Forum - View topicNEWS: Sentai Filmworks Adds Clannad After Story, Ghost Hound, He is My Master
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strawberry-kun
Posts: 301 |
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Well, I never said that Funimation doesn't go after niche shows at all. They do acquire niche shows such as Oh! Edo Rocket, Spice and Wolf, etc., but I still think that they typically go after more mainstream anime. They seem to especially avoid the kind of titles I like which are slice of life and what most people would deem to be "moe" shows. I don't really know that much about Baccano!, but isn't it highly regarded within a significant portion of the anime community?
I don't think it would be correct to compare the R1 market and the R2 market. They are too different in tastes. I'm sure Claymore lost sales because of the singles format in R1 as well. Overall, I would classify Claymore as being more in line with the mainstream than a lot of shows. That's just my opinion though. I guess what I was really trying to say was that Funi doesn't typically get anime I want, and that's why I see less R1 companies as a bad thing. I'm much more interested in titles from Bandai, Nozomi, Media Blasters, and even ADV/Sentai than Funimation's titles in general. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Wow, I think you missed just about every point I missed. That takes either a very stubborn mind, or very selective reading. An argument can be made that ADV and Bandai have adapted to the market. Otherwise, ADV would already be out of business. But instead, they are actually acquiring more licenses and doing so more regularly. And some of them, despite being sub only, have sold very well, most notably Clannad. Also, ADV is a private company. We have no way of knowing if they are profitable or not, so anything you say regarding that, is just pure speculation. Also, the automotive comparison really has no basis here. My point was, not matter how you conduct business, you're going to make some group of people unhappy. Look at Apple and Microsoft. There are people out there who hate one or the other, no matter what they do. And they are some very loud people out there who rant about wanting one of them out of business. Does that mean they should go out of business? No. The companies are still profitable, and they still have a loyal group of fans. Best Buy has significantly cut back it's anime, and all other DVD and CD offerings for that matter, much to the chagrin of many customers. But there are also a lot of customers that are still very happy with what they do offer. Just because they don't appeal to anime fans as much, does it mean they should go out of business. No, they're still profitable and still have many loyal customers. Look at Funimation. There are many, many people out there that don't like the company for one reason or another. Video quality is probably the thing that comes up most often; for others it's their packaging or what they consider poor dubs. But just because they aren't appealing to every anime fan, it doesn't mean they should go out of business. They still have some loyal customers, and they are still profitable. There is not one company that can be everything to everyone. Every company will have it's strengths and a certain group of consumers it appeals to. Each will also have a certain group that it can't quite please, not to mention the customers that aren't pleased no matter what. Companies who try to be everything fail. To get back to your automotive comparison, look at GM. They tried to be everything to everyone, stretched themselves too thin with too many divisions, became obsessed with market share and profits at any cost, and quality and product variety suffered as a result. So because Funimation, Best Buy, Apple and Microsoft don't appeal to every consumer out there, do you think they should be out of business? I'd like to know what companies out there you think do appeal to ALL consumers and should remain in business. |
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Xanas
Posts: 2058 |
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Ehh, taken too far that argument would mean that no business should ever fail. I believe those who aren't for keeping ADV around are simply saying we don't really like what they do to the extent we have no intentions of going out of our way to keep them going, and that we believe their being out of the picture would likely mean more anime with dubs due to the perceived failure of the sub-only route.
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chrisc1978
 Posts: 363 |
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As soon as I buy Clannad After Story I don't care. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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That doesn't really make sense. Funimation would expand some more, obviously, for having a virtual monopoly on the industry here in North America, but they wouldn't be able to greatly extend that to a vast amount of series -- certainly not to even more niche titles that would be ignored by them otherwise. Considering the chances of Mononoke getting licensed by Funimation seem dimmer as times goes on, I'm just hoping SOMEONE licenses it, sub-only or not. I'd hope you and other dub fans aren't selfish enough to want to deny myself and other fans of that series (and others that are extremely unlikely to be licensed by Funimation) the chance to actually buy it here. |
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Generic #757858
 Posts: 1354 |
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Ditto. I also don't really see the point of producing dubs for the really artsy/niche series, since they aren't likely to make much profit even as 'sub only' releases and I'd wager that the target audience would rather just listen to Japanese anyway. For an example, Shigurui should have been a 'sub only'. I really doubt that Funi made a dime off that one. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Of course, it's can be very hard to tell what will sell, and what won't. There have been plenty of examples of shows or movies that were expected to do well, and flopped. And vice versa, there have been plenty of shows that didn't have high expectations, that did quite well. One one side, you have something like Lucky Star, that despite quite a bit of publicity, and a lot of hardcore fan love, just didn't do that well. Then you have something like Shuffle, that was a tack on license, that actually did pretty well. Even if Funimation did loose money on Shigurui, it probably doesn't matter. They still have plenty of other shows they do make money on, so everything balances out in the end. I do agree with the sentiment that I would hope people wouldn't rob someone of the possibility of seeing a show, just because it isn't dubbed. There are some shows that just may never get picked up. Aria, for instance, was available for years and no one touched it. A subbed only release from Nozomi was the only way this show would be released. Even Ghost Hound has been around the block more than once, and Viz and Funimation had their reasons for not grabbing it. A sub-only release may be the only shot this title has in R1, at least for now. I really don't understand why some people would have a title not released at all, and be inaccessible to everyone, rather than have a sub only set that at least appeases some of the fan base. |
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Generic #757858
Posts: 1354 |
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Maybe, but that's still not good business. Those of us who bought it would probably have forked the cash over just as eagerly even if it had been just sub-only. Of course, I have no idea how well the show has actually sold, but given that it's appeal is even more limited than something like Lucky Star (yeah, that one surprised me too), I really doubt that they did too well. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Yeah, but it's an accepted part of running a business. You will often have ventures, or in this case releases, that may not be profitable initially, but are part of a larger overall business strategy. Like I said most movie studios make money on less than 70% of the movies they release. In entertainment, the hope is that the 70% that are profitable will more than make up for the 30% that aren't. There is no entertainment company in existence that makes money off every release. |
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Generic #757858
Posts: 1354 |
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True, but I'm just saying that in the case of very niche anime series like Shigurui they could easily increase their profit margin just by leaving the dub out. Not all series are equal, so dubbing absolutely everything just for the sake of company policy doesn't make sense to me. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23769 |
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I think your 70% figure is off. Any studio would be ecstatic if 7 out of 10 of their movies were profitable. Very few movies actually make any money...usually only the big blockbusters or low budget movies that break out. But your other point I believe is correct, that distribs have an overall business strategy that may include taking a flyer on a dubbed series that may not be profitable. |
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dragonrider_cody
Posts: 2541 |
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Well, I did exaggerate there a bit. When I said numbers that were more in line with reality, people argued with me. Like I said, the most successful rate I ever hear was Paramount during the 90's, when Sherry Lansing was CEO. It made money on around 80% of it's films, and she was considered a huge success because of it, even though Paramount never lead at the box office or had huge market share numbers. Though during that time, the studio wasn't exactly known for huge blockbusters. It just kept it's budgets within reason. In general, most of the numbers I've read suggest that if an entertainment company can manage to make money on 55-60% of it's properties, it's doing quite well. But you really run into problems, if the percentage that is profitable isn't successful enough to counter those that aren't. I think that was a big problem that ADV had in recent years. |
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FireChick
Subscriber Posts: 2392 Location: United States |
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I have a question. Is the OVA of the Snow Fairy Sugar series (Summer special) gonna be on a separate disc with it's 2 episodes? Or is it going to be combined with a disc in the final boxset?
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SXAniMedia
 Posts: 139 |
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The OVA is in the final Part 2 collection set, as episodes 25 and 26. RSI provides that info: http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/8HcEp0AL5Jt4DoU=aV/browse/item/85130/4/0/0 |
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