Andrew Partridge spills the beans (and his coffee)

Written by A. H. on 04 Jun 2014

As May 2014's MCM London Comic Con got underway, we squirrelled Anime Limited president and Scotland Loves Anime festival director Andrew Partridge away from his company booth for a coffee and a chat, giving him an opportunity to spill the beans on what's hot in the industry. There was plenty to discuss, so after a minor beverage disaster which thankfully didn't manifest itself as an omen of ill tidings for the weekend as a whole, we started by talking about how things had been going at Anime Limited since we last spoke to Andrew in October 2013.

"Pretty good actually, and very busy as well. We've had to shuffle some release dates around, put some titles forward and some titles back. Generally we've been doing quite well - the titles which are out there are selling well, and there's a lot of demand for upcoming titles like Gurren Lagann, so all in all pretty well actually."

We spent some time discussing those shifting release dates late last year after a number of delays as the company got to grips with its production and release processes, so how has that improved and matured during this year so far?

"No matter how much work you give a certain number of people, there's a certain pipeline that you're only going to be able to follow at your current size, so what we're doing at the moment is working out what that capacity is. We're beginning to get through the workload on it so it's kind of a relief. We've brought people up to speed now though, and we're just getting rolling now."

Speaking of getting rolling, last October had also only just seen the launch of Anime Limited's partnership with streaming and download-to-own service Wakanim - Andrew chatted a little on how this service has fared so far.

"It's been interesting. I think we're beginning to see a stage where Wakanim aren't the only players on the scene - I think download-to-own is an interesting model, but it's still in an experimental stage though.

The fact that there was nothing really of interest this season was an issue, and I don't feel that the download-to-own model should be constricted by having to have content each season, but we're looking at what we can do to increase the amount of content by maybe including classics like Durarara into the mix going forward to offset that.

The general reaction to what has been available for download is good, but as ever this kind of partnership takes a lot of work on both sides, and I think we only just started to find our footing at the end of last season, so I'll be interested to see how things go on moving forwards. We're still experimenting."

Those experiments may come at a busy time, with Anime Limited already confirming at London Comic Con that they have simulcast rights to Shinichiro Watanabe's Terror of Resonance for the UK, alongside the second series of Space Dandy.

"Terror of Resonance is going to be interesting - it's a show that's been in the works for a long time and it's changed names once due to a shift in production; it's actually been planned for a long time so you know the story's going to be quite tight.

Summer's going to be busy, and here's the thing I see happening - I don't see as many exclusives for simulcasts as there used to be. I do see that you want to limit your partners - you can't give it to everyone or it's very hard to promote - but I would like to start seeing stuff branch out between download-to-own for Wakanim, and maybe streaming simulcast for somewhere else, be it the likes of Viewster or Animax or something. I see it being services with domestic people there to help promote it.

Video on Demand is really growing now in the UK, and in the last few days I've signed the contracts for two very interesting deals. Simulcast-wise I think it's going to be an interesting market coming up, and I think we might see a consolidation of the market by and large. There's a lot we're working on right now that I can't really talk about that makes me very positive for the future, and in general there's a lot to be hopeful about."

The "death" of the exclusive simulcast could be exciting news for UK anime fans blocked from catching certain series that either don't reach our shores at all or are locked behind a service they don't care for, but are Japan sold on the idea of letting multiple outlets stream their latest shows?

"I think Aniplex have actually paved the way for that - they've set up a system in the USA where it's not exclusive. It goes to Hulu, it goes to Crunchyroll, it goes to DAISUKI of course - it goes to all of the major players. They try to work with everyone in the USA now, and I think that's opening the door slowly for the UK as well."