ADV Films discussion thread

[Vexx]

Just to recap .... ADV did some "unusual" things -- pulled off many of the upcoming release ads off their site, initiated a discount sale, and had "no comment" when queried at a conference.

*Anything else is just rumor or speculation. It could easily be just that ADV is continuing in its clueless tradition of terrible public relations about what they're doing.
*It could be that their website is *still* apparently run as ineptly as it has always been (in terms of content maintenance).
*It could be that the spokesperson didn't have a talking points sheet for an unexpected question and decided to clam up.

(sorry, but I'm laughing too hard at this point to come up with more).

My advice is for people to archive their fansubs whether they buy the series or not. Reliability doesn't seem to be much of an attribute at the moment.

[rg4619]

Apparently, ICv2 posted a news article yesterday, but it has since been pulled.

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:...lnk&cd=1&gl=ca

In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately." The list includes virtually all of the properties that ADV has announced since its financing deal with the Sojitz Corporation (see "Japanese Investment Bulks Up ADV") in late June of 2006. The properties that ADV has announced (and released) since then are from a variety of anime studios but they were all licensed through the ARM Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment, an investor group that included the Sojitz Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan and KlockWorx. In its letter to retailers ADV explained: "ADV has suspended certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation, which financed the acquisition of these titles. ADV is working closely with various constituencies with the goal of restoring most if not all of these properties to our release schedule at a later date to the extent possible."

Sounds like quite a shakeup if this is true.

[velocity7]

rg4619: The cache got pulled real shortly too. Fortunately I am not one to miss out on details:



Here's the text for those who don't want to click. Using spoiler tags to make it small here.

Spoiler:

ADV Cancels 37 Titles
Anime Offerings on 'Indefinite Hiatus'
Canceled
January 28, 2008

In a letter to retailers ADV Films has identified 37 anime properties including Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann, and Pumpkin Scissors that are "on indefinite hiatus, effective immediately." The list includes virtually all of the properties that ADV has announced since its financing deal with the Sojitz Corporation (see "Japanese Investment Bulks Up ADV") in late June of 2006. The properties that ADV has announced (and released) since then are from a variety of anime studios but they were all licensed through the ARM Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan Contents Investment, an investor group that included the Sojitz Corporation, the Development Bank of Japan and KlockWorx. In its letter to retailers ADV explained: "ADV has suspended certain elements of its former alliance with ARM Corporation, which financed the acquisition of these titles. ADV is working closely with various constituencies with the goal of restoring most if not all of these properties to our release schedule at a later date to the extent possible."



The list includes properties that have already been released in their entirety such as Nerima Daikon Brothers, Guyver, and 009-1, series such as Pumpkin Scissors, Kurau Phantom Memory, and Red Garden that have only been partially released, and eagerly awaited anime such as Devil May Cry, Gurren Lagann and 5 Centimeters per Second that have been announced for later this year. The complete list of ADV anime properties on hiatus is:



009-01
5cm Per Second
Ah! My Goddess: Flights of
Fancy
Air Gear
Air Movie
Air TV series
Best Student Council
Blade of the Phantom Master
Comic Party Revolution
Coyote Ragtime
Devil May Cry
Ghost Train
Gurren Lagann
Guyver
Innocent Venus
Jinki: Extend
Kanon TV Series
King of Bandit Jing: 7th Heaven
Kurau Phantom Memory
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Magikano
Moeyo Ken TV Series
Moonlight Mile
Nerima Daikon Brothers
Pani Pani Dash!
Project Blue
Pumpkin Scissors
Red Garden
Synethesia
The Wallflower
Tokyo Majin
UFO Princess Valkyrie - Third
and Fourth Seasons
Utawarerumono
Venus vs. Virus
Welcome to the NHK
Xenosaga



Coming on the heels of Geneon's departure (see "Geneon Ankles American Anime Scene") the ADV announcement is more bad news for the reeling North American Anime Industry. For the past few years ADV has been the number two anime company in the North America, with a solid 12-13% share of the anime DVD market. Recently though ADV has been showing signs of stress. It has pulled its support from its industry-leading collection of anime clubs and two weeks ago announced that it would cease publication of Newtype USA (see "Newtype USA Ending"). The collapse of ADV's deal with ARM does not necessarily mean the end of one of the trailblazing American anime companies, which was founded in 1992. ADV still has an extensive library of titles including the ever-popular Neon Genesis Evangelion. Still the fate of ADV subsidiaries such as The Anime Network, the Newtype successor PiQ (see "Newtype Successor Broadens Focus"), and the ADV manga publishing program that includes the bestselling Yotsuba&! manga remains in the balance as does the future of one of the pioneering powerhouses of the American anime market.

[Logos]

This sucks. I am buying Ah my Goddess, Welcome to NHK and Kurau as they come out and now....SHIT! I hope this dosen't turn out like Geneon. Dose anyone know if Pani Poni Dash finished? Was looking at picking it up but if I can't buy it why bother.

[Vexx]

Pani Poni Dash finished quite a few months ago. Amble over to DVDPacific.com where last I checked they had them all in stock. Its not clear to me whether they're actually *pulling* product on the shelves.

Sounds like something went sour with the Sojitz people.... even more curious is the idea ICv2 released that article and then tried to pull it.

Wow, a lot of this sounds terribly unprofessional on *someone's* part (if not ADV).

[XStylus]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Pani Poni Dash finished quite a few months ago. Amble over to DVDPacific.com where last I checked they had them all in stock. Its not clear to me whether they're actually *pulling* product on the shelves.

Existing stock won't be pulled unless retailers voluntarily choose to do so, which some very well might so that they don't get stuck with unsold stock "just in case" ADV tanks completely. The stock won't be replenished by ADV until and unless they rectify things.

Sounds like something went sour with the Sojitz people.... even more curious is the idea ICv2 released that article and then tried to pull it.

Wow, a lot of this sounds terribly unprofessional on *someone's* part (if not ADV).

The only thing I see as unprofessional was in releasing the letter prematurely.

I see it as one of two things: A) The letter was dated for Friday (when bad news is traditionally announced) and ICv2 released it early, or B) ADV patched things up and retracted the letter, in which case the site would probably have mentioned so.

[bayoab]

Originally Posted by XStylus

The only thing I see as unprofessional was in releasing the letter prematurely.

I see it as one of two things: A) The letter was dated for Friday (when bad news is traditionally announced) and ICv2 released it early, or B) ADV patched things up and retracted the letter, in which case the site would probably have mentioned so.

The letter never even made it out the door, yet.

Originally Posted by http://animecornerstore.blogspot.com/

This article was originally set to be posted to ICV2 yesterday, but it was pulled at the last minute and NOT published because the information it contains is NOT VERIFIED. It does NOT indicate that these titles have, in fact, been canceled. What it does indicate is that there is a serious problem that has developed over at ADV Films that management there is currently working on to try to rectify, and it was for this reason the article did not go live.

A reminder to you that THIS ARTICLE WAS CANCELED PRIOR TO PUBLICATION. It is not gospel. ADV HAS NOT provided us with any sort of official notification of what the article states.

[Vexx]

Aye, I wasn't quite clear.... the release faux pas was what I was talking about. However, the "no comment" wasn't exactly rocket science positioning either .

Sounds like they were going through the "cover all possible results" preparation and the letter was just the possible scenario K or something.

[Logos]

But why have all these titles been pulled from their website then? If things aren't as bad as everyone thinks it is why would ADV do something so rash as to pull all the titles off of their website. If they just had to get the licensing straitend out you would think they would just set the release dates to N/A or something.

[Wirbelwind8]

Just a little info on the situation at hand.. (unfortunately it is wiki )

ADV Films offered a program called Anime ADVocates, which gave free screening and promotional materials to provided free screening material and other promotional content to nearly 3,000 anime clubs in North America. To qualify for the program, the club had to be sponsored by a local high school, college, university, or public library and have at least 10 members. Member clubs were also asked to participate in surveys about the content they received. However, in November 2007, ADV Films put the program on hiatus, then on January 18, 2008 ADV Films announced that the program was being suspended indefinately due to amount of resources the program needed. They will, however, continue to offer anime clubs screening permission to anime clubs for their titles.

[DragoonKain3]

Hopefully all this will be cleared soon. I'd hate to have another box unfilled like my When They Cry box, but in this case being Kanon. I have it the first two in pre-order, supposedly coming when the box is this february. I would like to know so I could cancel in case they do drop it...

Though I'm relieved I haven't bought Kurau yet, which admittedly would be my first 'blind' purchase ever.

Am a bit uneasy though, as Magikano, NHK ni Youkoso, and Tokyo Majin are all series I would've bought had they come out. But I guess all this amounts to is me getting Utawarerumono just this minute...

[SeijiSensei]

Even if everything gets sorted out eventually, the amount of uncertainty in the R1 market can't help but depress DVD sales. Who wants to start buying a series when there's a good possibility it will be dropped in midstream? If, as Mentar suggests, the studios adhere to the one-disc-at-a-time distribution model, I see rough waters ahead. Perhaps these events will be the stimulus to some more reasonable marketing strategies, like competitively-priced full-set releases up front, but as Mentar also observes, Japanese companies have never been known for their flexible management strategies.

[Zhemos]

This sucks. Two days have past and not one peep from ADV. I'm getting more worried every hour.

[cyth]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Perhaps these events will be the stimulus to some more reasonable marketing strategies, like competitively-priced full-set releases up front, but as Mentar also observes, Japanese companies have never been known for their flexible management strategies.

I think that's what everyone wants, and I personally don't think the Japanese companies are keeping all the doors locked, but that's certainly not a realistic approach. ADV was putting out niche content at the lowest available singles prices including dubs, now imagine they try to lower prices all of a sudden and release the box sets at a much later date... Hype goes down, meaning they'll spend more on marketing the release, they'll lose more fansub-watching customers, and they'll be offering it to casual viewers that have no strong tendencies to buy the "newest" anime releases <-- long term investment. For niche titles that's not a realistic approach. Perhaps it makes sense for titles that appeal to core fandom audiences... Honestly, there's not much they can go around with.

Bandai Visual did something awesome today: They are releasing True Tears and Shigofumi on DVD. Both are fresh series with quality content. Their release will follow the broadcast just 5 months after it. No dubs <-- cutting lots of costs. Most likely quality visuals and sound because of the low episode count (in total 7 DVDs for each series). They'll be releasing exclusive content for their dot-anime customers (@ MSRP prices) <-- scarcity hype. MSRP: $39.99

Why is this good for them? Because they are (finally) releasing interesting content at the peak of its popularity to consumers that want quality and will surely honor that with a purchase. They may not win in terms of customer numbers, but they will be catering this to collectors who don't mind spending extra for good stuff. Some people do not understand this business logic, but if done right with the right content it can turn out to be a successful title. I like True Tears and so far I haven't heard anything bad about it. This is why I think their release will be a winner. Surely, a large number of people will be disgusted by their price point, they'll just have to understand that the release wasn't meant for them in the first place.

*puts True Tears on his wishlist*

[Vexx]

That, at least, is another business model though it obviously limits the audience to high-end purchasers. I'm not sure the $39.99 / 2 episodes is sustainable in America though -- translation: I make a fair shitload of money compared to the average American anime consumer and that price will make me think *really* carefully before buying a series.

Skipping the dubs, for me at least, is a great move for cutting costs --- but then apparently all the savings is retained by Bandai since they're dramatically increasing the $$/ep. It simply doesn't cost much to reduce the ep/disk count in exchange for higher quality ... it streamlines their conversion from R2 formulation to R1.... yet there too the savings are not passed on.
I'm not damning them.... but we'll just have to monitor how well this works.

I'm feeling very burned by the probably never-to-be-completed Geneon series I was collecting -- so the "one disk at a time and then we'll see" model has me even more loathe to *start* any series at the moment.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Vexx

That, at least, is another business model though it obviously limits the audience to high-end purchasers. I'm not sure the $39.99 / 2 episodes is sustainable in America though -- translation: I make a fair shitload of money compared to the average American anime consumer and that price will make me think *really* carefully before buying a series.

I'm feeling very burned by the probably never-to-be-completed Geneon series I was collecting -- so the "one disk at a time and then we'll see" model has me even more loathe to *start* any series at the moment.

There are only 2 series in my collection (KGNE and Haruhi) where i bought the singles before the series finish its release. Every other series i bought after it has been completely release.

And while i won't say never, I am 99.9999999% certain i won't be buying any BV release at that price. Unless i win the damn lottery.

[Vexx]

I was considering buying True Tears at the "usual price structure". There's only a *few* series *ever* made that I might consider buying at $40/2eps.

And if the fansubs dry up... well then, I won't have any way to assess a series before I buy it.... so my $$$$ will go elsewhere.

If Bandai was coupling this with a "720 low-def broadcast tv quality" torrent of the series -- I'd be all over it because that matches the way things USED to be done.

Rich patrons cover the cost and reasonable profit while the poor masses get to enjoy some of the bright and shiny colors so they won't riot.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Vexx

I was considering buying True Tears at the "usual price structure". There's only a *few* series *ever* made that I might consider buying at $40/2eps.

And if the fansubs dry up... well then, I won't have any way to assess a series before I buy it.... so my $$$$ will go elsewhere.

If Bandai was coupling this with a "720 low-def broadcast tv quality" torrent of the series -- I'd be all over it because that matches the way things USED to be done.

Rich patrons cover the cost and reasonable profit while the poor masses get to enjoy some of the bright and shiny colors so they won't riot.

There are no series i would currently consider buying at that price (haurhi was the only i did). I Would consider it form a couple of movies, like Macross DYRL. Since i did consider buying the R2 LE rls last year. But it will be far and few between.

[Nemuru]

Here a Link from Anime news network

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...bsite-update-2

while it's not much but at least there a ray of hope ^ ^.

[cyth]

I won't just say "whew, glad that's over". I'll remain sceptic for a little while longer. ^^; I'm certainly not buying any Kanon till this drama is nipped in the bud.