Aniplex, the Sony division that has produced series such
as Fullmetal Alchemist, Blood Plus and Bleach, sent a representative
from their U.S. base in California to the New York show. Hiroe
Tsukamoto addressed a situation raised by people in the anime importing
industry in recent months, the question of how quickly a series
produced in Japan should be released on home video in America. For
years, there's been talk of shortening the gap from months to weeks and
possibly having simultaneous anime releases in both the U.S. and
Japanese markets. Tsukamoto acknowledged that would reduce the
situation where fansubbers get digital copies of the series online and
reduce the legitimate sales of anime series. However, she also noted
that there's a practical production problem with the idea of
simultaneous releases in the U.S. and Japan. Most anime series seen in
the U.S. series began with television broadcasts in Japan, and those
episodes often are barely finished in time for those broadcasts.
Apparently, the legends are true of episodes completed only a few hours
before they're broadcast for the first time, and those versions contain
technical errors that need to be "cleaned up" before the episodes are
deemed ready for home video release in Japan and the U.S. Those
cleaned-up versions are the basis for the DVD's seen in the U.S., which
accounts for much of the release delays.
One fan at the panel asked if Aniplex had considered
taking more control of its product and selling its series direct as
Aniplex projects in the U.S. Tsukamoto's replied that the company was
satisfied with the performance of the American importers, such as ADV
Films and Funimation, that have handled its series. A look at the
cablecast schedule for the time around the time of the New York show
would bear that out: two of the three series mentioned in this story
were running each night on the Adult Swim service and a third had been
an Adult Swim favorite in previous years, and most of the work to get
those series on cable TV had been done by the U.S. rights holders.
Aniplex, the Sony division that has produced series such
as Fullmetal Alchemist, Blood Plus and Bleach, sent a representative
from their U.S. base in California to the New York show. Hiroe
Tsukamoto addressed a situation raised by people in the anime importing
industry in recent months, the question of how quickly a series
produced in Japan should be released on home video in America. For
years, there's been talk of shortening the gap from months to weeks and
possibly having simultaneous anime releases in both the U.S. and
Japanese markets. Tsukamoto acknowledged that would reduce the
situation where fansubbers get digital copies of the series online and
reduce the legitimate sales of anime series. However, she also noted
that there's a practical production problem with the idea of
simultaneous releases in the U.S. and Japan. Most anime series seen in
the U.S. series began with television broadcasts in Japan, and those
episodes often are barely finished in time for those broadcasts.
Apparently, the legends are true of episodes completed only a few hours
before they're broadcast for the first time, and those versions contain
technical errors that need to be "cleaned up" before the episodes are
deemed ready for home video release in Japan and the U.S. Those
cleaned-up versions are the basis for the DVD's seen in the U.S., which
accounts for much of the release delays.
One fan at the panel asked if Aniplex had considered
taking more control of its product and selling its series direct as
Aniplex projects in the U.S. Tsukamoto's replied that the company was
satisfied with the performance of the American importers, such as ADV
Films and Funimation, that have handled its series. A look at the
cablecast schedule for the time around the time of the New York show
would bear that out: two of the three series mentioned in this story
were running each night on the Adult Swim service and a third had been
an Adult Swim favorite in previous years, and most of the work to get
those series on cable TV had been done by the U.S. rights holders.
