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Two Complete Opposite Business Models for R1 DVD Emerge
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It appears as though an interesting split has occurred in the Region-1 North American DVD market. Long-standing license-holder and anime distributor, Media Blasters has taken on a fan-friendly model while the new Bandai Entertainment subsidary, Bandai Visual (a.k.a. Honneamise), has gone after the hardcore collectors.
Both companies has procured recent titles that have just finished their runs on Japanese television and both have opted for a subtitle-only original Japanese audio track, forgoing the lengthy and costly processes of attaching an English-dub track. The differences, however, are where these two companies really split. Read more to see what's happening.
Media Blasters has found ways of cutting costs on DVD production and is passing the savings on to its customers, particularly those who prefer to only bother with the original audio. So where DVDs once retailed for $29.99, you can find a select array of new titles debuting at $19.99 this coming summer. They are also going with the much-appreciated 3-volume release for half-run series whereever possible as opposed to the 4-volume releases we were once plagued with.
Bandai Visual/Honneamise, on the other hand, is reverting to the Japanese style of DVD marketing. It's no secret that those in the R2 market pay an arm and a leg for their anime fix, though luckily we won't see prices as high as $75 on this side of the Pacific. The MSRP's however, are slightly higher than what we're used to seeing over here. Their first batch of debuting series, notably the acclaimed GunBuster 2 will be targeted at collectors. Their $39.99 price tags and stretched-out volume range (6 episode OVAs being released in 3 volumes) will surely have casual fans passing them over, but hard-core otaku will be reeled in with exclusive bonus materials, both on and off disk.
So, that's the basic breakdown on what's to come for American and Canadian anime fans. I, personally, am highly excited at seeing new anime coming much cheaper. I strongly encourage fans to look into buying these new titles (I've found some pre-ordering for as low as $13.50). If fans pull together and start increasing the amount of cheap anime they buy, it will only be a matter of time before the other big companies start to follow suit. Be sure to leave comments on your thoughts regarding the new models.
And here's a quick breakdown of what's to come this summer. All titles are Japanese-Audio/English-subtitle-only unless otherwise noted...
Media Blasters
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Title: Green Green
Volume: 1 - Coed Casualties
Number of Episodes: 4 (English Dub Available)
MSRP: $19.99
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Green Green
Volume: 2 - Mature Girls
Number of Episodes: 4 (English Dub Available)
MSRP: $19.99
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Green Green
Volume: 3 - Kimono Nights
Number of Episodes: 4 (English Dub Available)
MSRP: $19.99
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Green Green
Volume: Complete Collection
Number of Episodes: 12 (English Dub Available)
MSRP: $29.99
Date Available: July 24, 2007 |
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Title: Gakuen Heaven - Boys Love Hyper
Volume: 1 - For the Love of Boys
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Gakuen Heaven - Boys Love Hyper
Volume: 2 - School of Love
Number of Episodes: 3
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Gakuen Heaven - Boys Love Hyper
Volume: 3 - Secret Summers
Number of Episodes: 3
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: August 7, 2007 |
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Title: Gakuen Heaven - Boys Love Hyper
Volume: 4 - A Traitor Revealed
Number of Episodes: 3
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: October 16, 2007 |
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Title: Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl
Volume: 1 - Role Reversal
Number of Episodes: 5
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: June 12, 2007 |
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Title: Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl
Volume: 2 - Triangles Hurt
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: August 21, 2007 |
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Title: Kashimashi ~ Girl Meets Girl
Volume: 3 - Bittersweet Decisions
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: October 23, 2007 |
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Title: Joshikousei - Girl's High
Volume: 1 - Teen Spirit
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: July 3, 2007 |
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Title: Joshikousei - Girl's High
Volume: 2 - Sister Fight
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: September 4, 2007 |
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Title: Joshikousei - Girl's High
Volume: 3 - (not announced)
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $19.95
Date Available: November 6, 2007 |
Bandai Visual - Honneamise
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Title: Gunbusters 2
Volume: 1
Number of Episodes: 2 + 30 mins bonus material
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: Available Now |
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Title: Gunbusters 2
Volume: 2
Number of Episodes: 2 + 30 mins bonus material
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: July 10, 2007 |
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Title: Gunbusters 2
Volume: 3
Number of Episodes: 2
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: August 14, 2007 |
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Title: Galaxy Angel ~ Rune
Volume: 1
Number of Episodes: 2
MSRP: $19.99
Date Available: July 10, 2007 |
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Title: Galaxy Angel ~ Rune
Volume: 2
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: August 28, 2007 |
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Title: Galaxy Angel ~ Rune
Volume: 3
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: October 9, 2007 |
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Title: Galaxy Angel ~ Rune
Volume: 4
Number of Episodes: 4
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: November 13, 2007 |
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Title: Wings of Rean
Volume: 1
Number of Episodes: 2
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: June 12, 2007 |
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Title: Wings of Rean
Volume: 2
Number of Episodes: 2
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: July 10, 2007 |
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Title: Wings of Rean
Volume: 3
Number of Episodes: 2
MSRP: $39.99
Date Available: August 14, 2007 |
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No Comments Allowed for Anonymous, please register |
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#1 | tsujoi on Wednesday, May 30 @
| Hmm, looks like Mediablasters is focusing on the fanservice titles for the budget DVDs...
Ug, $40.00 for two epi's from Bandai...There better be tons of extras packed with those DVDs. |
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#2 | prime_pm on Wednesday, May 30 @
| | 40 bucks for 2 episodes? That's worse than the old VHS! Thank God for Netflix. |
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#3 | Molenir on Wednesday, May 30 @
| | Joshikousei High School Girls is I married my high school teacher? |
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#5 | Keitarou on Wednesday, May 30 @
| | @#3 nope, different show |
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#6 | Kyo-Chan on Thursday, May 31 @
| | Does that mean they're gonna' be lazy and not even bother to dub those titles? I mean...I know lots of people are against dubs, even I hate some dubs (but I still watch them since it's what they air on TV/what they sell), but I like seeing the dubs most of the time! |
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#7 | shijiro on Thursday, May 31 @
| | WHAAAATTT!!!!! Man this sucks! 39.99 for 2 episodes!!! and its in DVD!!!!!! What a waste. 4GB of disk space, just wasted!? its like a vcd... They should make it at least 5 eps/DVD. haayy... things are really getting more and more expensive each passing day... |
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#8 | xenocrisis0153 on Thursday, May 31 @
| | @3 - you're thinking of "Okusama wa Joshikousei" |
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#9 | jjacobs2 on Friday, June 01 @
| | Joshikousei means high school girl. Okusama wa Joshikousei means my wife is a high school girl. |
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#10 | danewfie on Saturday, June 02 @
| @7 Do realize that even tho there are 2 eps they contain bonus material of around 30min+ ... And you obviously dont know anything about dvd's because you can only hold 4 eps at maximum quality. Any more and you are compromising graphic quality due to compression.
Hence why we've been plagued with 4 ep discs for years.
Now that they've decided to not have dubs in some dvd's it saves enough space on the disc to hold an extra episode. Hence we now have 5 ep dvd's |
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