When I began composing this in the afternoon, I thought it would be just another collection of news items baked into a Potluck post but then a few more things came to light this evening and the above image suspiciously gained more relevance.
UPDATE 1/18 12:37AM PST: AnimeNews.biz has issued a retraction to their story about Best Buy and how they shelf anime in their stores. Instead of removing sections entirely, they are “in the process of realigning the anime section of each store depending on title popularity”. I have accordingly adjusted that portion of this post. Read the rest of this entry »
While researching a long post a few months back, I came across an advertisement inside the final issue of Newtype USA for Gurren Lagann volume 1 from ADV Films carrying the now phantom release date February 26, 2008. Twelve pages later was a four-page feature and fifty pages after that was a review of vol. 1, which had been declared “DVD of the Month”.
TTGL was intended to be ADV’s next big action success and the initial dub cast had already been revealed in January (as well as a loud announcer trailer) but it got caught up in the Sojitz licensing fiasco and fell into licensing limbo. Bandai snapped up the rights a few months later and has proceeded to handle it very well, swiftly putting out sub-only nine-episode sets to please the big fans and hybrid volumes in double-single bundles just like how they began releasing Code Geass on DVD.
In this episode of Reading Out Loud, I read the featured article and the review (along with the sidebar to the review) as well attempt to project how the rest of ADV’s roll out might have gone in contrast to Bandai’s current effort (while repeating some of the background info I gave above). After the jump is a timeline of the series’ development and some tangentially related stories. Also: a chart of the voice actors I listed off during the final segment.
Music Used:
“Ookami ga Kita!!” (from Gurren Lagann BEST SOUND)
“Mawatte Mawatte Mawatte Mawatte Tetete…” (BEST SOUND)
“Douda! Ore no Trumpet wa Sugoi Darou!!” (BEST SOUND) Giant Gorg opening theme (YouTube link)
“Nessa no Areno wo Nukete dai Gurren Dan ga Iku no da” (BEST SOUND) Read the rest of this entry »
The confirmation that ADV will distribute Clannad in North America as well as some previously unrescued Geneon titles in Tsukihime and Mahoromatic hit late Sunday night and is a big news item to begin the week with, but don’t forget that it was CEO John Ledford’s interview with ICv2 that spawned said news.
Long-time readers might remember that Ledford mentioned ranking titles as A, B, and C in a May 2007 interview with ANN and said that “most people buy their A titles and they download their B’s and C’s” due to the prevalence of fansubs. Now 17 months later and after overseeing his company’s strategy shift, he calls the high-profile content ‘anime events’ that still sell well and the former C’s are now classified as ’super-niche’ titles that are reliable due to their core fanbases, their low upfront licensing cost, and the cumulative ‘long tail’ sales. Nozomi has been keen on with putting out sub-only sets of fan favorites including Marimite and Aria in recent months and doing well at it while Media Blasters has been producing hybrid releases with slightly broader appeal (e.g. Rurouni Kenshin, Berserk, Genshiken) for years. By the way, Chris Anderson’s original Wired article is four years old this month.
Unfortunately, the middle of the road titles (formerly in the B range) remain financial gambles for R1 licensors, according to Ledford:
Where things get tricky is in between the big hits and the smaller niche titles. Series that are strong but may not be world-beaters. Viewership is larger than ever, thanks to the Internet, but fans just aren’t buying DVDs like they used to. And when the costs stay the same, you’ve got a lot of solid, quality productions that end up running in the red.
That’s why right now the best business to be in are the hits and the ‘super-niche’ titles. Anything in between can kill you.
Earlier this week, both Hulu and Joost announced the launch of anime channels on their respective sites. While some people joked about the sliver of revenue publishers get from Hulu or complained about watermarking (get over it, it’s FREE content), I think these efforts as well as any similar future ones are beneficial for the licensing companies in terms of increasing reach and awareness.
The shows Funimation, Viz and others are providing to streaming sites have very likely already made most of the gross revenue they will ever produce. I doubt Slayers, Blue Dragon, and Astro Boy are generating any significant scratch for their rights holders compared to the bigger franchises (e.g. Bleach, Naruto) so why not let online users see half or all of a series they may not have known existed and might never buy on DVD. The more recent fare like the entire Death Note series, uncut and subtitled, has the potential of cannibalizing Viz’s sales of digital downloads through Direct2Drive, Xbox/Zune Marketplace, and the iTunes store along with physical DVD sales. Read the rest of this entry »
I promise this will be the last notebook photo for a long while.
Amidst the flurry of distribution acquisitions by Funimation a weekend ago, there were a number of series that did not show up on those lengthy lists. The focus of the partnership with Geneon was to continue releases that were halted during initial single-by-single release (e.g. The Story of Saiunkoku, When They Cry); begin putting out series that were licensed but had yet to be released (The Familiar of Zero, Lyrical Nanoha); and furnish complete collection releases for series that had finished their singles run but lacked an all-in-one box set (Ergo Proxy, Fate stay night, Shana season 1). The same seemed to be the case with most of the Sojitz-managed titles with the exception of Comic Party Revolution and possibly Nerima Daikon Brothers. Read the rest of this entry »
FACT: There are still six months left in 2008. FACT: Still no Keroro.
The last six months have seemed like doom-and-gloom for ADV Films with their glossy magazine folding (and the rebirthed version also shutting down) and a license financing dispute that forced them to presumably sell Gurren Lagann to Bandai. But they are still releasing shiny discs and their Kanon releases have been getting praise like volume 3 sweeping AOD’s ADR awards for March 2008 and each release regularly getting voted Pick of the Week by the AOD forumites. Pretty much the only undeveloped titles they have are Kiba and Sgt. Frog, and I think the latter has the capability to bolster the company if it is publicized the right way…and if ADV still has the rights. Read the rest of this entry »
As you may have heard, ADV announced on Thursday a deal with CrunchyRoll to stream dubbed episodes of the Gonzo comedy anime Welcome to the NHK! in a promotional partnership. I didn’t have any particular response to the news at first because ADV has traditionally tried to get their dubs as much exposure as possible and because it was an official partnership between the companies, with Best Buy running a short sale ad at the beginning of the first one.
However, while checking out the partnership on CR, I saw High School Girls under the “Others Also Liked…” sidebar and recognized it as the same series that Media Blasters was releasing as Girl’s High. Episode 2’s list of three pseudo-recommendations contained Hand Maid May, a Geneon title that is barely available to buy but is still, I believe, under license by the company. A perusal of CR’s anime index revealed more than twenty other anime available for streaming that are still being sold on region 1 DVD and many of them are Geneon and Media Blasters titles. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this week, ANN reported that listings for recent ADV Films titles including Kanon, Gurren Lagann, and Sgt. Frog have been removed from the company’s website and store. Soon after, a spokesman for the company told them that they are “working through a few short-term challenges and fully intends to continue our releases”. However, further information has come out in the form of a canceled ICv2 article that was posted on a couple forums and subsequently Robert’s Anime Corner Blog and, at least for me, puts a new light to the breaking down of negotiations with Geneon late last year. It’s not as horrible as Geneon – the reason why it’s a canceled article is that something got worked out – but it’s still something I’m concerned about as this industry continues to traverse a rough patch. Read the rest of this entry »
AnimeOnDVD posted some months-ahead solicitations from RightStuf Wednesday, this time from AD Vision. Included on that list was Five Centimeters Per Second carrying a date of March 4th, an age rating of 13+, and the standard $29.98 MSRP. The funny thing is that I submitted a question a couple days ago through ADV’s online contact form wondering if a DVD release was imminent considering they stated in their late June license announcement that they were planning for a December DVD release at the time and a press release on the Anime Network’s website stating Five Centimeters would premiere on its VOD service on January 17th.
I have a problem with the price, though. Yes, I know it’s a high-production “feature” with Shinkai’s great attention to detail and trademark lighting effects but it’s sixty-five minutes total, shorter than the 91-minute Place Promised in Our Early Days. Maybe I’ll pick it up during the next studio sale if the extras to be announced later seem worth it. By comparison, ADV first released the 30-minute Voices of a Distant Star on June 2003 at a MSRP of $19.99 before packaging it and Place Promised into the Shinkai Collection (priced at $39.98) in December 2005.
Before this week, the downloadable episodes that ADV Films was selling through its website were priced at $4.99 each, much higher than anime on iTunes albeit ADV’s stuff was at a much higher bitrate as well. Now the company has announced that it has begun offering downloads of “over 500 episodes” from 32 series for $1.99. Sounds good, right? Well, maybe not if you look at what you’re getting for your two bucks. Read the rest of this entry »
FACT: There are still six months left in 2008. FACT: Still no Keroro.
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