07-25-2004, 07:36 AM
Personally, all other things being equal I would prefer all series to be boxed in the nice HK style of cardboard gatefold, they take up less space and I think they look better. Also I want to have all the parts of a show before I start watching it, thus not collect it as and when it is released. I hate to get drawn into a story and then have to wait to see what happens.
As far as buying a official version or a HK version of a series I will always go for the HK one. It is stealing plain and simple, and i dont feel great about my money going to criminals rather than the people who worked hard to make the shows. I do like to support the creators, and I wouldnt buy bootlegs of CD's or movies [anime or live action] but the US anime distributers are just taking the piss! I feel they way they operate is objectionable and it makes me feel a little better about my own theft.
Even if you excuse the exorbitant mark ups - if this isnt the case how can they sell cetain shows at greatly reduced rates and still make a profit, ie Gasaraki - as simple good business, they still show an attitude to their customers and the work itself which seems to me a little disrespectfull.
I guess they spread six episodes over two discs instead of putting six or seven on one [thus wasting resources and increasing their own production costs] because they realise that people would find it a little hard to swallow paying $60 for one disc. But do they really think their customers are so stupid as to not realise what they are doing? I recently bought the R2 Princess Mononoke for $13 new and it had a runtime of 130 mins with extra features such as behind the scenes and theatrical trailer, so what is this 3 eps for $26 shit?
Worse still is when they take a show that someone else has created, someone else's baby, bring it over to America and butcher it. The first example that comes to mind is that travesty of a film that was Warriors Of The Wind the edited version of Miyazakis Nausicaa cut from 116mins to 84 for US distribution. OK so thats an extreme case but it seems to happen fairly frequently that they will edit out scenes, re-dub music/sound effects, and generally change the tone in their translations.
You could say that as soon as a company buys the rights to a show it can do whatever it feels will make it the most money, and most businesses do operate this way, but it is not an unbreakable law. Some businesses do try to operate in an ethical way and forge good relationships with their customers, but I dont think this description could be attributed to the anime industry. I feel like I am being taken advantage of by a virtual cartel of several companies who have no interest but to wring every penney out of the anime market, and until that changes I'll stick with HK's. These critiscism are an apologists' justification of theft, but I think they are valid points too.
The other day when I got a football bet up I went straight out and spent the cash on the entire Frank Black back catalogue. I felt bad about downloading the tracks on kazza without contributing to the artist, but I wont lose any sleep over buying HK dvds.
Oh and if there were no alternatives to R1's, I wouldnt happily buy them. Maybe I would grudgingly purchase a few [cursing under my breath all the while] if I had the cash. But I dont. For me, and I guess a lot of other people paying hundreds of $$$$ for a show is simply impossible. If there were no HK's etc I would have to stick to buying single movies and watching the cartoon network, my undeniable birth right to see any and all anime would be violated!
Hmm, maybe I should have posted this in rants, ah well, too late now :p
As far as buying a official version or a HK version of a series I will always go for the HK one. It is stealing plain and simple, and i dont feel great about my money going to criminals rather than the people who worked hard to make the shows. I do like to support the creators, and I wouldnt buy bootlegs of CD's or movies [anime or live action] but the US anime distributers are just taking the piss! I feel they way they operate is objectionable and it makes me feel a little better about my own theft.
Even if you excuse the exorbitant mark ups - if this isnt the case how can they sell cetain shows at greatly reduced rates and still make a profit, ie Gasaraki - as simple good business, they still show an attitude to their customers and the work itself which seems to me a little disrespectfull.
I guess they spread six episodes over two discs instead of putting six or seven on one [thus wasting resources and increasing their own production costs] because they realise that people would find it a little hard to swallow paying $60 for one disc. But do they really think their customers are so stupid as to not realise what they are doing? I recently bought the R2 Princess Mononoke for $13 new and it had a runtime of 130 mins with extra features such as behind the scenes and theatrical trailer, so what is this 3 eps for $26 shit?
Worse still is when they take a show that someone else has created, someone else's baby, bring it over to America and butcher it. The first example that comes to mind is that travesty of a film that was Warriors Of The Wind the edited version of Miyazakis Nausicaa cut from 116mins to 84 for US distribution. OK so thats an extreme case but it seems to happen fairly frequently that they will edit out scenes, re-dub music/sound effects, and generally change the tone in their translations.
You could say that as soon as a company buys the rights to a show it can do whatever it feels will make it the most money, and most businesses do operate this way, but it is not an unbreakable law. Some businesses do try to operate in an ethical way and forge good relationships with their customers, but I dont think this description could be attributed to the anime industry. I feel like I am being taken advantage of by a virtual cartel of several companies who have no interest but to wring every penney out of the anime market, and until that changes I'll stick with HK's. These critiscism are an apologists' justification of theft, but I think they are valid points too.
The other day when I got a football bet up I went straight out and spent the cash on the entire Frank Black back catalogue. I felt bad about downloading the tracks on kazza without contributing to the artist, but I wont lose any sleep over buying HK dvds.
Oh and if there were no alternatives to R1's, I wouldnt happily buy them. Maybe I would grudgingly purchase a few [cursing under my breath all the while] if I had the cash. But I dont. For me, and I guess a lot of other people paying hundreds of $$$$ for a show is simply impossible. If there were no HK's etc I would have to stick to buying single movies and watching the cartoon network, my undeniable birth right to see any and all anime would be violated!
Hmm, maybe I should have posted this in rants, ah well, too late now :p