So I'd emailed the director of PR and Marketing, Alison, and got a reply. I gave my name and mentioned I had a site, but she knew which one it was. :ego puffs up:

She sounded super excited to have a direct line to the fanbase, especially when we're not only assured sales but like, assured fanatical preorders. She didn't want to promise anything but they're working on some extras and asked to keep in touch since they're planning things leading up to the release and want fan feedback about how the DVDs are done and what's on them. I'm going to invite her to join the forum or at the very least link her to this thread/communicate any common themes for desires for the DVDs to her.

This is it, guys. Some of you have been around long enough to know just how horrible a history SKU has had in the US. First we got absolutely eye-exploding pink and blue VHS releases...of just the first arc. For years, you had to fansub the rest. The DVD ports of the first arc came later with much fanfare and were absolutely atrocious; anyone that watched the gallery creation thread saw just how bad the quality was. It was ages, AGES before we got official releases of the rest of the show, and while not terrible, the quality just wasn't up to snuff, and IMO the DVDs weren't that great. It felt disjointed and awkward to have the sets not match the first arc. Now an unusual twist was the local release of a few of the soundtracks, an awesome step...but it's all in the past. The companies went belly up and SKU again drifted in nothing.

Now we're not only going to have a definitive, complete port of the series, but we're getting it from a company that knows its market. SKU isn't a huge fanbase, it's a small, furiously devoted one, and it's about time we got a release that does our show justice.

Giovanna wrote:

Now we're not only going to have a definitive, complete port of the series, but we're getting it from a company that knows its market. SKU isn't a huge fanbase, it's a small, furiously devoted one, and it's about time we got a release that does our show justice.

*applauds*

IBB and I told you they were good. It doesn't surprise me in the least that they already know all about this site.  Nozomi/Right Stuf is extremely dedicated to their fans.  Which is why they usually end up getting at least $100 of my money every single month.

Shawne Kleckner tends to put little hints about the licensing process at the end of his posts at ANN (and Mania? I assume he posts there too.)  When a new license is announced, the little quip for that particular title drops off the list.  The quip for SKU?

"Frustratingly slow, but moving forward. Like a turtle with a brick on it's back. "

Awesome, between the three forums its sounds like they've got their customers well covered.

She did imply that they'd had a hard time getting SKU--as I understand it, the checkered past with SKU in the states is in no small part because it's just been a pain in the ass to get licensed. I recall back in the day Ikuhara was kinda trying to get the movie a theatrical release beyond the super minor kind at the time, and there was some talk of him wanting to have it aired on TV, which was a total pipedream. Anyone that knows the treatment Escaflowne got on network TV knows how far SKU would have gotten on American television back then. Even now I wouldn't think SKU could ever work on TV in the US. We're more permissive of mature themes these days, but SKU just doesn't seem marketable standing alongside the stuff that gets put on TV, where the focus is way more on action anime and less on mindbending analysis.

Huzzah! I love SKU.
But does anyone else get annoyed when shows give all the characters American names or mispronounce their real ones? That ticks me off.

But I'm happy! Yay!

........


Ok. How do we as a forum and fandom go about getting burning poptarts included in this release?

So...I've been away from IRG for a bit (again) and just saw this thread now. It's a delayed reaction, but holy shit am I excited. And happy. And amazed. And I need to save monies for this.

You know, I've never seen the dub? Because of where I live and the fact I was a broke student when the legit releases were available, I only saw fansubs. I...might have been the lucky one, from the sound of it.

No mention of prices that we know of. We have invited Alison to suggest creating an official forum account for Right Stuf/Nozomi-- would make it easier for them to gather feedback and fan suggestions/hopes. We'll see what comes of that. As for the rest, I'm glad you're all excited, and I feel sure that even if they don't have an account here, they'll be looking to see what you all want. OiTL, your list is fantastic-- anyone have any other wants?

Yasha wrote:

As for the rest, I'm glad you're all excited, and I feel sure that even if they don't have an account here, they'll be looking to see what you all want. OiTL, your list is fantastic-- anyone have any other wants?

Unrelated to the release, but rather supplementary merchandise, I'd love to see them do some limited edition lithographs like the did with Aria.  As long as they don't have them be signed by dub VAs. :\ (Which the Aria one wasn't but other lithographs [not necessarily done by Nozomi] have been occasionally. Makes them kind of worthless for this sub-only girl.)

As for pricing, their releases tend to have an MSRP of about $50 per 13ish episodes.  However, that's the MSRP.  They don't even charge that much on their site (which I think would be the best place to purchase from to provide fullest support for the series--but then again I shop there all the time), so you wouldn't expect to actually pay that much.  Also, that price is an average for series who have an excellent chipboard artbox, and neat extras like booklets, etc.  Of course, the SKU pricing might be completely different, but that is definitely the strongest trend in their pricing approach.

Last edited by Mylene (07-10-2010 02:42:41 PM)

I haven't heard one way or another but my understanding of what they've done is obtain the capacity to release the remastered series. I don't know that it works like 'hey guys we want to release the entire box sets!' As far as I know everything in the boxes that has been brought stateside, that's the show, the movie, and several soundtracks, stopped being in print as the license holders went belly up. If that puts them on the free market again than Nozomi may have obtained them, but given the notorious difficulty SOMEONE ahem has given local publishers with SKU, it's almost a bit dreamy to imagine they got the series, movie, soundtracks, and even the musical. Obviously, if they did, and frankly just translated and repackaged the DVDs from Japan for local release, they would be charging far, far more than their usual prices (which are damn  reasonable for anime), and god knows we'd be paying them.

I'd love to see the CDs, the movie, and the musical on the discs, but if all they were able to obtain is the series itself, they're still in a golden position to do right by us with extras, decent packaging, and sub translations of the duels that aren't hard coded onto the screen wtfbbq.

It would be a strange thing indeed for a musical to get translated officially for US viewers. Just as it was a lot to hope for for a translation of the novel. SKU fans are rabid and awesome but unfortunately we don't have the sheer numbers it usually takes for successful fan translations, so while I'm rooting for Nozomi on that one if they're going to spend translation chops I'd rather it be on the show...footnote subtitles (as an option) would be AMAZING FUCKING COOL AWESOME. Especially since there are a lot of places in SKU like the SPGs where understanding what they're saying requires a more intimate knowledge of Japanese culture. The initial Utena Encyclopedia scripts had footnotes for these but they disappeared as the translation went on. Something like that would make my girlparts go all atingle.

At this point in time, any extra they include would be a great bonus.

Obviously new interviews with the cast members (Japanese and English) would be great if unlikely.
Any artwork in a booklet as an extra, with interviews from all the artbooks I own translated - so I actually know the makers' thought process as they were creating it would be awesome!
A side by side comparison between Utena and shows that have influenced it (Rose of Versailles, Princess Knight, Cancy Candy, Belladonna, Sailor Moon), and of shows it has influenced (Melody of Oblivion, D'Eon and whatever else) would be grand!
My biggest request though is for all the duel songs and the Nanami centric songs to have a sub track that has the original lyrics and the English translation in a karaoke sorta format, with highlights of the bits of the songs that are sung, since the show is so musical anyway.
Anything else, icing on the cake, ESPECIALLY the musical subtitled, or footage from the video game, such as that awesome video floating around Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT7vCyakaBs

Another extra I would like that popped into my head would be similar to what we got in the French Rose of Versailles release, a booklet with an episode synopsis and a history of the show, how it eventuated, the hell going through licensing it, how well it does in different territories and with a few reasons why that could be, the thought process behind creating the art, story, soundtrack etc... would make for an AWESOME AWESOME extra!

Last edited by was_ohtori_akio (07-10-2010 05:22:40 PM)