Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha licensed by Geneon

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Mirificus

Geneon USA Lays Off Sales, Marketing Staffers, Sept. 11, 2007


ADV and Geneon Call off Strategic Alliance, Sept. 21 2007


This suggests that while Geneon should still have its production staff, it will need to do a fair bit of work to get its marketing and distribution back into shape.

They could always have Rightstuf take over the sales and marketing.

One thing about Genon and ADV that has always bug me is their artboxes are plain. Nice artwork but stilll just a plain artbox. I really like how Funi and Bandai puts in the extra work with their special ed artboxes. Long shot but i am hoping Nanoha will get either a Mai-Hime type sp ed artbox or a Trinity Blood type. Those boxes are awsome and I would pay extra for them.

[cyanne]

Originally Posted by grgspunk

Wait a second, what makes you think that Geneon is going to stop all in house productions anyway? Which press release are you talking about?

The press releases were posted a little earlier. The thing about stopping in house productions is from AnimeNewsNetwork. My mistake, not an official press release but STILL somewhere in print.

"In addition to the contracting of Geneon USA's sales and marketing to ADV Films, Dentsu Inc. (Geneon USA's parent company) was also planning on closing Geneon USA's in-house production by the end of the year. It is not known what was to be done with ongoing projects, such as the Hellsing video series, that will not finish in Japan before December 31."

Full story can be found here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...deal-cancelled

[grgspunk]

Originally Posted by cyanne

The press releases were posted a little earlier. The thing about stopping in house productions is from AnimeNewsNetwork. My mistake, not an official press release but STILL somewhere in print.

"In addition to the contracting of Geneon USA's sales and marketing to ADV Films, Dentsu Inc. (Geneon USA's parent company) was also planning on closing Geneon USA's in-house production by the end of the year. It is not known what was to be done with ongoing projects, such as the Hellsing video series, that will not finish in Japan before December 31."

Full story can be found here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...deal-cancelled

Do they have some sort of official confirmation to back it up?

[Cynor]

This makes me wonder if ADV ever had any real interest in the deal... Unless either party was asking for an outrageous amount you'd think they would put a little more effort into it. Especially with Geneon actually firing some of their employees, it sounds like they really wanted to make this work. Then ADV pullys out? I mean maybe it's my being paranoid over some stuff that has happened recently, but this reeks of a plan to take out another company... or at least hurt them.

Ignoring the possibility of being planned... I wonder what this will mean for Nanoha and other Geneon series that they haven't finished yet or are still airing. Especially if they are shutting down in-house productions, one has to wonder what will happen there. Even if they get it all done, and are shutting down, one has to figure that will be a huge rush job and wont give the series the attention it really deserves. The layoffs don't worry me that much though tbh... All they have to do is hire new people, or re-hire those who were fired (if they'll come back). I doubt they'll have a major problem filling the slots either, they probably wont get as many people applying after this if they do open it up... but there will be people willing to do it.

[Avatar_notADV]

Well, at least the subs will come out okay. I can manage that much. ;p

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Avatar_notADV

Well, at least the subs will come out okay. I can manage that much. ;p

Congrats on getting the contracts, and good news for those of us left slightly dazed and confused about all the Geneon stuff. Looking forward to your well-done subtitles! "Once and current subtitler" indeed.

[Cynor]

Originally Posted by Avatar_notADV

Well, at least the subs will come out okay. I can manage that much. ;p

0.o

Now, if maybe you could also talk them into like changing up the whole fugly yellow text that normally come on DvDs. Not even asking for different colors per char, but all the huge yellow subs do tend to wear on you... Add some style or something! >_>

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Cynor

Now, if maybe you could also talk them into like changing up the whole fugly yellow text that normally come on DvDs. Not even asking for different colors per char, but all the huge yellow subs do tend to wear on you... Add some style or something! >_>

Heh -- well, that's corporate policy, and that (or white) is basically the standard for legibility. DVD subtitles are not about "style" they're about making sure the maximum possible audience can read it clearly on even the worst of TVs. So long as there are people with craptastic TVs out there, I can't see them changing it.

[Ottocycle]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...tion-by-friday

This does NOT look good at all. To think I was wanting to replace my A's done oh-so-well by Odex...

[Kensuke]

Originally Posted by humbug23

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...tion-by-friday

This does NOT look good at all. To think I was wanting to replace my A's done oh-so-well by Odex...

This sucks, seriously. Geneon is one of my favorite anime companies. My only hope is this line:
"The letter does not address the issue of the future availability of titles, nor does it discuss Geneon USA's future production plans."

I really hope they will return eventually. I was waiting for Nanoha as well...

[grgspunk]

Requesting restoration of Nanoha, Nanoha A's, Rozen Maiden, Fate/Stay Night and Higurashi fansubs, please...

I'd say it's safe to say that current licensed titles are not going to see future releases in the forseeable future...

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by grgspunk

Requesting restoration of Nanoha, Nanoha A's, Rozen Maiden, Fate/Stay Night and Higurashi fansubs, please...

I'd say it's safe to say that current licensed titles are going to see future releases in the forseeable future...

I think it's too early to tell. At this point, Geneon USA still has the rights, and even though they may not be selling the products themselves anymore (they laid off their sales and marketing teams a few weeks ago), production doesn't seem to have been cancelled (yet?). Not to mention, Fate/stay night will be released in its entirety anyway.

At this point, I'm of the opinion that they should still be considered licensed, until we hear word that production is cancelled. They can always find some other company to distribute their products, just as Kadokawa USA does. Geneon USA isn't going out of business, they're just not publishing their own DVDs anymore.

[grgspunk]

They can always find some other company to distribute their products, just as Kadokawa USA does. Geneon USA isn't going out of business, they're just not publishing their own DVDs anymore.

Considering the deluge of bad news that's been circulating lately, how am I supposed to be convinced that Geneon is even going to go the Kadokawa route? Even if that does happen, what are the chances of having titles like Nanoha, Higurashi and Rozen Maiden sold to another company for a license rescue? I ask this because they're all niche titles, and none of them seem like the kind of titles ADV or Funimation would want. Those companies prefer more "mainstream" titles. There is Bandai-Visual, but *gasp* they relied on Geneon for their DVD production!

Considering the fact that worst-case scenarios always seem to come true these days, I'll assume that Geneon's dead and the licenses won't see an R1 rescue. The alternative possiblilty just doesn't seem feasible...

[Avatar_notADV]

Given that people are being paid to work on it, it's safe to say that the project isn't cancelled.

As far as subtitle colors, spot on, Flame. TV pictures aren't as sharp as computer ones - you need a high-contrast color combination, yellow and black or white and black as the best. But white and black would be really dumb for Nanoha, given that Nanoha herself isn't exactly running around in a slate gray outfit. Bright white heroine plus bright white subtitles equals fugly mess.

[grgspunk]

Originally Posted by Avatar_notADV

Given that people are being paid to work on it, it's safe to say that the project isn't cancelled.

I know it isn't cancelled yet, but they said that Geneon was going to cease production efforts by the end of the year. What then?

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by grgspunk

I know it isn't cancelled yet, but they said that Geneon was going to cease production efforts by the end of the year. What then?

Geneon themselves never stated that (at least not publically/officially); ANN "got the word" that that was "in the works", but nobody knows exactly what that means yet, if anything. Maybe they were just referring to "in-house production", or something; most of Geneon's production work is outsourced, IIRC. If they're still paying people to work on new shows at this point, then they may at least be committed to finishing production on the shows they've already started/licensed, which will take them past the end of the year. And no matter what, there'll still be Geneon Japan-produced shows that they'll want to see released in the U.S., even if it's through some other partner/distributor now.

In any case, I'm sure all will become clearer over the next few weeks/months. At this point, though, we can assume it's still licensed with the intention to be released... somehow...

[Ultima_Rasengan05]

I guess we won't know when Nanoha will be released since Geneon is shutting down its DVD sales and distribution to retail stores. Somehow, this sounds bad in a way, because we might not get an announcement about any of Geneon's licensed titles set for release.

[grgspunk]

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Geneon themselves never stated that (at least not publically/officially); ANN "got the word" that that was "in the works", but nobody knows exactly what that means yet, if anything. Maybe they were just referring to "in-house production", or something; most of Geneon's production work is outsourced, IIRC. If they're still paying people to work on new shows at this point, then they may at least be committed to finishing production on the shows they've already started/licensed, which will take them past the end of the year. And no matter what, there'll still be Geneon Japan-produced shows that they'll want to see released in the U.S., even if it's through some other partner/distributor now.

If most of Geneon's production is outsorced, then what "in house" production IS there to be shut down?

Also, even if Geneon goes the Kadokawa route, what chances are there that licences like Nanoha and Higurashi be found suitable by other distributers for a license rescue?

[Avatar_notADV]

Can't comment on the potentials (a lot of what I know is covered by NDAs from other companies, heh.) But I figure nobody would be paying to get the shows worked on if they didn't plan on bringing them out somehow; they might end up failing and packing it in, sure, but they definitely haven't abandoned them (yet.)

[Cynor]

As far as the whole sub color thing is concerned, that was more just a joke then anything. Although it has bugged me a bit, especially since I have an HDTV and HD sets are becoming more and more common/standard now.

As for the whole Geneon distro thing, that sucks on so many levels. Besides the whole thing with Nanoha they recently started distro on quite a few of the "niche" titles that I was really looking forward to getting.Some will be done by the time specified for the cut-off... most wont. Even if they are still working on the subs/dubs (or finished work on) while not actually making the dvds to sale, who knows how long it'll be before we actually see them.