Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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eabaker
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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canofhumdingers wrote:That’s great news for anyone who missed out.
Great news would be if the essays were included. As long as noteworthy scholarship remains exclusive to the limited edition, this is at best a meager fractional measure.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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I’d hardly call wider availability of the best home video discs ever made of the entire Gamera film franchise “meager”. I mean, the print material is nice, but it’s the films that are most important. And they are presented in the best quality ever made available on home media with a MULTITUDE of audio options plus a LARGE volume of bonus features that probably actually covers a lot of the same material in the essays and scholarly material whose absence you lament.

I’m not saying the books aren’t great (they are!). But it was always known that big set would be limited and the films themselves are the most important part, so having those available more widely is great. I stand by my statement that it is great news.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Just to be clear, it's not the books that I object to being withheld; it's the content of the books.

If that material had never been compiled, then I'd agree that this wider release was great news. But as it stands, the release is tainted by a giant middle finger to a substantial portion of the market for these movies.
Last edited by eabaker on Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Angilasman wrote:Ooh, if the Heisei discs have the original Japanese art on the reverse sleeves? I may have to get it then.
SciFi Japan has a new article with photos of Arrow's upcoming Showa and Heisei sets, and all of the cases have the films' original poster art on the reverse sides!

As much as I've bought and rebought the Gamera movies in their various releases over the years, I am not inclined to double-dip on the Arrow discs just for new packaging, even though it does look superior to the complete collection's packaging.

eabaker wrote:
canofhumdingers wrote:That’s great news for anyone who missed out.
Great news would be if the essays were included. As long as noteworthy scholarship remains exclusive to the limited edition, this is at best a meager fractional measure.
Here's an archive of Fangoria #173 (June 1998) with the Shusuke Kaneko profile by Norman England. Given when that issue was published, it also includes an article by Anthony C. Ferrante interviewing Dean Devlin & Roland Emmerich, along with another article by England profiling Haruo Nakajima and Kenpachiro Satsuma, as well as an article by Will Murray covering Godzilla comic books.

Here's an archive of Fangoria #185 (August 1999) with England's Gamera 3 set report.

Here's an archive of Fangoria #191 (April 2000) with England's profile of Shinji Higuchi. That issue also includes his Godzilla 2000 set report.

David Milner's personal website is still online. Here's a direct link to his July 1996 interview with Noriaki Yuasa that was reprinted in Arrow's Gamera set. He has a lot of other worthwhile interviews chronicled on his site, all translated by Yoshihiko Shibata.

Hopefully, Arrow will make the 2020 articles A History of Gamera by Patrick Macias and A Guide to English-Language Gamera by James Flower available online for people who don't have the limited edition set.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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A giant middle finger? Sorry, eabaker, I often enjoy your input but your attitude here just reeks of entitlement. How exactly would you include the content of the books without, you know, including the books? And it’s not like Arrow is forcing you or anyone else to go without them. They were up for preorder with plenty of notice. And if you missed out but still want them badly enough the box set can still be had on the aftermarket. It’s not like Arrow is some evil nefarious entity trying to rob anyone of the ability to read these precious print materials. Heck, I’d be willing to bet there’s a set or two available to the public in libraries if you searched hard enough.

And beaten to the punch by StreamofKaijuness - nice job collecting those links!

But my point still stands.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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canofhumdingers wrote:A giant middle finger? Sorry, eabaker, I often enjoy your input but your attitude here just reeks of entitlement. How exactly would you include the content of the books without, you know, including the books? And it’s not like Arrow is forcing you or anyone else to go without them. They were up for preorder with plenty of notice. And if you missed out but still want them badly enough the box set can still be had on the aftermarket. It’s not like Arrow is some evil nefarious entity trying to rob anyone of the ability to read these precious print materials. Heck, I’d be willing to bet there’s a set or two available to the public in libraries if you searched hard enough.

And beaten to the punch by StreamofKaijuness - nice job collecting those links!

But my point still stands.
The amount of notice on the preorder is beside the point; more or less notice on the preorder does not alter the number of copies produced. And, just for the record, I preordered on multiple sites, and was still unable to obtain a copy. And obviously there's no way for most fans to afford the prices on aftermarket sales - how badly one wants them does not alter one's economic situation.

How would one include the content of the books without including the books? Downloadable PDFs of just the text seem like a pretty obvious solution.

And "entitlement"? Entitlement would be expecting something for nothing, not expressing disappointment that something is being withheld from purchase. Being disappointed - even irritated - is a perfectly reasonable response to this situation.

You expressed your feelings about this set, I expressed mine. I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish by telling me my feelings are wrong.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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canofhumdingers wrote:And it’s not like Arrow is forcing you or anyone else to go without them. They were up for preorder with plenty of notice. And if you missed out but still want them badly enough the box set can still be had on the aftermarket.

Just to nib this in the bud, eabaker (and many others) DID pre-order, but the websites they ordered from weren't able to secure a shipment.

Also, have you *seen* the aftermarket prices?


Edit: Eabaker ninja'd me...
Last edited by Spuro on Sun Oct 25, 2020 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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I have seen the aftermarket prices. A quick glance at eBay shows numerous sets for under $300. At $300 that’s $25 per film. Plenty of people here (myself included) have paid that or more for individual genre releases. How many here just spent that or more on the Arrow release of Warning From Space? If you really want the set it’s out there and the after market prices, while higher than retail, aren’t insane for the content you’re getting.

If you can’t swing it, now you can get the majority of the content (the discs) for retail. You can hunt down the dark horse comics for pretty cheap on eBay, and you can get the vast majority of the other essays/interviews for free at the links above. I’m still failing to see any semblance of a giant middle finger to fans. But whatever, we’ve beat this dead horse fI’m it’s sad again I think.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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"Giant middle finger" (like "meager fraction" before it) was me being playful, not a sincere condemnation the fucking company.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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canofhumdingers wrote:I have seen the aftermarket prices. A quick glance at eBay shows numerous sets for under $300. At $300 that’s $25 per film. Plenty of people here (myself included) have paid that or more for individual genre releases. How many here just spent that or more on the Arrow release of Warning From Space? If you really want the set it’s out there and the after market prices, while higher than retail, aren’t insane for the content you’re getting.

If you can’t swing it, now you can get the majority of the content (the discs) for retail. You can hunt down the dark horse comics for pretty cheap on eBay, and you can get the vast majority of the other essays/interviews for free at the links above. I’m still failing to see any semblance of a giant middle finger to fans. But whatever, we’ve beat this dead horse fI’m it’s sad again I think.
The aftermarket price is insane though considering the films (which you called the most important aspect) are going to be reprinted and sold in two volumes at a fraction of that cost. The only difference is the packaging and the books; subtract from those what SoK shared and you find that very little of the limited edition's content is unaccounted for. So is that then worth $300?

It's difficult for me to justify spending $300 on something during a pandemic that has disturbed my situation when most of the same content will be available for a much lower price.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Wow autocorrect butchered the heck out of my last sentence lol. It was supposed to say we’ve beaten this dead horse dead again.

@Terasawa, yeah I get it. That’s why I said it was great news for those who missed out. But I guess I’m in the minority in thinking the discs being available at retail price (and most of the other content available for free!) is great.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

I rather wanted the complete DH comic miniseries but the main draw was the 4K transfers of the Heisei films. On that end I'm cool with them releasing the Heisei trilogy as a standalone release.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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No one is saying it's a bad thing that the discs are being reprinted and sold at a reasonable price. Some of us are just disappointed that we have to settle for a lesser version of the set through no fault of our own.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Yeah, I don't think there would really be a problem with this release model if the limited edition hadn't been so seriously understocked. I think a second, modestly sized print run of the big box would've been the best move, perhaps alongside the standard versions. As it stands, I don't know if I'd go as far as "giant middle finger," jokingly or otherwise, but I certainly understand being critical of the general approach.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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StreamOfKaijuness wrote:
Angilasman wrote:Ooh, if the Heisei discs have the original Japanese art on the reverse sleeves? I may have to get it then.
SciFi Japan has a new article with photos of Arrow's upcoming Showa and Heisei sets, and all of the cases have the films' original poster art on the reverse sides!

Yup. It's all over. Arrow made me do it.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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I'm getting the Heisei films for sure but I'm iffy on the Showa boxset. I have them all on Bluray already and the only real extra this set offers is the various dubs. Will depend on the price I guess.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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I'm torn between the Heisei box set and the Heisei steel book.

On the one hand, I get The Brave.

On the other hand... steel books are so fucking sexy.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Tyrant_Lizard_King wrote:I'm getting the Heisei films for sure but I'm iffy on the Showa boxset. I have them all on Bluray already and the only real extra this set offers is the various dubs. Will depend on the price I guess.
I mean, yeah, if you don't count all the extras

Also the films do look significantly better. It's obviously still your call, but the Arrow discs offer a lot more of an upgrade over the Mill Creek discs than just including the dubs.
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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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Terasawa wrote:It's difficult for me to justify spending $300 on something during a pandemic that has disturbed my situation when most of the same content will be available for a much lower price.
^ This.

I don't feel bad about not getting the limited edition at all.

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Re: Gamera Arrow Limited Edition set

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tbeasley wrote:
Terasawa wrote:It's difficult for me to justify spending $300 on something during a pandemic that has disturbed my situation when most of the same content will be available for a much lower price.
^ This.

I don't feel bad about not getting the limited edition at all.
Uh, but I do feel bad about not getting it, which was the point of my comment that you This'd. :P
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