Toon Zone Talkback - Central Park Media Shuts Down

When large parent companies collapse its not unheard of for successful "child" companies to split off and gain independence.

So I think Funi is safe even if their parent goes down.
 
The company did fine before without the involvement of Navarre, though I'm not sure if they would be able to survive without their involvement in the market's current state.
 
I for one will dearly miss CPM. The first titles I ever owned were Project A-KO, Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Dominion Tank Police, Patlabor, Now and Then, Here and There; hell, I may as well name their entire catalog because I have it.

They may not have been as popular with some people as they were with me, and they did have their share of misses, but to anyone who knows anything about the history and influence of R1 company's knows CPM is a MAJOR reason anime has any kind of foothold in the US. And I will always remeraber CPM as the driving force behind why I love anime so much.

Rest in peace Central Park Media, I will always remeraber you fondly.
 
CPM dies two years ago anyway. This is just the final nail as I guess their last big license finally expired. It's been a long time in coming, and quite frankly good riddance at this point as a lot of their recent release, such as we define recent, we're pretty cruddy. The rest of the industry ha been better off for having their stuff framed out to companies that could do better by it.

Speaking of which, the rest of the industry isn't really in danger of dying any time soon. Media Blasters is in fine shape thanks to their porn division, Funi is stil lbeing themselves and wil lsurvive even if Navarre has to sell them, ADV might be comatose right now but they're not insolvent....yet. Viz has no worries at all and Nozomi and Animego are niche title companies anyway.

So no, the sky is no falling. It may be a little lower though.
 
Well, the other thing is that depending on how the contracts were written for their licenses (and the impression I got from John O'Donnal is they were geared to be lock, stock and barrel in perpetuity for the rest time forever,) they maybe able to directly liquidate the licenses to other US anime companies. They could end up giving the remaining companies a shot in the arm in a weird way.

And let me reiterate, Funimation is fine. They've seen their business uptick ahead of the general economy, which is a fantastic sign. I also got the impression from the industry people at SakuraCon that ADV isn't as screwed up as it would seem (which may be why they are able to hold a release schedule for their boxset reissues and do work for Sentai Filmworks, unlike Media Blasters which has had to put off a bunch of releases.)
 
ADV's dead as far as I'm concerned. Media Blasters and Nozomi will probably stick around, since they were never very big to begin with, but they could also fold at any moment. The other three should be alright.
 
The majority of CPM's catalog consisted of 80s and 90s productions, with really only a few notable newer ones from the 21st century. This was no doubt a contributing factor as to why they couldn't simply sell many of them off to other companies to prop them up for quick cash; such older productions are effectively worthless in the modern-day marketplace.

This of course was why I always liked CPM - warts and all, because a few of the many, many OVAs they released were indeed quite cheesy. Still, this does now leave quite a few notable older productions without an R1 home, very possibly indefinitely, such as Patlabor OVA and TV, Beautiful Dreamer, Project A-Ko, Votoms, and yes even Urotsukidoji.

We've all known CPM was pretty much dead since May 2006 anyway, but having it finally confirmed in print doesn't make the blow feel any better.
 
I'm sad to hear that another company that releases anime DVRAB has gone bankrupt.

It would be nice if some other company got the licenses to Grave of the Fireflies and Now and Then, Here and There, as those would be some properties that I would possibly buy on DVD. Also, if some other company did get the licenses for these two properties, I hope that they keep the dubs that Central Park Media did.
 
If CPM is kaput, then does that mean their titles will be licensed rescued by any of the surviving anime distributors or are they back to being unlicensed? The only CPM title I was ever able to get was Grave of the Fireflies. Guess this makes it harder for me to try getting Utena and Now and There, Here and There on DVD then.
 
News Flash: Jun Planning, the maker of their anime figurines, have closed down their US operations, while reorganizing their Japanese operations.

Source: ANN and Robert's Anime Corner Store.
 
CPM's license to that expired years ago, so I don't know what's been taking Funimation so long. It would be ultra-sweet if a new dub of it was made with the TV series cast.
 
That would be absolutely amazing. what's taking so long?



ANN says there are two, and I know for a fact there are. One is short, and was released on DVD with something called Ninku.

Poltergeist report is the one that everybody knows, and it's 93 minutes long.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=713

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=607
 
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