Geneon stops all productions

[Genjo]

Geneon Exits American Anime Industry
Geneon USA has officially informed retailers that as of 5 PM PDT this Friday, September 28th, the company will cease all DVD production, sales, and distribution.

All Geneon USA DVD titles scheduled for release after November 11, 2007 have apparently been canceled.

Taken from Animenation news

The onetime anime distribution company Geneon Entertainment (USA) Inc. has notified its retail customers that it will cease "the sales of DVDs and all related distribution and marketing operations as of 5 p.m. on Friday, September 28, 2007." The deadline for ordering all Geneon USA products is that time and date, and only orders for "catalog products in inventory or new releases with a street date" of November 6 or earlier will be accepted. Any outstanding retail orders will ship as soon as stock is available. No more returns will be accepted after 5:00 p.m. on November 30. The letter to retailers also says that "payables to Geneon remain unchanged."


The letter does not address the issue of the future availability of titles, nor does it discuss Geneon USA's future production plans.

The Geneon USA letter to retailer cites the termination of the proposed sales and distribution alliance with A.D. Vision, Inc. as the reason. Geneon USA had laid off much of its own sales and marketing teams earlier this month. Geneon USA's parent company, the Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc., said that "from October 1, 2007, Geneon USA will focus mainly on management of its works portfolio."

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...tion-by-friday
Taken form Animenewsnetwork
More info about it.

wow i wonder what's going to happend to them.

[Royal_Devil]

Pretty much every series I'm in the middle of collecting at the moment is licensed by Geneon, most prominantly are Black Lagoon and Hellsing Ultimate.

Good thing Ergo Proxy's finished its release this week.

[User65554]

Wait, aren't they the guys who do/will do/would be doing Higurashi?
Doubt it could be related, though.

[Cyz]

What!? How on earth am I gonna finish my Story of Saiunkoku now? Man, this sucks! And Geneon licensed good animes too.

[Genjo]

well the only one i have from them is Fate/stay night and rest i have are ADV or D-rights etc but i feel kind sad for Geneon going out so fast specialy when they pick-up Shana and few others

[Royal_Devil]

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

Wait, aren't they the guys who do/will do/would be doing Higurashi?
Doubt it could be related, though.

Geneon's released the first 3 DVD volumes with the 4th set for December. Or at least it was set

[Cyz]

Not to mention leaving Saiunkoku and Higurashi hanging too. Plus, if Geneon is now quitting, that means Zero no Tsukaima isn't licensed anymore then? But why in the world they quit all of a sudden anyway? Financial difficulties maybe?

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by VK-Pitt

Wait, aren't they the guys who do/will do/would be doing Higurashi? Doubt it could be related, though.

They are. The fact that they bought the license to Higurashi probably (I don't work for them so can't say for sure) has nothing to do with the move to close down their distribution operation. They've been in talks with ADV for a while (about effectivly outsourcing the parts that are apparently defunct as of the 31^st of December this year) but they fell through.

AnimeOnDVD's summary of the letter sent out by Geneon today:

Though the finality of things is still up in the air, Geneon Entertainment has sent out information to retailers regarding their 4th quarter plans. According to the information, Geneon will be shipping all releases they have in the queue for street dates through 11/05/2007. All orders placed after this coming Friday is non-returnable. As of 12/31/2007, they will be shutting down, apparently completely as AnimeNation is listing everything past 11/11/2007 as canceled. Plans for beyond 12/31/2007 are still up in the air but what little is being said indicates that they're intending to focus on their own properties in a similar way to Kadokawa Pictures USA is doing things.

Originally Posted by Cyz

if Geneon is now quitting, that means Zero no Tsukaima isn't licensed anymore then?

Nope. Not at all. Note that currently it is only their distribution and marketing that are ceasing operation. Doesn't mean they have sold (or otherwise relinquished) their licensing rights.

Originally Posted by Cyz

But why in the world they quit all of a sudden anyway? Financial difficulties maybe?

That is one reason, though it could be a decision made by their parent company. Impossible to say for sure without some sort of specific press release, but I can't see one of those being made.

[DragoonKain3]

WHAT THE #!@%@$? I want my Higurashi dammit! What the heck happened?

And man, I have to hunt down Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs before they skyrocket in prices even more. Also gotta get that Gankutsuou box set as well...

Things I have from them already...
Arjuna
Fafner
Koi Kaze
Someday's Dreamers
Starship Opertators
Stellvia
Tsukihime

Thinking of getting...
Gatekeepers (just for ol' osana-najimi's sake)
Kamichu
Karin (actually, maybe not since its not the complete set)
Shana
Sugar
X TV


Hopefully they revive like Media Blasters did.


EDIT:
Hmm... looking at what Geneon and its parent company (dentsu) is involved in...
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...ny.php?id=2151
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...any.php?id=249

At the very least, Fate/Stay night most probably would be continued if or whenever they revive. Looking on the bright side, there's some titles on those two pages I wouldn't mind owning in R1, but that's a long time away.

But I guess that's what they get for allying with another company. ADV cancelling their 'contract' to distribute their titles just made it unfeasible for them to stay in the anime industry, since they layed off their marketing staff since they thought they have no need of them anymore.

[Nightbat®]

ok,... now what is the reason for this?

[SeijiSensei]

I thought this sentence from CoreMaster's post seemed significant:
"Geneon USA's parent company, the Japanese advertising firm Dentsu Inc., said that "from October 1, 2007, Geneon USA will focus mainly on management of its works portfolio."

It sounds like Geneon was having problems building up the marketing and distribution infrastructure it needed to operate effectively in the US. I'd guess that was a reason for the negotiations with ADV. The fact that ADV bowed out suggests that ADV determined Geneon's limited US assets weren't worth what Dentsu was asking. If, as Dentsu claims, Geneon will now focus on managing its portfolio, I wouldn't be surprised to see sub-licensing agreements with companies like ADV who already have the infrastructure in place to produce and distribute DVDs.

I remember when I was watching Black Lagoon thinking that Geneon appeared to making a strategic choice to develop works that could have appeal on both sides of the Pacific. Maybe they were just too optimistic about the size or growth rate of the North American market.

I guess I'm glad I follow shows like Dennou Coil or Oh! Edo Rocket that are obscure enough that they don't attract R1 licensors. Still, I was planning on buying Saiunkoku Monogatari after all the DVDs were released. The other big loser for me is Seirei no Moribito, to which Geneon purchased the rights even before the show started airing in Japan. Given it's Production I.G.'s current flagship production, I'm guessing someone will distribute it in R1. Seirei was the first of the shows being produced as part of Dentsu/Geneon's deal with Mitsubishi. I wonder what will happen to that?

[Spectacular_Insanity]

How could they do this to us? They've liscenced easily half the anime I've watched!

[Midonin]

I hope that Nanoha and Zero no Tsukaima can still get their US DVD releases. I was really looking forward to getting them.

[Polaryzed_123]

Me very, very sad. I already had a killer X-mas list going that included all released Black Lagoon and Higurashi DVD's, to name a couple. I REALLY, REALLY hope that this is temporary.

[ayukanon45]

sooo... does this mean that i wont get to finish higurashi in english?

[Cyz]

Originally Posted by Midonin

I hope that Nanoha and Zero no Tsukaima can still get their US DVD releases. I was really looking forward to getting them.

They might give the license to someone else.....maybe but that's not likely. Hmm, maybe Bandai might picked it up or ADV but not sure about that either. Well, there aren't any news that Geneon are dropping all the licensed animes as Nightwish said.


--> Whew! Good thing they weren't the one that licensed AIR and Kanon and also picked up the second season of Ah My Goddess Still, I'm still sad because I won't be able to complete Saiunkoku now.

[Kamui4356]

I'm sorry to hear this. They had some upcoming releases I was really looking forward to, like Nanoha. Geneon releases make up a good portion of my dvd collection. Hopefully they can sort things out and get some of their upcoming releases out somehow.

[bayoab]

The production stop hasn't been announced by anyone else. I have no idea where AN is getting that. AoD and ANN both seem to say it's future is unknown.

[DeshoDesho]

that too bad,i was hoping to grab the R1 Zero no Tsukaima DVD,lets hope it gets licensed soon

[Alexandrite]

Well... crap. If this is true, then there's a lot I won't get to see that I was planning on buying. Some of those dvds are going to get pretty expensive soon, so my plans to pick up Fate/Stay Night and Rozen Maiden are looking grim. Plus, Karin never finished, did it? And wasn't Rozen Maiden ~Träumend~ supposed to start being released soon? On top of that, now Nanoha won't be released... Curse you, Geneon. You've made me sad.