Macross Frontier Movies BD Boxset WITH ENGLISH SUBS!

[VF5SS]

The Transformers live action films aren't really indicative of people liking robots so much as it is people liking Michael Bay's spectacle driven movies with bigger and louder explosions each time. It's why their success didn't pass over to Pacific Rim which did only fraction of the business the Transformers movies did despite also featuring giant robots.

People didn't go to see Armageddon because it's about NASA, nor did it really spawn a slew of successful space based action films.

[Jasonc]

I have to agree with Renato and Tochiro on this. The comparison with Pixar is, well, simply ridiculous. Pixar worked with Disney, which is, and has been, a household name for at least 3 generations now. When you have a company with that type of history, that is not niche, it's part of mainstream culture. Your comparison to movies like Ponyo and the other Ghibli films are also tied to Disney, which while not originally, have become quite popular (not like Pixar) here in the U.S. Interesting enough, Studio Ghibli's works became most popular here, when it was Disney that bought the rights to Spirited Away, and showed it at select theaters, including Disney's main theater, the El Capitan in Hollywood. Again, you can't compare the promotion, marketing, and backing of a multi-generational powerhouse like Disney and expect the same results for "anime" all across the board.

Let me also suggest this: If Macross had free reign to be released here and abroad, I'm sure a company like Funimation would've picked it up, and would've released Blurays at a lower price. The reason? From what I've been told, and Tochiro, Gubaba, or Renato can chime in on this, Japanese culture is still very oriented with tangible media, where here, the trend is changing to Cloud storage, digital download, and streaming. To counter that, prices for Blurays here are almost at the price DVDs were at, without the long stint DVDs had of being so pricey.

In the original argument, Tochiro hit the nail on the head. From what I have gathered, the books that come with this are actually quite large and great quality. It's also 2 movies and a very high quality box. Take into account that there's an interactive PS3 disc that comes with it, with tons of extras, I don't believe this is all that expensive. Considering similar Blurays here with comparable additions for one movie may cost $60-$80 or more, it's not much different, except or paying for the shipping.

[Gubaba]

I have to agree with Renato and Tochiro on this.

You mean "Renato and Gubaba," right...?

[Jasonc]

You mean "Renato and Gubaba," right...?

Well, all you across the Pacific that chimed in.

[sketchley]

Let me also suggest this: If Macross had free reign to be released here and abroad, I'm sure a company like Funimation would've picked it up, and would've released Blurays at a lower price. The reason? From what I've been told, and Tochiro, Gubaba, or Renato can chime in on this, Japanese culture is still very oriented with tangible media, where here, the trend is changing to Cloud storage, digital download, and streaming. To counter that, prices for Blurays here are almost at the price DVDs were at, without the long stint DVDs had of being so pricey.

Good post, but you just missed one thing:

The problem is supply and demand. The manufacturers price things based on how much it costs to make the item vs how many units they've historically sold.

Someone on these forums said that even if they printed these DVDs/Blu-Rays in quantities which brought the manufacturing costs down to levels akin to those of, for example, a Harry Potter movie (about 1/2 the price of a Macross release, but still expensive compared to, for example, a North American release), they would still only sell the amount that they do at the current price point.

By rights, the tangible media oriented culture should make things cheaper - in a way it does, as the initial purchasers sell the media to used shops, who sell it to secondary purchasers, thus spreading the cost around a bit.

[megaprime]

If we look at JUST this forum, we have a userbase of ~15,700 accounts. At time of this post, we have ~80 unique visitors viewing the forums, ~30 are actual members. Out of those ~15,000 accounts, how many of those are active vs non-active, legitimate vs spam, I haven't crunched the numbers yet.

Our most usage occurred when Frontier aired. Those days where we saw ~200 unique visitors were on viewing days. We have not had those numbers since.

Thank you. The numbers are certainly a lot lower than I thought. At least I am aware so that I can curb my spending on those Bandai Valks. Dont want to end up owning a ton of them and then be unable to sell them in the future and end up with a loss.

I have to agree with Renato and Tochiro on this. The comparison with Pixar is, well, simply ridiculous.

How can a comparison with a Pixar movie (which was simply in terms of content) be ridiculous and a comparison with bondage be OK??

Personally I think that none of us can really say for certain whether Macross would have had success in the West or not because it has never been given the chance. The fact that macross has done this well simply through word of mouth (mainly a merit of forums like this) and despite the lack of English (or any other language) subtitles or dubbing says a lot to me about its potential. Still, I am probably wrong and am being over optimistic.

However in the interest of not de-railing this thread any further from the original content ( I've done enough of that already so, apologies) I think this is probably a subject in which we have to agree to disagree

[Legioss]

I preordered from CDJapan yesterday, but I don't have a PS3 yet to look at the extras. Any US PS3 will work, right? They did put a hold on my credit card/bank account for the amount.

[Jasonc]

How can a comparison with a Pixar movie (which was simply in terms of content) be ridiculous and a comparison with bondage be OK??

Because they're both still niche products, and as I explained, Pixar isn't. You could apply it to many other genres, as well as other products. You're taking only one part of Renato's example, and focusing on it to where you're missing the point.

[sketchley]

In a kind of coincidence, I've been reminded of another anime/manga property that is probably a better comparison to Macross, than Pixar, Ghibli and some of the other "mainstream" entertainment mentioned in this thread.

"Hanna Yori Dango" (Boys Over Flowers) - which one of my daughters is binge watching on Lala TV as I type this.

The manga (1992-2003) has not only been made into an anime (1996), but has also been made into a pair of live-action movies and a couple of live-action TV series in Japan, AND into live-action TV series in Taiwan, South Korea, China, and the Philippines.

In many ways akin to "Maross", "Hana Yori Dango" is very niche. But, unlike "Macross", it has also gone mainstream (in the sense that it has been broadcast during primetime on national TV stations in many countries in East Asia).

Is "Hana Yori Dango" or its overseas remakes well known in English speaking countries? How much do the DVDs/Blu-Rays of the Japanese anime cost for it in English speaking countries? Is its familiarity and cost more, less, or about the same as "Macross" in English speaking countries?

Amazon Japan has the anime TV series box set at ￥35,532. Are the domestic Macross releases not priced accordingly to that?

(By comparison, the live-action box set is ￥13,965. Which provides an interesting contrast on domestic niche anime vs. mainstream live-action price points).

Edited March 23, 2014 by sketchley

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Guys quick question:

I have a ps3. It's an australian ps3. This is bluray disc that is region free right?

Will I get it working or not?

I want to support eng subs in macross for future by voting with my wallet so to speak but I am unsure if this will work on my region ps3.

I'm a bit late to the discussion here but I thought I would chime in:

I think the tv series should also be released with eng subs too. Really guys who freaking hard could it be?? Fansubbers are doing this for free for crying out loud. lol

The japanese need to release the tv show online, provide subs for those outside japan. We the people from different countries then pay for it as a disc with the subs on it. Tell me why this can't happen?

Anime has always had the stigma but you guys are missing the point of the western fans and comic book nerds who like sci fi:

movies like akira were not received well in japan right? But they did well here. Macross Plus wasn't popular in japan right? But fans of top gun liked it. It used cg like akira and kind of set standards for its time.

Yes we get it. It is a sub culture, but that is no excuse to be behind the times. Times are changing.

Look at the japanese game industry for one example! Some of the talent from games like castlevaia and megaman are going INDIE. That's huge. They are rejecting the limits of the way japan does things and breaking from traditions.

It used to be the japanese dominated the game industry. Today it is sad to see them fall behind the west. I grew up playing japanese made games and think they are holding themselves back to be honest.

Just do what we say and put the eng subs in the tv series, release it, we will buy it. We are small but dedicated. Just like we paid import for early access to hardcore titles like monster hunter which are not as popular in the west as in japan. Have faith for once in your lives. lol

There are lots of nerds outside who want to see releases of things they can't find in their local territories.

It is much the same way that Japanese RPG games like final fantasy or dragon quest used to be a NICHE in the western console videogame market (in the early 90s) until about the time of final fantasy 7 on playstation 1, when it went mainstream and ever since then final fantasy became a household name for JRPG and now it is a well known brand. Not a niche for a tiny group of nerds only. Maybe the people who hold on to old traditions are scared of change?

What people who live outside are saying to these companies is you are not up to date with kids of today who do not see barriers. Most people are just going to get it free through non-legit means if they have to. So putting in effort to add eng subs will only compete with the pirate copy and give the fanbase outside japan a way to pay you. How hard is this to understand? No excuses. Here in australia you can easily walk into a JB HiFi store and buy anime dvds and blu rays and pick up gundam shows with dubs and subs. I think it should be as easy as possible to be able to at least get imported macross from the internet. You are missing out on money and wasting time.

Want to convert all those Robotech fans to pure macross? Get cracking on releases of macross shows with the eng subtitles. You will rake in the needed dough to continue to grow the fanbase over time much like JRPG genre in the console games biz. (JRPGs were a niche back in the 16 bit days when it was thought americans would not like turn based role playing titles and only buy action games)

Edited April 15, 2014 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[PetarB]

Guys quick question:

I have a ps3. It's an australian ps3. This is bluray disc that is region free right?

Good luck.

I have had so many bad experiences with overseas discs on my Aussie PS3 I have all but given up on it as a disc viewer.

[Zinjo]

Japan and the Americas enjoy the same region code "A", Africa, Western Europe, Middle East and Australia are region code "B" and the rest of the world is region code "C".

If Bandai Visual has region coded the discs they will not play on a Region "B" player unless you change your region...

[Marzan]

The disc is announced as Region free on all websites that sell it. In fact as far as I can tell, the entire slate of releases by Bandai of Macross on BD has been region-free. So the films should play fine on any BD player. I don't know about the game though.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Thanks for the help. I do have a region free dvd that I bought a long time ago that works on local dvd players so I assume a region free BD will work on any BluRay player.

But I had to check before I decide. I hope they continue to release stuff with subs in future. HG for so long accted as a block to macross and it is time the creators/owners/controllers did something to help expand the exposure to global territories. We are going to do it anyway through non-legit means. Might as well receive actual money from the fans outside of the country.

[Tochiro]

Only 3 days to go!

[Hikuro]

Got my notification from Ami Ami but MAN did they rape me on the shipping! 45 bucks! it was 12 dollars more than I had expected.

[Marzan]

Got my notification from Ami Ami but MAN did they rape me on the shipping! 45 bucks! it was 12 dollars more than I had expected.

Me too man, they didn't even allow me the option of the cheaper shipping fee. Basically the difference in price to CD Japan was offset by the much higher shipping costs. I don't really care if it takes 3 days or a day. Paying that much for shipping is pretty off putting.

Rant over. I'm so happy that it's on it's way.

[Hikuro]

Me too man, they didn't even allow me the option of the cheaper shipping fee. Basically the difference in price to CD Japan was offset by the much higher shipping costs. I don't really care if it takes 3 days or a day. Paying that much for shipping is pretty off putting.

Rant over. I'm so happy that it's on it's way.

indeed, it's probably the last time I'll order from AmiAmi unless I'm insanely desperate and they're my only choice. that high of shipping for a Bluray is just to damn much.

On a side note I did just get notification that it shipped and double checked it's to the new address, thank god

[Matts]

The EMS from CDJapan was over 7000 yen for me (EU). I think I may jump off a Hill. I have health problems that need meds or I get pain, so I normally wouldn't spend this amount of money, but I watch these movies for fun a lot, so, they are worth it. Looking forward to them and extra stuff with it. I know this won't happen, but my God do I wish the series would get a US release. Or some release I can afford. For the record, I try my best to support the franchise, I buy books and merch instead. But I would love to own proper copies sometime in the future. I'm gonna go and hold on to a very small hope, I've been a fan of Macross for the longest time, I can wait. ;

On the very bright side, if (root for me) the parcel does not get stuck in costumes, it'll be here in about 3 days. Unff yes. Also looking forward to seeing how the subs turned out. :3

[Strumvogel]

Postage cost has really jumped up recently. It used to be still expensive as recently as just last year but it has really jumped 30-45% since then. Nothing can be done about it I'm afraid.

[Keith]

Yeah, thay shipping cost is aweful but considering the licensing situatiom, there's no choice but to buckle down and pay it. But man, I'm hoping the ne t series makes it to crunxhyroll, especiall with how popular Nobunaga The Fool has been. Actually, a lot of Kawamori properties have been lixensed recently.

Regardless, can't wait to see how the subs on this set came out.

[Marzan]

Yeah, thay shipping cost is aweful but considering the licensing situatiom, there's no choice but to buckle down and pay it. But man, I'm hoping the ne t series makes it to crunxhyroll, especiall with how popular Nobunaga The Fool has been. Actually, a lot of Kawamori properties have been lixensed recently.

Regardless, can't wait to see how the subs on this set came out.

While I don't think that HG will ever relinquish their claims on anything Macross when physical media is inolved, I'm hoping that the possibilities offered by streaming might make some kind of deal possible. Heck, a new Macross series could stream straight from Japan on Daisuki like M3 (another Satelight show) or Kill la Kill. I hope Crunchy at least tries to swing a deal. It'd be huge if they could and a lot of people would be really curious I think.

Unfortunately for Kawamori, Nobunaga the Fool seems to have been poorly received in Japan. The first BD sold less than 900 copies from what I can gather.

[Cdr Fokker]

The EMS from CDJapan was over 7000 yen for me (EU). I think I may jump off a Hill. I have health problems that need meds or I get pain, so I normally wouldn't spend this amount of money, but I watch these movies for fun a lot, so, they are worth it. Looking forward to them and extra stuff with it. I know this won't happen, but my God do I wish the series would get a US release. Or some release I can afford. For the record, I try my best to support the franchise, I buy books and merch instead. But I would love to own proper copies sometime in the future. I'm gonna go and hold on to a very small hope, I've been a fan of Macross for the longest time, I can wait. ;

On the very bright side, if (root for me) the parcel does not get stuck in costumes, it'll be here in about 3 days. Unff yes. Also looking forward to seeing how the subs turned out. :3

Yeah, but for me at least here in the States, FedEx was quite reasonable - just a little more than half that of EMS. (Which was a bit of a shocker - it's usually more expensive for me to use FedEx than EMS.)

[Renato]

First impressions: The Play-View function for PS3 on the Hybrid Disc is just BS. 4GB+ installation that takes forever?? And when it does finally load, it's mostly just content that is already in books (like the lineart, layouts, background art) or things which should have been in a book instead (like Ryusuke Hikawa's writings).

[GGemini]

Were you able to check out the movies? How are the English subtitles? I just got my box but won't be able to see the movies until tomorrow

[Renato]

I only put the first movie on for a couple of minutes to check. The movies are fine, I already had them, that's why I wasn't concerned. And the subtitles are perfect, as we have been saying all along on the podcast.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Renato

[Renato]

I just noticed, that even AFTER installing the enormous Hybrid Disc data onto the PS3 hard drive, you STILL have to put the physical disc in, otherwise it doesn't want to run! Screw that.

Personally, I only bought this thing for two reasons: 1) the Play-View function was intriguing to me, and 2) "Support the franchise" -- I don't need the subtitles, but we need to send a clear message to Bandai and BigWest that there is a lucrative international market out there.

But in my personal opinion it was not worth the double dip. If this is your first purchase of the movies, and don't have any of the artbooks, this is a great set, plus English subs! If you already have the previous BDs and can understand Japanese you don't need this.

[TheLoneWolf]

From my experience, that's how PS3 hard drive installs are supposed to work. Even though the data has been installed onto the hard drive, the PS3 still needs to perform a brief disc check to make sure that you haven't sold or given away the original disc.

If this is your first purchase of the movies, and don't have any of the artbooks, this is a great set, plus English subs!

That's the category I fall into. Hopefully my set will arrive this weekend.

[Oskull]

That's the category I fall into. Hopefully my set will arrive this weekend.

Me too.

Think I´ll recieve mine in 10 more days. Unfortunatelly, I´ll be in a business trip until mid June so the only thing I need now is more patience.

[SterlingMax]

Got mine this morning but had to work so just now pouring over the extras disc. I installed on my PS3 and the PlayView it was fine for what it was however don't be mistaken look at the disc itself for way more content. Loved both book, will be going through them more leisurely over the next few days. Switched the extras disc to my PS4 and it showed the PS3 game(PlayView) as an additional icon Unsupported Disc, as a side note. The Masenbo alternate case cover was a nice unexpected addition. I always use CDJapan, gotta use my points and FedEX always gets it to my house in the morning in excellent condition. Plus if I ever miss the truck, FedEx is a couple minutes drive to pick up. Will post more still devouring, I mean viewing.

[VF-15 Banshee]

According to Save, they fixed the Shalon Apple error. This pleases me.

[technoblue]

This box, itself, is huge. It rivals the box used for the Macross TV box set!

The art books are gorgeous, though, and everything is well worth the second purchase for me. Going through it all will be a fun distraction this week.

[Save]

I only put the first movie on for a couple of minutes to check. The movies are fine, I already had them, that's why I wasn't concerned. And the subtitles are perfect, as we have been saying all along on the podcast.

Our sample boxes came in yesterday, now you have three copies of both movies.

I'm already ticked off about a specific scene in the second movie. "Kittens"????

Edited May 18, 2014 by Save

[Strumvogel]

Unless that's a small chair, damn that's a big box.

[SaitouSad]

well it says there're 5 in the box (i think).... so i guess it's not that big, but it does seem like a rather long box