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This Week in Anime - Are We Experiencing a Retro Anime Gold Rush?


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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2550
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 9:20 am Reply with quote
Quote:
How the hell did HIDIVE NOT pick up the streaming rights to the original Urusei Yatsura when they became the home of the remake?


Since Crunchyroll's page for UY lists it as having come from Discotek I imagine it's simply a case of "Discotek has no business relationship with Sentai/Hidive", whereas Discotek has worked with Crunchyroll for years by now, both for streaming & even some home video releases (though they've since admitted that CR's catalog is now off limits to license from).

That being said, though, Discotek & Sentai probably should work together, in some fashion, if only so that a bunch of the older Hidive catalog can be given a new physical release via SD-BD, since Sentai has long given up on that format (& Discotek is really the only company to embrace the format, in general). Sentai barely releases anything new every month as it is (it's not an exaggeration to say that close to half of its "new" releases are just titles that were previously released a few years ago), and seemingly have no interest (or ability, even) to put out stuff like Azumanga Daioh, Battle of the Planets, Cardfight! Vanguard, Gargoyle of Yoshinaga House, GetBackers (& not have it stretched the 16:9, at that!), Hareluya II BØY, Kenda Master Ken, Popotan, Waccha PriMagi, You're Under Arrest, or (for Chris) even the OG Yozakura Quartet anime, some of which haven't had a physical re-release for a long time, while others have never been released over here physically at all.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4433
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 9:25 am Reply with quote
I do admit that I'd be interested to hear how older licenses are viewed and handled from the company end. I assume that, much like renewing a license from several years ago, there is a significant price decrease compared to the "new hit" of whatever upcoming season, but older titles don't get the same views, so where is the tipping point where even a cheap license isn't worth it?

I also don't know if it is all that strange that an original version of an anime and its remake end up on different platforms. I think the natural impulse of the general anime audience would be to pick the newer looking one and skip the older looking one, and now they've wasted that license by essentially competing with themselves.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2261
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 9:52 am Reply with quote
I wonder if this is a knock-on effect from the success of FAST channels i.e. people will willingly watch old stuff, so let's pad our subscription library with old stuff too (that we also don't have to pay residuals or royalties on).

I also wonder if the "no physical releases" is hurting the staying power of current anime in conjunction with the distribution models of "all at once" or "13 weeks and then extended break"
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Ojamajo LimePie



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 766
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:38 am Reply with quote
And can I have my FMA 2003 back, please? That's really not too much to ask.
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Silver Kirin



Joined: 09 Aug 2018
Posts: 1122
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 11:15 am Reply with quote
I'm glad that some old anime, and for me an anime has to be at least 10 years old to be considered a classic and 20 years for it to be old, are being added to mainstream streaming services like Netflix or Prime Video. Speaking from a Latinamerican perspective, when shows like Saint Seiya were added to Netflix and Prime Video the data showed that it still achieved a great number of views, so I guess old shows can still be succesful.
The only thing that I think it can affect the populairty of some shows is the lack of a dub version in some languages, a lot of the old shows that some services like Netflix acquired were never dubbed into some lagunages like Neutral Spanish, for example, Great Teacher Onizuka is sub-only in Latin America.
That kind of reminds me that when Funimation entered the Latin American market back in 2020 they started to dub some shows that were never dubbed into Neutral Spanish and Portuguese, things like Black Butler, Soul Eater, Mirai Nikki, among others, but that practice was short-lived since when they merged with Crunchyroll, the latter put an end to that practice and istead they just focused on new shows. There's an exclusive anime platform in Latin America called Anime Onegai that has focused on dubbing shows that never got an official dub for out region and they have made some pretty good dubs for things like Mazinkaiser, Giant Robo the Animation, Full Moon wo Sagashite, Tokyo Magintute 8.0, Sister Princess, Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Hikaru no Go, etc., but the platform is very niche compared to giants like Crunchyroll, but at least they're giving some old anime titles some exposure by dubbing them
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4433
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:07 pm Reply with quote
Ojamajo LimePie wrote:
And can I have my FMA 2003 back, please? That's really not too much to ask.


It would be nice considering it is my all-time favorite, and even though I have my physical copies, it is a shame that it isn't there to be watched. Sadly, Aniplex decided that Brotherhood was the only version it would do anything with, and '03 is relegated to the pile of things that were licensed that Aniplex decided not to license and do nothing themselves. I held some small hope that Sony owning Aniplex, Funimation, and Crunchyroll would make putting those shows back up for streaming an easy one, but no luck there.
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redvelvetdoll



Joined: 16 Feb 2022
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:10 pm Reply with quote
I do think that we're in a great period right now, where there's so much retro stuff being picked up for the first time and easily available. But then it kinda grinds my gears when it's ignored. Slap across the face everytime I meet someone who's like "I won't watch anime older than 2010 bc thats too old/has old animation". Like WHAT? Try new (old) things, guys! You never know until you make an attempt!

In the meantime, during the break week of seasonals, I started Zeta Gundam and Stop Hibari-kun, so i'm doing my part *salute*
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FireChick
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Joined: 26 Mar 2006
Posts: 2397
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 12:11 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
whereas Discotek has worked with Crunchyroll for years by now, both for streaming & even some home video releases (though they've since admitted that CR's catalog is now off limits to license from).


That really stinks. Crunchyroll has a bunch of shows on their site that they haven't done anything with, and Discotek would at the very least give them home video releases, even with dubs if it's within their budget.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5323
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 2:59 pm Reply with quote
It's wonderful that you can watch shows like: Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, Photon the Idiot Adventure, Record of Lodos War, Miss Machiko, Kurau Phantom Memory, Urusei Yatsura etc on Crunchyroll. All 6 parts of Lupin and The Woman called Fujiko Mine on Hidive. Netflix has about every Studio Ghibli film.

That said, there are still a lot of stuff, that would be great if they were made available.
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FinalVentCard
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 28 Oct 2018
Posts: 500
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 9:36 pm Reply with quote
Back when I was working on This Week in Anime, I had always hoped that someone would license-rescue Tekkaman Blade. It's a great example of what a dark sci-fi anime is like from that pre-Evangelion era. It's genuinely gripping, the music is phenomenal, and it's got tons of that Masami Obari goodness that I think folks high off of Bang Brave Bang Bravern might want more of. Alas...
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3654
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
How the hell did HIDIVE NOT pick up the streaming rights to the original Urusei Yatsura when they became the home of the remake?


Do companies even want the original when they have the remake though? I would think they would only want the new shiny thing. Especially when that's what probably cost more money, so they would want all eyes on that.
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Cho_Desu



Joined: 27 Dec 2022
Posts: 193
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:03 pm Reply with quote
For older anime, Tubi has more shows and movies than you might expect. You get ads, but it is all free to watch.

There's definitely room for improvement when it comes to older anime availability. 80s stuff is hard enough to come by, but 70s and 60s even more so. I've gradually been trying to check out "ancient" anime movies (the four-part article on "The Other 100 Best Anime Movies" has been a useful resource for me), but more often than not it just isn't going to be officially available in any reasonable way, and what I'll eventually find will be in rather low quality (and in many instances, dub only). I have to assume there's not much demand out there for most of these though, so shouganai...
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Dr. Wily



Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 261
PostPosted: Thu Apr 04, 2024 10:52 pm Reply with quote
Greed1914 wrote:
I do admit that I'd be interested to hear how older licenses are viewed and handled from the company end. I assume that, much like renewing a license from several years ago, there is a significant price decrease compared to the "new hit" of whatever upcoming season, but older titles don't get the same views, so where is the tipping point where even a cheap license isn't worth it?

I also don't know if it is all that strange that an original version of an anime and its remake end up on different platforms. I think the natural impulse of the general anime audience would be to pick the newer looking one and skip the older looking one, and now they've wasted that license by essentially competing with themselves.


Forget just original and remakes, if a show runs long enough, apparently things can go absolutely bananas, streaming wise. ...This is really just an excuse for me to post the insane chart that Pokemon recently put out showing how the show's long history is basically spread out across every platform. I saw it the other day and it's mesmerized me ever since. I mean I am not feeling the urge to watch that show in chronological order (it took 30 years to get through it the first time! (ba dum tsssh)).

Joe Mello wrote:
I wonder if this is a knock-on effect from the success of FAST channels i.e. people will willingly watch old stuff, so let's pad our subscription library with old stuff too (that we also don't have to pay residuals or royalties on).

I also wonder if the "no physical releases" is hurting the staying power of current anime in conjunction with the distribution models of "all at once" or "13 weeks and then extended break"


I would say almost definitely it's probably hurting it. I mean the article mentions/jokes about Bang Brave Bravern being forgotten by the end of the year, but like... that is completely possible, if not probable. I think looking forward to a physical release is something that kept fans going, kept a wave of discourse going about any particular show. But nowadays, since we know the show's gonna just be on streaming, and since more anime's being produced than ever, we move on to the next thing faster and faster.

The one thing I'd be curious to learn about is if this has actually effected what kind of stories are chosen for animes in the first place. There was an interesting interview with Matt Damon (look, I know, not anime, stick with me) a couple of years ago where he talks about how since the DVD/Blu-ray market has essentially vanished, it's affected what types of movies studios will produce since they won't have that market to make up more on. And I have to think that we'll see this kind of thing happen in anime. That is, if it hasn't already...
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ninjamitsuki



Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 591
Location: Anywhere (Thanks, technology)
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2024 12:38 am Reply with quote
And yet Escaflowne, Lain and Slayers are gone from streaming now...

Last edited by ninjamitsuki on Sat Apr 06, 2024 5:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Tanonymous



Joined: 04 Apr 2024
Posts: 3
PostPosted: Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:23 am Reply with quote
I was looking at the list of Funimation titles lost to streaming, and they were crazy interesting. Hidive honestly needs to take advantage of this and grab at least a couple of those titles (Lain, Slayers, Escaflowne, Sengoku Basara, etc.) and prop the hell out of their app. I doubt it'll happen though, just because AMC, the company that owns them doesn't seem to know what they're doing with anime, or the very least barely advertise Hidive to people. Would be cool. Also, crazier is that some anime like Outlaw Star straight up became Hulu exclusives overnight because they're the only place left that streams them, so Disney became a bit more competitive in the anime scene just by existing lol.
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