[EVA] Amateurism vs Professionalism in Anime Distribution

[Aaron Clark]

Yes, because as we all know, being inept at authoring DVDs is a sin worthy
of being run over with an automobile.  I'd hate to think what fate is in
store for people who can't work a VCR.

--Aaron

> Manga Entertainment is dead.  We don't have to pretend to be nice to them
> anymore.  Do not say "God bless you" if they sneeze, do not break if you
> see them crossing the street. 
>
> --- On Mon, 12/7/09, Aaron Clark <aaronc1 at umbc.edu> wrote:
>
> From: Aaron Clark <aaronc1 at umbc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [EVA] Amateurism vs Professionalism in Anime Distribution
> To: "The english-language evangelion mailing list."
> <evangelion at eva.onegeek.org>
> Date: Monday, December 7, 2009, 7:51 PM
>
> I don't have much to say other than I think the release of D&R and EoE are
> two of the most incompetently produced DVDs I own.  The only other DVD I
> own that is anywhere near as bad as them is the original Honneamise DVD.
> Guess who put that one out as well?  I was very enthused in 2006 when they
> announced they would be putting out a remastered DVD from Renewal.  It
> never happened, and they lost the license.  I can't wait for a decent R1
> or a Bluray.
>
> And over the years, I did consider authoring myself my own DVD from the
> Renewal release.  Never happened, college got in the way.  Damn college.
>
> --Aaron
>
>> While I understand the list may have an aversion to discussing the topic
>> of piracy, I feel that some recent experiences of mine might merit
>> discussion. This concerns Evangelion, but also anime distribution in the
>> west in general. Hopefully, this discussion will not be too offtopic.
>>
>> Recently, a hard disc with someones "stash" of films and TV shows became
>> available to me. Prowling around their collection I spotted a "rip" of
>> "The End of Evangelion", and frankly I was shocked by the level of
>> quality that I saw.
>>
>> We are all aware of the extremely poor quality of the Manga release of
>> End of Evangelion. The Renewal release, while superior, was released
>> only in Japan and contains, to my knowladge, no English subtitles or
>> dubbing. Apparently a group called Zhentarim some years ago decided to
>> rectify this. This group has taken the Renewal footage and Japanese
>> dialogue, and painstakingly re-edited the manga DVD English subtitles
>> and dialogue so that it fits alongside the redone footage! The result is
>> a release which in quality and scope is over and above any officially
>> distributed English offering of the End of Evangelion that I'm aware of.
>>
>> The list of changes is show in full here(There are no download links at
>> the site, which appears to be defunct)
>> http://www.zhentarim.net/zx/shownfo.php?nfo=zx.end.of.evangelion.renewal.v3.nfo
>> This is just some guy from the internet..... Particularly pertinent are
>> his comments on the Manga subtitle crew in his summary.
>>
>> Apparently the same group has also gone through the same process of
>> reediting Renewal footage for the entire series as well. Coming from the
>> region 2 DVD release region, I have to say that the revelation that
>> unpaid amateurs have released such high quality conversions of Renewal
>> comes as a slap in the face. At some expense, I have purchased the
>> official region 2 releases of the series, which turned out to have a
>> less than stellar quality. Here's and old thread discussing my woes with
>> the official release (with pictures)
>> http://forum.evageeks.org/viewtopic.php?t=795
>> The biggest problem was telecining which at some considerable effort I
>> eventually managed to filter down to an acceptable level. I've also
>> encountered this very same problem with other movie releases, such as
>> the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children DVD, which I can definitely
>> confirm was of a lower quality than the rips I have seen of it.
>>
>> I have to say that it is a black mark on the entire anime distribution
>> industry in the west when unpaid amateurs working in their own time on
>> the internet can, consistently, release higher quality conversions of
>> Japanese animes for free. Is there anyone at the tiller of this
>> industry? I've spent over 200 euros purchasing the whole series of
>> Evangelion and I could have gotten a much better product, and saved
>> myself considerable money, time and effort, simply by grabbing a torrent
>> made by technically minded fans who have probably never seen the inside
>> of studio!
>>
>> I apologise if this rant breaches mailing list etiquette, but I'm
>> genuinely interested in people's opinions on this. What are your
>> opinions on the anime distribution industry in the west? Is it in need
>> of a serious overhaul, or is it in danger of becoming obsolete
>> altogether? How have things managed to get to this point? Is this a
>> market failure, or some other systemic problem? Will there ever be hope
>> for fast, high quality, official anime releases from Japan to the West?
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>>
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