Funimation to Acquire Crunchyroll (Crunchyroll to swallow Funimation content)

[One-Eye]

Originally Posted by llj

Unless they are 60s comics or older, most superhero comics aren't worth that much anymore. The market for 80s-90s comics burst about 15-20 years ago. Anyone who's trying to sell any 90s superhero comic for over $20 is probably trying to rip you off. They printed a shit load of copies during the boom years, so there are very few comics from those years that are scarce. The only comics that really are worth a damn are those with really low print runs that are in high demand now or really old comics that were sold before comic specialty shops emerged to preserve them (basically anything before 1969). Numerous TPB reprints have also suppressed the demand for back issues, lowering their worth.

I have about 1000 comics from the 80s and 90s sitting in my parents' house and I don't think I'd get much more than $200-300 for the lot of them, and that's if anyone even wants to buy them. There's a reason why a lot of those comics are found in the bargain bins of comics shops these days.

Unfortunately this is very true. My collection is mainly late 70s thru mid 90s and a couple of years ago I was looking into maybe offloading it. Some stuff I'd be lucky to get the cover price for. I get the 90s stuff with the insane amount of variant covers, questionable quality and inflated number of prints. But the lack of interest in 70s and 80s was weird to me, you could still pickup comics at that time in grocery stores and gas stations (they weren't always mint). Comic shops hadn't quite become a big thing (remember many going bust) until I remembered it was roughly around that time (early 80s) that I started to see friends of mine with comics bagged and in long white boxes. Along with everything else that has been mentioned, I just think there were more people now taking care of their comics as opposed to the 60s and before, which certainly doesn't help with scarcity. There's probably many, many people with boxes of comics in their parents homes and their folks shaking their fists "when are you gonna take your stuff!"

[LexInHD]

In an effort to establish continued sustainability after the RightStuf buyout, which saw a large number of their products removed from the inventory, Media Blasters has opened their own online store, to sell their own offerings.

mb-storefront.com

[The Collector FX]

I wish Media Blasters died off.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by LexInHD

In an effort to establish continued sustainability after the RightStuf buyout, which saw a large number of their products removed from the inventory, Media Blasters has opened their own online store, to sell their own offerings.

mb-storefront.com

Just to note, people in 6 states can't buy hentai from Media Blasters directly.

RESTRICTED SHIPPING!

At this time, we are unable to send any adult animation to some addresses. These communities have been considered sexually conservative and our lawyers have advised us against it. Keep in mind that this is not a matter of legislation and that both the billing and shipping addresses must be in a non-conservative area.

We are unable to ship to you if you live in any of the following states due to laws dating back to the 70's and 80's. Doing so has been declared illegal.

Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Utah

https://mb-storefront.com/collections/18-anime

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

I wish Media Blasters died off.

I do too seeing as they cursed Bakuman, Kenshin and Berserk from ever receiving physical releases after they licensed them.

I know it isn't directly MB's fault, just saying.

[veritas]

Originally Posted by One-Eye

Unfortunately this is very true. My collection is mainly late 70s thru mid 90s and a couple of years ago I was looking into maybe offloading it. Some stuff I'd be lucky to get the cover price for. I get the 90s stuff with the insane amount of variant covers, questionable quality and inflated number of prints. But the lack of interest in 70s and 80s was weird to me, you could still pickup comics at that time in grocery stores and gas stations (they weren't always mint). Comic shops hadn't quite become a big thing (remember many going bust) until I remembered it was roughly around that time (early 80s) that I started to see friends of mine with comics bagged and in long white boxes. Along with everything else that has been mentioned, I just think there were more people now taking care of their comics as opposed to the 60s and before, which certainly doesn't help with scarcity. There's probably many, many people with boxes of comics in their parents homes and their folks shaking their fists "when are you gonna take your stuff!"

Oop manga, anime and comics all have the same problem. They have a relatively small supply which inflates the price to really high levels but they also have very limited demand meaning finding a buyer is somewhere between takes forever and impossible.

For example I have a bunch of zoids DVDs they sell eventually for around 50 dollars a piece plus shipping on eBay. I can list them for like 30 to 40 dollars which is a 20 to 40 % saving on the going price but the things probably won’t sell any faster because the pool of buyers is completely inelastic at the silly prices the market reaches.

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by veritas

Oop manga, anime and comics all have the same problem. They have a relatively small supply which inflates the price to really high levels but they also have very limited demand meaning finding a buyer is somewhere between takes forever and impossible.

For example I have a bunch of zoids DVDs they sell eventually for around 50 dollars a piece plus shipping on eBay. I can list them for like 30 to 40 dollars which is a 20 to 40 % saving on the going price but the things probably won’t sell any faster because the pool of buyers is completely inelastic at the silly prices the market reaches.

Well stated.

I've found with Laserdiscs that they tend to sell in bunches. Since I started trying to sell off most of my non-anime non-criterion LD in April I have sold 46 LDs across only 13 orders. This also includes one guy that has placed 5 of the orders to your point about a narrow buyer pool.

[Captain N]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

I wish Media Blasters died off.

Why? Small-mid sized publishers are essential to ensuring there is a variety of material made available. I don't wish any publisher to go away in the physical media space right now. There will be an ever smaller pool of publishers out there as Funi/CR dominate the marketplace. Less competition results in less variety and that's bad for everyone - especially us viewers.

[BigOnAnime]

We need all the companies we can get for catalog content. FUNimation stopped caring long before the Crunchyroll merger, following Crunchyroll buying RightStuf, we can probably expect the Nozomi Entertainment division to stop licensinig anything after they finish what they already have, Maiden Japan is basically dead, VIZ licenses anime once in a blue moon and it's never old stuff, and NISA gave up on anime around 2015.

This leaves us with Sentai Filmworks which is now rarely licensing catalog content, Media Blasters, AnimEigo who does just Kickstarters, and Discotek Media. Discotek Media as much as people love them and them upping the amount of releases per month is unable to license everything.

Also if you like hentai, Kitty Media is all that's left for licensing "new" titles. When John Sirabella retires and Media Blasters likely goes with him, that will be it for the hentai market in North America.

[Batman1980]

Hentai?

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by Captain N

Why? Small-mid sized publishers are essential to ensuring there is a variety of material made available. I don't wish any publisher to go away in the physical media space right now. There will be an ever smaller pool of publishers out there as Funi/CR dominate the marketplace. Less competition results in less variety and that's bad for everyone - especially us viewers.

Because their quality is absolute trash. Both on a presentation level and picture quality level. Have you seen screen caps of their BD release of Doomed Megalopolis?

And let's not forget they made their disc's with DVD-R's for years before telling their consumers.

And as Inuyasha Crusade pointed out, their shady businesses tactics is (probably) the reason why North America will never be able to acquire the license to the 1997 Berserk series.

People buy their shit and I have no idea why... Lol and people think Funimation puts out bad product. Media Blasters' puts Funimation to shame in that department.

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

Because their quality is absolute trash. Both on a presentation level and picture quality level. Have you seen screen caps of their BD release of Doomed Megalopolis?

And let's not forget they made their disc's with DVD-R's for years before telling their consumers.

And as Inuyasha Crusade pointed out, their shady businesses tactics is (probably) the reason why North America will never be able to acquire the license to the 1997 Berserk series.

People buy their shit and I have no idea why... Lol and people think Funimation puts out bad product. Media Blasters' puts Funimation to shame in that department.

People buy their stuff because where else are they going to get it? It's either buy the title from them or get nothing at all, especially in regards to hentai which they effectively have a monopoly on due to companies going under (Amorz, Anime 18 (Central Park Media), NuTech Digital), others no longer licensing stuff thanks to Japan's laws banning the sale of uncensored porn so the uncut masters can't be licensed out in a timely manner due to reverse-importation, and poor sales (SoftCel Pictures 2.0 crashed and burned so hard after just 6 releases in 2017).

As for DVD-Rs, I never liked the practice, it was horrible, but they did tell people basically right from the beginning back in 2015, and labeled their products as such on the back covers. Though them not labeling reprints of titles from before 2015, that they didn't tell people, and some titles you had a mix of pressed discs and DVD-R discs, it sucked.
https://fandompost.vbulletin.net/for...vds-as-of-2021

Can you 100% definitely say that Media Blasters is the reason Berserk, Bakuman., or Rurouni Kenshin remain unlicensed? IIRC, Justin Sevakis once liked or made a tweet about how after a remake comes out, it can lead to the original work not being available for licensing anymore. Like the original Hunter x Hunter anime seems like it's no longer available for licensing because of the 2011 remake. Now why it would affect only North America and not Australia and the UK, who knows, though those are much smaller markets.

Bakuman., VIZ picked it up and it didn't seem like it streamed well, so it didn't get a physical release. Discotek can still likely swoop in like they did with Reborn! which VIZ also streamed (and still is streaming) and didn't release. Rurouni Kenshin, that's due to Aniplex USA having zero interest in releasing it and continues to just stream it. Aniplex Japan catalog titles remain cursed despite them allowing companies not named Aniplex USA to license newer titles again.

Lastly on Doomed Megalopolis, you have to keep in mind the limitations of what can be done with bad masters, though them seemingly lying about it being from film elements is bad. Even Discotek Media wouldn't be able to make a great looking release out of that unless they found the film elements. When masters are bad, there's not much you can do. When/if Sentai Filmworks releases Hareluya II Boy on Blu-ray, it's going to look similar to Doomed Megalopolis because of bad masters. The show didn't even receive a DVD release in Japan outside of like a few episodes on a compilation disc, it was VHS and LaserDisc only, and is upcaled from those masters. Sometimes the show looks even worse than those screenshots from Episode 1.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...4#post19625894

[LexInHD]

The original Berserk anime is beloved and cherished. The remakes, not in the slightest. To use a more understandable example of what The Sevakis said, Magnum PI and Hawaii Five-O both went off-market in home media for some time, to allow their remakes some years to have the spotlight and to avoid unfavorable comparisons between the original and remakes.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Lastly on Doomed Megalopolis, you have to keep in mind the limitations of what can be done with bad masters, though them seemingly lying about it being from film elements is bad. Even Discotek Media wouldn't be able to make a great looking release out of that unless they found the film elements. When masters are bad, there's not much you can do. When/if Sentai Filmworks releases Hareluya II Boy on Blu-ray, it's going to look similar to Doomed Megalopolis because of bad masters. The show didn't even receive a DVD release in Japan outside of like a few episodes on a compilation disc, it was VHS and LaserDisc only, and is upcaled from those masters. Sometimes the show looks even worse than those screenshots from Episode 1.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...4#post19625894

If the masters/source material is awful. Then don't make it. Why are you advocating companies to make a bad product just for the sake of it being available to buy?

Imagine someone serves you a cake where instead of the frosting, whip cream, sprinkles - it's just the bread underneath with a cherry lazily put on top. Would your reaction be "well, it's still a cake" and eat it? There are standards for a reason, and it's not okay for companies like Media Blasters to put out a bad product. If all they have is crappy materials then find another show to license that does have good materials.

If an anime is going to be lost media due to company negligence or poor archiving then so be it, their the ones losing money and their legacy.

[gloomranger]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

I do too seeing as they cursed Bakuman, Kenshin and Berserk from ever receiving physical releases after they licensed them.

I know it isn't directly MB's fault, just saying.

Originally Posted by BigOnAnime

Can you 100% definitely say that Media Blasters is the reason Berserk, Bakuman., or Rurouni Kenshin remain unlicensed? IIRC, Justin Sevakis once liked or made a tweet about how after a remake comes out, it can lead to the original work not being available for licensing anymore. Like the original Hunter x Hunter anime seems like it's no longer available for licensing because of the 2011 remake. Now why it would affect only North America and not Australia and the UK, who knows, though those are much smaller markets.

Originally Posted by LexInHD

The original Berserk anime is beloved and cherished. The remakes, not in the slightest. To use a more understandable example of what The Sevakis said, Magnum PI and Hawaii Five-O both went off-market in home media for some time, to allow their remakes some years to have the spotlight and to avoid unfavorable comparisons between the original and remakes.

With the TV version of the Berserk: The Golden Age Arc premiering this fall, it’s unlikely we’ll see the ‘97 series licensed rescued anytime soon. Your best bet is to get a region-free Blu-ray player and import the UK release.

[SteamfloggerBoss]

While we are on the quality subject and kinda related to this thread because Sony...

I've been disappointed with some of these Aniplex discs for the cost. Noticed some obvious video artifacts on Nisekoi. I don't remember what episodes off hand. Still glad I bought it and enjoyed the series. Just kinda shouting at clouds right now.

[BoopityBoop]

Originally Posted by SteamfloggerBoss

While we are on the quality subject and kinda related to this thread because Sony...

I've been disappointed with some of these Aniplex discs for the cost. Noticed some obvious video artifacts on Nisekoi. I don't remember what episodes off hand. Still glad I bought it and enjoyed the series. Just kinda shouting at clouds right now.

While I don't own Nisekoi, the Monogatari releases have quite a bit of source banding, so Nisekoi may suffer from similar issues (since both series are animated at Shaft).

[BigOnAnime]

Originally Posted by The Collector FX

If the masters/source material is awful. Then don't make it. Why are you advocating companies to make a bad product just for the sake of it being available to buy?

Imagine someone serves you a cake where instead of the frosting, whip cream, sprinkles - it's just the bread underneath with a cherry lazily put on top. Would your reaction be "well, it's still a cake" and eat it? There are standards for a reason, and it's not okay for companies like Media Blasters to put out a bad product. If all they have is crappy materials then find another show to license that does have good materials.

If an anime is going to be lost media due to company negligence or poor archiving then so be it, their the ones losing money and their legacy.

I'd rather have it back in-print rather than remain OOP, expensive, and at risk of becoming lost media. To bring it up again as its masters are in similarly bad condition, I'd rather have watched Hareluya II Boy on HIDIVE in bad quality than not at all. I quite liked that show and I'm very much looking forward to a Blu-ray release even though I know the quality will be bad because of bad masters. It should have been SDBD instead but Sentai is bad at those and stopped doing them almost 3 years ago. They also stopped doing DVDs as well, so that's also out the window.

Let me ask you this, if the film elements for say Neon Genesis Evangelion were lost and the Blu-ray looked worse than the upscale for Episode 16, would you advocate letting something like that remain OOP forever? How about Akira? Sailor Moon? Dragon Ball Z? I can keep going but you should get my point.

[Edit]I want to also point out, Discotek Media has licensed shows with bad masters before, tried their best with what they had, and yet I don't see people saying "I'd rather have nothing." because the masters were bad. Lots of people bought the prior release of Angel Cop which looks similar to the Media Blasters release of Doomed Megalopolis. Discotek didn't claim their release was using film elements, but still.

Discotek Media puts way more work into their releases and has far more resources than Media Blasters, but it's something worth pointing out. Why give only Media Blasters crap for this, but not Discotek Media or Sentai Filmworks when they upscale stuff with bad masters? I get there are standards for releases, and I don't know how the Media Blasters release of Doomed Megalopolis compares to the ADV Films DVDs, but if you wanted to take shots at Media Blasters, you could have used something else, like their release of Nana 7 of Seven where the masters to begin with weren't that bad and the Blu-ray is worse than what had been put out in the past.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...0#post19217200

[SteamfloggerBoss]

Originally Posted by BoopityBoop

While I don't own Nisekoi, the Monogatari releases have quite a bit of source banding, so Nisekoi may suffer from similar issues (since both series are animated at Shaft).

Yeah could easily be a source issue. I'm definitely not an expert and overall everything looked good enough.

[The Collector FX]

Originally Posted by BoopityBoop

While I don't own Nisekoi, the Monogatari releases have quite a bit of source banding, so Nisekoi may suffer from similar issues (since both series are animated at Shaft).

Unfortunate that some Monogatari releases have banding considering it's a marquee license for Aniplex.