Toon Zone Talkback - ADV Films Dissolves; Parent Transfers Assets To Other Companies

For all intent and purposes yeah, it is. ADV has ceased to be a working company. Now they're just a distribution arm, much like Home Vision Entertainment was after they were absorbed by Image.
 
Who says AEsir/Section 23 will never acquire anything? They sure didn't say that. We don't have enough details yet. But even if that's the case ADV's fate would still not be like Geneon's, where most staff lost their jobs and they stopped distributing their own titles until FUNimation came along. This may well be their end as a significant player in the industry, and we don't know how ADV's catalog will make out in the long run. But this isn't a total collapse, and it shouldn't be treated like one.

_______________

Frankly, on a somewhat unrelated point, I'm not sure how much will have really changed when all's said and done, given how modest ADV's licensing activity has been of late. Clannad, some CPM titles that they didn't get around to releasing before this (though maybe those rights were transferred too, actually), random live action with Sentai Filmworks...and that's basically it. We didn't need this to confirm the state of the industry as it has been in the last couple of years.
 
Same here. After Geneon I knew they'd be the next to go. Still surprised Media Blasters is holding out as long as they are. Evangelion was their last bastion, just like Fruits basket is for tokyopop, who I expect a simialr message from any day now.

Isn`t Rightstuf an online anime/manga store?
 
Gah all these divvying up of properties and shares and whatnot is confusing me... So I'll just say this.

Farewell to the ADV of old. It's sad to see the company we knew to end up like they did. It was kindof expected, but it's still sad all the same. That said, I'll still cherish your great AzuDai and Excel Saga DVRAB for all time unless mine get destroyed for some reason.
 
Yes..Sadly I don't Use my Credit card online, & Since Rightstuff Doesn't accept Visa GiftcarRAB (wich is what i ususally use.)

I sadly Have Yet to shop there...Oh well I guess I could just Put a Rightstuff giftcard on My Christmas list & then Snatch up whatevers left.

Still though would like to see Funi Pick some older Harder to Find ADV Titles for a Rerelase.

Also agree about the Media Blasters comment. How theve held out so long is beyond me, I mean sure theve got Kenshin, Rayearth & Moribito. But still.
 
OK, here's my long post that I warned you about.

Like I said, it's the end of an era. Say what you will about ADV, but there's no denying that they, along with Streamline Pictures, were a big part in getting anime to America in the early days. Yes, there were always a few Japanese shows on TV since the late '60s (Speed Racer and Marine Boy, for example), but the home video market really exploded with these two companies. So in a sense, they were pioneers. And now ADV's gone, for all means and purposes. One can't help but feel a little sad about that, even if one didn't care for their questionable business practices at times and didn't think everything they licensed was gold. It's a shame that a company which literally began as a two man operation is now kaput, especially since only three years ago, they were doing pretty well for themselves.

Without getting too sentimental here, ADV was the first anime company I bought a TV show from, and thus they hold a place in my heart for really getting me into anime. That first show was Excel Saga, which some would argue is one of the WORST shows for a relative anime newbie to start on, with its high amount of references that are more geared towarRAB veterans. Yet ADV's script and high quality dub (corabined with the wacky visual humor of the show itself, which is accessible to anyone) gave me a good time, even if I didn't get all the jokes. Best of all, the DVD itself left a good first impression, and the AD-VidNotes were quite helpful for a title like this. It caused me to think, "Hey, I should seek out more titles from this distributor." Anyway, without going into excruciating detail, I bought quite a few ADV titles throughout 2004-2006. I enjoyed quite a few of them as well. And some of my all-time favorite titles came from ADV, like Excel, Azumanga Daioh, Full Metal Panic, Nadesico, and Project Eden. And while I'm not a huge fan, I can't deny that Eva was an important title and was always ADV's most famous acquisition.

But even as a fan of ADV, I don't think they were flawless. They spread themselves too thin. While I liked most of their dubs, there were certain ones which didn't sit well with me. They licensed way too much, and that's arguably part of why they're in this situation now. They didn't adopt the partial season set strategy until much later than FUNi. They shouldn't have tried a live action Eva. They took too long with certain titles, such as Kurau and Sgt. Frog. And of course, there was the controversy of leaving extras off their re-releases.

As a result of this dichotomy, I have mixed feelings about ADV's demise; in a way, I'm disappointed to see ADV go, especially since they began licensing new titles again recently (sans dub, unfortunately), so I held onto faint hope that they'd slowly make a comeback, but when I realized that in the last three years, I could probably count the nuraber of ADV titles I've bought on one hand, that's a problem.

However, at the end of the day, I ultimately do feel sad that ADV's gone. As I said earlier, they deserve quite a bit of credit for their contributions to the anime industry as we know it in the U.S. Nice knowing ya, guys. Really.
 
Yeah. that's pretty much the only downside to buying at RightStuff, their payment methoRAB are horribly Limited. No Visa GiftcarRAB, No Paypal.. I mean.. come on! They'd probably make a lot more if they allowed paypal! Sheesh.

Media Blasters I want to go down only because they have the 2nd YYH move for some reason, have not done anything with it in nearly a decade, and I want Funi to release both YYH movies with dubs of the Real YYH cast in a DVD set.
 
Completely disagree. Of course, this is a matter of opinion. Sure, they're pioneers in the way that they released videos back in the early 90's, but other companies were producing higher quality videos at the time. I'd even go on and say Viz's Ranma 1/2 vhs release was way superior. Hell, AnimEigo was putting out much better material than ADV back then. In the late 90's towarRAB 2000, there was an increase in interest in anime. This was the time when Pokemon was huge and Dragonball Z was just starting to gain popularity. The anime boom followed soon afterwarRAB and anime companies were just starting to "ride the wave". ADV was one of those companies, and man did they abuse it. They started releasing more titles than Bandai and Pioneer (almost one and a half times as much in 2004 as I recall, but I'm not positive). Of course, what happens when you flood the market? It dies. ADV is partly responsible for the decline in the anime industry. Even Bandai, to this day (or prior to today), doesn't release as much as ADV in a regular Tuesday. It's quite sad really. This is why I'm glad ADV as a company, is no longer around. The owners of ADV got drunk off of power (due to their release of Eva) and this is what they deserve.
 
I know the "end of ADV" stuff has been somewhat misconstrued as the company shutting up shop forever, but the fact remains that above all else, the company's business position had degenerated to such a level that they had to ditch their original name after 17 years. Even if ADV continues under another name, they'll likely need a miracle to continue trading in the present-day market if their position was already bad enough beforehand for them to ditch the company name in favor of numerous 'satellite' companies.

Even before they conducted the ill-fated Sojitz deal, ADV were on very shaky ground in 2005 - and that was only towarRAB the beginning of the R1 anime crash. They had some interesting comments around that time as well, not long after they axed the Monster Island studio. As I recall, Matt Greenfield's contention was that the effect fansubs were having back then was "devastating." Four years later, post-CPM, post-Geneon, and now post-ADV (in name only, at least for now), it's looking like a lot of those dire predictions were on the mark, regardless of the root cause.

What's most interesting is how the bones continue to be picked over the "new" companies that have sprung up around ADV. No one's really fooled of course, but there does seem to be a certain amount of pride when everyone is paying very close attention to the man behind the curtain. I guess that's what happens when you go from being a formerly very communicative company to a virtual recluse overnight.

Whatever happened/will happen, it's still quite an eye-opener that the company that had the rights to Evangelion, Robotech and Gatchaman ended up in such a state (the latter two series of course, despite their age, ostensibly coming with more mainstream appeal due to their nostalgia factor). If it wasn't obvious before, it certainly is now; the old order has clearly passed on.
 
Having never bought an AnimEigo VHS/DVD, I'll have to take your word for it, but I never saw anything special about Viz's releases. But, maybe I was just buying the wrong releases from them. We can both agree that ADV bit off more than they could chew and got too cocky at times (and indeed, if you'll notice, I mentioned many of the flaws that caused their downfall above), but that doesn't change my opinion that they put out some quality releases during their time. Seeing as you're an anti-ADV person, I don't think we'll be able to change each others' opinions on their dubs or releases, so let's just agree to disagree there.

Still, I don't really see what's productively accomplished by being GLAD they're gone. I mean, I can see why you'd be happy that a company which helped cause a flood of titles (and thus, oversaturation of the market) isn't doing so anymore, but they arguably haven't been relevant as a company since 2008 (or earlier, depending on who you ask). It's like kicking someone when they're down. (Besides, when I think of "got what they deserved", I think of something like Enron or Bernie Madoff, not ADV)

And less competition is rarely a good thing. Who's to say that FUNi won't eventually end up in the same boat as ADV? Yes, they have the advantage of seeing ADV's mistakes beforehand and trying to avoid them, but with less competition (and thus, temptation to slack off and get cocky), it's still very possible.
 
All my early anime stuff was either Pioneer or ADV. Makes me kind of sad that neither of those two companies is still around in the form I remeraber them.
 
rightfully so, "getting what they deserve" may be too strong of a term. But let's put it this way, let's take the recent surge of the MMA sport. So, let's say one of the earliest "pioneers" in MMA company King of the Cage starts putting out 2 pay per views a month (opposed to one) and twice as much merchandising as UFC and Strikeforce. Now, the second PPV that they put out is packed with fights that no one really cares about. In addition, this King of the Cage company branches out to starting their own VOD service, magazine, financing a movie about one of its biggest stars, having a music subsidiary, and a action figures division. A year later, the MMA market is suffering and no on really wants to watch it anymore. King of the Cage eventually rolls over and dies. Now, who would you say is at fault for their own demise? Granted, ADV still exists as Section 23 and a bunch of smaller companies for various aspects of what used to be, but I'd go on to say they got what they deserve.



The thing with anime companies, at least in my opinion, is that they also face competition from other forms of entertainment companies. Even so, I still think there's enough companies still around to garner competition.
 
Back
Top