Anime On UK.TV

1:37:55 PM: State of the Industry panel is starting, Andrew Partridge of Beez, Tony Allen of MVM and committee leader Will Blewitt attending.

1:38:50 PM: Tony is going to kick off with some MVM news.

1:39:40 PM: No new acquisitions from MVM other than what’s already been announced. 6th Sep Moribito. First venture into departing from single discs

1:40:10 PM: October – Blade of the Immortal, cost a lot so it is coming out in single discs despite the new direction.

1:41:14 PM: Blade of the Immortal is 3 individual volumes. New Slayers series also licensed (Revolution and Evolution-R).

1:41:48 PM: MVM are hoping to have some new acquisitions in 2011. They have also started going into live-action titles.

1:42:33 PM: Tony compares live-action sales of around 20,000 units for the same effort and the same cost as an anime which may sell a few hundred.

1:42:54 PM: Even the dodgy B-movie stuff has done really well, getting into places like ASDA.

1:43:24 PM: Older series are being reissued as fatpacks at a rate of around 4 a month, at reasonable prices.

1:44:15 PM: Andrew asks the audience how many people would be interested in live-action Japanese TV series.

1:45:01 PM: Someone asks Andrew what are the chances of Turn-A Gundam, he said to ask at the Beez panel.

1:47:36 PM: Andrew asks what people think about the feasibility of international releases at Japanese price points.

1:47:47 PM: The answer is a rousing noooooo from the audience.

1:50:08 PM: Andrew asks what the audience thinks of the idea of Japanese companies directly entering into the English language market.

1:52:42 PM: The reply is a general feeling that Japanese companies may not understand Western markets. The example of Toei and Slam Dunk was cited.

1:54:06 PM: Andrew brings up the subject of Crunchyroll, it turns out there are a few people in the audience who have not heard of it.

1:55:26 PM: Fudce asks how MVM and Beez are dealing with Funimation’s apparent vacuuming up of licences.

1:56:00 PM: Andrew replies that it is a bit of a mixed bag and says that Funimation are somewhat the Madman of America now.

1:56:43 PM: Tony remarks that it was MVM who really launched Funimation into the UK market with titles such as Fullmetal Alchemist.

1:57:07 PM: This changed when Funimation was bought by Navarre who already had a UK distribution deal with Revelation.

1:57:27 PM: Tony says it is quite frustrating when the UK rights just sit there and are not available for sublicensing.

1:58:20 PM: He cites Chobits, his licence for this expired and when he went back to Kodansha, he was told it had been bolted on to the Funi US deal.

1:59:11 PM: He also mentions the case of a French company that was sitting on UK rights for Dragonball Z.

2:00:23 PM: Baccano is coming out this year from Manga, in October or so.

2:00:54 PM: I asked Tony if he has any plans for Blu-Ray releases, he says the minimum print run for them is around 3000.

2:01:20 PM: He does have some Blu-Ray rights but at this point he is just in the position of waiting and seeing.

2:01:57 PM: Apparently Evangelion 1.11 made up the bulk of 5,000 unit sales on launch.

2:03:15 PM: Andrew says that Blu-Ray production costs are very high and consequently it would be very hard to put titles out at prices people would pay.

2:04:13 PM: Andrew says that companies like Apple are more into HD downloads but the Japanese companies are leery of allowing this kind of thing.

2:05:14 PM: Someone mentions that people are willing to pay for well constructed online streaming services, Andrew says he likes Spotify.

2:07:28 PM: I asked about Bandai Channel’s yet-to-materialise European launch. Andrew says they are still working out how to adapt it to Western markets

2:07:52 PM: More user research is necessary before it becomes a viable platform.

2:08:59 PM: Tony grumbles that Andrew and Jerome are always grabbing up new titles so he tends to look towards older ones.

2:09:36 PM: Tony says that old series that have fallen through the cracks can often do really well and he cites FLCL.

2:10:04 PM: He says his contract for FLCL is entirely in Japanese, they wouldn’t give him an English version.

2:11:04 PM: He also says that it’s often possible to get reasonable deals on older titles.

2:12:34 PM: Andrew says he’s interested in looking at older titles now that he has the necessary remit to do so, he mentions Irresponsible Captain Tylor

2:13:56 PM: Andrew says that old titles can have down sides such as the difficulty of PAL masters.

2:15:34 PM: Someone asks just how bad the market in Japan is, Andrew mimes chugging from a bottle of Captain Morgan! ROFL

2:16:48 PM: Andrew says that fans are finally starting to realise there are things they can do to help, like supporting services such as Crunchyroll.

2:17:12 PM: Tony suggests that the questioner should read the half-page article from Johnathan Clements in this month’s NEO Magazine.

2:18:45 PM: Someone asks if the Emergency Budget has affected them at all, Andrew says the VAT rise affects all companies.

2:21:31 PM: Someone asks if the Funimation buy-up of the Tenchi TV shows is preventing a UK relaunch of those. Tony says it’s not something he’d revisit

2:22:02 PM: Panel is coming to an end, there will be a short break and then the Beez panel is on.

2:31:02 PM: Present are Andrew Partridge of Beez and Will Blewitt, committee leader.

2:31:53 PM: Andrew is about to announce the licenes mentioned in the guessing game earlier, he has renamed the files so nobody can tell what they are

2:32:57 PM: First up is Sora Kake Girl a.k.a The Girl Who Leapt Through Space.

2:34:25 PM: Next is Sora no Woto, which he’d renamed as “DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY”.

2:36:43 PM: He says they’ll be coordinating with Rightstuf on that. Someone asked about soundtracks, he says he’ll look into it.

2:37:38 PM: Next up is Lucky Star (renamed as “HUMAN CENTIPEDE”).

2:39:27 PM: He says he chose Lucky Star as it’s now down to a reasonable price due to having been out in the US and Oz for a while now.

2:39:40 PM: Contract includes the OVA and he plans to release it in half-season sets.

2:40:02 PM: He says he’ll have news on the exact release details by the time Expo comes around.

2:41:56 PM: The fourth video, which was already known about, is Outlaw Star.

2:42:29 PM: Unlike the other three videos which were just rips of the shows’ OPs, this one is a trailer style video complete with gravelly voiceover man

2:43:38 PM: Outlaw Star and The Big O are going straight to Anime Legends. Andrew says that if he was planning to do Turn-A that would also go there.

2:44:15 PM: Andrew thanks people in general for a 200% rise in sales due to the launch of Anime Legends.

2:44:29 PM: The next video to be shown is Durarara!!

2:46:45 PM: Both the first and second OPs to this show are shown.

2:48:31 PM: Andrew says he already knew the studio and author because of Baccano, so he licensed it before it started in Japan.

2:48:50 PM: He says it’s now not an impossibility to release titles in the same year that they get broadcast in Japan.

2:49:41 PM: A sub-only release is coming out in October time in time for Expo, across 3 sets, £24.99 RRP for each (8-9 eps in each one) including OVAs.

2:51:31 PM: Dubbed release will come later. An upgrade scheme is planned.

2:52:53 PM: Andrew also mentions Baccano which is coming out in October as well. He says they are now moving towards getting timely releases out.

2:53:40 PM: Someone asks if the UK will get the 2 Gurren Lagann movies. Andrew says he has mixed feelings, he’d like to release them.

2:54:14 PM: However it is a compilation movie.

2:54:30 PM: Someone asks about Outlaw Star, it is going to be released in a 1-pack set.

2:55:17 PM: Someone asks about translated credits on DVDs, Andrew says where a subtitle track is available they will do it.

2:57:23 PM: Andrew tells the story of Beez’s misadventures with the BBFC over the tiny Code Geass edit.

2:58:31 PM: Andrew says they try to avoid retouching video where possible, mainly for cost reasons.

2:59:08 PM: Someone asks about Dennou Coil, Andrew says he is interested in it and he really likes it, but he is concerned that it would not sell.

2:59:43 PM: ANDREW IS GOING TO LICENSE EVERYTHING ON THE INTERNET!!!!!!* (* =this is a joke)

3:00:48 PM: Someone asks about Kaiba and Garden of Sinners (Kara no Kyoukai). Andrew says he’s not so sure about Kaiba.

3:01:15 PM: He also says Jerome of Manga would love to get Garden on Sinners and it’s already licensed in France.

3:02:11 PM: Someone asks about Guu and Utena, Andrew says there was a complication with the rights back in the day for Guu.

3:02:20 PM: He says for Utena it may be better to ask Tony of MVM.

3:03:03 PM: Someone asks if Beez are planning to do live action stuff, Andrew says he plans to stick to anime at the moment.

3:05:03 PM: Someone asks if Beez have considered doing licenses from other companies than Bandai and Andrew explains that many of the new shows are.

3:06:28 PM: I ask if there’s any chance of Gundam 00 Blu-rays, Andrew says if Bandai USA do them he may be able to.

3:07:19 PM: Someone asks if Sora no Woto will have a Blu-ray release. Andrew says he would sell his own grandmother to do one but it may not be possible

3:08:52 PM: He mentions that a lot of BONES titles are not designed for HD and are actually upscaled.

3:10:15 PM: I asked if Andrew knew if the Aniplex ROD box set was likely to be region coded, he said he thought it probably would be.

3:11:05 PM: He says that generally if there is a UK licensor for the title, it will probably be region-locked.

3:11:32 PM: Someone asks about Macross, the bottle of rum comes out again!

3:12:40 PM: Someone asks if the Code Geass incident has made Andrew more cautious about what shows to license, but he says it’s hard to predict.

3:14:47 PM: Someone asks how the removal of the BBFC would affect the anime industry. Andrew says a system like the Irish one would be better.

3:15:18 PM: In the Irish system, lower rates are charged for shows which are expected to sell only limited numbers of units.

3:16:42 PM: Someone asks about Magical Index and Scientific Railgun. Andrew says he will look into whether the US deal included the UK rights.

3:17:34 PM: Apparently there was a programme on the BBC recently where a few clips of anime were shown, someone asks if anything more is likely.

3:20:10 PM: Andrew thinks it is more likely that we could see something similar to Anime Central rather than the BBC picking up anime.

3:22:18 PM: Someone asks about The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. Andrew says that he’s involved in the new Scotland Loves Anime film festival.

3:23:02 PM: He says it will be premiered on 35mm at this festival.

3:23:44 PM: However he says it’s not coming to DVD any time soon as it hasn’t been licenced yet.

3:25:44 PM: Panel is coming to an end now. Andrew jokes about the panel having been sponsored by Captain Morgan and says he’s off to the dealers room.

7:18:28 AM: I am testing the “Twitter LiveBlog” WordPress plugin in preparation for @AmeCon next week.

7:19:25 AM: I’ll be using it to liveblog parts of the event, including industry panels.

8:24:11 AM: Looks like it’s a little slow to update the site – I’ll have to adjust the checking interval during the con.

8:26:00 AM: Updated the time zone so that it matches British Summer Time, didn’t realise that that had to be done manually.

8:36:07 AM: Other than that, everything seems to be in order.

Our Stream Directory has been updated with more shows from Crunchyroll and FUNimation.

@ukanime reports that two new titles will be starting streaming on Crunchyroll, Heroman and Ichiban Ushiro no Daimao. Both shows will be available for streaming to the UK.

@ukanime reports that this weekend (5th – 7th March) is Global Shinkai Day, and in celebration of the event, Crunchyroll will be streaming 3 Makoto Shinkai feature-length anime: 5cm/s, The Place Promised in our Early Days, and Voices of a Distant Star.

From @Anime via @BeezEnt: The first 7 minutes of Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn will be streamed in English on the Bandai Channel website.

It’s a work in progress at the moment, but our new Stream Directory is online! The Stream Directory is a list of anime streaming providers and the shows that they stream. All the shows listed in the Directory have at least one episode available for streaming to the UK without a membership being required with the provider in question.

@BeezEnt announced the availability of streams of various classic Gundam series on the Bandai Channel website. The site indicates that Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Z Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny and the first season of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 will be streaming at various points between now and the end of May across the Youtube, AnimeNewsNetwork and Crunchyroll sites.

Starting February 2010, this site is relaunching as a UK-centric anime blog with a focus on streaming media.