They shouldn’t need to subtitle this chalkboard shot much, if at all!
When ADV/Sentai Filmworks announced some new acquistions via retail solicitations on Tuesday, I was surprised by a few things. The first was Ghost Hound, a series I only got 3 episodes into and forgot to resume watching despite kind of liking it, and the second was the pricing of its release relative to others that were also revealed.
The first Ghost Hound set will have episodes 1-11 and retail for $59.98 (current pre-order: $45) while the complete set 12-episode release of He is My Master and the 12-episode Clannad After Story part 1 will both street for $40 (current pre-order: $30). Maybe they figure GH has a smaller appeal than HIMM and Clannad and thus estimate lower expected sales, necessitating a higher price point to recoup acquistion costs. Perhaps being a Production I.G. project also has something to do with it.
Kiba previously ran on Toonami Jetstream and 33 of its 51 episodes are currently available to be watched on Anime Network Online by Premium users with new episodes going live each Thursday. $60 retail ($45 pre-order) for the whole set (Oct. 13th) sounds like a good deal to me as a consolidation of two previously released 26-episode sets at $50 a piece but I imagine it will a re-packaging of those two sets (Bandai’s Anime Legends bricks come to mind). I saw about half the series in anime club a few years ago and enjoyed it so I’ll look into this.
I have no opinion about the other “new” acquistions, Popotan and Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy, except I may rent the Geneon discs eventually just to see what either are about.
Links
Clannad After Story set 1: TRSI - RACS
Ghost Hound Collection 1: TRSI - RACS
He is My Master Complete Collection: TRSI - RACS
Kiba Complete Collection: TRSI - RACS
Popotan Collection: TRSI - RACS
Sugar: A Little Snow Fairy Collection: TRSI - RACS
Reflecting On The Death of A Brand
September 6, 2009 in Commentary by Tom Langston (calaggie) | 1 comment
Even though I was glad the core elements of AD Vision would still function in the form of separate corporate entities, I felt some sadness about the disappearance of the brand early last week. The clock had been ticking for a couple years and yet they’re still not completely shuttered, like Geneon or CPM ended up, partly due to acquiring & distributing new content through Sentai Filmworks & Switchblade Pictures and also having a back catalog that bolsters their Anime Network channel and VOD service.
Some of their fanservice-focused marketing was not so great – they had even trademarked “Jiggle Counter” (TM s/n 78249580) and used it on Burn Up Excess & Plastic Little – but they also put Pop Up Video style “AD Vid-Notes” (Vid-notes: TM s/n 78271566) on a few reference-heavy releases in Excel Saga & Pani Poni Dash and experimented with different methods of advertising: AniMinis (1 episode on 3-inch discs at $6.99 with a coupon inside) and using torrents to distribute promotional materials.
It’s not much of a loss at all since the core business elements remain and only the brand was abandoned but I’ll still miss it. (I’m not going to delve into their defunct manga business because I didn’t have that much experience with it and because it ended up being so mishandled.)
Here are some of the ADV-related posts I written over the past three years:
– sampling the ADV Universe content and wrote about its Windows DRM
– pointing out John Ledford’s ranking of titles in A, B, and C categories of sellability (and then something Ledford said 17 months later)
– exploiting their once-open trailer directory to post a teaser trailer of Kanon, a day before ANN (while in Germany no less!)
– posting a renewal letter from Newtype USA I received soon after the announcement that the magazine would turn into PiQ, which also folded later that year
– an expression of hopeful (and naive) concern for the company’s future after news of dropped listings and the lost Sojitz licenses
– a post wondering about the future of Keroro (Sgt. Frog). Funimation picked it up in its slew of license transfers two weeks later.
– an episode of Reading Out Loud about the phantom February 2008 release date for Gurren Lagann
– reviews of Red Garden vol. 1 and Pumpkin Scissors vol. 1
P.S. This is one of the more memorable ads I saw from ADV (scanned from Anime Insider, October 2005):
Tags: ad vision, adv films, Commentary, industry