New region coding for Japan.

[Thelastguardian]

Goodie, under Sony's new Blue-Ray region mapping, Japan will move to Region 1 (North America).

More information here

[kj1980]

Hmm...sucks to be Europe. Well I guess that's what happens when they use PAL instead of NTSC.

[mangatron]

While I'd like to say yahoo, I'm more interested in the fact that Sony wont be region locking their stuff from now on....change is good

(I love Nintendo, never making their games region locked....)

[wavey_davey]

Originally Posted by mangatron

While I'd like to say yahoo, I'm more interested in the fact that Sony wont be region locking their stuff from now on....change is good

(I love Nintendo, never making their games region locked....)

doesn't that only work for ds and game boy games though?

[stretch87]

so what does all of this mean for anime in North America, and more specifically Canada?

[Eeknay]

It makes importing a bit easier but that hasn't been a problem with DVD players being multi region since time began, so I don't see the huge benefit.

Besides, there were rumours that Blu-Ray/HD-DVD wouldn't have regions *at all* so if anything it's bad news.

[Thelastguardian]

Originally Posted by stretch87

so what does all of this mean for anime in North America, and more specifically Canada?

I don't know. I can't think of what this would result in for the licencing companies in North America at the moment. Think of this as a thought exercise.

To be frank I think the industry (North America anime related) that would benefit most from this move is the North America's ero-anime industry. Suddenly their DVD looks a lot more appealing to the Japanese thanks to the no-censorship.

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Eeknay

It makes importing a bit easier but that hasn't been a problem with DVD players being multi region since time began, so I don't see the huge benefit.

However, it's also possible that japanese anime distributors may decide it's worth their time to include engrish, er english subtitles on blue-ray anime releases, since they can now release the same product directly in the US.

Then again, they might not think the market is worth it, and decline to put in subs.

If the Japanese companies do decide to go with english subs, we may see an end to bilingual domestic anime releases in the US, as that would already be available.

Of course, it also would mean I could buy legit, subbed, moe~ anime releases.

Originally Posted by Thelastguardian

To be frank I think the industry (North America anime related) that would benefit most from this move is the North America's ero-anime industry. Suddenly their DVD looks a lot more appealing to the Japanese thanks to the no-censorship.

Possible, but japanese fans tend to buy r2 dvds now, even though they could easily play the cheaper r1 dvds if they reimport them. Not to mention customs issues that could be brought up by trying to re-import porn to bypass japanese censorship laws.

In fact, the whole reimportation issue would probably also contribute to US dub only anime releases.

[orion]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

In fact, the whole reimportation issue would probably also contribute to US dub only anime releases.

I don't think so. R2 DVDs still cost 2x as much as R1 DVDs and has less content on them. US distributors have nothing to fear.

[Prodigious]

Wait, if Japan and US have the same region, then what will stop people in Japan from reverse importing titles from the US(assuming Japanese distributors keep charging 2x as much with half the content)? Or does this mean they will start equalizing prices between nations?

[stretch87]

I hope this change translates into lower prices. in my area, Calgary Canada, some anime is $50 American for a single dvd that only has three episodes on it. That's nearly $20 an episode! i'll just stick to downloading and renting until either I become rich or prices drop.

[Thelastguardian]

Originally Posted by Prodigious

what will stop people in Japan from reverse importing titles from the US?

Well consider this: for most otaku, the "collection" factor weighs in much heavier than the "usage" factor- or else why would people line up all night for a Leaf gift bag that has no real world usage whasoever .

[guest]

Just notice this. WOW!
Do you think this means that Blue-ray is going to win over this HD-DVD and Blue-ray technology thing? Since the two big markets are combined now and will make more profit (should be), do we expect that this is going to favor Blue-ray? How did they make the decision on this? They can't make this decision just because of all us anime fans, can't they? The reason is that I find it odd to include regions of east asia, like Taiwan and Hong Kong, in region 1 because all this pirating stuff. This region code thing was invented to stop pirating and well, a lot of them come from there. So does this mean that Taiwan and Hong Kong are now in region 1 as well? How is this going to help in term of stopping piracy?

I am not saying that regiong code helps to stop the situation of piracy in the first place. But that was the purpose of this invention and now this? Umm... interesting.

[DaFool]

Actually adopting Taiwan, and South East Asia into region 1 will curb piracy, since they realized region coding didn't stop piracy at all.

Here's what happened within the last year in the Philippines:

1.) Simultaneous theater release of major blockbuster Hollywood titles as in the U.S.
2.) More than 50% reduction of off home video titles that comes within easy reach of the former prices of pirated videos.
3.) Major upgrading in the quality of cinemas all over the country, with several going digital.
4.) Supermalls nationwide cracking down on stores that sell pirated goods. Gone are softwarez, anime VCD pirates, but surprisingly HK bootlegs survived because they look professional enough.
5.) Video pirates fought back through severe cost-cutting and are selling at a pittance. But since most of their source factories are not local but from Taiwan or Malaysia, anyone with a calculator can see that they are not making enough money to stay afloat anymore.

I say this is good news for one, because that means it will be easier to get legitimate anime DVDs and Japanese console games. They will still be more expensive than pirated ones (if they still remain available), but the gap won't be too bad since without regional barriers, the prices will equalize somewhat and I'll be willing to reach for the higher quality / price.

On the other hand, this could mean more control by big corporations and governments. It's no wonder that the Asian countries that got adopted into Region 1 are U.S. protectorates (within fly-over range of US military bases). Region 2 are E.U. protectorates (including former African colonies who are still French / Belgian / Dutch speaking / South Africa, etc. I would guess Australia and New Zealand are included here, not in "other countries" / R3 because they're PAL)
Region 3 are the Centralized Governments (former Communist Russia, Communist China, etc.)

If this were a sci-fi film I'd say WWIII is about to start.

Now as for licensing companies, ADV might take a hit in the future, since it's the only U.S. company I know and not a Japanese subsidiary. I won't be surprised if they all do Toei Animation tactics and rather than sublicensing, instead distribute their own releases in America as well as Japan and the rest of the would-be R1 world. Who knows, home video might become sub or dub only once again, localized in features -- and that would suck terribly, but would accomplish more than region locking itself. I still don't know how uncensored hentai content would be handled, though.

I just realized after a re-read, Hongkong is part of China. Hence, it will be region 3. Effectively cuts them off from supplying South East Asia. Whoopee? Or boo?

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by DaFool

If this were a sci-fi film I'd say WWIII is about to start.

In a terrifying twist on warfare, WWIII, also known as the blue-ray war, saw the introduction of video disks as strategic weapons. In this, the region 1 forces held the upper hand, armed primarily with Hollywood movies and Japanese anime.

On a more serious note, with dual format players, I don't think either will be adopted over the other. Some companies will release on blue-ray, some on hd-dvd, and the two products will likely sit side by side on store shelves, with many people not even realizing there's a difference. This will of course be a problem if they didn't buy a dual format player.

[Obi2]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

However, it's also possible that japanese anime distributors may decide it's worth their time to include engrish, er english subtitles on blue-ray anime releases, since they can now release the same product directly in the US.

Unless all the Japanese anime companies are going to setup operations in the US, then now they can't just directly release their products to the US. Just because they are in the same DVD region doesn't mean that there still isn't all the problems with importing and customs.

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Then again, they might not think the market is worth it, and decline to put in subs.

It's not going to be any different than things are now.

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

If the Japanese companies do decide to go with english subs, we may see an end to bilingual domestic anime releases in the US, as that would already be available.

In what way? Like I said above, unless they are going to create US branches of their companies to release DVDs to the US market things are going to stay the same as it is now.

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

In fact, the whole reimportation issue would probably also contribute to US dub only anime releases.

Huh? Where are you getting this idea from?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356
In fact, the whole reimportation issue would probably also contribute to US dub only anime releases.


Huh? Where are you getting this idea from?

I think he was talking about the recent case of the famous hentai, the new "BibleBlack" region 1 releases.

Because the US version has no censorship, not to mention cheaper than the Japanese version, the company who licensed the series decided to prevent reverse importing by not supplying a Japanese dub. The recent US release of the latest BibleBlack chapter has only English dub and nothing else.

This, of course, was a very dumb idea. As less than a week after the US release, the online community had spliced the JP dub from region 2 into the region 1 uncensored footage. The US company knew their sales were going to suffer, but it was out of their hands. While the Japanese company ended up gaining nothing, as the "spliced" version became the first torrent hentai that was of a superior product to official versions , region 1 or 2.

I hope the Japanese learned their lesson...

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by Obi2

Unless all the Japanese anime companies are going to setup operations in the US, then now they can't just directly release their products to the US. Just because they are in the same DVD region doesn't mean that there still isn't all the problems with importing and customs.

Many japanese anime companies already have US subsideries. Granted they act with a great deal of independence from their parent companies. Besides, importing non-ero titles to the US isn't all that difficult. The only real problem is the price of the Japanese releases would turn off many english speaking fans.

It's not going to be any different than things are now.

Except Japanese releases will be more accessible to American fans, US releases will be more accessible to Japanese fans, and European fans are even more screwed.

In what way? Like I said above, unless they are going to create US branches of their companies to release DVDs to the US market things are going to stay the same as it is now.

Huh? Where are you getting this idea from?

Even if they don't directly market the brds in the US, the simple act of putting english subs on a Japanese dvd makes it much more appealing to english speaking fans. With an english subbed version already available, there wouldnt' be as much of a reason to put a japanese language track on domestic US releases.

Japanese companies are already borderline paranoid about reimportation. See Valiant's example, be it an ero-anime. For normal anime, Japanese releases tend to have higher picture and sound quality, US companies typically release twice the episodes for half the price. With the US and Japan in the same region, their concerns can only grow. It's not that unlikely they'd start refusing to license the Japanese dialog, forcing US companies to release dub only brds.

[LytHka]

Originally Posted by kj1980

Hmm...sucks to be Europe. Well I guess that's what happens when they use PAL instead of NTSC.

Why would it suck to be us? All newer european TV sets are supporting the frequency the NTSC signal is outputted at now for a long time. It's just a matter of DVD or in this case, Blu-Ray region decoding by players. However, with DRM coming up in Blu-Ray I really am kind of scared if they'll be able to restrict production of "region-free" Blu-Ray players.

[青和紙]

Originally Posted by kj1980

Hmm...sucks to be Europe. Well I guess that's what happens when they use PAL instead of NTSC.

Canada too. Freeloaders...