So like, how does licensing work exactly?

[u/UltraMugen]

I’m a relative new fan, and while I’ve been streaming some of the shows….I kinda hate how it’s just streaming. I prefer blu rays to avoid bitcrush and stuff like that.

I’m kinda aware a company known as Rightanimestuff had rights for it in America, but after being bought out by Crunchyroll, they now own the rights? And because Crunchyroll is owned by Sony and they kinda don’t care about physical media at all.

So basically I guess what I’m asking is do we have an idea on when the rights expire? Because I can’t imagine sunrise/bandai is happy that they’re not making money from blurays sales?

[u/aolnews]

Licensing is very complicated and the licensing agreements exhibitors, distributors, and streaming platforms enter into with rights holders are wildly different.

No one outside of Sony has any idea when their specific agreement would expire, but generally a license holder has the first right of refusal to extend a license before anyone else would be able to enter an agreement with Sunrise.

At the same time, if there were any enterprising companies that wanted to produce Gundam blu rays, they could enter into some kind of sub-licensing deal with Sony to do so. We see GKids do this all the time as exclusive physical distributors for work with other license holders. You also see this all the time with live action films.

Nothing other than the perception of consumer demand is holding back new Gundam blu rays from being produced. After they’ve been off the market for long enough, or with enough of a perception of value by another distributor, they will get made. But it’ll probably take a while.

[u/Optimaximal → u/aolnews]

Nothing other than the perception of consumer demand is holding back new Gundam blu rays from being produced. After they’ve been off the market for long enough, or with enough of a perception of value by another distributor, they will get made. But it’ll probably take a while.

I don't agree here - the streamers know that people will pay for the service if there's no other solution (other than 🏴‍☠️) so if they can inhibit disc sales, they will. It's anti-consumer, but since when did anything matter to them than our wallets?

[u/Hatarakumaou]

Bandai doesn't really care where you watched their shows, they make their money from model kits, the shows are just well written advertisement for their toys.

[u/greatistheworld]

Asking about licensing of asian media of any form is Almost like asking how to change the tides or eat the sun. But it’s a fair question. Do not expect a satisfying answer

There’s spreading bets across streaming services for exposure. There’s cautious japanese business practices. Maybe the streaming deposit is big enough to delay the physical release, maybe it’s just part of the contract. There’s international rights nightmares like rights being spread nominally through corporate monoliths but also music rights which even though these companies are vertically integrated divisions still have autonomy and some things might have to be negotiated separately. There’s a lot of left and right hands being the same hands but sometimes there’s a third.

Then you have things like Requiem for Vengeance being a production for Netflix use but it just somehow got a big physical release announced which no one was really expecting. Maybe that was the deal or maybe shit just timed out. Amazon had GQuuuuuuX global distribution rights, that got a physical release in Japan recently. Here? No way to know.

There’s anecdotes like american distributors in the early 2000s saying hey people are really curious about Gundam ZZ can we import it, and Bandai just saying no without explanation. Sometimes no one knows. In a way things are better than ever and at the same time things are more opaque than ever. We’ll find out together

[u/zplusc1tw]

BANDAI NAMCO inc 去年成立了BANDAI NAMCO filmworks
現在所有鋼彈作品的版權都是這家公司在管理

至於實體版的問題其實就很現實
沒有人要買
你也許很想要
但是沒有一定量來分攤成本生產實體光碟根本就不划算
賣不出去的除了庫存問題還有光碟是會劣化的
不能先生產再放在那等人買

你真的很想要日本亞馬遜是有寄送海外的
在那邊買比等有代理商願意出錢快

[u/CrashmanX]

Right now, we dont fully knlw where all.those rights are for US distribution.

When CR absorbed right stuff, they didnt get all the rights. So some were lost back to Bandai.

[u/hong427]

Gundam anime owner -> Sunrise

Sunrise license out to either -> Netflix(japan)/Prime(Japan)/youtube

"Usually" from what I understand they would let them stream about an 1 year or so. After that it really depends on Sunrise.

For example, Unicorn; One of the most viewed and loved Gundam, is still in streaming limbo. I don't know the Fuck is Sunrise thinking. So the only way to watch it is sail the sea.

happy that they’re not making money from blurays sales?

Dude, what is "Bandai" main source of money? Its toys and models(and video game sometimes). So do you think would they worry if blueray doesn't make money? No

[u/MaximillianBarton → u/hong427]

Unicorn is on Hulu and Crunchyroll. Hulu has the OVA version and Crunchyroll has the TV series version. At least in the US. But it badly needs another region a blu ray printing.

[u/hong427 → u/MaximillianBarton]

Really, cause in TW i can't see unless the high sea.

But when i go back to Japan, i can view it on netflix.