So is Viz not releasing any more DVDs, or what?

Dogasu

Dogasu

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Have you guys noticed how Viz has pretty much stopped releasing Pokemon DVDs in the US? Other than a the remaining Elements DVDs, we haven't really gotten much of anything out of them in the past half a year or so.

The sixth and final DP Battle Dimension box set was released on October 27th, 2009. It's now July 2010, and we haven't heard the first word about the first DP Galactic Battles box set. No release date, no cover art, nothing. For reference, we got the first Season 11 box set about a month after Season 12 premiered.

The 12th movie, Arceus and the Jewel of Life, hasn't been released on DVD either. It premiered on American TV on November 20th, 2009, almost eight months ago. Australia has apparently already seen a DVD release of the movie, but the US is still waiting.

You'd also think that Viz would have released a Johto Journies box set by now, with the English releases of HG/SS behind us, but that hasn't happened, either.

So what's the deal? Do you think Viz is more or less finished with Pokemon DVDs? Or am I just looking too much into a period of inactivity?
 
Also now that HGSS is old news, its safe to say a Johto Journies boxset isn't coming. Oh well, I would have liked to have one.

So much for having the whole series on DVD someday.
 
Indeed. I missed DP boxes 3-5 (they were never put on shelves), and I wanted ot watch Hoenn again. Bummer.
 
The entire Hoenn arc is out on DVD, but only Advanced is on a boxset.

Advance Challenge and Advance Battle DVDs exist with 5 eps per disc, but they did complete the entire arc. All of Battle Frontier is on boxsets too.

So for the most part, the entire AG series is already out on DVD in the U.S., and has been for quite a few years.
 
All but two of the Johto episodes (and, well, the skipped Ice Cave episode) are available on DVD as well. The problem is that those DVDs have been out of print for over ten years and are next to impossible to find.

My comment about the Johto Journies DVDs was meant to be an aside, anyways. The main focus here is on DP Galactic Battles and Arceus and the Jewel of Life, releases that I think we all honestly expected to be out by now. The fact that there don't even seem to be plans to release them at this point tells me that something must be up.

Maybe sales have fallen so low that Viz no longer wishes to continue?
 
Gliscor'd said:
The entire Hoenn arc is out on DVD, but only Advanced is on a boxset.

Advance Challenge and Advance Battle DVDs exist with 5 eps per disc, but they did complete the entire arc. All of Battle Frontier is on boxsets too.

So for the most part, the entire AG series is already out on DVD in the U.S., and has been for quite a few years.
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How long ago exactly? If they don't keep reprinting them, they'll become near-impossible to find. They reprinted the Indigo and Orange Leagues. Maybe you live where you can find anything you want, but I don't. Where I live, they never put DP boxes 3-5 on shelves (just the first two and then Battle Dimension #3)

Either sales've fallen too far, or there's a contract issue or something else involving Shogakukan et al.
 
Doesn't this happen a lot with Toyetic anime? I assume Viz has given up on it. What my real question is why has Nintendo never released DVDs in Japan, even though the anime is usually top 5 TV Tokyo.
 
Dogasu said:
So what's the deal? Do you think Viz is more or less finished with Pokemon DVDs? Or am I just looking too much into a period of inactivity?
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Probably the latter. I'm guessing that there's been a holdup in negotiations, possibly due to the fact that the series is in HD now, Warner Bros. (which is a superdistributor for most of Viz's content) may wish to start distributing the series on Blu-Ray, which adds another layer of complexity. Additionally, Viz announced some layoffs a few months ago, and may be behind schedule due to staffing issues.
 
Yoshi1001 said:
Probably the latter. I'm guessing that there's been a holdup in negotiations, possibly due to the fact that the series is in HD now, Warner Bros. (which is a superdistributor for most of Viz's content) may wish to start distributing the series on Blu-Ray, which adds another layer of complexity. Additionally, Viz announced some layoffs a few months ago, and may be behind schedule due to staffing issues.
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Could that go for any anime broadcast in HD? Because Funimation has dropped a lot of distribution for anime too. Could they be doing the same thing? Renegotiating deals to work for BluRay?
 
The sad news is I saw on Amazon they now have an Elements Box Set which contains four of those damn elements DVDs and I bet another box or two are to come.

My question is: WTH is that? Releasing Elements Box Sets? Why? Give me The Johto Journies, Johto League Champions, Advanced Challange, Advanced Battle and Galactic Battles instead of that crap! -_-
 
cohenmarioman said:
Could that go for any anime broadcast in HD? Because Funimation has dropped a lot of distribution for anime too. Could they be doing the same thing? Renegotiating deals to work for BluRay?
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In theory, yes. One of the peculiarities of Blu-Ray, though, is that unlike DVD, there's no way to prevent Japanese Blu-Ray discs from being played in US players or vice versa. Blu-Ray does support region coding, but the US and Japan ae in the same region (most discs are released region-free anyway). I don't know if that's an actual issue, but it is worth noting.
 
Wasn't Universal the disributor of the Movie 11 DVD? I had kind of figured that with Movie 12 taking forever, the trouble would lie with them, not Viz. No clue, really.

I had figured Viz was waiting for season 13 to start airing to begin releasing season 12 DVDs, but who knows? o.o
 
Yoshi1001 said:
In theory, yes. One of the peculiarities of Blu-Ray, though, is that unlike DVD, there's no way to prevent Japanese Blu-Ray discs from being played in US players or vice versa. Blu-Ray does support region coding, but the US and Japan ae in the same region (most discs are released region-free anyway). I don't know if that's an actual issue, but it is worth noting.
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I remember reading that on Amazon. So in theory you could play an officially released BluRay of an anime from Japan on your BluRay player at home. So that would mean negotiations would have to involve the original owners in Japan as well as the American owners to ensure profits are made from both releases.

I now wonder how Funimation does it so quickly.

It wouldn't really matter for some people though, because Sony DVD players are region free, as well as their BluRay players.
 
I have wondered what was taking so long to release Movie 12. I really hope that what you're saying isn't true, Dogasu. But now I wonder if it's a possiblity. *Gulp*
Edit: I just realized that I said Movie 13 when I wanted to say 12.
 
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Yoshi1001 said:
The DVD still had the Viz logo on it.
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It did? *scrutinizes his copy* Oh, look at that. Yet there's no trace of Viz anywhere on the DVD case, and it doesn't appear on-screen at any point either. Plus, the movie's mentioned nowhere on Viz's website, as far as I can see. Weird. o.o
 
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Perhaps Viz and Funimation are reevaluating the usefulness of releasing these DVDs profit wise. The reason I say Funimation too is due to them involved with other toyetic anime. Reevaluation the usefulness of releasing toyetic anime. 9 months is a long time. Other anime have faced longer stretches however, 2 years + after being a hit on TV, even beating out Pokemon's ratings near the same time slot. Just goes to show profit isn't in these toyetic anime anymore.
 
Maybe we should ask TPCI if there are any plans for those DVD releases?
 
Lil Brother said:
It did? *scrutinizes his copy* Oh, look at that. Yet there's no trace of Viz anywhere on the DVD case, and it doesn't appear on-screen at tnay point either. Plus, the movie's mentioned nowhere on Viz's website, as far as I can see. Weird. o.o
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Try the disc label itself. :-D

I really doubt they've decided to stop putting out DVDs forever (forever is a long time, after all).
 
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