Urusei Yatsura Anime (1981-1986) coming to Blu-ray

[Nothing371]

Barnes & Noble just recently started stocking collector's edition manga volumes of Maisson Ikkoku. I'm just sayin' things change. Preferences, buying attitudes, rising nostalgia, and people of that time acquiring adult money. It's no wonder that it didn't do very well back in the day. People wanted stuff that was more exciting. But times change, tastes change.

I'll say that it will come to blu-ray eventually just like I said with NGE. Everything does. Look around you; we've gotten almost everything (big) now. It's one of the most highly rated anime of all-time. Think about how old jrpgs are just now being ported over to Steam; companies are playing the long game (for revenue streams). Money can be made. Catalogues will be bolstered. It's just a matter of time, as long as the materials still exist.

[BigOnAnime]

While Urusei Yatsura is going to be barebones, there's one thing Discotek should still try to include...

Last Disk - AnimEigo - Urusei Yatsura - YouTube

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by Takao

Discotek has absolutely released material more obscure than a dubbed Rumiko Takahashi adaptation.

This is true and I've discovered some great (and some not great) shows by buying some of that obscure stuff.

The big thing has to be the licensing and how much it would cost. Maybe time can eat away at it. I'd love to get a US BD release.

[mysticwaterfall]

Originally Posted by gloomranger

Absolutely, it's been OOP for over a decade and it's one of Rumiko Takahashi's seminal works. It also boasts a competent English dub from Ocean Studios too. There's no reason for it not to succeed especially if it were to end up in Discotek's capable hands someday.



There's no reason for a Kickstarter though. A Blu-ray already exists in Japan. So there's no need to pay for a restoration. As I mentioned above, it is one of Rumiko Takahashi's seminal works and it has a decent enough English dub. You've got name recognition alone, plus the folks who only ever watched InuYasha or Ranma 1/2 in English, can get into it too. The only thing you can hope to gain from a Kickstarter is better packaging, but with 96-episodes, a movie, and a few OVAs to store, it could get pretty expensive.

Well yeah, the KS would pay for the licensing, distribution, etc. I don't think cost would really be an issue since people were certainly willing to pay a lot for say, the Dirty Pair KS or the underwhelming Eva Ultimate.

[NeilZ]

I expect Discotek must have explored releasing Masion Ikkoku before, it's just too big for them not to have.

Maybe if Urusei Yatsura sets sell well they'll try and get Maison Ikkoku? I sure hope so.

[jsevakis]

I love how people just ignored the whole “licensing hell” thing to keep their speculation going

[llj]

As far as major yet obscure-in-the US anime goes, Touch has gotta be the #1 candidate. If Discotek ever got that I'd eat my shoe.

Rights issue conversation aside, I can see why Maison Ikkoku bombed back in the day. It's my favorite romance anime series of all time, but it's a slow burn...REAL slow. It's a 96 episode anime where the two leads spend about 8 years (!) of their lives trying to get their personal shit together before they actually get together. While the payoff is one of the great payoffs in romance anime history, it took a lot of time (and customers' money) to get there.

[Nothing371]

Originally Posted by jsevakis

I love how people just ignored the whole “licensing hell” thing to keep their speculation going

You got a link? Or care to elaborate?

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by llj

As far as major yet obscure-in-the US anime goes, Touch has gotta be the #1 candidate. If Discotek ever got that I'd eat my shoe.

Rights issue conversation aside, I can see why Maison Ikkoku bombed back in the day. It's my favorite romance anime series of all time, but it's a slow burn...REAL slow. It's a 96 episode anime where the two leads spend about 8 years (!) of their lives trying to get their personal shit together before they actually get together. While the payoff is one of the great payoffs in romance anime history, it took a lot of time (and customers' money) to get there.

That's why I dropped the manga at signature edition vol 4. It felt like absolutely nothing had happened to move the story along. I liked what I was reading but not enough to keep spending $20 to $25 per volume for another 6 volumes.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

You got a link? Or care to elaborate?

BigOnAnime might have a link. Justin made a comment a while back that once Mason Ikkoku's license expired with Viz Media, it was unlicensable afterwards.

My guess is that the licensee's for Mason Ikkoku figured it wasn't profitable in the West, which would be accurate because it bombed hard for Viz Media, thus blocking any future licensors acquiring it as I'm sure other companies probably showed interest in licensing it since then. This is Rumiko Takahashi we're talking about after all.

[llj]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

That's why I dropped the manga at signature edition vol 4. It felt like absolutely nothing had happened to move the story along. I liked what I was reading but not enough to keep spending $20 to $25 per volume for another 6 volumes.

Yeah for sure. I mean it functions very well as a comedy series too, as it's frequently laugh out loud hilarious, and for those who stuck it out the comedy is really what keeps the series going through the slow periods. But it definitely asks more from the customer than most series do

[Member-571539]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

You got a link? Or care to elaborate?

This was posted back in December 2020.

Originally Posted by jsevakis

Maison Ikkoku is in licensing hell.

I’m pretty sure if Justin tells you it’s in licensing hell it’s because they’ve looked into picking it up and were told “No, it’s complicated.” There’s no article to link back to nor can he divulge any further information.

[Lum]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

That's why I dropped the manga at signature edition vol 4. It felt like absolutely nothing had happened to move the story along. I liked what I was reading but not enough to keep spending $20 to $25 per volume for another 6 volumes.

If I'm blunt, her style changed for the worse toward the latter half of UY. I liked the Ataru/Shinobu dynamic and the wacky aliens. Not so much the story arcs for characters like Asuka or Ryuunosuke.

[jsevakis]

Originally Posted by Nothing371

You got a link? Or care to elaborate?

Nope. Just, we looked into it and was told it's not available due to rights issues on the Japan side, and I can speculate what those might be, but it's just speculation. Believe me if you like. Or don't.

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by jsevakis

Nope. Just, we looked into it and was told it's not available due to rights issues on the Japan side, and I can speculate what those might be, but it's just speculation. Believe me if you like. Or don't.

I appreciate you letting us know.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

BigOnAnime might have a link. Justin made a comment a while back that once Mason Ikkoku's license expired with Viz Media, it was unlicensable afterwards.

My guess is that the licensee's for Mason Ikkoku figured it wasn't profitable in the West, which would be accurate because it bombed hard for Viz Media, thus blocking any future licensors acquiring it as I'm sure other companies probably showed interest in licensing it since then. This is Rumiko Takahashi we're talking about after all.

I highly doubt that would ever be a reason for something to be stuck in licensing hell. There have been many titles that performed poorly at first but years later did better under a different distributor. For example, Lupin didn't perform well until Discotek gave it a shot and now it's so viable that more dubbed Lupin has happened. It's really not much a negative on the Japanese-side to have stuff licensed out even if it sells poorly thanks to the minimum guarantee, or licensing costs. No matter how the show does, they'll get X minimum amount of money. Of course they'd like those royalties which kick in after the distributor has made back what they spent to license the title in the first place. Lots of anime in the singles era failed to get royalties sent to Japan due to inflated licensing costs the NA distributors didn't make back, like so.

[theberserker22]

Wonder if not getting the dub for the original series is due to licensors wanting people who are interested in a dub to watch the new show instead.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by theberserker22

Wonder if not getting the dub for the original series is due to licensors wanting people who are interested in a dub to watch the new show instead.

AnimEigo only dubbed the first 2 episodes. No way is a new dub going to be made for a 41 year old 195 episode anime most new anime fans have never even heard of despite seeing cameos. It's way too cost prohibitive.

[theberserker22]

Ah, i thought it had been fully dubbed back in the day like Ranma.

[BigOnAnime]

It wasn't, it also took like 14 years for them to finish releasing it.

During 1992, the series was licensed for a North American release by AnimEigo. Their VHS release began in October of the same year and was among the first anime titles to receive a subtitled North American release. However, the release schedule was erratic. The episodes were also released on LaserDisc in 1993. The first two episodes were released with an English dub on March 29, 1995 as Those Obnoxious Aliens. AnimEigo later released the series on DVD. The series was available in box set format as well as individual releases. A total of 10 boxed sets and 50 individual DVDs were released between March 27, 2001 and June 20, 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urusei_Yatsura#Anime