[Today's promoted story was written by Tascar, where he decided to voice his displeasure on the industry as a whole. While it doesn't necessarily reflect of the opinions of anybody in particular, I found it an interesting read that won't waste your time. Enjoy! ~Pedro] After a long boring day at work, I went to my local Best Buy, walked right by Evangelion: 1.01 You Are (Not) Alone and "Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box One," and picked up the Blu-Ray of Star Trek. Don't get me wrong: I would love to add both titles into my massive DVD/Blu-Ray collection. However, I just can't bring myself to purchase either title at the moment because when I look at these two titles on the Best Buy anime shelf, which is essentially a fraction of the size that it used to be five years earlier, I can't help but be reminded of how the "anime industry," that is both the Japanese studios and the American distributors, collectively drove anime into the ground in the United States.
Evangelion 1.$$: Your Wallet is (Not) Alone
When the film remakes of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" were announced, I had high hopes for its effect on the American anime scene. It is no secret that anime has heavily declined in the United States and I had hoped that, in the same way that the original TV series had contributed to the boom of anime in the U.S. that occured in the late 1990s, the new movies might give anime the booster shot that it really needs.
The world premiere of Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone occurred on September 1, 2007 and I wondered why there was no news of an American release. I was even more confused as to why there was no such news given that the film played at the 2007 Pusan International Film Festival in Pusan, South Korea with Korean and English subtitles. The film was released on DVD in an updated "director's cut" (1.01) on April 25, 2008 and still there was no news of an American release. It was only on December 31, 2008, over one year after the film's original theatrical release, that Funimation announced that they were going to release the film in the United States at some point in 2009.
News of Funimation's acquisition of the American rights to the first film gave me hope that we would be seeing the subsequent three films on a timely basis. After all, why purchase the rights to the first movie without getting either the rights to the remaining three or at the very least an option on the remaining three films. In the end, I think that I was proven wrong.
In February 2009, it was announced that the second Evangelion movie would play in Japan in June 2009 and again, there was no American release date announced. In addition, it was announced that a second "director's cut" (1.11) of the first movie would come out on DVD and Blu-Ray in May 2009. Of course, American fans finally got their Evangelion news during the heat of the cruel summer. Funimation would be double-dipping anime fans by releasing the 1.01 version first late in 2009 and then the 1.11 version later in 2010. No news was announced about the second film but we did find out that the dub for the first film would be making the rounds at anime conventions during the summer.
Before I continue, let me state now for the record that I realize that the release plans for most anime are due to the collective decisions of both the original Japanese studio and the American distributors. As such, I want to make it clear that I do not know which stupid ideas are the fault of Khara and which ones are the fault of Funimation. I am simply referring to the collective decision and results that us customers are ultimately given and have to deal with.
I just have to wonder at this point what Khara and Funimation hope to get out of the Evangelion movies in the United States. The first film has now been released in the United States more than two years after its original Japanese theatrical release, one and a half years after it was released on DVD in Japan, and half a year after it was released in an updated form on Blu-Ray. In addition, fans are going to get the double-dip hit on them when the Blu-Ray and DVD version of 1.11 is released sometime next year. The handling of the American release of the Evangelion films is so horrible that you might as well hang a sign next to the films inviting people to download the films off of Bittorrent and hope that people will buy the DVD out of pity.
For me, one of the highlights of the Otakon 2009 convention was when two friends and I, after watching the new English dub of the first Evangelion movie in Otakon 2009, went back to my comfortable hotel room in the new Hilton, connected my friend's laptop to the hotel room's big-screen LCD HDTV, and watched a camera rip from Japan of the second Evangelion film (which had only been out in Japan for about two months or so) while drinking, laughing, and making up the lines to the film (since none of us could understand Japanese). I understand why Otakon and other anime conventions do not show fansubs anymore and are almost completely deferential to the studios and distributors now in order to gain access and legitimacy from the industry. That being said, I can't help but wonder how much excitement might have been built for the film series had Khara given Otakon or Anime Expo or another convention even an untranslated print of the second Evangelion movie Instead, we get a dub that I wager most fans do not care for of a film that has already been downloaded and seen by all of those who would have wanted to see it in the first place.
Despite all the hate I have spewed already, I do plan on getting the Evangelion film. However, I am waiting for the Blu-Ray release of 1.11 as I have no intention of blindly throwing away my money during these economic times. Again, I have no idea if the release strategy for Evangelion in the U.S. is Khara's fault or Funimation's fault and I assume that it is probably the fault of both. I just feel that the Evangelion film series release in the United States is best described as "bungled," a "missed opportunity," and most accurately, a "massive fail" of epic proportions.
Over 9000 releases
I have a lot of respect for "Dragon Ball Z," having been an anime that I have enjoyed for some time (I remember watching raws of the Frieza saga as a fourth grader that my friend from Japan taped) and an extremely influential show in anime history. That being said, I could never bring myself to buy the series because of the way that the show was released in the United States. It was about three years ago that Funimation finally released the series in an affordable box set form. Yet instead of licensing the restored masters from Japan, Funimation did their own highly questionable "restoration" which heavily altered the colors, erased lines, and completely mutilated the aspect ratio of the show.
Yesterday, Funimation released the first of many Dragon Boxes, the American release of the Japanese restored masters of "Dragon Ball Z." From what I can see from the reviews, I would love to buy the set and yet I just don't feel like it because I just don't feel comfortable giving money to Funimation for "Dragon Ball Z." I find it hard to believe that the rights to the Dragon Box masters could have been either unavailable or that much more expensive three years ago than it is today. Funimation could have just saved the money they blew on their own hack job of a restoration and released the Dragon Box earlier and instead they chose to double-dip the fans. Granted for "Dragon Ball Z," this is more like the 4th or 5th trip to the well as opposed to the second. Yeah, I truly feel sorry for the hardcore "Dragon Ball Z" fans who have already blown tons of money and are about to blow more.
Reflecting on the fail
Over 70 years ago, the idea of Japanese cars in the U.S. market must have seemed like a complete joke. Yet the Japanese, recognizing the potential of the U.S. market, really wanted to compete in the U.S. and they worked their ass off in order to enter, succeed, and eventually dominate that market.
At this point, there is more than enough evidence that the U.S. market is a place of opportunity for anime. Yet, it just feels that the anime studios are simply not taking this opportunity seriously. The Japanese studios and American distributors are collectively making horrible decision after horrible decision that keep destroying anime's ability to succeed in the United States.
It's sad that Evangelion 1.01: You Are (Not) Alone and "Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Box One," arguably two of the most important and awaited anime releases of the year, are both prime examples of horrible decisions made that have led to the downfall of anime in the United States. I'll be more than happy to pick up Evangelion when it's on Blu-Ray and I am sure that once I am in a better mood, I'll pick up "Dragon Ball Z." Until then, thank god for my Blu-Ray of Star Trek.
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IDK what the industry will do. All I know is I have a quad-core Media PC under my HDTV that plays 1080p fansubs and Blueray rips with full digital audio.
The movie industry is probably having the same problem. Who wants to pay $30 for a stupid movie? It takes less then a day to download a 720p DTS Blueray rip. It has been over a year sense I first downloaded Wall-E in 1080p and really that type of thing can't be stopped without making Blueray players $40 and Blueray discs $5.