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Quote:

Originally Posted by TheJaz

The Taiga situation is very odd... It's extra funny when you consider that Taiga Episode 0, and the Taiga movie do have official subs.

Generally there's a lot of context to take in........

This is gonna be highly editorialized, but here's a sort of summary of the context.

After Tsubaraya wrote up the deal with Mill Creek, Taiga aired on TV in Japan, a bit before this Tsubaraya had cut their deal with Crunchyroll after Geed finished airing. And likely behind the scenes they were brainstorming ways to keep releasing the series outside Japan... However Taiga was already airing before they came to any concrete decision, and I think it essentially got tossed aside in a "well, we missed our chance with this one" sort of way.

At some point they decided on the YouTube release method we've become used to in recent years, but decided to go all in on beginning that process with their next show so they could have it release simultaneously with Japan.

Some important context for why Z was a better choice than Taiga... While I think people often think of simul-subbing as just "a convenient thing", and don't give it much thought nowadays, a big context for why it's become popular with big companies is that it can deter piracy (sort of). Back in the day official anime subs could be weeks, months, or years behind their release in Japan, and often by the time they made it out, fans of that series had already watched a fansub and may not be as likely to pay for often pricey physical releases. But now with simul-subbing, official releases come out ahead of any pirated versions that appear, so if you want to get to see the new episode of your favourite show as soon as possible, official is now the clear best option.

So this was likely a big factor in choosing to skip Taiga, the mentality at Tsubaraya was likely that most existing fans of the franchise had simply already seen it, and releasing it late would not generate "maximum revenue". Consider that, even with blu ray releases of old series, official physical media mostly sells to existing fans (especially as physical media collecting becomes more and more of an enthusiast hobby). Just generally, people don't usually buy a whole show on a whim without knowing if they like it first.

All in all Z was their best choice to drum up hype and attention... The show is brand new, the sub is official, it's release is nearly simultaneous, AND it's free on YouTube! That's gonna generate buzz!

I still think they may release Taiga eventually, but it would require producing new subtitles, which may slow down that process (Most Mill Creek releases have used existing subs from previous releases... I may be wrong but I believe the majority of new subs from them have been for Showa Era series?)

For streaming specifically, Tsubaraya likely doesn't think it will generate as many views or as much revenue as a "brand new show" would. They may be wrong about this as to a lot of their existing subscribers Taiga would be a new show, but it's very possible this is how they think about it. It costs money to make subs, and releasing on YouTube already isn't the best way to monetize content generally, so they probably want to play things as safe as they can.

Overall, Taiga is likely just not a high priority.... Honestly, even if they extend their deal with Mill Creek and Taiga does get a physical release, I would not be shocked if we saw Z, Trigger, and Decker releases way before Taiga, because those shows already have existing official subs, so the process for them is basically just clicking and dragging sub files into the disc burning processing lol

This was basically just a very long way of saying "Tsubaraya's marketing team probably said this would be better", and at the end of the day Tsubaraya is here to make money.

Very informative! Thank you!