Favorite Anime Licensing Company?

[FireChick]

Who's your favorite or least favorite anime licensing company?

My favorites: Discotek, NIS America, Aniplex USA, S'More, Geneon (it's a shame they kicked the bucket)
Least favorites: FUNimation (for licensing stupid ecchi stuff lately! Come on, FUNi! You can do better than this!), Media Blasters (same reason as FUNI), 4Kids Entertainment

[TurkeyPotPie]

My favorite was definitely Animeigo. The care they put into their releases was fantastic. Extensive liner notes plus their subtitles always looked the best. There used to be blurbs on the back of the LDs they released that talked about how they did subtitles (IIRC, Robert Woodhead actually wrote a custom subtitler on the Mac). Their DVD subtitles didn't look nearly as nice, but that was just because of the limitations of DVD subtitles. I liked that they: (a) used a heavy outline on their fonts so that subs were readable (b) used different colored subs to indicate different people speaking (c) translated signs (d) included liner notes in the subs.

Animeigo also picked up stuff that I liked, and they were definitely more of a fan oriented company than most. I'll always be grateful for the UY LD box, the KOR TV LD box, the restored Macross DVDs, and getting all of UY out on DVD (a pity they could not do that for Yawara). It's a shame that Animeigo appears to be out of the anime licensing business.

As for modern companies, I guess I like Nozomi and Discotek. Nozomi puts out some quality releases and license rescues, while Discotek is licensing a lot of older titles that haven't been on DVD before.

If I had to pick one company to dislike, it would be Viz for not finishing a lot of their releases. I also don't get why they don't stream some of their titles that are no longer in print (like Maison Ikkoku).

[Vexx]

My favorite "currently living" would be NIS America and Bandai (mostly because of their choices).

Geneon was long favorite because of their choices in licensing and their packaging.

Funimation is all over the map in quality, packaging, and choices. They're kind of the "GM average" of the moment.

Hated companies are mostly dead because... they made terrible business decisions and left the customers hanging, while clinging onto popular licenses into the grave.

[DragoZERO]

NISA for their sweet boxsets. Aniplex is doing well, but I don't like splitting the series into thirds.

[Kirarakim]

I am glad to see so much love for NIS America here. At the current moment they are my favorites because I think their premium box sets are just gorgeous looking (and unlike Aniplex USA they do not gorge you).


I used to like Funimation a lot because they licensed things I wanted but that hasn't been the case recently (and they take so long to release stuff).

I also miss Bandai and Geneon.

[DragoZERO]

Oh, my least favorite is Harmony Gold for denying me my Macross glory.

[Master_Yoma]

Funi they dub all there stuff and have many good titles but they do wait to long before releasing it

VIZ is good but I dont know if they release any thing any more

Media Blasters they got good stuff

Sentai They seem to got way to much stuff

[Roloko vi Britannia]

Originally Posted by DragoZERO

Oh, my least favorite is Harmony Gold for denying me my Macross glory.

This.

VIZ media is up there with my least favorite since they drop things at the tip of the hat if the first releases do not sell well leaving the fanbase pissed off. While their main business is manga why waste money on dubbing an anime to completion and never releasing the entire series on DVD? I think they should just stick to simulcasting and whatever does very well get the DVD rights and release the series on DVD cause if people like what they are seeing chances are they will buy.

4KIDS- I do not hate them, but they do make lulzy edits that make absolutely no sense sometimes.

Media Blasters- They don't really have anything interesting besides Rurouni Kenshin.


My favorite companies are

1. Bandai Entertainment- Mostly cause they gave me some great series over the years and I will really miss them. Now I can't get my older Gundam titles like Turn A, ZZ, Gundam X etc....Also I can't get AGE since the eventual boxsets will cost an arm and a leg. -___-''

2. Sentai- They get niche titles for subbed only release and dub series that sell well for them which is a good decision. The only flak I have with them is their piss poor Boxsets where the stack all the DVDs on one holder instead of using dividers like with their 12 episode series. Also I don't really like their bare bones releases for most of their anime where they just have clean OPs/EDs I want neat little extras too like commentaries with the English VAs or with Japanese seiyuu if the series is subbed.

3. NIS America- I used to hate them until someone set me straight. xD They have some great series and nice boxes for cheap.

4. Funimation- Only because they had some nice stuff and every once in a while they get a gems that is not ecchi like Steins;Gate.

5. Geneon Entertainment- the reason they are at the bottom is because I don't really know what all they had outside of Kyo Kara Moah, GateKeepers, Higurashi, Rozen Maiden, and Shakugan no Shana.

[RWBladewing]

Current favorite is probably Sentai, they've released a bunch of stuff I never thought I'd see come out over here. I don't really mind their barebones approach to releasing series either. Commentaries are nice but I don't particularly miss them, as I've found that just about every one I've watched has very quickly devolved into in-jokes/name-dropping/random conversation/inane giggling that has absolutely nothing to do with the anime itself.

I'm also going to go against the seeming trend and say Bandai is my least favorite. I purchased an alarmingly large number of defective DVDs from them a couple years back, across multiple series including Gundam SEED, Code Geass, and Zeta Gundam (this one is so bad there are multiple episodes that can't even be watched at all). Yeah, they offered returns on them, but this incident really soured me to them overall and I haven't bought anything from them since. (The fact that they released K-ON as individual DVDs is also partly responsible for this and another issue I had with them).

[Vexx]

Yeah, I'm guessing people's opinions are based on their experience with individual series (either in what was licensed and completely released - or in technical evaluations).

For example, though my favorite might be NIS America, they borked the initial release of Toradora! .... OTOH, they offered replacement disks to anyone who complained.

Also not amused with the K-On! releases... to me that showed that Bandai doesn't really "get" the US market (imagine that ).

I forgot about Sentai... yeah, I like their low-budget releases because it means more niche anime are available for legal purchase.

Seems we almost all agree that Viz is the bottom though (they get similar fan opinions on their manga lines).

[RWBladewing]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Yeah, I'm guessing people's opinions are based on their experience with individual series (either in what was licensed and completely released - or in technical evaluations).

For example, though my favorite might be NIS America, they borked the initial release of Toradora! .... OTOH, they offered replacement disks to anyone who complained.

Also not amused with the K-On! releases... to me that showed that Bandai doesn't really "get" the US market (imagine that ).

I forgot about Sentai... yeah, I like their low-budget releases because it means more niche anime are available for legal purchase.

Seems we almost all agree that Viz is the bottom though (they get similar fan opinions on their manga lines).

Yeah; in fact, I think it's pretty likely that the only reason I didn't mention Viz myself was because I had previously heard about them not finishing their releases and avoided buying any of their stuff to begin with, and thus have no real experience with them. I've actually heard this about a lot of manga publishers and because of that I don't really buy manga at all. Are there any in particular that consistently put out a good localization and finish their series?

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Vexx

For example, though my favorite might be NIS America, they borked the initial release of Toradora! .... OTOH, they offered replacement disks to anyone who complained.

They're doing this again for House of Five Leaves, where the original DVDs had monophonic audio by mistake. I haven't seen my replacements yet, though. Lovely box and artbook included, too.

I forgot about Sentai... yeah, I like their low-budget releases because it means more niche anime are available for legal purchase.

I just pre-ordered Kurenai from them which I never expected to see imported over here. They also were supposed to release Ikoku Meiro no Croisee on disc; so far it's only available from their streaming site.

Seems we almost all agree that Viz is the bottom though (they get similar fan opinions on their manga lines).

I'll never buy anything from VIZ again after my experience with them dropping Monster. What really makes no sense is that they have all 74 episodes already dubbed which they did in advance of its airing on the old SyFy channel. Now it's streamed at Hulu. Why not just press the rest of the discs already?

I re-watched my fansubs of Hikaru no Go some months back and, to assuage my conscience, set up another computer to "watch" all of the show on Hulu at the same time so they'd get the advertising revenues! That's all the support I can bring myself to give to VIZ.

The company that picks up Dennou Coil will have my love forever. At this point, though, I'd want to see the Blu-ray version. The other JP Blu-ray that I'd love to see brought over with subtitles is the complete fifteen-episode compilation of the Apothecary stories, Bakeneko and Mononoke.

[Akito Kinomoto]

FUNimation simply for the amount of stuff they have, Sentai/Media Blasters for their versatility.

VIZ needs to mix it up or bust.

[Last Sinner]

Faves:

- Siren Visual (5 years of operating and their catalogue has quickly become the second option Australia badly needed and licensed shows Madman would never commit to and proved they were able to sell. Plus Leon is a champ, knows a good deal about the industry old and new, easy to speak to and even sends me free stuff every few months. For a company that only has two people, they are quite a rarity.)

- Sentai (good mix of popular and obscure titles and legit competition to Funimation. Pleased to see them succeed.)

- Discotek (picking up Galaxy Express 999, Harlock and Lovely Complex - titles I'd thought I'd never see licensed).


Dislikes:

- Madman (They have polarised the fandom in Australia and are trying to be too mainstream/ecchi. Sly is also a bit of a prick in person and I've heard nasty things about Ben too. Conventions have also universally said they love to deal with Siren but Madman are cold towards them despite being the bigger company with more to gain from associating with conventions. These guys confuse me. When there's a marked increase in people speaking negatively about Madman and hardly anyone speaking negaitvely about Siren, you know Madman have done something wrong. Plus why did it take over a year longer for Madman to stream titles than it took Siren? How is the bigger company being outdone in several areas by a two person company only in operation for five years in the anime section?!)

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Geneon (Seeing the way they spent money on shows on their budget reports after their collapse, I am bewildered. Spending nearly 700k on Pumpkin Scissors?! Along with other overblown titles that bombed for them, yet their cheapest title, Welcome to the NHK, was their biggest seller. Not how to run a business.)

Both those shows were licensed by ADV, not Geneon USA. ADV "reorganized" and sold parts of itself to Japanese firms like Sentai and to other local Houston investors including the ADV principals themselves. (There's some evidence the reorganization was designed to avoid creditors, particularly the Japanese firm Sojitz.) ADV was supposed to take over distribution of Geneon's products after Geneon USA closed up shop, but that deal fell through. Funimation later obtained the distribution contract for those properties, though that arrangement ended about a year ago.

To complicate matters even more, Geneon in Japan has been purchased by Universal (i.e., Comcast). Funimation recently announced that it would be distributing Ergo Proxy once more and has hinted that Black Lagoon will appear once again as well. Some observers suggest, or hope, that these announcements signal an end to the confusion arising from the Geneon/Universal merger.

[spikexp]

Nisa, box set are just so gorgeous.
Oh, and no dub, thanks god, dub are a waste of money in my opinions.

[gsilver]

NISA - For the packaging.
Siren Visual - For licensing some of my favorite shows that I've been longing to get DVDs of, but no R1 company would commit to.
Discotek - Great classic anime

[Chiibi]

A.D. Vision was my absolute favorite. Followed by Media Blasters. You saw so much love and effort put into their works. You could tell how much the voice actors loved their jobs. You could tell how much the screenwriters loved their jobs. Some of ADV's passion is reflected in Funi (some people just switched to them) but I really wish ADV had stayed alive. I have such fond memories of them when I first started buying anime. Same goes for MB. (well, they're still around so thank God....)

Media Blasters- They don't really have anything interesting besides Rurouni Kenshin.

They do if you love OVAs.
And, oh yes, who could forget BERSERKEEEEER

Least favorite: I HATE YOU VIZ
Anybody who knows the anime in my av+sig set should know my reasons for that.

I'll never buy anything from VIZ again after my experience with them dropping Monster.

OH, THIS SOUNDS LIKE A FAMILIAR STORY, THAT IT DOES....

I hated Geneon too. It seemed their only good dubs were Samurai Champloo and Higurashi. But I HATED their big stupid yellow BUBBLE subtitles. They took up a third of the screen!! How could they think that was a good idea!? And they stole Saiyuki Reload when ADV should have totally had it, as they had the FIRST series and did a beautiful job with it but no, Geneon goes and hires shitty voice actors who can't act at all! I'm glad Geneon went under, to be honest. GOOD RIDDANCE. lol

Funimation is a mixed bag. Sometimes I love their dubs. Sometimes I can't stand them. I prefer their subtitles compared to all other companies though, for being the most accurate. Media Blasters translations leave a LOT to be desired, same goes for Aniplex. =_=

I won't even acknowledge 4Shit. Who DOESN'T hate them?!

[frivolity]

Odex. They rock.

[FireChick]

Animeigo also picked up stuff that I liked, and they were definitely more of a fan oriented company than most. I'll always be grateful for the UY LD box, the KOR TV LD box, the restored Macross DVDs, and getting all of UY out on DVD (a pity they could not do that for Yawara). It's a shame that Animeigo appears to be out of the anime licensing business.

Not entirely. Last I checked they just released a Hello Kitty DVD with two episodes on it.