Bri

The spring 2011 line-up is quite promising: http://thecartdriver.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Spring-2011-v41.jpg So far: Tiger and Bunny: Pretty boys in Spandex, smash hit with the fujoshi and overal a nice take on the superhero genre, reminds me a bit of Arnie's Running Man. X-men: It actually looks like the comic version of the X-men instead of a cartoon rendering. Hanasuka Iroha: J-drama meets anime. Look like a cinderella story with the usual high quality animation from P.A.Works Steins gate: Time travel sci-fi goodness. Still have to check out the new Noitamina shows C and Ano hanna. Probably will also check out : Deadman wonderland and Moshidora Appleseed unfortunately postponed till summer.

Amiami has now got the latest installment of the groundworks of Evangelion books (from Eva 2.2) on preorder. Earlier I was under the impression that this line of books had been cancelled. The new book looks like it's published independent of the Gainax goundworks line. The new name: Neon Genesis Evangelion Theatrical Version:Jo Animation Original Picture Book Link: http://www.amiami.jp/shop/?set=english&vgForm=ProductInfo&sku=BOK-4061&template=default/product/e_display.html

Glad to read that. It's one my favorites as well. The show has a great atmosphere and it takes it's time to develop the main characters.

Yeah, multiple subtitles technology so advanced it had been in use on DVD's for years... Sketchley already clearly explained the ins and outs on why it is not cheap. Actually I do, but it's not relevant to the discussion. My point stands. You haven't given an example of any Japanese edition that has subs, which did not have an earlier licensed edition in the US. I'll leave it at that. Probably. It depends on what the western anime distributors think will sell. If you look at Gundam, which doesn't suffer from legal problems, most of it has been licensed but not everything. A few years ago there was a Mospeade revival of sorts and some toys and books were released. You may want to check the Mospeada thread for any information on the state of things.

I suspect the Robotech fanbase keeps buying the same crap over and over out of some perverted feeling that if they give HG enough money they will *finally* make another sequel that explains what happened to poor old admiral Hunter. It's some kind of SM game. In case of Macross, torrents and fansubbers provide a free alternative. And I think a lot of Macross fans would rather spend that $500 on merchandise rather then getting the same content on a few discs. Unlike Robotech there is a lot of Macross to spend your money on. I don't say no one would buy the Blu-rays, but really, how many would? A few dozen? Maybe a few hunderd people? Is that enough?

Because it's 9 volumes, with 2 to 3 episodes per volume. With a price tag of about $80 per volume. Why would Bandai Visual add those subs? It cost money to add them, while few foreign fans would be prepared to buy those BR at Japanese prices for anime. You missed the point. The only Japanese editions of anime that get english subs, are the ones that are released in a new version or format. In this situation the Japanese producers can easily aquire the english sub from the existing older US edition. This is what happened to the Kyoto animation season boxes and new blu-ray releases of older movies like Ghibli's and a few others such as Patlabor, Akira and GITS etc. Since the more recent Macross shows have not had a western release, there are no easy to aquire subs for any new Japanese DVD/BR versions. As I wrote earlier the only exception to my knowlegde is Gundam Unicorn, where Bandai experimented with releasing it at the same time in Japan, Europe and the US with a similar high pricetag.

How many American fans would put down $500, shipping not included, to import a Macross Frontier Blu-Ray set? Compare that to the cost for including the subs in Japan and you have an answer. The Disney-Ghibli distribution deal predates the arival of the first DVDs. Also Ghibli/Disney do a world wide release of the DVD/BRs which means the subs and dub are prepared in advance and are available at the time of the innitial release in Japan. Totally different situation and scale compared to TV anime series.

I doubt that Big West has a stronger voice in the production committee than say Bandai or MBS (the primary broadcaster) who were major financial backers. In that committee decisions on merchandising, distribution, music etc are made up front. I think it's quite safe to assume that Bandai Visual has those rights by default. The main problem with Japanese editions is the price. A new set of Frontier Blu-rays would cost well over $500. The core anime fanbase in Japan is prepared to pay those prices, the rest of the world isn't, at least up till now. So it hasn't really been profitable to add subs. The only Japanese editions where this happened were BR releases that already had an english DVD version with subs like Haruhi Suzimiya. This might change with Gundam Unicorn as a test case: global release with multiple languages at Japanese price level.(source Bandai annual report 2010). If succesfull (and this seems to be the case) we may see this approach repeated with other very succesful anime. So there is some small hope. Just an indication of how niche the market truly is: an anime (more exact: late night anime like Frontier) is considered to be profitable if it sells over the minabi line which is 3000 units. To my knowledge Frontier has been the second most succesfull TV anime release on BR so far with an average of 45,000 units per BR (only Bakemonogatari did better). Under normal conditions a series that sells 5000 units is a financial succes, and anything over 20,000 is one of the top titles of a given year.

Indeed, nothing new on the western front. RT is still as dead as roadkill, and HG still manages to have it's fans in a feeding frenzy over the carcass. But it can't hurt to inject some common sense in these discussions. Especially since a lot of nonsense seems to spill over from rt.com. I agree on the books, manga and magazines etc. those are really the part where the rights still hurt. She is the head of their legal divsion in the US. Also HG's actions are, as far as we can tell, perfectly legal. Better lawyers can't overturn the law. BW tried to get TM's for "Macross Plus" instead of "Macross" in 2000. The attempts were abandoned in 2001, I can only assume they were rejected. I would speculate that any attempt to get TM's for "Macross 7", "Macross Zero" or "Macross Frontier" as separate entities would share the same fate. Bandai's involvement was twofold at the time. They have merchandising licenses for Macross 7 and Bandai Visual is a production comitee member in every Macross production since M-Plus and M-7. Why HG did not do this before 1999 in reaction to MII and M-Plus is the "no-one minding the store theory": The RT staff had moved to Saban and HG's entertainment section was mostly inactive in the early 90s. That part of HG recovered thanks to the rise of DVD in the late nineties. Masked Rider, Ben10, Power Rangers and Dragonball are far more important US releases for Bandai than Gundam. Gundam as a toyline pretty much failed in the US on it's own (due to some spectacular mishandeling of the property), even without any legal issues. There is no gurantee Macross would do any better. Macross Frontier is a popular anime, but it caters far to much to otaku tastes to have a chance outside of the anime fandom. What I find frustrating is that the TM's prevent official translated releases of works like manga such as Macross the First and Macross(light)novels. Even worse, HG has also blocked the French market, the most important manga market outside of Japan, where more obscure titles would have had a chance to be translated. And what does HG offer in exchange? Crappy comics and RT-novels that missed their calling as toiletpaper.

The TM's can be lost if HG does not actively use them (by not selling products in the applicable TM categories) or if the TM's are not renewed(which should happen for the 5 Macross TMs in the period 2012-2014). In case of bankruptcy and if no third party would buy the TM's, they would be considered abandoned after 3 years of non-usage. A sale of Robotech is far more complicated as it depends on the nature of the contracts between Tatsunoko and HG. Without the licenses from Tatsunoko for SDFM, Mospeada and SDCSC, Robotech is little more then a logo, a tune, a handfull of character names and a few Tommy Yune character designs. We don't know if HG can sell their licenses without Tats consent, nor do we know what the renewal period of those licenses are. The Macross TM's are very hard to use without acces (read license) to the SDFM worldwide video distribution and merchandise rights which are owned by Tats. In case anyone wonders about a potential default of Tatsunoko; they are a subsidiary of toy company Takara-Tomy (transformers etc.).

That is not quite true. Bandai company lawyer Cynthia Nishimoto, on behalf of Big West, appealed against HGs trademark application in 1999. In the end in 2002 the USPTO awarded the trademark to HG based on US trademark regulations.

HG is also in real estate and runs a movietheater/event facility, they do not just depend on Robotech or other B-productions they distribute. How much Robotech is worth? Unknown, but it generates enough for HG to retain the Tatsunoko license, trademarks and Yune and co, and fund the staffs convention hopping. Altough the staff may also have to do work for the other parts of the company. HG going out of business may have limited effect on Macross. The foreign distribution rights of SDFM would just revert to Tatsunoko. What would happen to HG's Macross trademarks (arguably the biggest roadblock preventing international distribution of sequels and merchandise) after a bankruptcy is interesting. I don't know enough about regulations in regard to trademarks to say anything about that.

Thank you very much for the translation Renato, its great to read an interview about one of the truly creative people in the business.

Wonder which companies will produce the actual animation for the new show. Afaik in the past World Events Production bought the animation from (and later commisioned) Toei.

The time travelling Kyon and Mikuru wake up after their past selves have used Mikuru's device to travel back in time. So yes, timetravelling Kyon exists next to his past self for three years. In that episode (BLR) Yuki confirms that he was in stasis in the other room when Kyon visited Yuki's appartement for the first time in season one. In disappearance they take it one step further when future Kyon arrives with friends to save himself from bleeding to death after being stabbed by Ryoko. Bit of a Bill and Ted paradox that one.

My Japanese language teacher's relatives live in Ishinomaki. She got the call that they were safe in class yesterday, first time I have ever seen her lose her composure. Real happy for her. My thoughts go out to the people in the affected areas. The images shown in the media just look so surreal. Considering the near future. Wonder what will happen to the people who have lost everything? Don't know if home insurance in Japan covers natural/nuclear disasters. Some kind of government aid?

Votoms kinda pulled that of with the Pailsen files 12 ep. ova but after Frontier I don't see Macross take that direction again. I dread the next project might be closer to Infinite Stratos then any 8th MS type stories.

yup, episode 10 now gives us Homura's background, great episode. First time I see a magical girl resort to using C4 and a M249 Shaft is really doing something different in this genre.

Same problem with Mazinger Z, I'm about half way now, but it's not something I can marathon. It's an interesting show and I can see why it's innovations have influenced mecha so much. However all it's ideas have been copied so extensively that it makes it hard to fully enjoy the original. As for the Spring season, Appleseed is a much watch for me and I'll check out the new shows from the big studios and Kampfer as a guilty pleasure. This season looks quite high on the usual fetish pandering for otakus.

$4.00+ for regular... I'd fill up my car with a smile on my face . Prices at the local station just went over $9.00+.

Nice write up. Good to see you guys had a lot of fun. Is it common over there that movie merchandise is sold at the cinema?

Unfortunately, no they can't. To my knowledge Macross 7 Trash was the last officially translated publication over 10 years ago, available still in French, German and Italian. Nothings been published since then outside of Japan in western markets. (For more details check out the first few posts in the Robotech thread)

Given the thousands of different manga titles that get published abroad, including less popular mecha-titles than Macross, Japanese companies (at least the publishers) are well aware of the international markets. However, foreign-language-editions of manga is the domain of local publishers in their home markets, not that of Japanese publishers. Petitioning Kadokawa (or BW) to make an exception for Macross the First alone doesn't seem very realistic, even if they would be willing to help out foreign fans. As long as the legal issues hang over Macross, it won't be licensed. In this case customer demand abroad simply cannot be met. So it's simply the Japanese version or nothing.

Afaik:

Wonder if Akiyuki Shinbo has been taking lessons from Anno or Tomino or something...Shinbo mixes the cute looks of a magical series with a plot clearly inspired by Goethe's Faust. The most interesting show of the winter season so far. Nice sound track and the show is not going overboard with the typical Shaft artsy visuals.