anime's continued decline

[Umihito]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

I'm actually in the middle of nowhere, but I studied in a medium-sized commuter town between Birmingham and Coventry. So that actually may explain it, we had people in our college from not only within the town, but from neighbouring towns and cities, and with everyone in the cities everyday (in the case of workers) or every weekend (in the case of students) I suppose it's easy to pick up different things from various cultures in the cities. I do envy the life in London! It must be a amazing to be surrounded by so many people, cultures, languages. . . and I can fully empathaise with your comments on Wales. Lol, I love the country so much, but certain parts seem rather dead. My friend is in a university in a city there, and despite being a city he lacks even the most basic amenities he has back home here, so I can imagine how hard and annoying it must be not to have the Japanese cuture so close to hand.

I don't know why but I just had to look on Google Maps and I'm gonna take a wild guess that the town is... Solihull? XD
Yeah that seems like a pretty good explanation for it, I'd say Birmingham would be pretty mixed-culture (only ever drove through it on the M5/M6 unfortunately )
Yeah definately, you could really get lost in all the different districts with so many different shops! There were Korean, Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants all on one street!
Me living in South Wales helps because it's where all the action is, lol Surprisingly I've never even strayed as far as Mid Wales...

Originally Posted by RobinMask

Damn you, I didn't think of it that way until you mentioned it, lol Yeah, I suppose that's one way to look at it. I can't say the HMV here sounds that much bigger, it's certainly nothing like the one in the cities, but there is a decent selection (albeit, just the mainstream popular stuff), to be fair they might have quite a lot more than I remember, but the prices keep me well away! I only shop for anime online now - it's literally half the price!

Woops sorry about that! XD
Definately agree on the price thing. And people wonder why the High Street shops are struggling! ¬_¬
I bought 2 DVDs of a series that is 4 DVDs long in store. When I went online to price up how much the next 2 would cost, I found that online there was a box set containing all 4 DVDs. And the cost worked out that it would actually be CHEAPER for me to get the 4 DVD box set and have doubles of the first 2 rather than just get the next 2 on their own from the shop! I just use those 2 doublers I have now to lend to people.

Originally Posted by RobinMask

What drives me mad is say - take Yu-Gi-Oh for example - you collect a whole series and get to volume 19, and you're all excited as you want to see what happens to Marik in his past and his motives, and you get there and it's "sorry, we only stock up to volume three. . ." It drives me mad! It's like 'what's the point in stocking at all if you're not willing to stock the entire series?' I feel so bad for people who can't shop online, they must never get to see how anything ends XD

That reminds me of something really similar. It's not with manga, but with an anime series I was collecting at the time. It's got quite a few DVDs I think... like 6 or 7. I had bought the first 2 DVDs seems as I had some spending money and they were there right in front of me. When I watched them, I went online to find the rest of the DVDs, but there is no trace of the rest of the series in the UK ANYWHERE! I had read online that after the 2nd DVD, the story started to get REALLY good too!
But the funniest thing was... on one website I went on, it had given an estimated release date for the 3rd DVD (bearing in mind it was 2009 when I checked)... and it was something like July 2013! Like heck I was gonna wait 4 years for a DVD!

Originally Posted by RobinMask

XD I think I've ranted enough, but thanks for replying, it's fascinating to compare the Welsh culture with the English, we're probably within driving distance and yet it's both so foriegn and so familiar! I just wish the UK as a whole would get more manga/anime avaliable to it.

No problem, I've enjoyed it
Tell me about it! I find it fascinating enough that people who live so close together can have such different accents (people have told me they think I have quite a thick Welsh accent) XD
Let alone everything else that different lol

Agreed

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[RobinMask]

Originally Posted by Umihito

I don't know why but I just had to look on Google Maps and I'm gonna take a wild guess that the town is... Solihull? XD
Yeah that seems like a pretty good explanation for it, I'd say Birmingham would be pretty mixed-culture (only ever drove through it on the M5/M6 unfortunately )

Actually the town was Nuneaton, where George Eliot was born and lived. Problem is you say Nuneaton and no one outside of the midlands has heard of it, lol. I've never actually been to Solihull, but I have heard of it, and to be fair from what I've heard it's probably a lot more dead than here, so I should be grateful really XD

Originally Posted by Umihito

Yeah definately, you could really get lost in all the different districts with so many different shops! There were Korean, Indian, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants all on one street!
Me living in South Wales helps because it's where all the action is, lol Surprisingly I've never even strayed as far as Mid Wales...

Ah, I'm too lazy for google maps, but I'm guessing south Wales isn't Barmouth or Snowdonia area? If not then it's probably why I have such an idyllic image of Wales as nothing but mountains, sheep and 'the locals', I don't think I've ever been south or to the cities. It must be great to be in such a multi-cultural place though! It's multi-cultural in our town too, in a very small kind of way, we have a huge Indian cultural but no one from outside of Europe or India, so we kind of lose out on all the oriental, African and American culturals. It must be nice to have such a variety of cultures about you and to learn so much from them

Originally Posted by Umihito

Woops sorry about that! XD
Definately agree on the price thing. And people wonder why the High Street shops are struggling! ¬_¬
I bought 2 DVDs of a series that is 4 DVDs long in store. When I went online to price up how much the next 2 would cost, I found that online there was a box set containing all 4 DVDs. And the cost worked out that it would actually be CHEAPER for me to get the 4 DVD box set and have doubles of the first 2 rather than just get the next 2 on their own from the shop! I just use those 2 doublers I have now to lend to people.

That reminds me of something really similar. It's not with manga, but with an anime series I was collecting at the time. It's got quite a few DVDs I think... like 6 or 7. I had bought the first 2 DVDs seems as I had some spending money and they were there right in front of me. When I watched them, I went online to find the rest of the DVDs, but there is no trace of the rest of the series in the UK ANYWHERE! I had read online that after the 2nd DVD, the story started to get REALLY good too!
But the funniest thing was... on one website I went on, it had given an estimated release date for the 3rd DVD (bearing in mind it was 2009 when I checked)... and it was something like July 2013! Like heck I was gonna wait 4 years for a DVD!

Omg, I can so relate to that! XD I brought half an anime series once in the high street for £30, went online and the entire series was only £25! So I'd be paying more than twice the price to buy the series in halves from the high street. It's the same with English live-actions too - like Supernatural? In the high-street it's £40, but online it was £15. I totally agree, it's no wonder that the high-street can't compete with the online trade. I know that they have to pay rent, staff etc. but there's no need for prices to be as high as they are. Have you compared the prices to American prices too? I wanted a Wii game once, from America it was £20 so I brought it then and there, because otherwise I'd have had to wait six months to buy it at £40! It's outrageously unfair!

Originally Posted by Umihito

No problem, I've enjoyed it
Tell me about it! I find it fascinating enough that people who live so close together can have such different accents (people have told me they think I have quite a thick Welsh accent) XD
Let alone everything else that different lol

Agreed

Ah, yeah, the accent thing fascinates me as well! To be honest - I know I'll be hated for saying this - but I always confuse the Welsh and Irish accents XD I love the sound of both, but they sound so similiar to me. People get so het up over accents though. I know the Canadians (generalising, of course) go mad if you confuse them with Americans, I met one once and he went beserk because I asked where in America he was from. . . Accents in English are always the strangest to me. Foriegners always seem to assume that in England there's only Cockney or upper-class, Queen's English - I could go on and on, but I'll stop, I'm not going to bore you with an off-topic accent rant XD

[Umihito]

Originally Posted by RobinMask

Actually the town was Nuneaton, where George Eliot was born and lived. Problem is you say Nuneaton and no one outside of the midlands has heard of it, lol. I've never actually been to Solihull, but I have heard of it, and to be fair from what I've heard it's probably a lot more dead than here, so I should be grateful really XD

I've heard of Nuneaton, but I didn't know it's where George Eliot was born or that it was around that area. XD

Originally Posted by RobinMask

Ah, I'm too lazy for google maps, but I'm guessing south Wales isn't Barmouth or Snowdonia area? If not then it's probably why I have such an idyllic image of Wales as nothing but mountains, sheep and 'the locals', I don't think I've ever been south or to the cities.

Not sure about Barmouth, never heard of it XD
But nope, Snowdonia and all around there are North, where the most Welsh speakers in the whole of Wales are. With all the cities and towns down here I'd guess that it's a lot more idyllic!

Originally Posted by RobinMask

I totally agree, it's no wonder that the high-street can't compete with the online trade. I know that they have to pay rent, staff etc. but there's no need for prices to be as high as they are. Have you compared the prices to American prices too? I wanted a Wii game once, from America it was £20 so I brought it then and there, because otherwise I'd have had to wait six months to buy it at £40! It's outrageously unfair!

Exactly. And the way I look at it, staff still need to be hired for the warehouses, drivers etc so there's really no reason for them to be that different!
Surprisingly I've never really checked American prices for things, usually because I'm not really equipped with multi region technology or console chips. I really want to know how though because I've bought some games from Japan for the PS2 and the PS2 is region locked so I'm in a bit of a rut. XD
I'm guessing the whole price difference may be because by the time its reached the UK, it's old news in America so they drop the price, and it's all sparkly new in the UK so they can get away with charging £40!

Originally Posted by RobinMask

Ah, yeah, the accent thing fascinates me as well! To be honest - I know I'll be hated for saying this - but I always confuse the Welsh and Irish accents XD I love the sound of both, but they sound so similiar to me. People get so het up over accents though. I know the Canadians (generalising, of course) go mad if you confuse them with Americans, I met one once and he went beserk because I asked where in America he was from. . . Accents in English are always the strangest to me. Foriegners always seem to assume that in England there's only Cockney or upper-class, Queen's English - I could go on and on, but I'll stop, I'm not going to bore you with an off-topic accent rant XD

Ahh no it's fine, I've come up with some really outrageus accent mix ups in my time.
I've mixed up the Birmingham, Londoner AND Liverpool accents with each other. Good job only my parent heard me when I said it because getting those 3 mixed is like a deadly trio.
But the Canadians can't blame us! From my perspective too they do sound nearly identical apart from a few words. XD
Yeah well I've pretty much learned to deal with foreigners not understanding where the 'UK' is, but knowing 'England' perfectly well, so I guess accents can go with that. XD