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orakga wrote:

However, my point remains valid; the U.S. companies need to be TAUGHT what is right, while the Japanese companies already know what's right.

Hahahahahahahahaha

You're so very, very mistaken.

While it might make some sort of sense that Japanese companies would know how to market anime better seeing how they are the ones who created the shows in the first place.

However, one aspect that I'm sure that none of us American(or other countries as well)consumers would ever want to accept is the practice of paying 30-40 dollars for a TWO episode DVD.

Can you imagine buying 26 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist at approx. $800+ ? No thanks. I'll take CPM's, Funi's, ADV's and all the other US company's business practices anyday.

Now, more on topic, I hope CPM does make it. They were a good source for some of the really niche titles. CPM gave me one of my all-time top-ten favorite Now and Then Here and There. I don't want to own all blockbusters and nothing else.

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p.s. Let it be known for the record that *some* companies (like MediaBlasters) have managed to prove me wrong on certain occasions and have shown hope for the American-owned Anime publishers. ADV has also started to clean up their act with the recent slim-paks as well. However, my point remains valid; the U.S. companies need to be TAUGHT what is right, while the Japanese companies already know what's right.

You really have no idea what you're talking about do you? For one thing, the costs are higher in Japan per episode than in the US, aren't available with subs generally and don't have multi-language dubs either. Of the companies that you mentioned as the ones that should take over, reality is none of those companies have a dominant market share which is controlled by Funimation and ADV for the most part at this time. Of the cost involved in anime production domestically the bulk of that goes to pay for the licensing cost the studio asks for itself, so you can't really gripe about the price and then talk about how the Japanese companies are the only ones that know how to do it since it's their high licensing costs that are the root cause of the cost per episode.

Your examples are minor extremes that in no way represent the domestic market as a whole, no matter how much you may like the night there is day as well and ignore the sun as you might it's still going to be there. Point is, if you want to focus only on the singular negatives then be my guest, but luckily others make it a point to look at the full spectrum. Your mindless swearing doesn't exactly make you look good either and the fact you obviously only look at the few negative examples despite them being a major minority these days doesn't add to the credibility. Not to mention your whole tirade at the end had nothing to do with your reasoning as to why CPM went bankrupt. You got one thing right, CPM likely failed due to irresponsible use of their resources, the rest of your uninformed rant has little to no real bearing on the topic at hand.

orakga wrote:

I highly doubt that a recovery is even possible. The company stopped acquiring anime years ago. When was the last time you heard of a real acquisition from them? Narutaru? 30minute shows don't count, and please, don't even mention their Hentai titles to me. An anime company either needs a good TV SERIES, or a POOL of good shorts features. A couple of 30 minutes shows each year just doesn't cut it.

So only acquisitions that support your argument count as acquisitions? How convenient.

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Someone mentioned acquiring CPM. I have a question for you. Out of CPM's entire catalog, how many titles do you see yourself purchasing? And don't count them by the number of titles on your wishlist. Count them by the titles you'd buy THIS MONTH. Your answer should tell you what their sales potential really is.

When I get back to the States, I'm going to pick up Kakurenbo, Kuromi 2, Otaku Unite, and possibly Alien 9 or some of Narutaru depending on how much I like the rental. Which is more DVDs than I plan on buying from Bandai.

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They refused to accept the fact that nobody wants to buy old anime, and that new investments MUST be made in order to stay in this business. Yes, THIS BUSINESS is the anime industry, and if the fact that 90% of the viewers on ANN watch torrents isn't enough of an indication of that, I don't know what is. I mean who (of the anime fans) in his right mind would buy "Slayers" over "Genshiken" today?

Again, you totally trippin'. CPM has just been content to stick with shows they like rather than putting out Pokecrap or bouncing boobies. Doggy Poo was a fantastic film, and there wasn't anyone else in the US besides CPM who would have licensed it.

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Back in 2002, I even wrote a thesis on why companies like CPM cannot survive in today's world. And although back then I didn't have CPM specifically in mind, CPM did make a lot of the common mistakes which ultimately lead to my thesis. For those curious, my thesis was that "only the Japanese know how to properly package and sell Anime; therefore Shueisha/Shogakkan (now VIZ), Bandai and Pioneer (now Geneon) should take control of the market". It didn't take long before that became a reality, and now the world is a better place, at least for the fans.

Bandai is a shadow of its former self, and Viz and Geneon are far from dominant when you consider Funimation and ADV. And someone else has already mentioned the complete failure of Toei. And Sony has been a dismal anime licensor (Cyborg 009, Astro Boy). So no, you're completely wrong.

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And although CPM has tried to expand their business sideways since they'd been dethroned, with Yaoi, Manga and even Korean content, in the end they weren't profitable enough to keep them afloat. And once those alternatives had failed, and they'd been "out" of the anime game for 3-4 years while exploring these alternatives, other, bigger and better players had appeared and made it home right where they used to be (i.e. Media Blasters, Geneon).

Media Blasters? Pardon? When was the last time Media Blasters had an acquisition on basic cable (Kakurenbo)?

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Don't get me wrong, I am sadden to see all these veteran companies leave the field. But to end this with a harsh-but-honest statement, their time is up. They've had a good run messing up packages and editing scenes to no end, and making a countless number of mistakes along the way. Companies like that simply cannot survive too long; especially after the Manga-ka in Japan gets a hold of the ugly DVD, and realizes what's happened to his precious creation.

What?? CPM's Grave of the Fireflies release has arguably the best picture quality and extras of any release of that film IN THE WORLD. On all their releases their special features are consistently way above and beyond the call of duty. There are plenty of huge, successful companies that treat anime like product to be screwed with and make scads of money (4Kids, Shopro, etc). CPM is not one of them.

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Added: For those of you who want to disagree that the Japanese companies should take control, let me give you a couple of cases that validate my point (and relatively recent ones too!)

1) Tenjou Tenge the Manga: CMX picked it up, and started cutting it up like Pizza. CMX = DC Comics

2) One Piece: 4Kids picked it up, started smushing it up like Hiya-Yakko after a shot of hot sake. Sales tanked and license got pulled. 4Kids = rich American company that thinks it can do whateverthefuckwithwhattheybuy.

Well sir(s), that's where you're mistaken; YOU CAN'T TREAT SHOWS HOWEVERTHEFUCKYOUWANT. There *IS* a right way, and if you get it wrong, you pay with a bankruptcy.

So... you're saying that DC and 4Kids are going to go bankrupt because they edited a comic book and a TV show? DC is part of one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world, and 4Kids has plenty of money. How could you possibly believe that with all the countervailing evidence?

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p.s. Let it be known for the record that *some* companies (like MediaBlasters) have managed to prove me wrong on certain occasions and have shown hope for the American-owned Anime publishers. ADV has also started to clean up their act with the recent slim-paks as well. However, my point remains valid; the U.S. companies need to be TAUGHT what is right, while the Japanese companies already know what's right.

ADV has for years had loads of money. Ditto FUNi. Again, you trippin'.

orakga wrote:

Japanese companies should take control

.

One word: Toei

Second & Third Words: Bandai Visual

As for Bandai, as Twage said, it has lost significant market share. As for Geneon, last I heard Dentsu wasn't exactly getting rich off its acquisition, far from it in fact.

-t

Twage: I pretty much agree with you, with a few exceptions.

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And Sony has been a dismal anime licensor (Cyborg 009, Astro Boy).

I consider Sony to be more of an international company with a Japanese homebase. And they did some quality jobs on Metropolis and the Bebop movie. Dreamworks did a crappier job, because they not only blew their Oscar hopes on House of Sand and Fog instead of pushing for Millennium Actress, but they chose not to dub Innocence. Now I can understand why fans would be upset about Sony not dubbing Tokyo Godfathers, but I'm not sure there'd be enough Kon fans to justify the extra money. But there's no excuse on Innocence. As for Cyborg 009 and Astro Boy, I could understand Sony licensing the latter, since people remember that series, but I'm not sure what they
hoped to accomplish with the former. It probably was one of those titles they could buy on the cheap to test the waters.

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When was the last time Media Blasters had an acquisition on basic cable (Kakurenbo)?

Kenshin?

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So... you're saying that DC and 4Kids are going to go bankrupt because they edited a comic book and a TV show?

DC may not have been affected by the edits, but CMX definitely
lost sales to companies which could handle manga properties correctly. (I think DC's success is going to ride on Superman Returns, but that's a different topic.) They might make a come-back with Emma, but that depends on how well Victorian anime/manga catches on here as well as did it in Japan. The setting and look certainly hasn't done Godchild any favors.

And One Piece definitely wasn't cheap for 4Kids, either. It might be easier for them to pay the licensing costs for it than other companies, but there's more risk for 4Kids, because they make their money back from ratings and they obviously weren't able to deliver the last few quarters. And I do think a Japanese company with some experience in the American market could do better than them(*cough* Bandai *cough*), but an American company willing to balance the interests of the fans and the interests of the FCC is just as useful.

tempest:

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Second & Third Words: Bandai Visual

Bandai Visual's not stupid. If you check Amazon, the first Patlabor movie, even the LE, has a good sales rank. Oshii does sell here. The problem with Toei is they put out shows which had limited recognition and ugly covers, and they just expected them to sell, simply because they were anime. For example, if they did the research first, they'd know Slam Dunk didn't do so well as manga. Bandai Visual obviously did do the research, because they put out titles on dvd which did well enough when they belonged to Manga.

Wow you guys are really well informed. Anime smile

As the sensible people have stated you have to look at the whole picture. If not for this mess with Musicland perhaps CPM wouldn't be having such a tough time.

I'm rooting for them to get back on their feet. I've bought several of their anime titles and their yaoi titles as well.

Although i respect Bandai Visual their release of Patlabor Movie had one big omission and that was the original 2.0 stereo track.

The reason it matters so much is because the 5.1 is re-recorded (i.e. recorded in 1999 opposed to the original dubbing in 1989).

For this reason only, i won't be picking up their dvd release.

GATSU wrote:

I consider Sony to be more of an international company with a Japanese homebase.

That's true, especially considering their current leadership.

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And they did some quality jobs on Metropolis and the Bebop movie. Dreamworks did a crappier job, because they not only blew their Oscar hopes on House of Sand and Fog instead of pushing for Millennium Actress, but they chose not to dub Innocence. Now I can understand why fans would be upset about Sony not dubbing Tokyo Godfathers, but I'm not sure there'd be enough Kon fans to justify the extra money. But there's no excuse on Innocence.

I think DreamWorks meant to elevate anime to the level of art house foreign film, and that they had good intentions. Whether people think they were misguided or not. Thinking about it, you may be right about Innocence. Even with my not-at-all-bad Japanese I had no hope of understanding much of that film, which means glancing at the subtitles, which were also frankly incomprehensible (because that's they way the movie just is) which means losing track of the beautiful images on the screen and the music. So yes, a dub might've helped there. But still, I don't think it was a major fault in the long run.

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As for Cyborg 009 and Astro Boy, I could understand Sony licensing the latter, since people remember that series, but I'm not sure what they hoped to accomplish with the former. It probably was one of those titles they could buy on the cheap to test the waters.

With Astro Boy, I was referring more to the production process in general. If you watch the extras on the DVD set, you'll see that they actually brought in an American consultant who told the artists what American kids will buy or not, and hence made them excise a lot of Tezuka's interpersonal drama in favor of more generic superhero scenes. So they let their bad marketing screw up even the show itself. Made my blood boil. Not to mention the edited-only DVDs in full screen without the original music or Japanese dub. Yaaarg.

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Kenshin?

Touche, forgot about Kenshin.

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DC may not have been affected by the edits, but CMX definitely
lost sales to companies which could handle manga properties correctly. (I think DC's success is going to ride on Superman Returns, but that's a different topic.) They might make a come-back with Emma, but that depends on how well Victorian anime/manga catches on here as well as did it in Japan. The setting and look certainly hasn't done Godchild any favors.

But no matter how poorly their manga does, DC is not going anywhere considering their owners -- though they may temporarily get out of the manga game. Ditto 4Kids and One Piece. Yes 4Kids has had some setbacks lately, but I imagine they can still take a few more major punches before getting KO'ed. Unless there's something going on in their financials I don't know about.

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And I do think a Japanese company with some experience in the American market could do better than them(*cough* Bandai *cough*)

There's no question about that. But no matter how much we dislike them 4Kids has had many financial successes.

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The problem with Toei is they put out shows which had limited recognition and ugly covers, and they just expected them to sell, simply because they were anime. For example, if they did the research first, they'd know Slam Dunk didn't do so well as manga.

Not only that, they made elementary marketing errors out of sheer laziness or extreme ignorance. There wasn't any box art in most online retailers, and it was hard even to find out when those DVDs were coming out. If you didn't know to look you wouldn't even have known they were being released.

Last edited by doc-watson42 on Wed May 31, 2006 12:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

tempest wrote:

orakga wrote:

Japanese companies should take control

One word: Toei

Second & Third Words: Bandai Visual

Other examples (not limiting myself to anime): Gainax's General Products, Toys Press' handling of the Five Star Stories manga (great presentation, but a marketing boondoggle), Bandai's AnimeVillage.com (Bandai Entertainment's first year or so), Broccoli's Synch-Point, A.P.P.P.'s Super Techno Arts, and (I was given to understand at Anime Boston) Kadokawa USA's last foray into the American market (does anyone have any details on this?).

As for orakga's question about what I want to buy from CPM right now, I bought everything that I wanted that was then available during TRSI's last studio sale—which was a substantial amount. ^_^ I preordered Votoms, and I would like the last set, as well as the Wrath of the Ninja (Yotoden) OAV/movie compilation. I would love it if they had re-licensed and released on DVD all of their old shows (Tale of Genji is missing from the list). And yes, I realize that Dog Soldier, Roots Search, and Crystal Triangle, and The Humanoid (also missing from the list) are poor titles, but I still want them on R1 DVD.

Lastly, regarding (orakga again) "half their staff split[ing] off and creat[ing] Media Blasters in the late 90s", a large portion of those who left most likely came on board when CPM purchased John Sirabella's Software Sculptors. Mr. Sirabella then took the money and formed a new company—Media Blasters.

I would love for CPM to survive, at least in a form that continues to make new releases.

Edit: Added AnimeVillage.com.

chrisb wrote:

I wonder how this will effect the voice actors since most of the north eastern actors did alot of work for CPM. I hope that CPM does recover and it is very kind of them to help out the employess laid off.

I agree that it was a class act for them to help their employees, even if it doesn't pan out much.

As for their VAs, I wouldn't worry too much. Most of them had day jobs, there is a plethora of commercial VO work up in NYC for those with the talent (competition is a bit rough, but I'm booking frequently up there) and while CPM might be down, NYAV Post is doing pretty well.

tempest wrote:

orakga wrote:

Japanese companies should take control

.

One word: Toei

Second & Third Words: Bandai Visual

As for Bandai, as Twage said, it has lost significant market share. As for Geneon, last I heard Dentsu wasn't exactly getting rich off its acquisition, far from it in fact.

-t

Tempest.

^^

Yes, I saw those coming, but I was referring more to the underlying attitude of the companies. The U.S. companies will be glad to let design or marketing flaws get swept under the rug. This is not something that is accepted within the Japanese circles; somebody gets fired if the manga-ka complains.

Also, regarding Toei/Bandai, yes I realize their first releases have been HORRIBLE, but then again,... it might be "fairer" to compare their first releases to the U.S. companies' first releases and see how their respective first releases compare.

In any case, your point is valid as well. I won't dispute it. However, once again to clarify what my point is:

1) Japanese companies or Japanese-funded companies tend not to have to pay for licensing (Naruto, Bleach, etc). This releases them from any pressure for break-evens... err.. I mean it lightens the burden for them.

2) Japanese companies have "ethical obligations" to the authors. They have reputations to save within Japan itself. And believe me, that goes a looong way.

3) Yes, Toei and Bandai's examples are bad, but look at VIZ and Geneon as better examples. Yes, they have the super financial support, which lead to my statement that the world is better for anime fans; compare Geneon's packaging and menu designs. Pouring a lot of cash into packaging and marketing is the Japanese way of business. And while these same DVDs may go for 40-60 bucks in Japan, they don't charge nearly as much over here because they already know they can't get away with prices that high.

Hold on let me reply to the other posts.
I knew people wouldn't like what I had to say.

Twage wrote:

orakga wrote:

I highly doubt that a recovery is even possible. The company stopped acquiring anime years ago. When was the last time you heard of a real acquisition from them? Narutaru? 30minute shows don't count, and please, don't even mention their Hentai titles to me. An anime company either needs a good TV SERIES, or a POOL of good shorts features. A couple of 30 minutes shows each year just doesn't cut it.

So only acquisitions that support your argument count as acquisitions? How convenient.

Nope.
Only acquisitions that can generate enough cashflow to keep a company afloat count. 30 minute shows which make $10-30k at the end of the day just don't cut it. They have like what... 40 employees? How the hell are you going to pay for their salary.

Twage wrote:

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Someone mentioned acquiring CPM. I have a question for you. Out of CPM's entire catalog, how many titles do you see yourself purchasing? And don't count them by the number of titles on your wishlist. Count them by the titles you'd buy THIS MONTH. Your answer should tell you what their sales potential really is.

When I get back to the States, I'm going to pick up Kakurenbo, Kuromi 2, Otaku Unite, and possibly Alien 9 or some of Narutaru depending on how much I like the rental. Which is more DVDs than I plan on buying from Bandai.

Well it's too bad, because your purchase came a few years too late. Alien 9 and Narutaru had also been out for years now (Alien 9 in 2003?), so what took you so long?

Twage wrote:

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They refused to accept the fact that nobody wants to buy old anime, and that new investments MUST be made in order to stay in this business. Yes, THIS BUSINESS is the anime industry, and if the fact that 90% of the viewers on ANN watch torrents isn't enough of an indication of that, I don't know what is. I mean who (of the anime fans) in his right mind would buy "Slayers" over "Genshiken" today?

Again, you totally trippin'. CPM has just been content to stick with shows they like rather than putting out Pokecrap or bouncing boobies. Doggy Poo was a fantastic film, and there wasn't anyone else in the US besides CPM who would have licensed it.

Yes. It was indeed a good show.
But again, shows like that dont' make enough money. They are the novelty shows that companies who can afford to lose some money should be acquiring. Not a company that's already struggling for cash.

And who cares of Pokemon is crap. It makes money. Something CPM hasn't been making in the last few years.

Also, when did I say they should have picked up boobie shows? All I said was that their two-three 30 minute shows each year just wasn't cutting it in terms of cashflow.

----

In any case, your post is just a series of nitpicks (It reminds me of the internet in the mid 90s), overlooking the fundamental issue here; CPM didn't have enough releases, and had made enough mistakes which lead to their current position. I don't think anybody can dispute this.

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NEW YORK, NY (May 31, 2006)  Central Park Media announced today that the release of the 2-disc God Planet Quent, the 4th and final story arc of the classic mecha series Armored Trooper VOTOMS, will hit retail shelves this August.

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NEW YORK, NY (May 31, 2006)  Central Park Media announced the release of the Wrath of the Ninja Collector’s Series Edition which contains both the Wrath of the Ninja motion picture and the original mini series Yotoden: Chronicles of the Warlord Period, which has never been released on DVD.

This is from two press releases CPM put out this morning. (Read here and here.) So regardless of the company's financial difficulties, it looks like CPM will still be releasing new titles in the near future.

(BTW, I like this post much better as a counter-argument than the one I just had to reply to; lost of valid points here. But I still need to do my part and point out the misunderstandings)

GATSU wrote:

orakga:

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Out of CPM's entire catalog, how many titles do you see yourself purchasing? And don't count them by the number of titles on your wishlist. Count them by the titles you'd buy THIS MONTH. Your answer should tell you what their sales potential really is.

I'd actually have more titles I'd be interested in purchasing from them than ADV and Geneon. So I think their sales potential is fine. It's at least got more value to me than the stuff from AN
Entertainment.

Okay, I find that somewhat hard to believe, but good for you. But let me ask you this (feel free to answer this one too), is this because you've finished buying everything you wanted from the other two already?

Don't get me wrong, there are a handful of good titles I purchased from CPM as well, but none of them were released after 2000. Which is exactly my entire point; they have nothing new to sell.

GATSU wrote:

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Ever since half their staff split off and created Media Blasters in the late 90s, and other players like ADV and Funimation started investing in properties that CPM felt was overpriced (Pokemon anyone?),

4Kids had Pokemon, and no one believed it was going to be big,
especially since it was Nintendo's last hope against Sony.
At best, it'd do as well as Transformers before it, but it ended up being even more successful. If CPM had the option, but chose not to invest in it, I'm not going to blame them for that. Look what happened when FUNimation tried to promote the original DB. As for Media Blasters, if you look at the crap they were selling before Berserk, Kenshin and Oh My Goddess, it'd probably be a far larger number of D titles than CPM.

You can't judge Media Blasters for what they did BEFORE Berserk and Kenshin (dude if I had to list the things CPM did wrong before it had real competition, this thread will never end). MB, unlike CPM, continued to invest in good shows after pulling off those mega hits, while CPM simply decided to spend it elsewhere. THAT's the difference, and that's where I give credit to MB.

Trust me, until two years ago I thought they were just some amateurs taking up precious shelfspace with just Kenshin and Berserk. I have a whole different PoV now.

GATSU wrote:

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They refused to accept the fact that nobody wants to buy old anime, and that new investments MUST be made in order to stay in this business.

You're confusing CPM with Animeigo. Descendants of Darkness, World of Narue, and Kakurenbo may not be brand new, but they are recent. They also just released the Animation Runner Kuromi sequel. Now if by "new", you mean, "26 episode cash-ins on the latest dating sim featuring frequent incest", there are plenty of those titles from ADV and Geneon.

No. I'm not. AnimEigo does not have a staff of 40 people, at a Manhattan office, therefore, they don't *need* cashflow like CPM does.

Speaking of which, I have a hunch that John O'Donnell is trying to turn CPM into the next AnimEigo; holding onto licenses and outsourcing any production work, while keeping staff bodycounts to a minimum (3-4 people). If that's the case, then yeah a couple of releases each decade may suffice.

GATSU wrote:

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Yes, THIS BUSINESS is the anime industry, and if the fact that 90% of the viewers on ANN watch torrents isn't enough of an indication of that, I don't know what is. I mean who (of the anime fans) in his right mind would buy "Slayers" over "Genshiken" today?

People who don't really care about the otaku sub-cultures, and just want to be entertained? I mean yeah, I liked Otaku No Video, but I wouldn't pay for 12 episodes of it. I got bored after only two volumes of Maniac Road.

I didn't even like Otaku no Video. The genre wasn't the point.

My point was that Genshiken is new, and the fans love it, NOW. Slayers is going to become 10 years old by next Summer.

GATSU wrote:

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Back in 2002, I even wrote a thesis on why companies like CPM cannot survive in today's world.

Well apparently your thesis was wrong, because they lasted 4 more years.

? The company just laid off everybody because they couldn't pay for their salaries. I don't see how I am wrong. I wrote a thesis back THEN saying that the Japanese companies will eventually take control. They did. And CPM is no longer what it used to be.

The number of years they lasted after I wrote that thesis has no bearing on the validity of the argument.

GATSU wrote:

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For those curious, my thesis was that "only the Japanese know how to properly package and sell Anime;

Yeah, and Toei did a bang-up job of it.

I have nothing to say about this, but refer to my reply to that other dude above. Toei was the shameful exception that I shake my head at.

But what about Geneon, Bandai (come on they're not SO bad, are they? I'd take their stuff over ADV or CPM's) and VIZ? These three companies (especially VIZ, because they represent the actual publishing industry in Japan; my thesis argued that Manga should be the next commodity and that the publishers of these manga should bring in the content themselves; and VIZ did, not even a year after that)

GATSU wrote:

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therefore Shueisha/Shogakkan (now VIZ), Bandai and Pioneer (now Geneon) should take control of the market".

Bandai got swallowed up by Namco, and if Viz didn't have Inu Yasha, Naruto, and Jump, they'd probably be a statistic, too.
No one was buying from them at that point, because the only "new" title they had was Trouble Chocolate, and Hamtaro didn't even come close to the success of Pokemon. Geneon's lost money this quarter too.

Bandai didn't get "swallowed up". It was a Merger. They kept their name (which comes BEFORE Namco, mind you). Besides, the merger was strategic, in an effort to consolidate the resources held by two companies which operated in different industries. Bandai wanted Namco's game production team. Namco wanted Bandai's IPs.

And VIZ DOES have Nartuo and Jump. That's the whole point. They've ALWAYS had it, even before the "acquisition" was announced! Why? Because their parent companies own the rights. VIZ has dibs on every manga-based anime which gets created out of Shueisha or Shogakkan's catalog.

Geneon will continue to lose money for the next 203 years. But the company will not go down. They have Dentsu's money, and in the end their products will sell at the end of the day. Last Exile, Read or Die (TV), Requiem from the Darkness, and all the other shows that they've invested in and currently air in Japan are far superior to most shows I've seen. Oh damn don't even get me started on Ergo Proxy. 720p anime?! (have you seen the RAW intro at 720p?!?! It's GREAT!! ^^)

Bandai also has a great catalog.

GATSU wrote:

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It didn't take long before that became a reality, and now the world is a better place, at least for the fans.

How are the fans going to benefit from more crap being flooded
onto shelves?

Crap being flooded is mostly ADV's fault, not the Japanese companies'. Just because the world is not perfect, it doesn't mean that it's "better than it otherwise have been".

GATSU wrote:

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And although CPM has tried to expand their business sideways since they'd been dethroned, with Yaoi, Manga and even Korean content, in the end they weren't profitable enough to keep them afloat.

Actually, their yaoi was doing fine. And their manga line out-lasted Comics One and Raijin.

Comics One and Raijin are NOT good measures of success. Yes, their Yaoi was doing fine, but still not profitable enough to keep a full fledges video company afloat. The division itself was profitable though I'm sure.

GATSU wrote:

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When CPM had the cash to acquire ANY show in the world, instead they went out and started the Big Apple Anime Fest, channeling company resources into it until it faced the same fate that the parent company now faces.

Yes, providing a venue for tourism and escapist entertainment for New Yorkers traumatized by terrorism is stupid. Just ask Robert De Niro.

R.O.F.L.

Hey I thought BAAF was sorta nice. People liked it. But it shouldn't have been done by an Anime company, but rather an NPO dedicated to doing this, with enough money to stay in operation for at least 5 years. I've had so many film producers tell me that film conventions never last more than 4 years because that's when they run out of money. Those who last more 4, however, tend to become profitable and operate on its own eventually.

But yeah, BAAF's first year was RIGHT after 911... I totally forgot about that. ^^

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Forum - View topicNEWS: CPM Lays off Staff, Prepares for Bankruptcy

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NEWS: CPM Lays off Staff, Prepares for Bankruptcy