ADV is no more because of releasing countless titles nobody cares about. The day after this news, the newly formed successor to the company announces more titles nobody cares about, without the name of a successful company. I'm sure they'll go far.
Aren't there some You're Under Arrest fans out there? Or not so much?
Anyhow, yeah, I have to admit that nothing in this batch really excites me. Even the SF title evidently has yuri overtones, so that pretty much rules it out for me.
The cost does not justify a small "hardcore" fanbase. This isn't Japan, where Otaku buy 11 copies of one DVD. The license fee is about 3.2 million for a 26 episode series, and a high take of 30% royalty to the original company. If you add that up, picking up things that even the average mid-line anime fan hasn't heard of is business suicide.
THIS. FUNimation rules the market and they're still a relatively small company for America. Anime is very niche, so it just doesn't make sense to seek out the most niche titles in a time of recession that's hitting the anime market as much as any other market. Plus, the anime market has the problem of illegal downloaRAB to worry about. Anime companies are dying and nearing death. This isn't the time to hope the hardcore otaku of random niche titles bail you out, especially when nobody knows the name "Section23".
I'm shocked at the presence of Tears to Tiara myself. I've had a mild interest in it but the first five episodes didn't excite me.
I hope the series is dubbed. Please let it have a dub, then I might consider at least Netflixing it if possible. The Japanese VAs were driving me crazy on that show for some reason.