

This thread made me make the most useless post I've ever made ever since I've registered in this forum.

[felix]

@ rarukyu ~ You don't know what you're talking about. It's goood... sort of.

Originally Posted by Vexx

Heh, globalization works both ways... but its kind of funny watching corporations (US, JP, FR, whatever) try to have globalization only benefit them and not the consumer
(region codes, price-fixing, lobby for laws, import bans, internet-destruction, etc)

Looks like Vexx has become all pessimistic.
No good Vexx you'll grow old faster that way! Fighto! Fighto!