Forum - View topicNEWS: A.D. Vision to Auction Surplus Office Supplies
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Moomintroll
 Posts: 1600 Location: Nottingham (UK) |
|
|||||||||||||
Sure. But if the trend changes, your back catalogue plummets in value, all the stuff you've just licensed but not yet released will have a hard time making back what you paid for it and if fans associate your brand with one genre, breaking into another may be an uphill struggle. Also, if one or more of your competitors also wants to get in on the rising genre, things are unlikely to go entirely your way. Any of these things could sink a (relatively) small company.
I think on my side of the Atlantic that those were all Manga releases.
Right. But you can't have a business model that only works if other companies act the way you want them to.
But fansubs mean there is no longer that scarcity (except for dub fans). The market of the '00s is not the same as that of the '80s and '90s and neither, unfortunately, is the fanbase.
I'm inclined to think that's partially due to how much offal the Japanese industry has been churning out in recent years. You can't license the good stuff if it hasn't been made. I agree that there's a lot being licensed that probably shouldn't have been touched with a barge pole but with profit margins so slim on most titles (and little correlation between critical acclaim and sales), would a quantity-over-quality approach be viable for most R1 companies?
Yugo didn't do too well and I don't know about Area 88 but I thought Cromartie and Kanon were generally considered a success? In any case, those anime are from at least three distinct genres so if you're right that none of them were a good idea, what small genre pool would ADV be advised to act the big fish in?
The crux of the problem is that buyers like you and I are now a tiny minority. Most of the younger fans just take anything and everything for free off the internet - they've grown up expecting free entertainment as a right and tend to be both incredulous and outraged if you suggest they should pay for it. I'm just not sure there's enough paying customers left to support a viable market in the long term. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
|
|||||||||||||
Like many anime companies, ADV said "screw the base, we want the 'mainstream'" when they had big dollar signs in their eyes back like 10 years ago. (at times they LITERALLY said "you're not who we're selling to") To be fair, many "anime" cons are selling out the anime fans too, so it's "human nature" I guess. The companies had their chance to cultivate the base and instead blew em off and now when they need them they're not there. (I'm not saying the fans SHOULDN'T be there, I'm simply saying they AREN'T there) (btw, Is that Junkers in your avatar? if so, bravo and you certainly are not the "average" anime watcher today) |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Kabuto Tokugawa
 Posts: 63 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
I sincerely hope that this liquidation is primarily a result of the end of PiQ and perhaps some surplus furniture as stated in the article.
ADV is one of the oldest North American anime houses. I would be sad to see them go. I have a lot of their titles and want a few more (wish they offered a greater selection). |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Goodpenguin
Posts: 457 Location: Hunt Valley, MD |
|
|||||||||||||
I don't follow that at all. What 'base' did ADV turn their back on in 1998? Releases like 'Dirty Pair' and 'Burn Up' were turning their back on the 'base'? ADV released popular action/sexy titles consistently back then, and I and other fans were happy to scoop them up. The anime market wasn't big enough to have a 'base' and a 'mainstream', torrent-style fansubs hadn't exploded yet, let alone Youtube style stream-on-demand. How would you define 'base' and 'mainstream', and do you really think the 'base' is more inclined to consistently purchase DVD's rather than downloading? If anything, you could make an easier case that NA licensor's stopped importing 'mainstream' action/comedies and starting prioritizing ever more niche 'base-otaku' shows (and even then I would think that's oversimplified). No NA licensor failed at 'cultivating a base', the rise of easy-to-use fansubs meant a new generation of fans could 'cultivate' themselves at their computer; anime went from a DVD/VHS collector hobby with a social component to an internet/social hobby with a purchasing component. Anime fans today are an extraordinarily fickle and demanding bunch and what's 'mainstream/base' to one is off the curve to another (compounded by the fact the anime scene of today seems to be driven by dozens of scattered, niche sub-genres ), there's no way there could be a plurality agreement on what 'niche' companies should be catering to. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Nessus
Posts: 1 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
I've felt for quite a while that what ADV has been doing is essentially releasing everything they could get their hands on, for whatever reason; some of these shows are quite good (I'm fond of Moonlight Mile) but others are very niche-based (like Kanon, say). And yet, all of them get the same sort of investment, apparently. I imagine a dub job for Kanon doesn't cost much less than a dub job for, say, Excel Saga.
Then, of course, they seem inclined to blame their issues on outside forces. (It's the downloading. It's the fans being greedy. Now, apparently, it's the Japanese. If your Japanese business partners are not cooperating with you in full, perhaps there is a reason?) What I've gathered is that they often take a damnably long time to release anything. Gurren Lagann is a big one here (even if this was apparently the Japanese's fault, or something), but even so - didn't it take them literally years to release Slayers? SLAYERS? Someone quoted a forum sig to the effect that "anime is not a right," and I would have to agree. But then, I would also say that since anime is 100% a luxury good, but also one which cannot really be effectively "branded" by American companies (we may like a particular ADR department, but I think most of us are more concerned with the Japanese content rather than precisely who brought it across). As such, attempts to market ADV as representing anime culture, rather than being a facilitator for the intake of Japanese anime material, seem like they would have problems getting long term traction. So, then, if ADV's model of distribution is failing, the idea that we should be supporting them by paying premium prices seems ridiculous. If they were facing some sort of external difficulty, such as having their studios burn down or a sudden 400% hike in anime taxes, I know I would have more sympathy. |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
bradc
 Posts: 152 |
|
|||||||||||||
|
From what HeeroTX pointed out the niche/subculture is already there, when ADV and among all these distributor companies continue to toot their horn about breaking into "mainstream market", it's going to backfire because IT ALREADY EXIST within society. Large number of fans go to convention each year and the number continues to grow...
Already existing Hollywood has made Speed Racer and upcoming Dragon Ball Movie. Fast Furious is basically Initial D with a different name... Tokyo Pop is heading the same direction as current ADV, they won't last very long until they are out of business. ADV kept blaming the fans and fansubbers which barely makes a dent; where the company basically had poor marketing skills and too focus on side projects was basically their own downfall, but without us fans/consumers continue to support, buy and collect what we can get our hands on. Most companies or shop owners might as well close up. ADV and among other companies keep forgetting who their target audience and demographic are, us fans and consumers. Fans want variety as well, and I guess they keep looking for the next Bleach and Naruto to compete with powerhouse VIZ/Shounen Jump is bound to yet backfire on them again, than looking for other anime they can release; there are loads of anime and other choices out there... I don't get why they don't bother with those and make it like it is some popularity contest to be the No. 1 in the industry... |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group