Angry at Manga
Oct. 23rd, 2001 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterI've just finished watching episode 7 of the spectacular anime series Giant Robo. They have the dubs up in streaming RealVideo or Windows media at Sputnik 7, by the way. They look pretty good at a decent bandwidth rate, like on a good cablemodem or DSL connection. Sound decent, too; they're at least as good as getting the VHS, and they're free. The dub is pretty good, too; fairly close translation, a bit uneven in the voice acting (some voice actors are good, some bad, some saddled with ridiculous accents) but all in all, very worth watching. Easily one of the best anime I've ever seen. I could go on at great length about how sublime the story is, how excellent the animation, how magnificent the music (performed by the entire Warsaw Symphony--how many anime have a full symphonic score, incorporating elements of opera and even a version of the Dies Irae?), but that's not the point here. Suffice it to say it's a truly incredible anime miniseries, ending up about seven hours long, and well worth the time to watch.
The point here is that Manga Video has been sitting on its DVD release for literally several years now, continually pushing back and pushing back and pushing back these titles. Japan got a Giant Robo DVD box set last year. We were supposed to have one now, but at the last moment Manga pulled it, won't even say why, and has yet to reschedule it. Their schedule is full through June of next year--but Giant Robo isn't anywhere on it, it's just in the nebulous "Coming Soon" category.
And why is this? Why is Giant Robo languishing in DVD obscurity?
So Manga Video can release more porn anime. It's as simple as that.
Just look at some of the other selections on that Sputnik 7 page. Or, better yet, don't look at them. There are some decent titles there--Giant Robo, Gunbuster, Orguss 2...but there are also some truly awful ones, like Mad Bull or Violence Jack. Anime that seem to have no redeeming values--no values of any kind except to see a lot of nudity and a lot of heads exploding.
It just burns me that Manga seems to have limitless resources to devote to this trash, this schlock, and none to go toward putting out a DVD set of one of the greatest anime ever made. More and more people will be importing the Japanese set or buying the illegitimate and badly subtitled pirate Chinese DVD set as time goes by--making a bigger and bigger hole in their target audience.
I just want Giant Robo on DVD. Is that really too much to ask?
The point here is that Manga Video has been sitting on its DVD release for literally several years now, continually pushing back and pushing back and pushing back these titles. Japan got a Giant Robo DVD box set last year. We were supposed to have one now, but at the last moment Manga pulled it, won't even say why, and has yet to reschedule it. Their schedule is full through June of next year--but Giant Robo isn't anywhere on it, it's just in the nebulous "Coming Soon" category.
And why is this? Why is Giant Robo languishing in DVD obscurity?
So Manga Video can release more porn anime. It's as simple as that.
Just look at some of the other selections on that Sputnik 7 page. Or, better yet, don't look at them. There are some decent titles there--Giant Robo, Gunbuster, Orguss 2...but there are also some truly awful ones, like Mad Bull or Violence Jack. Anime that seem to have no redeeming values--no values of any kind except to see a lot of nudity and a lot of heads exploding.
It just burns me that Manga seems to have limitless resources to devote to this trash, this schlock, and none to go toward putting out a DVD set of one of the greatest anime ever made. More and more people will be importing the Japanese set or buying the illegitimate and badly subtitled pirate Chinese DVD set as time goes by--making a bigger and bigger hole in their target audience.
I just want Giant Robo on DVD. Is that really too much to ask?
