The old-school anime DVD/BD news thread.

[SteveH]

Wow, Sentai Filmworks just announced a bunch of stuff at Anime Boston--the biggest one being their acquisition of the Gatchaman tv and oav series (for both blu-ray and DVD). Apparently they're also rescuing Digi Charat and Goddanarr as well.

The whole Gatchaman (including II and F) or just the original? Lets hope they follow through and release the entire run of episodes of the original series like the last time it was released. No idea what the other series are. What will be interesting to see is who will get the rights to release the theatrical live action Gatchaman movie due out in August in Japan. Would have been nice to see some of the other older Tatsunoko titles like Gold Laitan released but perhaps because it has no history over here there is no call for it...

Just the original first TV series, and the Columbia 3-part OAV originally released by Urban Vision.

I'm glad I was finally able to complete my collection of the Gatchaman box sets by ADV. I can't see how a 105 episode series can be in any way reasonably priced as a complete collection.

I for one would be very excited for the Gatchaman movie ('80s animated, not the new live) to get picked up but I doubt we'll see it.

[usamimi]

Wow, Sentai Filmworks just announced a bunch of stuff at Anime Boston--the biggest one being their acquisition of the Gatchaman tv and oav series (for both blu-ray and DVD). Apparently they're also rescuing Digi Charat and Goddanarr as well.

The whole Gatchaman (including II and F) or just the original? Lets hope they follow through and release the entire run of episodes of the original series like the last time it was released. No idea what the other series are. What will be interesting to see is who will get the rights to release the theatrical live action Gatchaman movie due out in August in Japan. Would have been nice to see some of the other older Tatsunoko titles like Gold Laitan released but perhaps because it has no history over here there is no call for it...

Just the original first TV series, and the Columbia 3-part OAV originally released by Urban Vision.

I'm glad I was finally able to complete my collection of the Gatchaman box sets by ADV. I can't see how a 105 episode series can be in any way reasonably priced as a complete collection.

I for one would be very excited for the Gatchaman movie ('80s animated, not the new live) to get picked up but I doubt we'll see it.

Ah, well if it gets enough sales, there's always a chance they'll consider it, so that's cool at least.

[SteveH]

Well, they might consider it, but it's doubtful the rights are handled by the same company.

Yes, it's all Tatsunoko. but original Gatchaman may be handled by one company, the overseas rights for Gatchaman II and Gatchaman F may well be in the hands of a different licensing company.

Plus, let us not forget, Sentai is really ADV with the serial numbers filed off and new paint. Pre-existing relationships may be a factor.

[usamimi]

Ah, that's true. :/ I was thinking about the movie, but that's a good point for the rest of the series.

[greg]

Is there any reason not to just get the ADV Gatchaman box sets? I've considered this. Did they replace the opening and ending credit titles with English ones, etc? Are some of them impossible to find, now that they are OOP?

[SteveH]

Is there any reason not to just get the ADV Gatchaman box sets? I've considered this. Did they replace the opening and ending credit titles with English ones, etc? Are some of them impossible to find, now that they are OOP?

Well, like all the OOP ADV stuff, prices are all over the place, with the later volumes (which got zero publicity and poor distro because of it) usually the most insanely priced.

Me, I finally got somewhat reasonable pricing on the final 3 box sets so that's at least one more series I was able to finish off. Dunbine Vol. 11 and 12 will be the death of me.

So, no, I can't think of any reason not to get the already existing Gatchaman DVDs. I strongly suspect the upcoming set will NOT have the bonus discs from the box sets which, on the whole, really weren't that special but I had to have them OCD blah blah blah.

Quick check on Amazon...yeah, the crazy pricing has hit. Box 7 is going for over $700. And those sellers can eat it.

Who knows, maybe Sentai Films will have a burst of common sense and sell the complete Gatchaman for under $50. That's a price that I suspect would fit in many folks comfort zone, for 105 episodes plus the OAVs. But somehow I don't think that'll happen. Call me a cynic if you must.

[usamimi]

Yeah, resellers on Amazon are the worst. I'm never gonna be able to get the legit releases of a lot of older DVDs again thanks to them thinking there are people out there willing to spend $500 on freakin' DVDs.

Well I dunno about 105 episodes for under $50...Discotek's Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee/Samurai Pizza Cats collection is 54 episodes and the SRP is $70 (though Amazon has it for around $50-60). $90-100 would probably be more reasonable, or even split it into 2 box sets for $40? That would still be reasonable, imo.

[SteveH]

Obviously I have no idea how Sentai intends to package their Gatchaman re-release. All I know is what has been said so far, and that was "box set".

I DO know retail, understand just how difficult the job is to push 'physical media' in an age where there really are no STORES anymore (Yes, there's FYE still fumbling around and Best Buy still has some token shelf space, mainly for stuff from Funi. ), and the current culture of not having any value in 'old' anything, so total uphill battle to sell this.

Now, the SMART thing to do to keep cost in line would be use the ADV-produced masters and just go in , scrape off the ADV and slap on the Sentai Films (Section 23, Maiden Japan, whatever it is this week) copyright stuff. That mean 18 discs. If they go back and cram more episodes on the DVD (and reduce the quality) that's more money for the encoding work. Their only real hope is to crank that thing out for as cheap (production-wise) as they can.

[llj]

Hasn't been officially announced yet, but apparently a Discotek rep at Anime Boston said that they have acquired the rights to Lily C.A.T.

I'm still wondering why it's taking so long for someone to rescue Wicked City.

[usamimi]

Hasn't been officially announced yet, but apparently a Discotek rep at Anime Boston said that they have acquired the rights to Lily C.A.T.

I'm still wondering why it's taking so long for someone to rescue Wicked City.

Haha, nice!
Hmm, I wonder if it's tied up in some sort of licensing limbo? Last year Urban Vision put out a statement saying they were still around, but "restructuring" their company to focus on selling their titles to places like Netflix and Hulu...so they might just be sitting on their ownership of it, hoping they'll be able to make money off it somehow? Which is a shame, they had some decent titles back in the day, and if they aren't gonna re-release them physically they shouldn't even bother.