View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
|
xstylus
Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 263
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:45 pm
|
|
|
kawaiibunny3 wrote: | Well I was hoping they would re-release Utena in a complete thin-pack for me to buy. I guess that wont happen anytime soon :/
|
Yeah, I was hoping to nab an Utena DVD set as well. They were really cheap at Best Buy for a while. If we're lucky it'll get a license rescue like Slayers did, but I wouldn't hold breath in the meantime.
|
Back to top |
|
|
Greed1914
Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:46 pm
|
|
|
I was wondering when this was going to happen. It's always a shame to see a company go, but given how long the company was essentially dormant, I'm not at all surprised.
|
Back to top |
|
|
bci110
Joined: 02 Sep 2006
Posts: 391
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:47 pm
|
|
|
Mad_Scientist wrote: |
Richard J. wrote: | Not very surprising news really. With no new titles coming out and their old titles HTF and often only findable on the secondary market, it was kind of inevitable. Hopefully some company will pick up some of their old licenses and do some cheap box set releases. |
Yah, I agree. I managed to get Now and Then, Here and There, but there are quite a few CPM titles that I don't have but am interested in, and unfortunately I can't currently afford buy them now. If no one picks up the CPM licenses, it will just keep on getting harder and harder to find em. |
Agreed. NTHT and (to some degree) Utena were the two CPM titles that I wanted to check out the most, and now it looks like that the window of opportunity for me to obtain them is closing shut very quickly.
|
Back to top |
|
|
jascry
Joined: 28 Apr 2009
Posts: 1
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:48 pm
|
|
|
As someone who spent almost 6 years working at CPM I have to say that this is a shame. It definitely wasn't always the happiest place to work but it was a company that jump started my career and, overall, treated me well. Yes, it could be like a sweatshop at times but there were some great people there and, despite the large number of misses, the company introduced the US to some true classics like Record of Lodoss War and Utena.
(And I apologize to Justin for all of the time he was sequestered in the conference room translating the Utena commentary because I talked JOD into it).
RIP CPM.
|
Back to top |
|
|
The_Libertarian_Otaku
Joined: 11 Sep 2008
Posts: 189
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:53 pm
|
|
|
Kit-Tsukasa wrote: | gah I was hoping for Utena and Slayers remastered at some point. |
FUNimation has had Slayers for a while, so you're not missing anything there.
Utena, on the other hand, now NEEDS a license rescue. Pwetty pwease, FUNi? Bandai? Media Blasters? Anyone?
|
Back to top |
|
|
foxia
Joined: 31 Jan 2009
Posts: 22
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 8:56 pm
|
|
|
Kit-Tsukasa wrote: | gah I was hoping for Utena and Slayers remastered at some point. In addition, this makes the Munto OVAs officially out of print
There goes another one of my favorite companies. All that remains is Media Blasters, and to some extent Right Stuf. |
Utena we may as well kiss goodbye forever unless Right Stuf or Media Blasters is willing to pick it up. The Slayers series (all 78 episodes) have been remastered and has already been released by Funimation. And I can bet you Funi will also pick up the Munto OVA.
ADV will probably pick up the Patlabor OVA and series.
|
Back to top |
|
|
Brians9824
Joined: 23 Jan 2006
Posts: 281
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:02 pm
|
|
|
The_Libertarian_Otaku wrote: | First Geneon, now CPM? What the hell?
Looks like I no longer have to ask whether CPM's dead or hibernating. They haven't released a new title in ages.
What's going to happen to the CPM stuff that's aired on Sci-Fi now? Please let there be some license rescues! (Especially Utena and MD Geist)
Now it's going to be even harder to find ANY of their anime ANYWHERE--I got most of their anime off of eBay. (I may not have supported them directly, but the people selling the DVDs still had to buy them.) |
This really annoys me. Geneon never even came close to filing for bankruptcy and they are still in business releasing titles. All they did was outsource their physical manufacturing to someone who can produce and distribute their titles for cheaper then they can. A common business practice.
|
Back to top |
|
|
Paploo
Joined: 21 Nov 2006
Posts: 1875
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:04 pm
|
|
|
I imagine anyone's ability to pick up anything CPM had all hinges on what licenses have already expired, which ones would revert back to their japanese license holders in this situation, which still have to wait out the remainder of their contracts, which are already controlled by other companies in the US [Enoki USA has Utena's TV rights for example, which is why it's aired on the Funimation channel. I think they recently announced an Animenetwork-on-demand run too], in addition to which licenses were CPM's property entirely [MD Geist comes to mind, and with a lot of their older titles, there has been no japanese dvd release at all, so it's unclear if anyone or who in Japan still has rights to them] , all of which might be involved in their liquidation and the time it takes to proceed with it.
|
Back to top |
|
|
Big Hed
Joined: 04 May 2006
Posts: 1607
Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:05 pm
|
|
|
asimpson2006 wrote: | It's a shame about CPM. I guess that means I will need to hurry up and get the rest of the Patlabor DVD's I need for my collection. |
Same. Ugh, so much stuff I want to buy...
|
Back to top |
|
|
Fawfulhasfury
Joined: 23 Apr 2009
Posts: 46
Location: USA
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:05 pm
|
|
|
CRAP. I knew I should have bought Grave of the Fireflies from Target back when I had the chance. Now it'll be quite a while before I'll find a good copy anywhere.
I hope someone picks up the distribution of it.
|
Back to top |
|
|
MeggieMay
Joined: 08 Jun 2004
Posts: 607
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:18 pm
|
|
|
I think Grave of the Firefly's will get picked up by someone and probably a big studio, in the future. The movie is critically acclaimed and aired several times on Turner Classic Movies and I just don't see it disappearing from the R1 buying landscape completely.
As to this news, my initial reaction was "wow, that was quite a whimper to go out on... " I'm not sure I own any CMP titles, mostly due to CMP pretty much being on the sharp decline by the time I became really active in Anime back in 2003. Other than Firefly's, I'm not sure I've seen but a handful of their DVD's for sale and most were actually used DVD's for re-sale. Still, I'm sorry to see anyone close up shop and I hope everything turns out OK for everyone (former employees and fans alike).
|
Back to top |
|
|
Richard J.
Joined: 11 Aug 2006
Posts: 3367
Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis.
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:32 pm
|
|
|
What exactly happened to CPM anyway? I mean, maybe I missed the explanation but it seemed like one day they just stopped licensing and releasing new stuff. Did they lose a major backer or were the titles they licensed just flops?
Considering this news, if anyone from the inside can give a full explanation of why CPM is now totally dead, might as well talk. It's not like the company can be hurt any more and it might give fans a little insight into what some of the threats are to an anime company.
Also, which series did CPM still have rights to when they filed the Chapter 7?
|
Back to top |
|
|
Wyvern
Joined: 01 Sep 2004
Posts: 1544
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:42 pm
|
|
|
xstylus wrote: |
kawaiibunny3 wrote: | Well I was hoping they would re-release Utena in a complete thin-pack for me to buy. I guess that wont happen anytime soon :/
|
Yeah, I was hoping to nab an Utena DVD set as well. They were really cheap at Best Buy for a while. If we're lucky it'll get a license rescue like Slayers did, but I wouldn't hold breath in the meantime. |
Of all of CPM's orphaned series, Utena probably is the one that still has the biggest fanbase. I would expect to see FUNi or one of the others pick it up within the next six months. I think there's a lot of fans who never collected the whole thing and would like to get their hands on a complete thinpack (CPM's original release of the series was sporadic to say the least. I think it was about a three year wait inbetween volumes 4 and 5....)
Other than Utena, the only one of their old titles I would expect to see picked up is Grave of the Fireflies (or does that default to Disney automatically since it's a Ghibli film?)
|
Back to top |
|
|
kushiel
Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Posts: 94
Location: Saskatchewan
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:44 pm
|
|
|
This makes me quite sad - CPM released so many of my favorite titles. I was also lucky to get in on the sweet Utena deal a few years back (all the boxsets, the movie, AND a tshirt? Suh-weet!).
But a lot of people also underestimated what they did for the shounen-ai and yaoi industry. Be Beautiful was the first mainstream label, while Tokyopop was just experimenting with Fake and Gravitation. I remember Angel Sanctuary and Nightwalker were the first shounen-ai titles you could find at your local Blockbuster (Media Blaster/Kitty Media had released titles like Level C, Sensitive Pornograph and Fake, but those had never gotten wide releases). In the early 90s they gave English fandom the Tokyo Babylon and RG Veda OVAs, while an official manga release of both never came until 10 years later. <small>While I'm trying to focus on the good parts of CPM, I'll just pretend the TB script changes never happened.</small>
|
Back to top |
|
|
AkiraKaneda
Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 61
|
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:51 pm
|
|
|
As an anime reviewer, I can say that CPM was the only company besides ADV Films that consistently sent me screeners. I was very thankful to them because it showed me that they respected even the smaller review sites and found them worthwhile. While companies like Bandai and Funimation have usually ignored the smaller sites, CPM realized that it was sites like mine with a couple thousand readers a day that stir up grassroots interest. I'm grateful to them and sorry to hear that the inevitable did actually happen.
|
Back to top |
|
|
|