Macross Plus Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Release Thread

[Chewie]

On 6/6/2024 at 10:00 AM, Shawn said:

Just FYI it says it has both the movie and the ova

They confirmed on Bookface that the standard edition will only be the movie at a later date. 

ETA: which I see was addressed, carry on. 

Edited June 7 by Chewie

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

Crunchyroll just decided to fleece us.

Crunchyroll didn't set the price. Anime Limited did.

France is getting the Collectors Edition (OAVs+Movie Edition but without the extras). English territories may or may not get a Collectors Edition and it may be a year or longer before it comes. IF it comes. The only cheaper option for English-speaking countries that is coming is the Movie-only release which is slated for sometime in the next 3 months AFTER this boxset releases.  As noted above, this same scenario happened with Evangelion. A more reasonable set was released after the expensive option came out so it's understandable to be a little gun-shy on hitting the "Buy" button.

It's disingenuous to dismiss that fans want a cheaper option, especially given the fact that France IS getting that version without the extras at the same time as the this limited edition set.

[Cowboy17v2]

Anime LImited/All the Anime don't deserve your money, honestly.  

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

We don't have VAT here, why would I take that into account of the base price?

Because it's functionally equivalent to the sales tax that would factor into the price of the goods if you purchased them in the US.  It's a non-negotiable part of the final cost of the item paid by the consumer.

French law requires that applicable taxes be included in the advertised price of goods and services, so AllTheAnime's French online store includes the VAT in the advertised price.  UK law does not require that, which is why the UK price looks lower than it actually is on checkout similar to how US prices don't include tax.

 

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

Crunchyroll just decided to fleece us.

No, they didn't. 🤣

Crunchyroll's store has the Macross Plus box set listed at MSRP, but then has discounts that are applied automatically at checkout AND coupon codes advertised directly on their own website to further reduce the price to approximate parity with what European consumers are paying.

If they're trying to fleece us by doing that, they're not doing a very good job of it.

Seriously, this accusation is just silly on the face of it and people need to stop making it.

 

It's OK if you got sticker shock over the bullsh*t prices of Limited Edition merch.  Limited Edition pricing is inherently exploitative because it's amortizing production costs across smaller production runs and trying to cash in on FOMO.  Nobody is forcing you to buy it, and it'll be available later (or at the same time in select markets) without the extras at a much more agreedable price.  There's nothing about this price is that is at all unusual for a limited-edition anime box set with these kind of extra features.  Those prices have ALWAYS been steep, especially in the Japanese domestic market.

[Cowboy17v2]

22 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Because it's functionally equivalent to the sales tax that would factor into the price of the goods if you purchased them in the US.  It's a non-negotiable part of the final cost of the item paid by the consumer.

French law requires that applicable taxes be included in the advertised price of goods and services, so AllTheAnime's French online store includes the VAT in the advertised price.  UK law does not require that, which is why the UK price looks lower than it actually is on checkout similar to how US prices don't include tax.

 

No, they didn't. 🤣

Crunchyroll's store has the Macross Plus box set listed at MSRP, but then has discounts that are applied automatically at checkout AND coupon codes advertised directly on their own website to further reduce the price to approximate parity with what European consumers are paying.

If they're trying to fleece us by doing that, they're not doing a very good job of it.

Seriously, this accusation is just silly on the face of it and people need to stop making it.

 

It's OK if you got sticker shock over the bullsh*t prices of Limited Edition merch.  Limited Edition pricing is inherently exploitative because it's amortizing production costs across smaller production runs and trying to cash in on FOMO.  Nobody is forcing you to buy it, and it'll be available later (or at the same time in select markets) without the extras at a much more agreedable price.  There's nothing about this price is that is at all unusual for a limited-edition anime box set with these kind of extra features.  Those prices have ALWAYS been steep, especially in the Japanese domestic market.

 

the anger is that the msrp is ALREADY high AND like 50 bucks more than what UK customers are paying, and please dont tell me about membership discounts and coupon codes, especially since they won't always be applicable.  Also the ova edition will NOT be available later, so buy it now at our absurd high price! 

No one would be mad if Macross Plus would be available later without all the extras of this LE set, like every other anime that gets an LE. But it WON'T be.  This is some predatory bullshit, and I'm shocked that there's this many people leaping to its defense simply because we waited a long time for Macross in the states.    

 

Don't reward All the Anime/Anime Limited for this crap.  Spend your money with Diskotek and Macross II instead, at least they don't hate fans.  

Edited June 7 by Cowboy17v2

[Seto Kaiba]

7 minutes ago, Cowboy17v2 said:

the anger is that the msrp is ALREADY high AND like 50 bucks more than what UK customers are paying, and please dont tell me about membership discounts and coupon codes, especially since they won't always be applicable.  Also the ova edition will NOT be available later, so buy it now at our absurd high price! 

Sorry, but no.  This "anger" is motsly just disingenuous performative outrage from people who were too lazy to read or stubbornly determined to ignore reality.

Yes, MSRP is high.  It's a Limited Edition set.  That's normal... you might not like it, but it's normal for that kind of product.

Yes, MSRP is more than the special limited-time discounted "early bird" price... but that's true in all of the regions.  The pricing is effectively the same in all regions both at MSRP and after the limited time "early bird" discounts.  The UK MSRP listed on AllTheAnime's site is 149.99 GBP, or approximately $191 US... but that doesn't include VAT, which bumps that price to $228.95 compared to the US average price with tax being approximately $201.39.  The discounted pricing is effectively at parity too, with US consumers paying just about $160 in that limited time pricing while UK and French customers are paying about $154.  The US customers actually have a slight advantage in that discounted pricing for members at Crunchyroll's store is an all-the-time discount rather than a temporary one.

It's true that there won't be an independent release of the OVA version immediately, but the distributor's going to want to milk this license for all they can so it's a fairly safe bet we will indeed see a separate Blu-ray set with the OVAs later at a more agreeable price point.

 

7 minutes ago, Cowboy17v2 said:

This is some predatory bullshit, and I'm shocked that there's this many people leaping to its defense simply because we waited a long time for Macross in the states.    

It's Limited Edition merch... it is inherently predatory bullshit driven by FOMO.

That said, there are a lot of complaints like yours that are seemingly based on false or incomplete information or seem designed to be disingenuous... like complaining that the US discounts are "limited time" when the same is true for the other regions too and transparently stated directly on AllTheAnime's website. 🙄

[Cowboy17v2]

20 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Sorry, but no.  This "anger" is motsly just disingenuous performative outrage from people who were too lazy to read or stubbornly determined to ignore reality.

Yes, MSRP is high.  It's a Limited Edition set.  That's normal... you might not like it, but it's normal for that kind of product.

Yes, MSRP is more than the special limited-time discounted "early bird" price... but that's true in all of the regions.  The pricing is effectively the same in all regions both at MSRP and after the limited time "early bird" discounts.  The UK MSRP listed on AllTheAnime's site is 149.99 GBP, or approximately $191 US... but that doesn't include VAT, which bumps that price to $228.95 compared to the US average price with tax being approximately $201.39.  The discounted pricing is effectively at parity too, with US consumers paying just about $160 in that limited time pricing while UK and French customers are paying about $154.  The US customers actually have a slight advantage in that discounted pricing for members at Crunchyroll's store is an all-the-time discount rather than a temporary one.

It's true that there won't be an independent release of the OVA version immediately, but the distributor's going to want to milk this license for all they can so it's a fairly safe bet we will indeed see a separate Blu-ray set with the OVAs later at a more agreeable price point.

 

It's Limited Edition merch... it is inherently predatory bullshit driven by FOMO.

That said, there are a lot of complaints like yours that are seemingly based on false or incomplete information or seem designed to be disingenuous... like complaining that the US discounts are "limited time" when the same is true for the other regions too and transparently stated directly on AllTheAnime's website. 🙄

Accusing me of "performative" anger and basing it on "False" information, and proceed to imply I am at worst lying, or at best ignorant, of how VAT works - and then you cite an example that is COMPLETELY wrong itself.  The Price on All the Anime's site IS with VAT included, so its not "228.95" as  you say it is. How do I know?  

 

That's how.  It very clearly says "VAT" is included. So yes, what I said was in fact, completely correct.  

 

Before you accuse others of being disingenuous or being PERFORMATIVE with their anger, maybe you should check your own misinformation first.   

I can't believe this company has so many people willing to white knight it. What have they done to earn this tenacious defense? 

[Seto Kaiba]

25 minutes ago, Cowboy17v2 said:

Accusing me of "performative" anger and basing it on "False" information, and proceed to imply I am at worst lying, or at best ignorant, of how VAT works - and then you cite an example that is COMPLETELY wrong itself.  The Price on All the Anime's site IS with VAT included, so its not "228.95" as  you say it is. How do I know?  

In your haste to post more of your performative outrage, you misread my post at several different points, but rather than getting into that let's just dig into the meat of this.

AllTheAnime's UK storefront does appear to have updated the list price to be inclusive of VAT earlier today.  It previously showed a price of 99.99 GBP which was not inclusive of VAT, and others here based complaints about "unfair" pricing based on that.  If you'd read the thread, you'd know I did exactly the same check you did just yesterday and got that different result. 🙄

Even if the 149.99 GBP price listed as MSRP on the corrected page is now inclusive of VAT, the price point difference between US and UK sales is still negligible at a mere $10.59 US.  149.99 GBP is equivalent to $190.80 at current exchange rates, and the US full retail price would be $201.39 with average sales tax.  With the Crunchyroll store discount, that trivial advantage reverses itself into the US edition being about $9.55 cheaper at $181.25 excl. any other discounts or coupons.  Effectively, we're still at price parity here across regions, so your outrage still rings false.

 

25 minutes ago, Cowboy17v2 said:

I can't believe this company has so many people willing to white knight it. What have they done to earn this tenacious defense? 

Have you considered that it might be that your argument has some gaping, Zentradi mothership-sized holes in it instead?

Edited June 7 by Seto Kaiba

[Cowboy17v2]

1 minute ago, Seto Kaiba said:

In your haste to post more of your performative outrage, you misread my post at several different points, but rather than getting into that let's just dig into the meat of this.

AllTheAnime's UK storefront does appear to have updated the list price to be inclusive of VAT earlier today.  It previously showed a price of 99.99 GBP which was not inclusive of VAT, and others here based complaints about "unfair" pricing based on that.  If you'd read the thread, you'd know I did exactly the same check you did just yesterday and got that different result. 🙄

Even if the 149.99 GBP price listed as MSRP on the corrected page is now inclusive of VAT, the price point difference between US and UK sales is still negligible at a mere $10.59 US.  149.99 GBP is equivalent to $190.80 at current exchange rates, and the US full retail price would be $201.39 with average sales tax.  With the Crunchyroll store discount, that trivial advantage reverses itself into the US edition being about $9.55 cheaper at $181.25 excl. any other discounts or coupons.  Effectively, we're still at price parity here across regions, so your outrage still rings false.

 

Have you considered that it might be that your argument has some gaping, Zentradi mothership-sized holes in it instead?

Nice try wiggling out of that, but you literally just said the 149.99 was NOT inclusive of VAT and that it WAS 220 USD after taxes, and used that as the basis to try and hit me over the head with what I said, which was actually CORRECT.  The 99.99 that out-of-UK visitors were seeing (without VAT) doesn't matter, as the 119.99 WITH VAT included price is still 50 bucks or so less than what we are paying here.  

Keep trying to dig your way out of this, by all means.  You were caught basing an argument on misinformation in your effort to score forum points and got called on it.  This is getting embarrassing, you should stop.  

[azrael]

That's enough. If you want to continue this in PM, by all means. But next person that wants to continue this gets a timeout. 

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, General Rasp said:

I think it would have been nice if a Disc only set (with the Movie and OVA) was offered along with the Ultimate Set at the same time. Then people would have choice now instead of later and possible missing out. I feel that would have solved a lot of issues. 

I am still very happy to see this actually being released to fans outside of Japan and looking forward to watching the Ultimate edition at home. I hope more Macross series are soon follow. 

Agreed; at least folks outside Japan have a shot at it now, and I'd love to see them do M7 sometime.

[grogall]

Sorry only ever watched S.D.F. Macross, is Macross Plus the second part of the series and was there a box relies for S.D.F. Macross?

[Seto Kaiba]

3 minutes ago, grogall said:

Sorry only ever watched S.D.F. Macross, is Macross Plus the second part of the series and was there a box relies for S.D.F. Macross?

Macross Plus is the fifth title overall, but the second title chronologically in the main Macross timeline... the other three are a movie of the original series, an epilogue OVA, and an alternate universe story.  There are quite a lot of titles set after Macross Plus though.

There's not, AFAIK, a mdoern box set for the original series available outside Japan due to it having a different licensee.

Edited June 7 by Seto Kaiba

[davidwhangchoi]

i will pay 190 for DYRL with english subs and new dub. 

 

So this will have a new dub and old dub and jyp language with subtitles? 

I loved @Bryan Cranston doing Isamu's voice in the original dub.

I just wished the dub tape for part 4, they didn't destroy the music like they did during the fight scene. I had to switch over to the subtitle to listen to the original musical score. 

Parts 1-3 though, i liked the dub. 

 

I hope this new dub fixes corrects the music for part 4.  

[camk4evr]

I'm not going to get it. Doing some quick math it would cost me approx. $250 Canadian (before discounts, shipping, and potential customs fees there may be) and frankly I never liked Macross Plus in the first place. Since I already have it on DVD I'll probably wait until the movie is released and pick it up. Until then I should be able to watch it on Disney+. 

To be fair, I'd seriously consider it if I didn't already have the dvds

[Chronocidal]

21 hours ago, davidwhangchoi said:

i will pay 190 for DYRL with english subs and new dub. 

 

So this will have a new dub and old dub and jyp language with subtitles? 

I loved @Bryan Cranston doing Isamu's voice in the original dub.

I just wished the dub tape for part 4, they didn't destroy the music like they did during the fight scene. I had to switch over to the subtitle to listen to the original musical score. 

Parts 1-3 though, i liked the dub. 

 

I hope this new dub fixes corrects the music for part 4.  

I'm really hoping this release does fix that issue, but I've also never really been much of a fan of the 4-part story.  I found the movie cleaned it up and streamlined it nicely, and since I saw it first, part 4 will forever feel weird for not having the same ending sequence.

[Seto Kaiba]

Each version of the story has its virtues and its flaws... I'm just glad that we're finally going to start seeing global releases that are on par with what the Japanese domestic market gets in terms of feature content.

Hopefully this and the Macross II Kickstarter run by Animeigo set the tone, and we see a similar effort made for the releases of Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, and Macross Delta. 😀

[davidwhangchoi]

50 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm really hoping this release does fix that issue, but I've also never really been much of a fan of the 4-part story.  I found the movie cleaned it up and streamlined it nicely, and since I saw it first, part 4 will forever feel weird for not having the same ending sequence.

one thing the movie did not have was this song:

intro right after the 19 folds in gives me goose bumps

 

[Raikkonen]

Happily waiting for the standard release.

[pengbuzz]

14 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Each version of the story has its virtues and its flaws... I'm just glad that we're finally going to start seeing global releases that are on par with what the Japanese domestic market gets in terms of feature content.

Hopefully this and the Macross II Kickstarter run by Animeigo set the tone, and we see a similar effort made for the releases of Macross 7, Macross Zero, Macross Frontier, and Macross Delta. 😀

Looking forward to seeing MII re-released!

[network19]

It's nice that Macross Plus finally has a Blu-ray release outside of Japan but I don't see what the major improvements are over the Japanese Blu-ray that I already own. Going forward, if I don't see it at least having 4K, HDR (at least for SDFM through the Macross 7 OVAs) and Dobly Atoms, I see no reason on re-buying them again. I'll just stick to watching them on Disney+ or wait till the price falls below $20.

[JB0]

I'm afraid the Blu-Ray spec only supports disks made with regular atoms, not Dolby atoms.

[Keith]

18 hours ago, network19 said:

It's nice that Macross Plus finally has a Blu-ray release outside of Japan but I don't see what the major improvements are over the Japanese Blu-ray that I already own. Going forward, if I don't see it at least having 4K, HDR (at least for SDFM through the Macross 7 OVAs) and Dobly Atoms, I see no reason on re-buying them again. I'll just stick to watching them on Disney+ or wait till the price falls below $20.

The Japanese Blu-ray release didn't have subtitles on the OVA, and the movie translation was....interesting. People also tend to forget how dark Manga's old analogue master on DVD OVA releaae was.

I'm personally all in for the upgrade.

[Chronocidal]

Oh I definitely remember how dark that transfer was, I had to max out the brightness on my old TV when I watched it.

 

[sh9000]

Looking forward to receiving the Ultimate Edition.

[Big s]

On 6/9/2024 at 10:04 AM, Raikkonen said:

Happily waiting for the standard release.

Looking forward to the less than ultimate edition as well 

[davidwhangchoi]

15 hours ago, Keith said:

 People also tend to forget how dark Manga's old analogue master on DVD OVA releaae was.

 

[spacemanspiff]

Was there ever an English Dub of the Macross Plus Movie with Bryan Cranston?

[Seto Kaiba]

14 minutes ago, spacemanspiff said:

Was there ever an English Dub of the Macross Plus Movie with Bryan Cranston?

The movie was subs-only, AFAIK, when it was released in the west.

Only the OVA version was dubbed.

[sh9000]

[Seto Kaiba]

... the hell?

So it's not a business decision?  It's some kind of contractual limitation preventing them from releasing the OVA in a standalone form?  That's weird.

[Keith]

48 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

... the hell?

So it's not a business decision?  It's some kind of contractual limitation preventing them from releasing the OVA in a standalone form?  That's weird.

Possibly because it hasn't had a stand alone blu-ray release in Japan?

[Chronocidal]

I'm not going to claim to be any sort of expert on animation production requirements in Japan, but I could see it potentially being some annoying limitation of the contracts involved in the transfer of the footage of both versions into an HD format.

The other thing that occurs to me is that maybe the rights to the dub are somehow tied to the combination release, and they don't have permission to release them separately, or that it doesn't make financial sense to try selling them individually.  It would be silly, but I could imagine the voice rights being so prohibitively costly that the OVA on its own would already cost nearly as much as the combination pack.

[Duke Togo]

So, buy this pricey edition or miss out.

Assuming the discs come in their own case and aren't somehow stored in the book, I guess you could recoup some of your expenses by reselling the book and whatnot on eBay.

[sh9000]

Or sell the book and extras to @jvmacross.