Aniplex USA Announces Domestic Release of Mikunopolis Concert Footage
At their Anime Expo panel, Aniplex USA showed a trailer of footage from Mikunopolis, indicating their intention to release the product stateside. Previously, it was only available as an import with BD, DVD and CD versions, making it difficult to acquire for fans outside Japan. The official website will eventually contain information for the upcoming release.
UPDATE: An employee at the Aniplex USA booth in the Exhibit Hall clarified that this will indeed be a BluRay release and is scheduled to come out sometime this year.
While I’m glad to see a company bringing Miku to the US, isn’t it a case of to little too late? Many if not most Miku fans have already purchased Mikunopolis from over seas. Most of their expected profit is either already lost or dependent on Miku being well received here in the US when her English voice is released. I also assumes that these mew english speaking fans will want to buy a concert of Japanese songs. Am I off base here?
“While I’m glad to see a company bringing Miku to the US, isn’t it a case of to little too late? Many if not most Miku fans have already purchased Mikunopolis from over seas.”
I don’t think many Miku fans actually purchase concert footage. I don’t buy because the concert footage is expensive and even more expensive to import. The only one I was planning on importing were the ones from earlier this year. Importing Mikunopolis was at the bottom of my list and this news brought it up some.
“Most of their expected profit is either already lost or dependent on Miku being well received here in the US when her English voice is released. I also assumes that these mew english speaking fans will want to buy a concert of Japanese songs. Am I off base here?”
I’m…not too sure about the relevancy of Miku’s English voice here. I’m fairly sure this will come to the states long before Miku’s English voice is released. The Mikunopolis concert is also in Japanese, except for one song. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say.
Agreed (edit: agreed to your comment, not “am I off base?”). (There’s a lingering irony in the air, as I had just bought the official imported DVD about a week before this announcement. Oh well… :P)
But… at least SEGA takes this market into consideration. There’s still room for some of the younger fans dependent on their parents’ finances (heh heh… *guilty*) who can’t afford to/ aren’t allowed to import products.
Perhaps the reason why it took so long is just getting the right language (subtitles: O3O), adding extra features the original lacked (maybe the option to change angles?), and maybe even holding off until the time around Miku’s birthday. It could be a special edition. That’s where the most stuff is expected to happen this year: SEGA’s release of PjDf (possibly in foreign markets), CryptonFM’s official announcements of voicebanks, and the ever-unstable Miku English VB release date.
Other possible theories: the 6-month+ wait is SEGA’s ‘timeout’ for us uploading their content to YouTube illegally shortly after the event. Maybe they thought there’s still some leftover people who were hopeful for this…
This reply is really unorganized, but… I think there’ll still be love for Miku’s Japanese songs when/if an eigo Miku fanbase comes around. After all, that setlist is undeniably catchy, and MikuNoPolis could, in their view, serve as a “starting point” for their fandom, like 39’s Givings Day is for most of us.
“the 6-month+ wait is SEGA’s ‘timeout’ for us uploading their content to YouTube”
So because people uploaded the stuff let’s refrain to make the orignal available in order to give more people a reasons to upload & copy the stuff ? I know IP departments are famous for their stupidity and shooting their company in the foot, but to that extent …
Edit: And BTW I can tell you that I have more Japanese than Americans on my Torrent swarm… Therefore if there are culprits, they’re not only Americans ๐
I know it sounds crazy, but after all, it was SEGA who threatened to remove any possibilities of an overseas DVD|BluRay release soon after they noticed the piracy… right? I remember this whole “pass this comment on” movement on YouTube itself. Funny that SEGA didn’t consider the other somewhat-popular video sharing websites (I think DailyMotion still has practically the whole concert on there in clips :O ).
And I’d have to say, that does seem quite funny, the Japanese > Americans ratio. Interesting to hear you have a torrent stream. I’m assuming you’ve bought and uploaded all concerts (that are available on disc, of course)? Just wondering, not condemning, not looking for potential downloads… just wondering… as unlikely as it seems ๐
Only on Blu-ray? Wow, been waiting over a year and it finally happens, but I don’t have access to anything that plays Blu-ray. Way to crush my hopes and dreams.
I wouldn’t really worry considering their page still says watch this page for announcements. Also considering the fact we have 3 months left of this year and still no word if they are still supposedly releasing it this year.